I see a lot of fresh complaints about Mastodon lacking a quote-tweet equivalent, and while I'll admit that there are a couple of agreeable arguments, people are neglecting some important details.
When you reply to someone, your reply will appear in your followers' feeds. If people want to see what you're disagreeing with, they can click and find out.
And if you want to add additional context, just reply and boost the OP. You'll be seen.
Mastodon doesn't need to be a carbon-copy of Twitter.
I feel like a lot of people who have spent years on Twitter are looking to return to the "old days" before Elon Musk, and likely even before Trump.
But people are so fixated on the features Twitter offered they are having trouble working with the tools they are given here.
The difference between Twitter and Mastodon aren't shortcomings, they are just facets of how Mastodon is a different place than Twitter.
One of the big differences in moderation here is that mass-reporting doesn't escalate things like it does on Twitter.
If someone is abusive, and you report them, it will be reviewed by a human being, and they will decide if it breaks the rules.
Getting 20 other people to report the same post isn't going to change that. You're just giving the mods more work to do, especially if a dogpile emboldens the abuser to lash out at more people.
@Alex totally agree. I honestly also enjoy just boosting posts without feeling pressure to comment. Let their post stand as is, or reply, or both!
It doesn't need to be, but it should have... quote toots?
I want the context of the commentary immediately below the damn commentary.
zero clicks.
When I reply to a thread, for instance, I always reply after the last one to keep from strange branching replies -- someone clicking wouldn't get that the context for my reply might be toot 2 of 16.
Unbelievable amount of time and energy wasted not adding the feature.
Just add the damn feature.
@andrej If you're replying to something in a specific post in a thread, that's the post you should be replying to.
I don't see how a "quote toot" feature would improve anything here.
why add unnecessary clicks when the context of the commentary could be immediately proceeding the commentary.
not sure *I'm* the one making things complicated.
@andrej If you are replying to posts down-thread from the post you are actually replying to, I would say that you are the one making things more complicated, and requiring your followers to click/scroll more to see the content you are replying to.
For the record, you might not even see all of the posts in a thread if you don't follow that person. This is a 4-post thread, and you (correctly) responded to the first post in the thread, likely because it was what someone else boosted.
I also see a recurring argument that abusive comments deserve to be put on blast.
This fundamentally goes against the philosophy here.
If the post breaks the rules, report it. You don't need to give abusive people more visibility.
If the post doesn't break the rules, reply and disagree. You don't need to command your followers to join you - that is a dogpile, and it's not productive.