Mastodawn

Alright, so in Catodon we have already implemented hashtags and word follows in the Home timeline, GIF integration, a chat-like DM feature... wanna know what's next?

An RSS reader, right inside your timelines. Give me a few days.

#Catodon

#Fediverse #RSS

panos 1d ago

@evan hi Evan, sorry for tagging you publicly but I think others might be interested in this. Tags.pub is a great idea, but I can't follow accounts from tags.pub from Catodon/Sharkey (and I guess Misskey too, since they are forks of that). The follow request gets stuck at pending. Since Misskey is one of the most used (and forked) fedi platforms, and it actually doesn't provide a way to follow hashtags like in Mastodon (I covered this functionality in Catodon, but this still applies to upstream projects - also it would be nice to get posts from accounts my server doesn't know about), could you look into this? It also doesn't boost my posts with hashtags, not sure how it defines the user pool.

#Misskey #Sharkey #Catodon

panos 1d ago

Alright, now that the DM page is up, I just started working on the next big feature I want to add for 26.04 - more in a few days 😁

#Catodon

panos 2d ago

One of the biggest complaints I read from new Fediverse users, is "Wait, you don't have DMs here?". But the "specified users" visibility is exactly that - they're just not handled as DMs, but as plain posts. But it doesn't have to be like this.

I just deployed the new Direct messages page on catodon.rocks, which displays all of your DMs in a chat-style environment. This has been the most challenging new feature to date - many design decisions had to be made, building this practically from nothing (I did base this on the Accounts timeline's layout, though, it fits this feature like a glove.

You can now see it live on catodon.rocks! Please report any bugs, I'm sure I must have missed some during my testing.

#Catodon

panos 2d ago

Is there any reason to always see the "Mark all notifications as read" button, even when there are no unread notifications, besides cluttering the UI? Just made it appear only when unread notifications are over zero. Will deploy later today on catodon.rocks, along with the dedicated Direct messages page.

#Catodon #Sharkey #Firefish

panos 3d ago

Here's the latest feature in Catodon's develop, for the upcoming 26.04 release - another suggestion by @germ !

As you may know, Catodon has Firefish's "threads in timeline" feature, which greatly declutters timelines for threads (instead of seeing 1st/2nd+2nd/3rd+3rd/4th etc, you just see 1st/2nd/3rd/4th once), but it can still get annoying with really long threads.

So, here's the improved edition: Collapsed threads. You will never see a thread longer than three posts - you'll get the collapsed version, with a link to view the full thread, and an indicator of how many more posts it has.

Also displayed in profile pages, which didn't have threads until now.

#Catodon

#Firefish

panos 3d ago

So today @germ hit me up with a suggestion to improve the Search page, and I did make a few changes:

-Removed the "Lookup" tab - initially I had moved this from the Navigation bar, where it was a separate item, into "Search" as a tab, but I realized it's not needed at all, since Search already identifies it and asks you if you enter any of the items that Lookup covers. So Lookup was just confusing, as I'm sure that new users have no idea what the hell it does and how it differs from Search. So it's gone, while functionality is maintained - even improved slightly, because now Search recognizes URLs starting with www. too, not only http. And this allowed me to use the binoculars icon again for "Show preview" in the posting form, like in Firefish! I wanted to do this from the start, but the icon was already used by Lookup.

-Added more filters to Search, making it more customizable.

-Minor UI changes, Posts and Users tabs are now more consistent, also Options are collapsed by default, in order to make the Search page less overwhelming.

Didn't make any progress on Direct messages today, but I think it was worth it. The improved Search page is now live on catodon.rocks.

#Catodon

panos 4d ago

Alright, back to development, en route for Catodon 26.04! I've already started working on a Direct messages page, but I took a break today and tackled other unrelated issues on my list. First of all, "preview post" now works correctly, in all (or most) cases! External URL previews are displayed in the same way the actual post will show them. Polls are shown in the preview as well.

Also some other minor thingies here and there: "Follow" button for blocked users/users who have blocked you is now greyed out, instead of appearing as if it's working. Push notifications for DMs show "xxx sent you a direct message" instead of "xxx mentioned you". Admins and moderators get a visual clue in the left sidebar when there are unresolved reports. These are all live on catodon.rocks. Back to the DM feature =)

#Catodon

panos 5d ago

OK, hope this goes well 😅 - first time doing this, so please don't be harsh if anything goes wrong. I've done all the testing I could, but if you see any bugs, please just let me know. If needed, I'll do a follow-up hotfix release.

So, what else can I say? A few months ago I thought Catodon was a dead project, so this is a bit surreal. But here we are - I've worked my ass off for the last couple of months, and I hope you like this. I still have some major features coming up in the next releases, so this will only get better, but I'm really proud of this first release too. Anything that annoyed you in Firefish or Sharkey is probably fixed here (and if not, let me know what it is so that I can address it in the next releases!). This is the fedi software I wanted to use for myself day-to-day, and I've made the experience as smooth as I could. It will make me purr with joy if other people enjoy this as well. Cheers =)

#Catodon

RE: https://catodon.rocks/notes/ajya0rtk10kh000b

Catodon 5d ago

Catodon's first stable, 26.03, has just been released! 🥳

See it live on https://catodon.rocks/

Join our Matrix space at #catodon-space:matrix.org for direct communication!

Release notes:

- Based on Sharkey 2025.4.6
- A new, rounder look!
- You can follow hashtags and words in you Home timeline, by adding Custom feeds (Antennas) to Home
- You can integrate GIF search for your users through Klipy
- Improved notifications: Added a "mark all as read" button to the Notifications widget, there is a highlighted divider between new and old notifications, and they are marked read easier when you view them, so that you no longer need to use the "mark all as read" button as much. You can also see a list of who reacted in grouped reaction notifications
- Threads in timelines (imported from Firefish), greatly decluttering timelines for longer threads
- Users now have the choice to link to external media (including GIFs) without permanently saving them to their Storage, using a new dedicated cache - allows admins to provide less permanent storage space per user, keeping server resources under control
- There is a global, admin-definable cap to the cache for remote files, so that you no longer need to manually delete it regularly
- Different/simpler terminology so that new users can understand what everything means more easily
- Decluttered buttons under posts: Like/Reaction (merged), Reply, Repost/Quote (merged)
- Deprecated/removed from the frontend the gamifying or local only/not widely used features: Channels, Achievements, Gallery, Clips, Games, Chat, Play
- Redesigned left sidebar. Much fewer items in the Navigation Bar, which now expands/collapses with a button. The profile picture now acts as a direct link to your profile, as it's separated from the account menu that sits under it
- Fewer timelines, no hardcoded links in the header menu - everything is a timeline
- "Accounts timeline" based on the "Following" page, but upgraded to a timeline with columns scrolling independently and a search bar
- The local timeline now takes the server's short name, adding a unique touch to your community
- Custom feeds and Lists are in their own dedicated timeline
- More filters in timelines and Lists - you can now view your following accounts' replies to others (or only to accounts you also follow) in Home, choose between Following and Mutual followers, and include the public posts from your server in Home (covering the functionality of the deprecated "Social" timeline)
- Post area is now clickable everywhere, not only over the text area
- You can view all reactions together under a post in detailed post view (added "All" tab). You can also see the total number of replies+subreplies next to the number of direct replies, showing instantly how deep the discussion under a post goes
- Redesigned posting form with buttons in more practical positions - also the collapsed posting form at the top of timelines takes up half the space the old one did
- The posting form autoexpands as you write longer posts - imported from Firefish
- Autocomplete also shows results for names of users - you no longer need to remember the exact username to mention or DM someone
- You can disable sign-in emails by deactivating sign-in notifications
- You can now close the alt text window over images, which can make parts of them hard to see/read, by clicking on it
- Much better key navigation - both with h/j/k/l and arrows. Focus is more often where you expect it to be, so that you can key nav instantly when opening a page. You can also swipe through timelines on desktop with left/right
- Countless bug fixes and quality-of-life improvements!

#Catodon

Catodon rocks

Official server of the Catodon project - home of Catodon development. Everyone is welcome except fascists, racists, sexists, bigots and cops. No harassment, no hate speech. Be nice. Destroy capitalism.

Catodon rocks