Nice to have a light theme alternative in the latest #takahe update!
I go back and forth about whether I prefer light or #DarkMode. Sometimes within a day, as ambient lighting changes, or I move from one device to another. Or if I'm trying to eke out just a little more battery power.
Some constants:
* Light-themed apps/sites on a dark-themed desktop are more jarring than dark-themed apps/sites on a light-themed desktop.
* Photo galleries almost always work better with a dark background.
Getting some laundry in during the few hours between rainstorms
@takahe This may (or may not) be relevant to some of the issues federating with GoToSocial: Apparently GTS is always strict about checking HTTP signatures.
https://github.com/superseriousbusiness/gotosocial/issues/1299
Finland has closely watched the Russian troll factory's efforts to create chaos in free democracies. We now educate our children to recognize #misinformation and rank #1 in our ability to resist it.
I wish the Americans would do the same.
Fediverse: Beta to Production
The Twitter-to-Mastodon migration is like going from beta testing the Fediverse to production. Just like a public beta always turns up issues that were missed during development, when going to production you suddenly have a *huge* pool of new users who are going to use the system in ways you didn’t anticipate and haven’t already accustomed themselves to its quirks.
And that turns up a lot more things you need to fix!
Some thoughts on features/user experience for Mastodon and other Fediverse software, based on usage and discussions I’ve seen lately:
1. Missing replies aren’t just an inconvenience, they’re a big problem. Instances really do need to reach out and check for additional replies when someone views a post. I’m not sure how to balance the extra network traffic. Maybe just have a manual “check for more replies” button.
2. Quoting is better than screenshotting. I can read quotes on any size screen. So can screen readers.
3. Lack of quoting hasn’t prevented flame wars or dogpiling, and it there’s no indication it reduced them either. If you don’t want to embed an entire post, at least generate a preview like you would to a website with suitable metadata. And let any third-party clients know they can fetch the message themselves and not hand it off to the web browser.
4. If you really want to keep some friction in the quoting process, don’t add a button, but add the preview/embed on display.
5. Link previews should be generated and displayed during composition, without interrupting typing. Whether the preview gets federated along with the post or re-generated at the destination is another debate.
6. User discovery on third party clients needs work, and autocompletion really needs to be part of the composition UI.
7. Remote interactions on posts that aren’t in the app *really* need work.
8. Basic interactions (profile, follow, like, boost, reply) should Just Work(tm) between different federated software, even if they don’t recognize all the same post types or display them nicely. You can always fall back to displaying a link to the source, like Mastodon does with Article types.
9. Mastodon ought to at least *try* to display Articles as long as the formatting isn’t too complex or the length too long.
10. Mastodon’s “Your admin can read your DMs” notice should make it clear that *most* messaging software has this issue, not just Mastodon.
11. Federated hashtag searching is also more important than the inconvenience I used to think it was.
12. I’ve seen several mentions of the need for local-only posts (which some platforms have) and mutual-followers-only posts, and I totally agree with both.
13. (Added 1/23/23) I want to be able to bookmark profiles, so I can mark people/groups that I want to occasionally interact with, but don’t want to follow all the time – but when I do want to look them up or mention them, I can be sure I got the name right.
everybody's on Mastodon but they hate Mastodon and do nothing but complain about it, that's how we know it's truly the Twitter replacement >_>
my quote toots patch is here: https://gitea.treehouse.systems/treehouse/mastodon/pulls/36
argue with Gargron all you want, or enjoy them in an hour. it's up to you.
Version 0.6.1 is out - lots of bugfixes (to the client API especially), as well as the ability to set profile metadata, fetching the history of reply threads, and optional infinite scroll! https://docs.jointakahe.org/en/latest/releases/0.6/#id2
My only #NewYearResolution will be 'use your stickers', as it has been every year for a long time.
It's not just sticker-specific, but a reminder that leaving the sticker on the sheet does nothing. Choosing something to stick it on means it will bring you joy. Might that joy be impermanent? Yes, but everything has the potential to be impermanent, and what joy is there in leaving the sticker on the sheet?
Burn that nice candle you bought for the smell. Use that bath bomb. Enjoy that snack treat. #UseYourStickers.
I've finally done it and donated to Standard Ebooks. I've read a bunch of their books, but what put me over the top was the edition of Kropotkin's Mutual Aid. Couldn't finish that without ponying up. Get it here: https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/peter-kropotkin/mutual-aid
Now I can also recommend books for publication 🤪
As people are leaving Bird for good, I find that many are engaged in what I believe is a dangerous and misguided game of mixing apples and oranges. After what just happened, and all that it has revealed about reliance on for-profit corporate entities for interpersonal and community interaction, why advocate for another such environment? Substack is already known garbage, and Post provides no future-proofing. When I say, “seize the means of your social media production,” this is why.
Stumbled on this amazing #APOD from 2014
#aurora #nightsky #mountains #snow
Photo credit & copyright: Max Rive
#NightSky #moon #silhouette
@takahe
Here's a weird one: I can search for the follwing post in Takahe and it displays just fine, but if I open the direct link in my browser, I get a 500 error
It's been a lot of work, but Takahē 0.6 is finally here! https://docs.jointakahe.org/en/latest/releases/0.6/
Among other features, this includes initial Mastodon Client API support (for existing client apps), custom emoji support, reporting and moderation queues, and a lot of UI and efficiency improvements.
There's still plenty more to do, but we're excited to get to a point where a new community could be run on Takahē. We'll be opening up https://takahe.social registrations soonish too!
Realized that the #TwitterMigration is like going from beta testing the Fediverse to production
Just like a public beta always turns up issues that were missed during development, going to production you suddenly have a *huge* pool of new users who are going to use the system in ways you didn't anticipate and haven't already accustomed themselves to its quirks.
And that turns up a lot more things you need to fix!
The perfect word processor doesn't exist...
Psych! It used to exist, and it was spectacular 🤣
My analysis of LastPass (correct me if I'm wrong): if your master LastPass password is unique to that site, you are likely safe, but if it's one that you've reused on other sites (check http://haveibeenpwned.com), then you should be very worried.
the future of the fediverse is kinda like a small group project in school. you can sleep through it, you can naysay, or you can jump in and make friends and get creative. whether we pass, fail, or excel is kinda up to us
Looks like deleted posts are still showing up in the rss feed @takahe
If you’ve ever wondered what the difference is between a seal and a sea lion then HAVE I GOT THE CHART FOR YOU.
