Mastodon to roll out post quoting with powerful protection options
Mastodon is to roll out the ability to quote other people’s posts in your own posts on the decentralized social platform. This is something that has been a very long time coming, with Mastodon having talked about it for months.
The reason it has taken so long for post quoting to become a reality is because of the protections that have been built-in. Specifically, users have controls over who is able to quote their posts in order to avoid “dunking” – the phenomenon that sees mass quoting used for negative purposes.
The potential for quotes to be abused – as seen on Twitter and then X – gave Mastodon reason to think long and hard before offering up the feature, particularly as the culture that developed on X was what drove many users away.
Announcing the plans, Mastodon says:
Over the years, we’ve learned just how essential quoting is to many of you. When done responsibly, quoting allows us to expand discussions, make new connections, and amplify underrepresented voices.
Quoting is a powerful tool, and like any tool, it can be misused. That’s why we’ve taken time to introduce quotes in a way that aligns with Mastodon values, focusing on safety and mental health – not just on engagement. We shared our thinking about bringing quote posts to Mastodon earlier in the year.
Found something inspiring? Quote your favourite posts from where you typically boost them. Don’t want to be quoted? Disable quoting by default for all posts, or turn off quoting for a specific post. Want your thoughts to inspire a wider audience? Keep the default setting enabled to ‘Anyone’. You’re in control of how much or how little you engage.
Quoting, when enabled, can be accessed via the Boost button of a post. Individual users are placed in full control over their content. It is possible to have a blanket ban on any posts being quoted, to allow everything to be quoted, or to allow it on a post-by-post basis. Permissions can be revoked, quoting can be limited to a particular audience; there are lots of options.
In the X exodus, Mastodon and Bluesky stepped in to fill the void, and both have enjoyed their moment in the spotlight without ever really troubling X’s dominance. But these two alternative social platforms remain important as they provide a completely different environment. And the way the fediverse works throws up complications:
Mastodon shares space in the Fediverse with other software that may behave differently. In practice, it means it’s possible that when you quote a post from another Fediverse platform, it may take some time for the quote to appear. When the content is available, it will automatically update on your post.
We worked on a technical specification for the Fediverse that offers the concept of consent-respecting quote posts. We’ve also collaborated with other apps and services to make this work between platforms. We expect that not every platform will update to use this specification right away, but we hope to see more of them do so in the future.
The launch for quoting is a gradual one. Mastodon says that it will arrive on mastodon.online and mastodon.social next week, and will be available in Mastodon 4.5 soon thereafter.
There is a lot more information about quoting on Mastondon here.