What is the actual purpose of the "Favorite" button in Mastodon?
What is the actual purpose of the "Favorite" button in Mastodon?
The most common answer I see is something along the lines of "it's the equivalent of liking a post on twitter". It seems that this is not the case, as the Mastodon devs seem rather adamant that they don't want "likes" in Mastodon. Perhaps it's a method of saving posts? Well, that doesn't make sense either, since there is already the ability to "Bookmark" a post to save it.
It really just seems like a "Favorite" is just a bookmark that tells the poster, and the public that you bookmarked the post. And even if this was the reasoning -- which is baffling enough as it is -- it wouldn't make sense since the whole point of boosting something is to tell the public that you like a post.
It really seems like the "Favorite" button has no actual unique purpose. In my honest opinion, Mastodon should just federate "Likes" like normal, and be done with it.
I like it when someone favorites my post. 🤷 I'm not out to be some hype-beast on Mastodon.
To me, a favorite = "I like that."
And a Boost = "yo, check this out."
The devs can say what they want about them.
The issue is that favorites are a mastodon-specific thing. Mastodon does not federate actual "likes". So, if mastodon users actually do want "likes", then they should federate them the same as everyone else. The "favourite", on it's own, is otherwise pointless, and redundant.
The person who made the post still sees all the likes.
Unless it's really important that other people see how much others like you, that's fine by me.
As much as anything, I don't want every thing someone else posts that I like clogging my timeline.
The official purpose and the common purpose are not always in sync. That same style of question had been discussed with regards to the lemmy/reddit downvote. Officially, it de-prioritizes the post/comment in sorting due to being disruptive or unhelpful, but the common use is more tyically 'I don't agree with this statement'.
The pupose of a Like button is to express that you like the post.
And even if this was the reasoning -- which is baffling enough as it is
What is baffling about it? The function fulfills exactly the purpose that its name promises.
it wouldn't make sense since the whole point of boosting something is to tell the public that you like a post.
With a boost, you pass the post to your followers. This is a different feature accordingly.
Like before Boost often seems useful, but hardly in case of bad news.
I use mine as like a read notification or maybe I have nothing else to say.