When I moved to Mastodon, a bit more than 2 years ago, I read various blogs and how-to’s about the platform. One simple thing that stood out as something I had to get used to were favorite and boost as analogues of like and retweet on Twitter. Coming fresh from Twitter, I naturally assumed these mean very similar things.
But no!
On Twitter, you can basically do three1 things with a post, each with a (sometimes slightly) different meaning:
- Retweet
“Hey, followers (and anyone else hit by the algoritm), read what this person wrote!” (if with comment: “Read how stupid/wise I think this person is!”) - Reply
“Here is my input on the topic.” Either aimed at communicating with the author, or to show to others. - Like
“More of this please!” You’re telling this not only the author and all others seeing it, but “the algorithm” too.
On Mastodon, you can basically do three things that look very similar to the above:
- Boost
“Hey, followers, have a look at what this person wrote!” - Reply
“Here is my input on the topic.” Either aimed at communicating with the author, or to show to others. - Favorite
“I like this, thanks for posting!”
What’s the difference?
There is one big difference: the meaning of like vs favorite. Liking on Twitter has a whole range of unclear direct and indirect effects, including feeding the algorithm and increasing the poster’s future impact. On the contrary, ticking the favorite-star on Mastodon does not have any other result than showing that you like a post, available for everyone to see. For yourself, this can serve as a bookmark to find back things you liked. For others, it is just a +1 on the favorite counter under the post. It does not have the effect of a like on Twitter, where it increases the likelihood that similar stuff is fed to your (and your friends’) timeline.
So, why bother favoriting?
For the same reason you smile or laugh when a friend shares a thought or a joke. You don’t express these responses so that more other people will tell you similar stories. You do so to make your friend feel appreciated and encourage them sharing their thought and jokes in the future too. Also, smiling and laughing make it more likely that your friend will listen to you the next time you tell a story.
Favorite is the laugh and smile of Mastodon.
De Pemig, 2024
(If you like this thought, consider showing me a digital smile.)
- I ignore bookmarking here, which is a more or less self-explanatory feature that has little to do with the workings of the social medium. ↩︎
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