@SamYoung841
This toot is a perfect example of why I would like to have #QuoteToots. They'd allow me to share & support posts with additional thoughts, why they mean something more to me than "just" a boost.

mastodonapp.uk/@SamYoung841/10…

#BlackHistory #BlackMastodonn

Sam Young (@SamYoung841@mastodonapp.uk)

15 Famous Black Architects - First African-American Architects Most people can’t name one black architect, here’s a list of 15 great black pioneering architects, including Beverly Loraine Greene, first black female architect.

^{Mastodon App UK}

Agree totally. Not having a quote-boost is very frustrating and I don't buy any of the reasons given for why it's somehow good that I can't quote boost. It mostly feels very patronizing "you'll just dunk on people we know how you are"

I mean, why not let everyone quote boost and take it away from anyone who abuses it? Or just block those people.

If individual users can opt out of being quote boosting WHERE is the issue?

And I think people who claim QTs specifically encourage or "are designed for" abuse should provide solid evidence of that notion. Have any experimental evidence of that? Or have you just "seen people do it"?

Because I've seen people being brigading assholes on Twitter years before QTs were a thing there.

How is being able to block people from using QT on your posts not sufficient?

We could even make it an opt in rather than opt out system.

And you could have learned about this by checking out things I've already said, but because it was inconvenient to you, I needed to repeat it all. So you wouldn't have to read a profile or view past toots.

Convenience kills communities. Take the effort to get to know people and have a real conversation. Don't just QT and then pat yourself on the back because you found something clever someone else said or did and shared it. Just boost it for *their* sake, if you are able.

But I've noticed that things I boost and reply to (and even if I re-boost my own reply as well) do not get as much attention as they would if I had used a quote to put it in context.

The alternative that is tempting (especially for images) is to simply copy the image to my own post, say what I want about it and link back to the artist or photographer. But, this isn't as nice for them as a quote so *I* won't do it.

But others will. It's one of the reasons the feature exists.

If someone can add something to my post that makes more people care about it, they deserve the attention because they have shown more people why it matters.

That could be done with a single word.

Or a whole essay.

This is an interesting discussion, and I haven't formed a strong opinion yet.

I used #quoteTweets quite a bit on the other site; here, it's more work to reply and gets me less attention, but it also feels more like a sincere conversation and less like a soapbox.

People here aren't that different. A different population, more academic-- but I've still been attacked here with just the most blatant racism.

Moderation is what helps with that. Not keeping people from quoting tweets.

And once more:

You really do not know what is best for me. You aren't protecting me or helping by restricting how my posts are shared.

What is wrong with an opt-in system? By default it's off but if we want to be quoted by others we can turn it on?

OK a modest proposal.

The people who attacked me used replies. Replies are in fact used in *most* attacks by the far right. More than 90% I'm certain.

Therefore, we should get rid of replies because being able to reply to a post lets racists attack me. Mastodon is NOT twitter. Twitter has replies so Mastodon should not. Very logical.

I don't believe that the entire premise of QT is based on attention seeking; that's what I find so frustrating about the QT discourse.

I can see the harmful uses.

But it's just *true* that there are also non-harmful and valuable uses that aren't really captured by boosts+replies.

Yeah, I've been doing that. But after thinking about it for a long time what I really miss about quote boost is the feeling of collaboration. Of making a mash-up. Combining my ideas with art, or seeing someone give the perfect line to make one of my drawings into a hilarious meme.

By making posts these isolated articles that are more difficult to contextualize it's hard to create something NEW that is better than either post would be on its own.

@boynux I believe followers see all posts except for "mentioned people only" and then filters get applied afterwards (including the option to mute boosts). True for vanilla mastodon as far as I know.

Have either of you played around with other types of fediverse software? I've been poking into friendica but nothing interesting to share about it yet that's relevant to this discussion.

I'm running Pleroma instance, it's pretty low maintenance and light. Tried Mastodon but didn't like it, primarily because it's bloated with lots if resources intensive software and services. Go Green 💚

Also have account in Pixelfed and Bookwyrm both have ActivityPub implementation.

Haven't tried Froendica yet, thanks for mentioning it, will check it out.

@futurebird

To your original comment, yes, you are correct. So the only way to avoid spammy boosts here is to mute, but that would be a disadvantage that we lose all the boosts. But no better option at the moment.

@futurebird

these are the same guys trying to get iOS to open up it's app restrictions "to benefit everyone"

(definitely not to make more profits from non-App Store IAPs)

Alternatively, if you prefer to read it here, I'm posting here as well by request. I have mixed feelings about cross-posting like this, but people have asked — and I sure understand the rationale for not wanting to use post.news. I've written about it myself.

So, anyway, here you go.

Science education in an age of twitter disinformation

tl;dr — Science education needs to adapt to a world of misinformation on social media and beyond. Today, prominent antivaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tweeted the ridiculous claim that as director of the NIAID, Dr. Fauci bought the silence of the entire worldwide virology community by handing out research grants. Elon Musk then affirmed and amplified his claim.

With even a rudimentary understanding of how science works as a social institution, it is obvious that Kennedy is lying yet again. But in the classroom, we don't teach how science works as a social institution. It's time to fix that.

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One could go on and on in this vein, unpacking the reasons why Kennedy's story — and Musk's affirmation — are ridiculous. That's not my aim here, however. What I want to do with this post is look at why people aren't able immediately to see through this brazen dishonesty.

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