Jernej Simončič �Jun 17, 2025
mcc

So I'm currently trying to game out in the next 14 days (before the new mastodon.social TOS goes into effect)¹ switching from m.s to GTS.

If you use GTS: What does "using" GTS, from the web frontend², look like to you? Would you mind showing me a screenshot?

¹ Please don't use this thread to talk about this. See my other thread or the github issue I'll be posting after my class today

² My understanding is GTS supports multiple web frontends in theory. I don't know if multiple exist.

Jun 17, 2025 at 4:50pmWeb
Show threadRuss GarrettJun 17, 2025

@mcc the only web frontend which GtS has is to configure account and admin settings. For everything else, you have to use a third-party client (I use and like https://phanpy.social/).

I believe there is also a fork of the Mastodon frontend which works with GtS but I can't immediately find it...

Show threadRuss GarrettJun 17, 2025
@mcc ah here's the standalone Mastodon frontend for it https://masto-fe.superseriousbusiness.org
Masto-FE (🦥 flavour)

Show threadD. Olifant Still Won't Shut UpJun 17, 2025
@russss @mcc https://masto-fe.superseriousbusiness.org is where it's hosted, the code is at https://codeberg.org/superseriousbusiness/masto-fe-standalone
Masto-FE (🦥 flavour)

Show threadursula ketamine leguinJun 17, 2025

@russss @mcc GTS also has the public web frontend. this is read-only, mostly (entirely?) server-rendered HTML, and doesn't show unlisted posts or server/federated/tag timelines. open my post in a browser, that's what you're looking at. there are a few ways to customize it starting with admin and optional per-user CSS

but yeah i mostly use Phanpy. the dev's been good with GTS compat bugs so it works pretty well

Show threadmccJun 17, 2025

@vyr @russss I'd be curious to see what that looks like.

What do you mean by "doesn't show unlisted posts"?

Show threadD. Olifant Still Won't Shut UpJun 17, 2025
@mcc @vyr @russss Users can decide if their posts are web-accessible, and which ones are.
Show threadursula ketamine leguinJun 17, 2025
@mcc @russss @oli oh right there's a switch for that now. i don't believe that switch affects any posts other than your own, though; threads on the public, unauthed web UI will still omit unlisted replies from other users.
Show threadmccJun 17, 2025
@vyr @russss @oli I don't *blame* anyone for this but it's frustrating to me these semantics of "unlisted" differ so completely from those of mastodon.social. Like the GTS meaning makes a bit more sense to me than the Mastodon "quiet public" meaning (seriously, what does "quiet public" mean?) but it's frustrating the community doesn't have a standard semantics for this same flag.
Show threadursula ketamine leguinJun 17, 2025
@oli @mcc @russss yeah if only the W3C were a standards org and not a Semantic Web doujinshi circle
Show threadD. Olifant Still Won't Shut UpJun 17, 2025
@mcc @vyr @russss Far as I know, the Mastodon mobile app still doesn't even let you choose 'Quiet Public' since Eugen doesn't seem to believe in that status. It does work similarly in terms of announcement mechanics, and isn't shown on the Federated feed, etc.
Show threadtobi is writing bugs Jun 18, 2025
@vyr @mcc @russss @oli we're working on federating that preference in and out :)
Show threadursula ketamine leguinJun 17, 2025
@mcc @russss they don't show up in the public web UI (docs). if you post an unlisted post, it will not be shown on your public web timeline. if there is one in a thread, i think the thread page says something along the lines of "there are posts here you can't see, go log into your own instance and view the thread there".
Posts - GoToSocial Documentation

None

Show thread4censord Jun 17, 2025
@vyr @mcc @russss with the current state of "basically noone fetches replies from other people to a thread" doesnt that make the "i get the same reply 20 times because the others cant see that someone already said that" problem so much worse?
Show threadursula ketamine leguinJun 17, 2025

@mcc @russss @4censord

  • that only applies to the public unauthenticated web interface, which you can't reply thru anyway
  • GTS does a much better job of fetching replies to threads than other implementations, and i hope that continues to improve across the ecosystem
    • Show thread4censord Jun 17, 2025

    @vyr @mcc @russss oh no i meant for everyone else that is not on gts. As in, i see a big-ish thread, i open it in my browser on the original instance to see the full thread. Which then doesnt work because while i can see the orignal post, i cant see most replies and therefore cant tell if someone said so already.

    (mastodon only just got fetching replies, and its still experiemental and behind a feature flag iirk)
    (and while i want that to improve as well, i expect it to be a few years till its rolled out to a major part of the network)

    Show threadprince lucijaJun 18, 2025
    @vyr @mcc @russss @4censord i agree with this hidden gem of gts: first looking at lone reply fetched on my single user gts instance it quickly fetches pretty much entire thread. that is something that really doesn't work that well with mastodon
    Show threaddaveJun 18, 2025
    @vyr @russss @mcc +1 to the phanpy recommendations.
    Show threadNelsonJun 17, 2025

    @mcc Most of the time GTS looks like your favorite Mastodon client. GTS doesn't have its own client. So although GTS has some features Mastodon lacks, and lacks some features Mastodon has, you're going to end up using the Mastodon API.

    The developers apparently use this forked Mastodon frontend themselves, and although it's made a lot of progress, it may not have a 1:1 correspondence with GTS features yet:

    https://codeberg.org/superseriousbusiness/masto-fe-standalone

    Show threadcmsJun 17, 2025
    @mcc GtS is mostly a backend, but you can use any compliant mastodon client to post to it.

    An entirely web client that's nicer than a lot of standalone clients in my opinion is https://phanpy.social/
    Phanpy

    Minimalistic opinionated Mastodon web client

    Show threadみやくモードJun 17, 2025
    @mcc here’s pinafore and masto-fe on mobile
    Show threadamdJun 17, 2025

    @mcc from the web, I like to use masto-fe, which should look very familiar: https://codeberg.org/superseriousbusiness/masto-fe-standalone

    I host my own instance but @dumpsterqueer has a public one up at https://masto-fe.superseriousbusiness.org/

    Others like phanpy, elk, enafore, and probably more.

    From my phone, I use the same apps I’ve always used.

    masto-fe-standalone

    Masto-FE (🦥 flavour)

    Codeberg.org
    Show threadKristell L.Jun 17, 2025
    @mcc I used https://semaphore.social back when I used GTS, and its supported by (as far as I know) every web frontend that supports mastodon, because it uses apub the same way mastodon does
    Show threadnikola mikołajczykównaJun 18, 2025
    @mcc I’m mostly using the frontend I’m developing myself, available under https://pl.mkljczk.pl. It has support for a lot of GTS-specific stuff like interaction policies and adds some features that improve user privacy, like removing tracking parameters from displayed URLs.

    I also love Phanpy.

    Here’s the thread displayed in my pl-fe (it’s a terrible name but I initially didn’t mean this project to be too serious)
    Show threadmilasJun 18, 2025

    @mcc I use Tusky on Android and primarily Phanpy on web (previously used Elk)

    There's a fork of the Mastodon web client as well, public instance is at https://masto-fe.superseriousbusiness.org/home

    Show threadtobi is writing bugs Jun 18, 2025
    @mcc bear in mind gts is beta software and afaik nobody's tried migrating a 28k followers account to an instance of it yet. It might work fine, but who knows
    Show threadmccJun 18, 2025

    @dumpsterqueer D: oh

    What kind of thing might happen if "working fine" failed?

    Show threadtobi is writing bugs Jun 18, 2025
    @mcc not sure really, possibly you'll lose some followers if some rate limiting or throttling malarkey occurs during the process of moving. Possibly messages out won't be delivered very quickly with that many followers (might take a few minutes for stuff to arrive). It's hard to say! It might also work fine! Personally I think it will probably be okay but I'm just giving you fair warning that it's beta 
    Show threadtobi is writing bugs Jun 18, 2025
    @mcc but yeah just read up about it first, check the system requirements in the getting started part of the docs, bear in mind there's still stuff missing and in flux, yadda yadda
    Show threadmccJun 18, 2025

    @dumpsterqueer Thanks. I will likely stand up a new VPS for just the instance.

    If I want to monitor things while they're happening to see if they're "as expected", where would be a good place to go for support? The GTS codeberg page?

    Show threadtobi is writing bugs Jun 18, 2025
    @mcc codeberg page or the matrix help room (almost wrote hell room)
    Show threadmccJun 18, 2025
    @dumpsterqueer I'd be very interested to visit the Matrix room— do you have a link? I'm looking on the GTS site and not finding it easily.
    Show threadtobi is writing bugs Jun 19, 2025
    @mcc Right here! https://matrix.to/#/#gotosocial-space:superseriousbusiness.org And docs are here: https://docs.gotosocial.org
    You're invited to talk on Matrix

    You're invited to talk on Matrix

    Show threadyin yang yoinkJun 19, 2025

    @mcc i host a single bot with PostgreSQL backend on https://gts.ifhub.club/ and use phanpy as a web frontend.

    It works okay but, well, a single user instance has no one in the local timeline. Also a lot of Mastodon users run straight into this issue - no one else except you sees replies to your threads on GTS unless the replies are posted public:

    https://codeberg.org/superseriousbusiness/gotosocial/issues/4047

    IFHub - GoToSocial

    Мини-инстанс для федерации страниц https://ifhub.club

    gts.ifhub.club