Relaxing treatment of non-notes by Mastodon

[bumblefudge]

@renchap

Users see some content, click on it, then end up with a new UI, see a reply button, click on it, and are asked to create a new account, or to sign up (but not with their initial account). Our user testing (and many feedback) points that this is a very common issue with AP federation at the moment, even between Mastodon instances.

Might the OAuth profile Emelia is working on solve that underlying problem, at least when it’s implemented and the appropriate API endpoints or .wellknown files are published, since the “new UI” the end-user would be clicking through to (whether in an iFrame or a new tab) will already recognize the user’s home-server and can log them in less-painfully? Apologies if I’m misunderstanding.

Another mitigation that might help this problem is a pattern I’ve seen in, e.g. elk.zone, namely the “open on original site” option in the ... menu. Exposing this kind of link automatically below the post (rather than just in ...) when trans-typing, when unknown subprops are present, or when otherwise uncertain of presentation mechanics could help.

[bumblefudge]

Sidenote, I want to mention that I read a NodeBB thread from Mastodon (on elk.zone) yesterday so we’re off to a good start here! Here’s to hoping we can finish the job 100%

[evan1]

@bumblefudge You shouldn't have to leave your own site to interact with the entire Fediverse.

Your client should be able to pull content from the entire network, either directly or through the `proxyUrl` endpoint.

[bumblefudge]

I don’t remember saying that. I was saying that linking to original presentations might be a useful fallback when a client is displaying content it has reason to doubt its own capabilities to present loyally or fully, just as linking to different servers offers a useful fallback when replies are incompletely federated.

[mario1]

@julian

promote the “Open Original Page” button

This will only work for as:public

[pfefferle1]

@julian I totally agree with @renchap that it is important to keep the user on the platform of his/her choice! I like the idea of having a better "read more" UX or maybe the lightbox idea.

But to have the best possible experience and to improve the engagement, you should not force the user to leave the platform.

Otherwise it feels very much like subscribing to an RSS-Feed with only excerpts, where you always have to leave the reader for reading the whole text!

[pfefferle1]

@julian I totally agree with @renchap that it is important to keep the user on the platform of his/her choice! I like the idea of having a better "read more" UX or maybe the lightbox idea.

But to have the best possible experience and to improve the engagement, you should not force the user to leave the platform.

Otherwise it feels very much like subscribing to an RSS-Feed with only excerpts, where you always have to leave the reader for reading the whole text!

[tennoseremel]

@julian // There is no target="_top", only target="_blank". Well, you can use _top, but it is just a normal name and any new link opened will replace a page previously opened, which will likely be not what a user wanted.