QT discourse
I honestly don't understand why people want the QT ability, basically to start a new thread using someone else's words (and adding your own).
Why not just reply in Public mode? Your followers will see it, and you'll be part of the conversation. What's the disadvantage?
QT discourse
@ceoln Replying in public mode means that not the whole Fediverse can see it. Only your followers.
What if you want to display someone else's toot to put them in a spotlight for the whole Fediverse to see? Like 'See, this is a great plubication!' or whatever. Usually useful in journalism or science stuff. Which is why Qoto has it I suppose.
QT discourse
@trinsec Oh, wait, by "it" you mean the original post! I get it, I think. :)
QT discourse
@ceoln Well, if I reply to you with public mode on.. it won't end up in the public timelines. It doesn't really affect responses very much.
If someone follows me and you, they will see this in their home timeline. But the response is still fairly obscure to the rest of the Fediverse.
Now if I quote-tooted your post there, I'll post it as if it's my own post, but with yours attached. I can add commentary like 'See, this person has found this thing, it's intriguing!' or something, and this'll end up in all the public timelines because I made a post, not a response, and your quoted post gets highlighted with this.
QT discourse
@trinsec
I... don't think so? Unless I'm very confused. :) At least in the qoto web client here, the description of Public mode says explicitly "Visible to all, shown in public timelines". Is that incorrect?
QT discourse
@ceoln It's valid for your own posts and uninterrupted responses to your own posts, yes.
But if I respond to you.. this is a public response, but you don't see it appearing in the local timeline, do you?
QT discourse
@trinsec
I don't know what that means. :) In particular "uninterrupted responses"; what's that?
I in fact don't see your reply appearing in the local timeline, and now I'm surprised by that. I would have thought it was because you'd replied in Unlisted mode, but I guess that's not the case? If this thing that I'm typing right now isn't going to appear in the public timeline, then it seems like a bug to me that the setting still shows as "public" and that is still described as "shown in public timelines".
QT discourse
@ceoln The stuff with 'shown in public timelines' is just for the original post. And the responses by the same user of the original post to their original post. (in an uninterrupted fashion)
- I post something publicly. It gets shown in public timeline.
- I respond to that post, it's public, also shown in public timeline.
- I respond to my own post again, not public, it's not shown in public timeline.
- You respond to that public post. Not shown in public timeline.
- I respond to you. Not shown in public timeline. (the thread was interrupted by your response, so mine is a normal response too)
It's always been like this. :)
And that's why quote-toots are so very useful in bringing attention to a toot. You're posting as an original post with a toot attached to it. That toot will get the spotlight again this way.
QT discourse
@ceoln A public timeline is indeed the local and federated timelines.
Glad that my explanation has helped, wasn't sure if I explained it clear enough. :)
But the option is still there so that sometimes I change my responses to followers-only, or even to DM if the situation warrants it. But yeah, when it's a normal response I don't seem to see much difference anymore between public and unlisted.
I just asked Freemo to make sure, yeah.. there is not really a difference between public and unlisted responses. There was some sort of exception with it for subscriptions, but I'm not going to delve there lol.
QT discourse
@trinsec Interesting! I don't remember seeing that documented before; thanks very much. Given that the client knows it's going to post this as s non-thread reply, it seems really misleading for it to still display "shown in public timelines" just below there, given that it's not true!
Clearly I hadn't yet internalized the way that Mastodon treats original posts (and the transitive closure of replies to them by the original author) differently than (other) replies. I may have to stop telling people that Mastodon is simple, really. :)
By "public timeline" here, does that mean exactly the Local and Federated timelines? Or something additional or different?
(And thanks again for the thorough and patient explanations! And also I'm going back to sleep for awhile now heh heh)