Mastodon, the decentralized different to X, goes to undertake a controversial function from the platform previously often called Twitter: quote posts. The firm on Friday shared the progress it’s making on the implementation of the function, which has divided customers over its potential for use for on-line abuse and bullying.
Critics have lengthy argued that the addition of quote tweets helped destroy Twitter, turning the community right into a extra poisonous on-line neighborhood.
Some Mastodon customers really feel strongly that quote posts don’t belong on Mastodon, because the function is usually used to “dunk” on one other particular person’s publish, which not solely breeds negativity however may lead to serving to spur a flood of abusive replies to the unique publish’s writer — particularly if the dunker is a high-profile particular person with numerous followers.
However, different Mastodon customers wish to see quote posts added, because the function makes it simpler to reference one other particular person’s publish and its content material when making a response. Plus, quote posts would convey the community extra in keeping with its opponents, together with X in addition to newer rivals like Threads and Bluesky.
Mastodon famous in its weblog publish that it’s conscious that the function is each a “supply of concern” for some and “extremely requested” by others.
“Many individuals merely are not looking for their content material to be reframed by others; or they might discover that whether it is reposted, they obtain unwelcome consideration,” the Mastodon weblog publish says.
The group utilized for a grant to assist fund the event of quote posts again in 2024 after earlier discussions across the function. Now, the staff is sharing its progress, notably when it comes to the way it hopes to mitigate consumer complaints.
For starters, Mastodon says it should permit customers to regulate whether or not their posts will be quoted in any respect. This would defend individuals from being the recipient of undesirable consideration or hateful replies to some extent. (Though, arguably, individuals may nonetheless screenshot somebody’s publish to flow into it extra broadly in the event that they supposed to troll the consumer.)
In addition, customers will likely be notified if somebody quotes them, and so they’ll be capable of withdraw their publish from the quoted context at any time. This latter possibility may assist in the case that somebody’s quote publish goes viral, and the unique poster begins to obtain an excessive amount of consideration and even abuse, forcing them to rethink whether or not they need their publish to be quotable in any respect.
Beyond the potential for abuse, Mastodon says there are additionally technical challenges across the implementation of quote posts, as there’s not a standardized method to construct the function in ActivityPub, the underlying protocol that powers Mastodon and different federated apps.
Some third-party Mastodon purchasers additionally already provide their very own model of quote posts, however they don’t embody the options that Mastodon desires so as to add for extra consumer management and privateness. As a end result, Mastodon is collaborating with others to create a specification that will permit all Mastodon apps and purchasers to entry the identical performance.
Quote posts can even have an effect on different components of Mastodon’s code base, the announcement states, together with the ActivityPub-handling code, the general public API, the net consumer interface, the moderation panel and capabilities, the administration panel, and the official iOS and Android purposes.
Unfortunately, Mastodon’s announcement didn’t share how for much longer will probably be earlier than the function is added or any type of timeline for public launch, solely saying that quote posts “will nonetheless take extra time to develop.”
