Mastodon 4.5 is set to launch this week and there's something you should know:
All you need to quote a toot is to paste the link of said toot. Or, of course, you can use the boost button and select "Quote".
But pasting a link also works, automatically. If the author allows to be quoted, the toot will appear in the compose field. If not, it'll be just a simple, plain link.
In the end, both paths lead to the same destination: to quote a toot. And, if the author allows quotes, this will generate a notification to them.
So it's important to know that this also works with private mentions, aka DMs.
Even if you don't mention the author's profile (user@instance.tld), if you simply paste a link to their post, and they allow quotes, they will be notified.
If they don't allow quotes, it'll be just a simple and plain link, and no notification will be sent to them.
So be careful not to end up mentioning someone in a DM without the intention of doing so.
They'll be able to see the DM content where the link was pasted, as if you'd have mentioned them explicitly. But it was just a quoted toot.
Let's see what they say about this: https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/discussions/36685
