Ok, I think I've got the "Copy link to this post" squared away. Closest I can get to a "quote tweet" so I can make my comment as to why I shared a Mastodon toot. This page is really useful!
https://heads.social/@mrcompletely/109502021823992324
@cobalt Yep, that's as close as you can get to it. As you probably know, the culture and design of Mastodon is different. A quote tweet function is intentionally absent. Research on Twitter shows that the quote tweet function is the single biggest factor in stirring up "tempests in a teapot".
Mastodon is set up to add friction to topics going viral This doesn't mean they can't go viral. They can and I've seen it. Quote tweets are at the root of many of Twitter's silly tempests in a teapot.
@shuttersparks hard for me to understand this. I most often used quote tweets because I wanted to share with followers WHY I was sharing it! BTW, I am a bit surprised I can't see if a toot has had a lot of views/likes/stars whatever. How does one know if others have seen it?
@cobalt Only the original poster can see how many likes their post got. Nobody else can. This cuts down on the bandwagon effect. "Oooh, lots of people liked this so I should like it too."
Again, all of these differences are about adding friction to the process of something going viral. The quote tweet phenomenon was discovered by Twitter itself so the feature is omitted from Mastodon because it encourages viral behavior.
The only way something can go viral is if people boost a post as-is, without adding their two-cents. ;-)
