interesting possible Mastodon feature request:
instead of just adding a star, also have the ability to add any reaction emoji.
i know, i know, interaction is good. boosting is good. i'm on board. but sometimes i just want to 🎉 instead of ⭐
@pixelpaperyarn This would legit be a killer feature. I started interacting with FB posts a lot more when they added the other 5(?) options for reactions.
@pixelpaperyarn @jamuraa I guess you could bake that into the client? Have it remember a little list of { tootId: favEmoji }?
@Skiant @pixelpaperyarn I'd love for this to be included as part of the protocol somehow, because that would be extra nifty and adds a level of silent expression that is very big.
Being able to react with meaning without actually speaking is a really big social thing that is mostly missing from internet communication! Nonverbals are a huge part of human interaction.
@jamuraa @pixelpaperyarn I'm just slightly worried about who could give reactions.
I feel like there's a ton of passive-agressive BS going on with emoji reactions in controversial Github Issues for big repositories and I'd hate that to be ported over to Mastodon.
Maybe if you could allow only people you follow to emoji your messages, while the randos only have the star?
@Skiant @pixelpaperyarn it should be easy enough to either collapse on the client side or block passive-aggressive assholes? I feel like adding expressiveness can be used badly too, but that's no reason to not implement it.
(note, you can also just reply passive-agressively now and that's what people do instead)
@Skiant @pixelpaperyarn alternately you can fix this I think because the server has to "accept" the favorite, you can munge it to a star based on basic rules.
@jamuraa @pixelpaperyarn I'm not too fond of the idea of "just block the assholes", Twitter dogpiling has proved how unpractical that can be, hence why I'd rather give users the control over who could add reactions beyond the star, but the server idea sounds neat, since all instances have their own rules.
Your instance could be set up to allow any emoji from people on the same instance, for instance.
Another option would be to tie it to the visibility of your toot.
@jamuraa right? wouldn't even have to be a separate feature, for me anyway, just a different option for display than a star, would still be a "star" in my favorites.