Mastodon, a decentralized open-source social network, has released version 4.5, introducing quote post support for all server operators, alongside new administrative features and conversation improvements.
The implementation of quote posts represents a significant functional change for Mastodon as the platform aims to enhance its competitive position against networks such as X and Threads. While quoting is standard for text-centric social networks, Mastodon has incorporated user protections to mitigate negative cultural impacts observed elsewhere.
On X, formerly Twitter, quote posts contributed to a “dunking” culture, where users frequently used the feature to deride others with jokes or insults. This dynamic remains a concern for newer platforms like Threads and Bluesky.
Mastodon’s quote post functionality includes enhanced safety controls to address this issue.
The feature was initially deployed to large Mastodon servers, specifically mastodon.online and mastodon.social, in September, preceding the 4.5 software update. This phased rollout allowed users to acclimate to the new format.
Users are provided with multiple options to manage how their posts can be quoted. Settings allow them to choose who can quote their content, with options including “Anyone,” “Followers only,” or “Just me.” Furthermore, users can control the visibility of quote posts, setting them as public, followers-only, or “quiet public.” The “quiet public” setting makes quotes visible but excludes them from Mastodon’s search, trends, and public timeline.
Default settings can be overridden on a per-post basis, offering flexibility for specific situations where quoting is desired without broader attention.
Mastodon will also notify a user when their post is quoted, enabling them to remove their original content from the quote post if they deem it necessary. Users can also block others to prevent future quoting of their posts.
While quote posts are the primary addition in the 4.5 release, the update also resolves issues where users on older servers, running version 4.4 and earlier, occasionally missed replies.
Server operators receive new tools to optionally disable content feeds, set a local feed as their homepage, and block specific users. The moderation interface has been updated to display crucial context, including link previews and quote posts in messages, to assist in decision-making.
The 4.5 release introduces native emoji support to Mastodon’s web interface.
Mastodon remains a prominent network within the fediverse, an open social web powered by the ActivityPub protocol. The fediverse comprises nearly 12 million users, according to FediDB, with Mastodon accounting for over 8 million of that total. However, its monthly active user count is approximately 670,000.
Threads, which integrates with ActivityPub, is not included in these fediverse user statistics due to its incomplete integration. Threads has more than 400 million monthly users and 150 million daily active users.
