Jez
Mike Masnick ✅I wrote up some of the tricks and tools and tips I've picked up that have made Mastodon more useful, and which people seem to appreciate when I share with them: https://www.techdirt.com/2022/12/29/some-tricks-to-making-mastodon-way-more-useful/
So @ygalanter pointed me to another "clean" interface option for Mastodon (like Pinafore.social) that I had not seen before: elk.zone. It's quite nice (and very, very Twitter-like). But, I don't see any way to find lists via its interface which unfortunately make it a non-starter for me.
Cranky David
Comfortably Numb@ygalanter @cranky_david @elk oh yeah. very nice for an alpha product. i'll definitely keep checking in. If they can add list support and maybe multi-column support, could become my go-to UI.
Magnus Hedemark@mmasnick @ygalanter thanks for pointing this out. I'm trying it now and it's working nicely with #GoToSocial.
@mmasnick @ygalanter ok I lied. It's rendering boosted posts very strangely, almost like quote posts. It's not yet in a usable state for me but it is indeed attractive.
Joly MacFie@mmasnick @ygalanter I have the same issue with the Mastodon app on my iPad. Alternatives?
@joly @ygalanter lots of recommended iOS apps out there for Mastodon, but I don't use iOS so I couldn't tell you.
Me@dambaras @mmasnick @ygalanter I tried Mastoot. No list functionality that I could find. I couldn’t see Mammoth in the App Store. I tried Metatext. It does show lists, but under profile rather than browse. The other app options are $$, will look for reviews. I do like the feel of the Mastodon app, it’d be good if they just implemented lists!
@joly @mmasnick @ygalanter Mammoth is still in beta testing via the Testflight app for ios. See https://testflight.apple.com/join/HyL7boSn
@dambaras @mmasnick @ygalanter
I see @ivory is another option. I missed the testflight yesterday, but am hopeful.
@mmasnick @ygalanter Where are lists in Pinafore? I tried it today but couldn’t find that feature.
@dambaras @ygalanter not at my laptop right now, but pretty sure you click on "community" and they're listed there.
@mmasnick @ygalanter Will check. Thanks!
Jacob@mmasnick @ygalanter interesting that I can’t seem to log in to my own mastodon instance. Seems strange considering the amount of tiny instances out there that it’s only a prescribed list that can log in to elk.zone
Another frontend that’s quite nice is soapbox. https://fe.soapbox.pub
Laimis@mmasnick @ygalanter just gave it a spin, pretty sweet!
Mazal 
Lance Homer@mmasnick @ygalanter so much cleaner! thanks
Tim Mulholland@mmasnick That list manager is exactly what I needed (well, maybe not _exactly_ because as you state it's pretty basic, but it gets the job done better than the web UI or apps). Thanks!
jonny
Rairii@mmasnick infosec.exchange indeed does run glitchsoc, it's the largest glitchsoc server
and its character limit is indeed 11k
Jay Reding 🇺🇦@mmasnick I did not know about the pinning of a list feature, and wow is that handy!
@jayreding cool! glad I could help...
Tamar Yellin@mmasnick Thanks, super helpful! Also, somehow I wasn't following you so I fixed that.
JambiBlue@mmasnick Thanks Mike 👍🏼
Jackie Greybard@mmasnick today I learned that the three dash menu is called a hamburger menu.
@Digitalunconciousness hahah. oh yeah, that's an old one, but I was surprised when I learned it to. But, it does kinda look like a hamburger so I see where it came from.
@mmasnick I dig it.
eve@Digitalunconciousness @mmasnick, on Keybase they did it literally.
And i love to hear people calling the 3 dot menu "the falafel menu".
podkaynelives@mmasnick Thanks Mike. My favorite feature is the ability to follow hashtags. I'm lucky to be on an interesting instance and I've found some cool folks browsing the local timeline.
Justin du Coeur@mmasnick Oh, faboo -- while Mastodon List Manager isn't *quite* the dream list-management UI I've been looking for, it's certainly a massive improvement.
Boosting specifically that one further, this is well worth checking out. As Mike says, it's very simple, but it's a way better Lists manager than the one built into the Mastodon UI: https://acbeers.github.io/mastodonlm/manager
@mmasnick I should note that a decent list manager is key to my biggest problem with Mastodon: FOMO.
At this point, I'm following a *lot* of people here. Those are all intentional; I don't want to drop them. But I don't care about them equally, and some days it takes hours to get through my Home feed.
Having good prioritized Lists means that I can leave Pinafore open to the High Priority List; when I'm overwhelmed, I can focus there for a while, declare bankruptcy on Home, and start over.
Wraithe
Steve Bannister@mmasnick thanks for this Mike - very useful even after being on here over a month. I particularly like the list manager you highlight.
Paul Eastwood@mmasnick some great tips here, thank you! All helps to improve the user experience on here for those looking for a new home.
matt garland@mmasnick really helpful; thank you.
Shane Moore@mmasnick
Thanks a lot Mike! Lots of new things to try out to make this a better platform for all of us. I knew with all the tech people on here, we would see significant improvement in a short timeframe. Thanks to everyone who are doing all the work for developing these new tools.
Thanks a lot Mike! Lots of new things to try out to make this a better platform for all of us. I knew with all the tech people on here, we would see significant improvement in a short timeframe. Thanks to everyone who are doing all the work for developing these new tools.
D. Creemer@mmasnick Thank you - this is a very helpful article.
mvario@mmasnick
Thank you very much, looks useful and I will boost/share.
Thank you very much, looks useful and I will boost/share.
Sheila Pankhurst@mmasnick this is really useful, thank you. One of the delights of Mastodon is finding links to some truly excellent scientists and commentators I wasn’t previously aware of. Your guide just helped me to find a few more.
JamesGG@mmasnick Thank you for finally persuading me to use Folllowgraph. Quite interesting and useful!
Arindam BasuThis is more than what the word “tricks” suggests. A comprehensive list of things most people will find useful and will help people to answer questions like “How do I do X” on Mastodon. Nice to see you mention other networks as well!
Stuck on Earth@mmasnick If you really want control over the website UI use the Stylus Extension/Add-On to apply a theme or create your own tweaks. (Bonus you can use it to restyle any website to your liking)
Stylus
The 'Stylus' extension is a fork of the popular Stylish extension which can be used to restyle the web. Not 'ish', but 'us', as in 'us' the actual users. Stylus is a fork of Stylish that is based on the source code of version 1.5.2, which was the most up-to-date version before the original developer stopped working on the project. The objective in creating Stylus was to remove any and all analytics, and return to a more user-friendly UI. We recognize that the ability to transfer your database from Stylish is important, so this is the one and only feature we've implemented from the new version.
Philipp@mmasnick lovely post, thank you so much!
Olav@mmasnick I ended up using the advanced web app setting too ~ I couldn't get Whalebird nor Sengi to not autoscroll so I gave up. In general the native apps main advantage is multiple accounts, and I 'm not currently doing that.
I do like the list manager tho. It's on my list for later today now
Babs 💙🐝⌛️🦋🔻
Brian Brennon@mmasnick see, I didn’t know that we could follow hashtags! That’s very helpful :)
book creature@mmasnick I just saw this post under the news tab and copied it to share, amazing to see it in real time just as I was about to post. Great writeup ty.
@mmasnick Regarding additional UI - have you tried https://elk.zone ?
@ygalanter never even heard of it. looks nice!
@mmasnick It seems to be the most "twitter-like" to me. May help transitioning to some folk migrating over.
@mmasnick Quick question: What would happen if we all used ad blockers on Twitter? Would it impact Twitters revenue in a meaningful way?
@PoliticallyInteresting i mean... a little bit? but not in a meaningful way.
NomadEnv@mmasnick this post is excellent. Thank you
Dwight Silverman@mmasnick Highly recommended from Mike's tips post: Followgraph.
Mike Woods@dsilverman @mmasnick Also, if you use it, follow some people, then use it again, you get even more people to follow.
Thurman@mmasnick
Great writeup. I'd add that the android app, Fedilab, is awesome. It's all I use on my phone.
Great writeup. I'd add that the android app, Fedilab, is awesome. It's all I use on my phone.
Corvin@mmasnick lists are a kludgey solution for the chronological feed and there not being a priority feed.