Not being able to edit the post would be a problem in general. especially if quoted text is long...
@julian said in Should quoted posts be references or a verbatim copy?:
NodeBB (@[email protected])#UX question for the #mastodon hivemind. When using a #forum, and you quote a post, do you expect to be able to edit the post (i.e. to add emphasis, truncate unnecessary parts, etc.)? It's possible to structure quoted posts like "references", so a reference to a deleted post is also empty. This has advantages when it comes to the #GDPR Right to Erasure, but may be a grey area (is a quoted post still YOUR post?). The negative cost is a hit to UX.
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For example, @julian 👈 is a reference. If I change my username, then this mention will change to reflect the new username. Hah, I was wrong, it's just text, too.
otherwise I would not able to separate your text to reply more efficiently.
When you quote a post, you copy the post verbatim, and it looks something like
@julian said in this thread:
However, when you quote a post, you copy the post verbatim, and it looks something like
There are some advantages — namely the ability to edit the quote to emphasize text, or truncate out parts of the quote you don't need.
I totally agree with this! These are essential advantages in a discussion forum!
The downside is that a verbatim copy means that we can't easily (or at all, currently) remove it if the source post is deleted. If a user wants to delete all traces of their presence on the forum, then the quoted post will still remain as it is not associated with their user account.
We can replace this with a reference, but we lose the flexibility described above. You wouldn't be able to edit it.
Do you consider this a problem?
However, it would be super cool if the reference username, such as @crazycells , would change when that username is changed or deleted. Maybe it can be referenced to the user id , since that never changes?
