Unpopular opinion: I hope Hubzilla won't stick to sending Note-type objects forever. It still has the Article-type/Note-type switch that was introduced with Hubzilla 9 on Friday, but as I've just discovered, a recent hotfix has basically rendered that switch useless, and Hubzilla only sends Note-type objects again.

Article-type objects have a lot of advantages. Yes, on Mastodon. Whether Mike or Mario or anyone else on Hubzilla or (streams) likes it or not.

With Note-type objects, I have to count characters and, when a post exceeds 500 characters, issue long post content warnings like the one above and add the filter-triggering hashtags #Long, #LongPost, #CWLong and #CWLongPost. That's because posts with over 500 characters disturb so many Mastodon users, especially those on a phone using the official Mastodon app that doesn't fold posts over 500 characters in.

With Article-type objects, I wouldn't have to do that because Mastodon would reduce even an 80,000-character monster post to a cute little link with title, summary and hashtags. Much easier on Mastodon users than having 80,000 characters slammed into their faces right away.

With Note-type objects, I have to link to sensitive images because Mastodon refuses to hide images embedded in or attached to Hubzilla posts, no matter what I do.

With Article-type objects, I wouldn't have to do that because Mastodon would have people click or tap the link to the original post before they can see the post with the sensitive image in it. Of course, that link would be accompanied by an appropriate content warning.

That said, Mastodon might still automatically use that sensitive image as the preview image for the link. There'd be nothing you can do against it on Hubzilla except for adding another safe image first and hoping Mastodon will pick that one. But that'd require one more image description.

#FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #ActivityPub #Mastodon #Hubzilla #Hubzilla 9 #CharacterCount #500Characters #UnpopularOpinion
Netzgemeinde/Hubzilla

@jupiter_rowland This is ridiculous. With Fedilab client or even the Web UI (can be installed as PWA) you can receive long posts like yours here without issue on a phone. You can press the 'display more' button or not if you don't want to read the post. There's no reason to be disturbed. πŸ™„
@morph But not everyone uses Fedilab.

Especially newbies who think the Fediverse is only the nice and cosy and fluffy Mastodon they've just discovered are often on the official app. The offical app doesn't fold long posts in. If I post 77,000 characters, and I have posted 77,000 characters in the past, users of this app get all 77,000 characters onto their screens with no way to fold them in.

I'm not sure, but I think TootSuite doesn't roll long posts in either.

The Web UI folds posts over 2,000 characters in to a length of ca. 1,500 characters. That's still way over the 500 characters that your typical Twitter-to-Mastodon refugee expects to be the Fediverse-wide upper limit.

As for literally nobody being disturbed about posts over 500 characters, here are a few quote-posts of actual Mastodon posts. These aren't the only two people upset about over-500-character posts; there are plenty more, but they're hard to find with hashtag searches.

Citizen.Coping wrote the following post Wed, 20 Mar 2024 23:24:21 +0100 @Gargron

Being able to mute or filter posts that exceed 500 characters would be great.

Search is not good because it returns too many dissertations.

benjaminbuse wrote the following post Tue, 29 Aug 2023 09:33:49 +0200 Always disappointed when people exceed #500Characters reminds of when #twitter brought out paid subscription with longer #CharacterLimit

500 characters is lengthy micro blogging, longer is not

The freedom of different instances (servers) but I won’t favourite or boost anything exceeding 500

#LessIsMore
#ThreadsArePossible

Or look at this poll on CWs for long posts which I ran two months ago. Of 19 participants, 4 (21%) want CWs for posts over 500 characters, and 1 (5%) wants them banned Fediverse-wide entirely.

#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #CharacterCount #500Characters
benjaminbuse (@[email protected])

1.62K Posts, 139 Following, 28 Followers Β· Climate activism, Electron microprobe analysis & Earth Sciences, Trees, hills & sky etc

A community for scientists and science communicators.

@jupiter_rowland OMG ... a "quoted post"! 😱

I hope that there will be a way somehow to get it together. Isn't the goal federation and interoperability?
I doubt also that an account on a dedicated micro blogging service as mastodon is useful as main identity rather than an extension to one's website, blog or so. Hubzilla is of course somehow special because you can handle it both.

@morph
OMG ... a "quoted post"! 😱
Implemented on Hubzilla since 2012 when it was still named Red.

And the only way to forward posts on Hubzilla until the introduction of repeats with Hubzilla 9 two days ago.
@jupiter_rowland It is the way you do that. You do it in email, phpBB ...
If you are really interested in having almost absolute compatibility with mastodon and its slave software (like pleroma....) brothers, I highly recommend you also register in an instance of "mastodon and its brothers". I really don't think that we too should become slave brothers. πŸ˜‰