@zleap @design_RG @globcoco @freemo
QOTO differs from vanilla Mastodon in its post length limit. While we enjoy 64kchar of space, users on the flagship instance get only five hundred. So to post a longer message, a vanilla user will break it into chunks ≤500 characters each and post each chunk as a reply to the previous one. That "show thread" link pops up to make it clear the post is possibly dependent on another for context.
If you reply to a message from someone else, your reply isn't published to the local timeline (although it may show up in your followers' home timelines). Self-replies, however, do show up in the local timeline unless prevented by privacy settings. So the need to warn about hidden context is much less for cross-replies than for self-replies).