Had several questions about how the main "Home" feed works on Mastodon.
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It is very useful.
@SuperMoosie
Do you know if "following" more than 2 or 3 hashtags works properly? When I used Tusky, there was a limit (I guess it was some kind of bug). Now I'm using Pachli, that also offers this feature. I'll test if it has improved. Currently I only have two hashtags (the most active ones) on that tab to avoid missing posts. The rest of them which I'm interest in, I just follow them.
@FediTips -
@SuperMoosie
Do you know if "following" more than 2 or 3 hashtags works properly? When I used Tusky, there was a limit (I guess it was some kind of bug). Now I'm using Pachli, that also offers this feature. I'll test if it has improved. Currently I only have two hashtags (the most active ones) on that tab to avoid missing posts. The rest of them which I'm interest in, I just follow them.
@FediTips -
@SuperMoosie
Great to know, thanks!
@FediTips -
@SuperMoosie
Great to know, thanks!
@FediTips@SuperMoosie
On #Pachli the limit is four. The fifth and the following hashtags are not shown.Could it be a server limit perhaps?
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@SuperMoosie
On #Pachli the limit is four. The fifth and the following hashtags are not shown.Could it be a server limit perhaps?
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That sounds like it's possibly not actually a feature of the apps themselves, but the hashtag column feature of Mastodon's advanced web mode? These apps might be presenting it in a different way but using the same underlying feature.
If you log into your server's website and set it to advanced web mode, you will be able to "pin" up to four hashtags into a single column. More info at https://fedi.tips/how-to-activate-mastodons-tweetdeck-style-advanced-web-interface/
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That sounds like it's possibly not actually a feature of the apps themselves, but the hashtag column feature of Mastodon's advanced web mode? These apps might be presenting it in a different way but using the same underlying feature.
If you log into your server's website and set it to advanced web mode, you will be able to "pin" up to four hashtags into a single column. More info at https://fedi.tips/how-to-activate-mastodons-tweetdeck-style-advanced-web-interface/
Most likely.
I can have multiple hashtag columns/tabs.So will just limit to 4 and put extra on a new tabs.
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@FediTips, that seems to be what's behind this feature indeed. Thanks for pointing that out! Never liked the advanced view of the web app, but I'll check this out and give it another try.
@SuperMoosie, never thought of adding other hashtag tabs into Pachli; that's quite interesting! Trying it out
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Had several questions about how the main "Home" feed works on Mastodon. Here's what it shows:
1. All posts from all accounts you follow in chronological order, newest at top
2. All posts shared by accounts or groups you follow
3. Posts that use hashtags you follow in chronological order, newest at top...and that's it, there's nothing else on your Home feed. It doesn't push anything else at you, it doesn't hide anything from you unless you ask it to. No algorithms, no ads.
@FediTips Do you know if there is any place where it's shown (or at least stored/served in the API) in order of arrival, as opposed to chronological order of post/boost timestamps? Or will e.g. Mastodon's web UI always reorder posts to keep timestamps in order?
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@FediTips Do you know if there is any place where it's shown (or at least stored/served in the API) in order of arrival, as opposed to chronological order of post/boost timestamps? Or will e.g. Mastodon's web UI always reorder posts to keep timestamps in order?
They're usually delivered immediately so there wouldn't be much difference between arrival and chronological order?
The only time I've seen a difference is when a server is overwhelmed and doesn't have resources to deliver immediately, you may see its posts arriving with older timestamps at the top of your feed. But that's pretty rare.
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They're usually delivered immediately so there wouldn't be much difference between arrival and chronological order?
The only time I've seen a difference is when a server is overwhelmed and doesn't have resources to deliver immediately, you may see its posts arriving with older timestamps at the top of your feed. But that's pretty rare.
@FediTips Ah, I just did expect/assume out-of-order given the federated nature.
For bigger delays, yes, it can be in such situations (and that may have been the case several times with @njsg@social.sdf.org), but I'll make a note to double-check if there's any reordering or not in this (web) client, I just want to be sure I'm not missing anything if some interface shows it by timestamp order
(To further explain, personally I'd really prefer if Mastodon, instead of endless scroll, had a concept of read and unread posts (the two aren't directly related but probably came in hand in the UI design choices?). More like a netnews client, less like Twitter; in lieu of that, I just assume (as in hope) newly received posts go at the top.
But I guess we're still fighting the 500 char limit from upstream... (not an issue on this instance, thankfully!))
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@FediTips Ah, I just did expect/assume out-of-order given the federated nature.
For bigger delays, yes, it can be in such situations (and that may have been the case several times with @njsg@social.sdf.org), but I'll make a note to double-check if there's any reordering or not in this (web) client, I just want to be sure I'm not missing anything if some interface shows it by timestamp order
(To further explain, personally I'd really prefer if Mastodon, instead of endless scroll, had a concept of read and unread posts (the two aren't directly related but probably came in hand in the UI design choices?). More like a netnews client, less like Twitter; in lieu of that, I just assume (as in hope) newly received posts go at the top.
But I guess we're still fighting the 500 char limit from upstream... (not an issue on this instance, thankfully!))
I'm not sure if this is exactly what you're after, but you might want to try the Phanpy web client at https://phanpy.social
It took some of its inspiration from email.
Mastodon has an API open to anyone who wants to write an app, so there is a much greater variety of clients than Twitter etc.
