Fedi.TipsJan 19, 2025

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Fedi.Tips – An Unofficial Guide to Mastodon and the Fediverse

An unofficial guide to using Mastodon and the Fediverse

Show threadIαn has moved accountJan 20, 2025
@FediTips
Is there an android client where you can reverse the scroll direction?
It doesn't make sense seeing the very end of long posts first. Quite peculiar.
Thanks for the really helpful work.
Show threadEric BeaudryJan 20, 2025

@ianp5a @FediTips
I've been thinking of this problem since my first few days on Mastodon.

There's no easy way to fix the problem since, here, threads and timeline are intertwined. Only reversing the scroll direction won't make much of a difference since you’ll come across the latest post before the first one anyway.

The kind of option you're looking for is a "conversation mode" where new replies to a thread would bring the whole thread back in your timeline while still showing the first post on top with some sort of notification of new replies within.

To achieve that, each post would need to be scanned to the find the first of the thread and then show this first post in your timeline instead of the latest one. It is most certainly technically possible, but I haven't seen anything like that in a Mastodon client.

Show threadIαn has moved account
@EricBeaudry @FediTips it's not about reversing the order. But reversing the direction of the main timeline. So newest at the bottom. The threads already have newest at the bottom. It would be trivial to do it in a client.
Jan 20, 2025 at 2:31pmWeb
Show threadEric BeaudryJan 20, 2025
@ianp5a @FediTips ok, so scrolling down would get you closer to the present time from where you left of. Important nuance here, the client has to remember where you were otherwise you'll be move to the bottom (present) and scrolling up into the past. Meaning you'll still see the latest post of the thread before the first one. Am I getting it?
Show threadIαn has moved accountJan 20, 2025
@EricBeaudry @FediTips
Try this, click on a post that has several replies. You see the thread. This is how the main timeline should look.
See the newest replies are at the bottom. See that you first see the oldest reply at the top. You then scroll the posts upwards, revealing newer ones at the bottom.
This. But in the main timeline.
Show threadEric BeaudryJan 20, 2025

@ianp5a @FediTips yep, we're at the same place now.

Then, we close the app and come back a couple hours later. At that moment, where should the app put us in our timeline?
- Where we left, and we keep scrolling down getting closer to present. In which case, we would get the desired behavior.
- Or at the bottom and we start scrolling up (into the past), in which case we come accross the latest post before the the first of the thread.

I'm with you that it would feel more natural to read in the same direction in both timeline and threads. However, if the app moves us to the present when we open it we end up with the same problem.

To summarize, newest at the bottom WITH a marker to get back where we left is what would be required to ensure we always scroll towards the present.

There would still be some "out of order cases" when someone you follow replies to a thread you've never seen before. For those, I only see the conversation mode explain earlier as a solution.

Show threadIαn has moved accountJan 20, 2025
@EricBeaudry @FediTips
Changing the direction of the scrolling does not affect anything else. All the behaviour can be the same as now. It doesn't add any new problem.