Mastodawn

Simon Willison Dec 22, 2022

My least favourite sharp edge of Mastodon is the fact that when you view someone else's post you only see replies to it that are known to your server - so there's actually a good chance there will be replies that are completely invisible to you, especially if you run your own instance

I'd love it if tapping a post kicked off a request back to the original server that fetched the current reply count and provided a "view all replies" button if there were replies not yet visible to me

Simon Willison Dec 22, 2022

My hunch here is that very few people see even aware of this Mastodon feature

So, a poll: prior to reading this thread, did you know that Mastodon by default will only show you public replies to a post if those replies have already been fetched into your server somehow?

(This only affects you when you view a post that originated on a server other than your home server - if the original post author is on the same server as you then you'll see all of the replies)

Yes I knew about that

24%

No, I didn't know about that

70%

I don't understand the question

6%

Poll ended at Dec 23, 2022 at 8:46pm.

@simon I had assumed that replies would inherit the "reach" of the original post by default... Hmm...

*edit: typo

maegul Dec 23, 2022

@AriaGrace yes! I think this is the normal intuition, where many have the intuition of a forum or threaded structure. But it seems the core idea here is it’s all about who you follow.

rafikiphoto 🇪🇸 🇪🇺 🇬🇧 Dec 23, 2022

@maegul @AriaGrace Here's a great flow chart that shows the visibility of a toot on which timeline it will appear dependent on if it's on a local and federated instance & if you follow someone who interacted with it.

maegul Dec 23, 2022

@chriszanf Yes, thank you! IMO, the main utility of the chart is in explaining what the "Local" and "Federated" timelines are. The complexity we're all talking about lies in the last node of the decision tree, which is not coincidentally also the most complex.

The simple intuition that started this thread could easily be added to this chart as "is a reply to a toot that someone you're following has also replied to". IE, a "reply cousin". OR, "part of a reply chain you follow".

Katzentratschen Dec 23, 2022

@maegul Exactly. Post visibility in Local and Federated TLs is a no-brainer in comparison. Decentralization gets tricky looking at replies from other instances or even other apps/services (e.g. Friendica, PixelFed) with differing levels of interoperability. @chriszanf

Gareth Simpson Dec 23, 2022

@chriszanf @maegul @AriaGrace
Thank you for sharing this.
The diagram is enlightening and makes logical sense.
It also has kind of depressing implications for people following hashtags. Got to hope the people on your server share all your niche interests.

maegul Dec 23, 2022

@xurble
Agree about hashtags. Inline with the comments around 21/22 Dec in this GitHub issue, I suspect there's some real room to grow for #Mastodon in providing a clean and powerful filtering and viewing system to users.
https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/20715

Like with this conversation about replies, I think there's some hunger to turn Mastodon into a wonderful content feed manager that will require connections or aggregating concepts beyond the social "x follows y" graph.

Add hashtag to list · Issue #20715 · mastodon/mastodon

Pitch As of 4.0 one can follow a hashtag so that it appears in one's home timeline. I suggest that one also be able to add a hashtag to a list, which would allow people to curate list composed of d...

GitHub

maegul Dec 23, 2022

@xurble Inline with this, a vague idea sticking around in my head is whether #Mastodon (however viable) could benefit from the idea of a "board", which would essentially be a thread or chat room like a #reddit post. But it would be owned, moderated and controlled by the creator, like a mini instance within an instance, and could have a fixed duration of write openness and even read openness and of course configurable accessibility by user/instance etc, with instance based rules too

zecuse Dec 23, 2022

@xurble @chriszanf @maegul @AriaGrace They don't have to share your interests. They just have to reply/search/favorite/boost/follow etc. someone that happens to share your interest so that someone's toot will show in your Federated.

It's like a mutual connection that's not shared by the intermediate account between the 2 of you. So long as these other 2 accounts aren't blocked by your instance, it doesn't matter what others on your instance have.

maegul Dec 23, 2022

@zecuse @xurble @chriszanf how much are people using their federated timeline? I find it overwhelming a lot of the time. Plus, speaking of the hashtags, is it not reasonable to want tagged posts to appear in one’s feed? Also, I’m not clear on how hashtags would work for some one on their own private instance … would you need to follow the poster to see the post?

chriszanf Dec 23, 2022

@maegul @zecuse @xurble There's a seeing on the web interface to enable "slow mode" so all the feeds do not auto scroll. Makes the federated timeline readable.

Not sure about the hashtags / own instance but I follow one related to modular synths and I see posts by people from other instances.

Good questions though!

them#tic Dec 24, 2022

@maegul @zecuse @xurble @chriszanf (In an established instance) I last used it some in early November. I was more actively looking for accounts to follow.

maegul Dec 24, 2022

@thematic that makes sense. Also, to go through it every so often just to allow for new things, people etc.

prk Dec 24, 2022

@chriszanf @maegul @AriaGrace any idea what would cause the scenario where I see the toots of someone on another instance whom I follow, but not the image(s) attached to their toots?

a1 Dec 25, 2022

@chriszanf @maegul @AriaGrace I once ran a fido mailbox. This has commemoration potential

@chriszanf @maegul @AriaGrace how does this work with forwarded users? I've set up several accounts on other servers and redirected them to this one.

maegul Dec 31, 2022

@Arrakis_Surfer No idea about forwarding!