Tapbots, on their upcoming Mastodon app:
Ivory is currently in Early Access, which means there are features missing and we are actively building them while you get to use the app.
If you don’t like using software with missing features, we recommend you wait until we are out of Early Access and evaluate then. But you’ll be missing out on a lot of the fun!
They’ve also published a roadmap of what they’re working on or are planning to work.
➝ Source: tapbots.com
It’s from the makers of CleanShot and simply turns your menubar black to hide the notch on your MacBook. I had been using Boring Old Menu Bar for this, but TopNotch is free and the menu bar icon doesn’t just randomly disappear on me like Boring Old Menu bar’s did.
(Via Chai.)
➝ Source: topnotch.app
Tim Hardwick, writing for MacRumors:
In a change that is sure to draw the ire of some users, Twitter has removed the sparkle-shaped icon from the top-right of the app’s interface that let users switch between “For You” and “Latest” and replaced it with two tabs called “For You” and “Following.”
“For You” still shows users tweets from people they follow out of order, sprinkled with algorithmically suggested tweets from people they don’t, while “Following” shows tweets in pure reverse chronological order.
While the change technically makes it easier to switch timelines – users can now just swipe between them instead of tapping the star icon – users on iOS will now always see the algorithmic “For You” tab when opening the app, whether they want to or not.
I completely understand why Twitter wants you to use the algorithmic feed, but they should always give you an option to show a reverse chronological feed by default.
➝ Source: macrumors.com
Alex Gleason:
When starting a brand-new server, the best approach is to follow _one person._One active user on a different server who you want to see; that’s all it takes. […]
If you’re feeling adventurous, you can follow two or three people!
The way your network grows is through follows and reposts. Your Fediverse feed is the collection of all users people on your server follow, and all the content they’ve reposted.
This is efficient. It contains only the posts you and your users want to see. It’s cost-effective, user-friendly, but it takes time. Like planting a seed, you have to give it the right environment and wait.
This is how I built out my follows after setting up a Mastodon instance in summer 2021. It takes patience, but it’s worth it.
I would also recommend routinely checking your server’s Profile Directory page and Explore tab — I do this about once each month. Unfollow some people that are no longer posting or that aren’t quite as interesting as you initially expected and follow some new people.
Over time you’ll craft an excellent home timeline and you’ll have more opportunities to discover even more new users through your new follows’ boosts.
➝ Source: soapbox.pub
It’s not easy to find all of the Twitter threads associated with these releases. And even when you do, they’re not particularly enjoyable to read on Twitter — broken up into tweet-length messages like they are. This is much nicer.
(Via Michael Tsai.)
➝ Source: twitterfiles.co
Shihab Mehboob:
We’re continuing to refine our vision for the app. We are building a beautiful Mastodon app for the iPhone, iPad and Mac, and making it easier for new users to onboard onto the Fediverse & Mastodon. The power of Mastodon, its federated architecture, is also the most confusing aspect for newcomers: “Where do I start?” To help solve this problem, we are building Moth.social, our server. Mammoth will continue to fully and enthusiastically support all Mastodon servers (minus the icky ones), and you’ll continue to be able to use it to connect with your favorite server. But for new users, we are integrating an easy use Create An Account feature that is connected to Moth.social. We have the 0.1 build of our server ready. Today we’ll be signing up the first 100 users on our server. Head on over to Moth.social if you enjoy living on the bleeding edge, warts and all!
Managing a public instances is tough work, but this does solve the commonly voiced problem that newcomers don’t know where to start. I wouldn’t be surprised if other Mastodon app developers follow suit.
➝ Source: getmammoth.app
From the website:
This tool allows you to expand your connection graph and find new people to follow. It works by looking up your “follows’ follows”
This is a neat tool. It seems to only show accounts that are followed by at least five people you’re following, but that’s plenty as far as I’m concerned.
➝ Source: followgraph.vercel.app
Chris Coyier:
I wonder if the term “blog” has too much baggage. Too much history for it to really catch on again and make a dent.
Maybe “publish your own feed” is a better framing. “Own your RSS.” A feed doesn’t care what it contains. It is content-style agnostic. It’s just timestamped HTML, in a way. Put some audio in it, and it’s a podcast. A feed could be exactly what you would have tweeted before tweeting became cringe.
I like the terms “weblog”, “web publishing”, and “online publishing”.
➝ Source: chriscoyier.net
