Journalists will never stick around this app long term sadly unless it adds quote posting. We desperately need it to communicate effectively, build on each others ideas, and add crucial context to posts. These are things replies simply do not accomplish. Also quote posting or reblogging does not = harassment! Tumblr, for instance, has had the feature since the beginning. We need it here now too 🙏🏻
@taylorlorenz@mastodon.social quote posting is available with alternative server software! I wish more people knew this
@Lxtruong I’m dumb how does this work? I’m on the app and I don’t see a way to do it and everything shows as links there’s not even link previews 😰
Oops uou might not see my example bc you were tagged. It's here https://i.calckey.cloud/notes/994oo646qk
@Lxtruong @taylorlorenz are there native client apps with this functionality?
@PieterPeach@mastodon.social @taylorlorenz@mastodon.social I'm unaware of any. There are other things deliberately unavailable in Mastodon (toot level text searches) that are available in other compatible software as well.
@Lxtruong @taylorlorenz this text level search (outside of your own posts) would presumably require servers to allow scraping and indexing? My understanding this is not consensus behaviour
@Lxtruong @PieterPeach oh wow you can’t even search the text of toots posted on Mastodon? That also seems like a huge issue for journalists seeking to use this platform. I’m sure there are reasons why but dang
@taylorlorenz Remember the history of Mastodon. It was not built in the face of Musk buying twitter. It was built by people who could not be on Twitter safely even when Jack was in charge. Decisions like no text search and no reblogging were in specific responses to the abusive behavior that led Mastodon's creators to do the hard work of setting up an alternative in the first place.
These pre-April 2022 users who still own the majority of large instances and are the active developers of the software did not want a place for Journalists - many would have found the prying and data aggregation journalist do on social media exceedingly distasteful.
unless things change Mastodon will never have the broadcast vibes of Twitter which emphasized views and interactions. This social network emphasizes the building of direct relationships and to use it successfully you need to be ready to spend far more social capital developing trust and reputation then the equivalent Twitter account.
Twitter under Jack Dorsey really catered to journalists and politicians because they brought in lots of views, and it became a great place to not only put out a story, but to develop one as well. Mastodon was designed by people who didn't want their social media interactions on the front page of the New York Times. For that reason, I suspect that journalists, news makers, and politicians will remain on Twitter in spite of Elon Musk. They are to Twitter what live sports has become to cable TV - the one use that a new technology cannot easily disrupt.
@antares @taylorlorenz I think it's important this past experience not be rode roughshod over in the rush to emulate Twitter on Mastodon. I think an instance of even a whole different activitypub base platform for journalism would be a great idea. With a way for all users of federated platforms able to view, comment and follow the news but still be protected within their own platforms. Instances or platforms shouldn't be obligated to share all with everyone.
@techlife If I had to take my guess I suspect that we will start to see branches off the main line of the standard mastodon server software implementing these features. Mine, for example already allow quoting. There will be community backlash and a lot of instances will block instances running non-conforming branches. I suspect that we will end up with a blobby fediverse with one well connected group of instances that took the moderation maximalist course, another well connected group that went down the path of building a Twitter replacement, and a few large servers in the middle that don't have the twitter-like features but don't block other instances who do.
This already kind of happens with servers that have a liberal policy on graphic sexual images. (Pawoo[dot]net is one of these and has been in the news of late because it was bought by a for profit company.) They all federate with each other. Most instances block these on site, some few don't allow adult content but don't stop their users from following people on servers who do.
@antares the whole thing is in flux and evolution. What I'm hoping for, and I think it's a reasonable hope, is that we will get a bunch of different platforms running off activitypub, with some really big platforms and many smaller platforms, with improved network transparency but retention of the ability of instances to choose who they can connect to.
@antares sounds plausible.