In the lovely Pinafore client.

As a laptop user primarily, it's been an uphill battle getting good clients for #fediverse which recognize and respect the fact we have lots of pixels.

Responsive Design is great – I have started learning and practising it, understand the logic. Good stuff.

But, honestly – the internet has too much to offer for real work to be performed in a mobile device. Content creation, we need better software that allows us to use what's in our chosen platform.

Case in point, Wide Screen Displays.

Which I have made various attempts at getting improvements for. The default Mastodon web client is not very friendly to wide screens. Yes, there's the TweetDeck like AWI, and I have written and spoken to Eugen with some requests.

Here's the Mastodon web client, with the Advanced Web Interface (AWI) enabled. It defaults to those dreadful, skinny, non-resizeable columns. TweetDeck inspired, as Eugen was a Twitter user for many years and freely admits the AWI provenance. 😉

A proposal, presented.

Eugen and I chatted in a topic I started at his own instance. He couldn't understand my wish of having TWO wide panels in the AWI setting, yet those two using the full width of my screen.

Not much success there. 🙄😕

Then, a solution was found. Until, it broke.

Independently, I found a great way to use wide screens with the Collapsed Mastodon Firefox add-on. Worked wonderfully, and was so productive for me that I left aside #Pinafore, my client of choice – other than the small question of it using a single column content panel.

Here's what it looked like :

Shown above – Todon.nl's local timeline, via Mastodon web client. Browsed via Waterfox (Firefox family variant) with Collapsed Mastodon Firefox addon enabled. Two Wide panels chosen, other layouts possible, as desired. This is very unique and the most efficient workspace for Fediverse I ever had.

Writer's delight

That layout is perfect for someone reading and writing long form content, which is my case. It was possible, with Collapsed Mastodon, but changes in mastodon code starting at v.3.1.4 broke the add-on. What it did was no longer possible, so game over there.

Since AWI was no more...

...I now had no reason not to use the superior, fast, elegant Pinafore. Other than the OMG, so much screen area not being used, it's the very best client I know for the Fediverse instances. Mastodon and Pleroma are both supported.

There's the small question of maybe using a little MORE of my screen, though.

(centered on the screen. On my 1600 pixels wide display, that is using 600 pixels, about 40% of my screen's width. Only. Arghhhhh)

@nolan@toot.cafe is a talented programmer, and gracious in listening to the Pinafore users. He accommodated many requests to make Pinafore the best client for people using Screen Readers, for example.

Widen up the content panel?

Now, I am tinkering and trying things out. Posted some screenshots yesterday here, with a comparison – the current layout, and a tweaked, wider content panel, showing 800 pixels screen width.

Wowa! Much more information now. 50% of my screen in use!

This 800 pixels content panel was done by a on the fly css edit, manual. (I scrolled around in the css code until found the right property to change. Worked!!)

Sadly, hitting a Refresh wiped out my handy work. Oh, my.

Is it too wide? Maybe, it's a question of taste; it makes sense to me.

Twitter supports wide screens better

For comparison's purpose, I did some testing, and on the Twitter web client I was able to get this :

Screenshot above shows what their client can do, off the box, just by manipulating the provided controls. Screen scaling to 125%, and the font size reduced to the smaller setting. Snapshot taken in the Bravo browser.

Result? The central Content panel is shown here – at 750 pixels width.

Twitter does use the right side area for various boxes, like the Trending and Who to Follow shown. So it's not unreasonable that it has the width shown.

(Detail – my scaling up the whole screen in the browser was intended to collapse the labels for the icons in the left panel; which are superfluous for regular users, who know what they do)

Pinafore Responsive Layouts

Shows 3 classes of devices, see screenshot above.

• Mobile ( 320x480p) portrait/landscape
• Small Tablet (600x800p) 2 modes also
• Tablet (768x1024p) standard iPad res, 2 modes also

If we could get a couple of added new classes it would be wonderful. Could we, please ??

Desired new modes :

• Laptop with MDPI screen at 1280 x 800 p.
• Laptop with HiDPI screen at 1440 x 900 p.

With these two added, I would be able to see Pinafore in all its elegance and using my screen more efficiently.

I have spoken extensively with @lanodan@queer.hacktivis.me about getting this kind of support in place for #pleroma #mastoFE. He understands, and is working on it; being the only person maintaining that branch of Pleroma's FE project isn't easy, kudos to him.

Now, maybe Nolan could accept this request ? It would be wonderful.

Maximum Characters per line?

As Lanodan pointed out on a reply to the original Toot which is now this post, there are criteria for how many characters to display, per line.

We got to consider that too.

There is a time tested optimum width for text readability. The Write.freely blogs css code shows 50 em setting, for example.

I have been customizing my own blog, will try at up to 80 em like you suggested. That applies to a new wider Pinafore class of devices too — appreciate the insight!

Famous Last Words

Thank you all for the work you do in benefit of the many fediverse users.

#FediReporter on the crusade for better wide screen devices support.

(Uphill battle, but we shall persevere) #mastodev #UI #UX

Banner Photo by Alejandro Escamilla on Unsplash – Thank you!

@rgx@write.tedomum.net

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R.G. @rgx@muensterland.social Top ▲

A Powerful and Light, FAST client for Mastodon, etc...

Originally posted as a sequence of Toots from my account at Koyu.Space, this was well received, appreciated by the Pinafore client's Author and I think is quite informative.

There's a lack of good reporting and documentation on many projects in the Fediverse.

But Pinafore is beloved of its users – see screenshot above, from the #Pinafore fediverse hashtag. And some others below too. 👍🙂❤

From Toot sequence to Blog page...

I wrote the Toots un-edited, from the hip, and the sequence came out pretty good.

Now it's time to collate them and add some polish, some extra reference links, to make a shiny Blog post. And here it is.

Explainer – the 'Nomad Living' mention refers to my love of seeing the many instances in the Fediverse first hand, by myself, to learn about each and see their Local timelines.

The Instance we Choose to use in the Fediverse is Important — I have written about that in a popular post in my Tech blog.

The sequence follows, lightly edited for style and for in-line images placement. I have also expanded some sub-topics and added extra links.

Pinafore makes Nomad Living a joy

Adding one more to the list. 17 in it, CDrom.Tokyo joins at no. 18 spot. 😎

Many thanks to @nolan@toot.cafe">@nolan for the wonderful #fediverse #client that #Pinafore is.

The BEST, ask your geeky friends.

Speed, lightness. Functional and elegant Design. Free, not in your face design impositions.

No freaking character limits, Pinafore allows use of whatever your instance allows.

AND — it also accepts MarkDown posts, which are joy for me as a writer and content producer.

Same client, visits mastodon, or Glitch-Social, or Pleroma, or Misskey instances. All without leaving the same screen.

Power user?

For those with accounts in multiple instances – You can run multiple Pinafore copies -side by side in the same browser window, each tab a different instance.

Won't I get confused or lost, where am I?

No, no fret — Pinafore allows a big range of Themes, pre configured Colour Schemes so you can keep track of where you are, even in multi tabbed, multi instance moments.

Quick snapshot of the Colour Theme selection panel here, for illustration.

See this post with a full Gallery of #Pinafore Themes :

Pinafore client – A sampler of all the Colour Themes available

...at the little known Pinafore subforum at another instance.

#Recommended #Client — #Fediverse #nomad Friendly.

#FediReporter on the Beat. Frontline reports return...

And to find out more about #Pinafore ?

Visit the Author's blog post, written after one year working in the project.

One year of Pinafore

Read the Tea Leaves

Or, Ask me!

I love it, and be glad to oblige and answer questions. Reach me at my Writer's Lounge.

Also, check out the glowing user commentary — see : Pinafore Love – User’s Impressions from the Hash Tag

How To install Pinafore ?

Simple, visit Pinafore · Home — which is one of the various possible web hosts for Pina.

( More instances are also available, listed here for us geeks : Listing of Known Pinafore Instances you can connect to.

We really don't install Pinafore — you simply open the Pinafore instance in a Browser tab, and from that moment on, your client loads and communicates directly with the Mastodon (or Glitch-Social, or Pleroma) instance.

Client Side Data – session authorization, themes, etc...

No data is saved at the Pinafore home instance – it is all on the client side. Awesome, isn't it?

If you change to a different browser, even in the same machine, the logged-in instances list and your colour theme selections are not there yet. The price of keeping your data private. So, stick with a good browser and enjoy it.

Pinafore can also be run on mobile devices – simply open the site in your favourite Browser in the mobile. Save a bookmark and enjoy it.

It was tested and built from the ground up to perform well even in less powerful devices. In a good laptop or desktop, it flies.

This post brought to you by the letters MD, P and K.

Even Eugen R. recommended it! 😉😙

See screen capture below – from this Toot.

For those who might not know him, Eugen Rochko is the lead Developer in the Mastodon project. And that endorsement is important.

@rgx@write.tedomum.net

This page created entirely in MarkDown language. Thank you for reading, feel free to comment about this post – reach me at my Writer's Lounge.

R.G. @rgx@muensterland.social ^—top of page

That is a Good Question. Here's why.

A collage of recent posts on important issues we face in the Fediverse. And which we hopefully can move forward on.

Originally In response to a post by Snow

Why you chose Glitch social? It still can be affected by Eugen.

Indeed — Glitch-Social is a Much Better mastodon, but still has the heavy load of all the mastocode under the hood.

I would prefer to use Pleroma, BUT...

... There are some UGLY markdown rendering issues, and I cannot live with that.

From my Pleroma GitHub Issue post, a partial quote:

I have noticed that posts with H2 heading titles, created and displayed perfectly on a Glitch-Social instance, display without the Larger text expected for the title in Pleroma FE.

While it's possible that this is intentional, a fellow user suggested an issue be raised here, for discussion and in case this is not intended behaviour.

Example post : Marilyn. Always remembered.

Which display so in Pinafore client (logged at the source, a Glitch-Social instance, here using the Dark Greyscale theme) :

Made a big post yesterday about it and included Lain on it – hoping he would push the Pleroma FE people to fix that.

They also would need to improve the MastoFE

...under Pleroma a bit – it's the GlitchSocial web client, and very decent for me, as I am more used to this side of fedi.

PleromaFE is intriguing, but a SINGLE column to display info is so Wrong, for me — Wide Screen displays in PCs and Laptops deserve better.

And here's what I mean, better

The screenshot above is from Todon.nl — and that is running plain Vanilla Mastodon. (click image for full size version)

They just happened to have a better awi Wide Screen Theme, and without any extra software, I could get and use the work environment you see here, above.

And it can still get improved

As shown here, in another screenshot. From Todon.nl as well.

But now using a Firefox browser add-on, called 'Collapsed Mastodon'. (click image for full size version)

For me, this was the Dream Team, the best work environment for someone who likes to read and writes long form — which I do.

Sadly, changes in the Mastodon code since version 3.1.4 have disabled the styling which Collapsed Mastodon did.

It could be possible to do the same in the project's own Web Client code itself. If there's interest by the developers, which is the main obstacle to get anything done. (the user add-on, sadly no longer working. )

An ongoing battle for improvement

That's another one of my pet peeves – and one I am also working on. Hard to get changes made, I have reported things and offered suggestions.

Eugen R. doesn't even respond to me anymore. 🙄

(he thinks the skinny, narrow and ADHD inducing 4 panels awi is the shits, apparently.)

And he's not the only one...

My Suggestion for AWI enhancements on the Glitch-Social GitHub was posted 6 months ago. NO replies or comments. 🤨

My bug report at the PleromaFE Git hub was also posted a few months ago.

Issue 878 – MarkDown – Heading formatted text not displaying properly

No comments there at all. 🤔😐

Detailed explanation of the Wide Screen improvement

I have a fully explained and detailed Forum post about the proposal also. Please visit and check it out. It's publicly readable, and if you want to comment, a free registration only takes a minute.

Pleroma is the Future, but we need to fix some issues. Thank you!

#MastoFE #PleromaFE #PleromaDev #Pleroma #UI #ux

#FediReporter in action. We can do better, Fediverse.

@rgx@write.tedomum.net

This page created entirely in MarkDown language. Thank you for reading, feel free to comment about this post – reach me at my Writer's Lounge.

R.G. @rgx@muensterland.social ^—top of page

Verdana Pro — why use 'Arial'

...when something much nicer is freely available?

Verdana is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by Matthew Carter for Microsoft Corporation. This typeface was originally release with Windows 98 as part of our vision to significantly improve on screen reading time. Verdana Pro adds light, semibold and black styles with italics, as well as condensed styles with italics across all weights.

-source: Microsoft

Why is Verdana better for screen reading?

Bearing similarities to humanist sans-serif typefaces such as Frutiger, Verdana was designed to be readable at small sizes on the low-resolution computer screens of the period.

• Like many designs of this type, Verdana has a large x-height (tall lower-case characters), with wider proportions and looser letter-spacing than on print-orientated designs like Helvetica.
• The counters and apertures are wide, to keep strokes clearly separate from one another, and similarly-shaped letters are designed to appear clearly different to increase legibility for body text.
• The bold weight is thicker than would be normal with fonts for print use, suiting the limitations of onscreen display.

-source: Wikipedia

20 different styles on the Windows Store download pack, Free. Verdana and Georgia were specially developed for on-screen reading.

Verdana typeface info, Wikipedia

And it's a FREE Download from :

• Microsoft directly
• or Online Web Fonts

Georgia is also a better on-screen font

...designed to replace a serif font like Times New Roman.

Georgia is a serif typeface designed by Matthew Carter for Microsoft Corporation in the mid-1990s. This typeface was designed as a serif companion to the Verdana font family with a goal to appear elegant but legible on low-resolution screens as well as when printed at small sizes.

-source: Microsoft

Georgia was intended as a serif typeface that would appear elegant but legible when printed small or on low-resolution screens. The typeface is inspired by Scotch Roman designs of the 19th century.

As a transitional serif design, Georgia shows a number of traditional features of “rational” serif typefaces from around the early 19th century, such as alternating thick and thin strokes, ball terminals and a vertical axis.

Closer inspection shows how Georgia was designed for clarity on a computer monitor even at small sizes. It features:

• a large x-height (tall lower-case letters);
• its thin strokes are thicker than would be common on a typeface designed for display use or the greater sharpness possible in print.
• Its reduced contrast and thickened serifs make it somewhat resemble Clarendon designs from the 19th century.

-source: Wikipedia

Also a FREE Download from :

• Microsoft directly
• or Online Web Fonts

Improve your on-screen Browser reading

...by selecting custom fonts which were developed for this exact task. Professional work, skilled designers. All for no cost and a minimal effort.

Install the better fonts (if not in your system yet) and :

• Go into your web browser's 'Settings' (or 'Options') panel.
• Locate the 'Fonts' control. Screenshot shows Firefox's :

• Select the 'Advanced' button to access all the font options.
• For Serif – replace 'Times New Roman' with much smoother 'Georgia'. ✔
• For Sans – replace 'Arial' or 'Sans' with 'Verdana Pro'. ✔

Press the 'Ok' button to save our selections. And voilá. Enjoy. Repeat this customization for other systems you use regularly as well. 😉👍

#FediReporter tips for better web reading experience #rgxJournal #Typefaces #Design are important

@rgx@write.tedomum.net

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R.G. @rgx@muensterland.social ^—top of page

It has been a while

...since you heard from me; the blog, the FediReporter tag, the Toots which came from the various instances I have accounts and a presence on.

Including the link above just reminds me it would be good to revisit and write a new page; as things change, and that page was popular. We could benefit from personal views from others.

But as you will see below, I am glad to be writing, and slowly getting more active here once again. Still quite annoyed by non-sense like cryptic one liner posts, or people who see no problem posting arms and dead animals in the open timelines, no content warnings from them. Or carrying flags that for me don't make sense.

There are many places

And we can find better fitting communities. Just look around, read, ask people — and try, create an account and observe the place yourself (no better evaluation, if you are attentive).

This post started as a Toot at my new home instance, and evolved so soon I copied the text over and edited with added links which were relevant. Take them as bookmarks, they are mostly full blog posts and each is intended to be read and considered; no binge-ing, keep a bookmark and return later.

From this intro, not included in the live Toot, we move on to it's full content, below. Hope you enjoy reading it, thank you.

Sometimes, Quieter is Better

In an earlier conversation with our local system admin, Niklas @nipos , he wrote :

You're right that our instance is too quiet in the local timeline.In fact,all of my instances are so I will be rolling out this feature to all instances this evening.

I responded right away with a Thank you for the acceptance of my suggestion, much appreciated.

Now I would like to go back and send a note to all my friends, here in fediverse, an update of sorts.

Sorry that I have been mostly quiet – in fact not logging in to Fediverse much at all for the past 4 months or so.

Why is that?

I got involved in a forum community, supporting an applications which I really like, and that has taken a lot of my attention and time. Long letters to friends all over the world also take effort, time and dedication, but are very enjoyable.

I am fortunate to have their letters coming, and that they enjoy my usually long replies. I have published some, as the quality of Writing we see really makes me feel more readers should see them. Of course, I restrain to only posting my own writing, and I edit personal information, anonymize my friend's real ID so they are not exposed.

Things come and go in phases, and I have been very happy to be in a productive, creative phase once again. As before, I will try to do as much as I can, and put down in writing the ideas and projects that inspire me. A fun journey, it is.

Muensterland.social IS my main account

...and has been for months now. I am more well know in fedi circles from another account, at a larger instance, where I was an active and friendly moderator and above all, more importantly, Content Producer.

Due to my annoyance of the damage to visibility of my personal work as a result of FediBlock non-sense, I searched for a new home for my Publishing work.

And I found it, and it worked well, no block stopping my work from being seen or replied to, like happens in some places. (I wrote about that in a blog, or two, more than twice in fact).

My Writing is the most important contribution

...that I can bring to this interesting place. I have been involved in computer networks for many years, starting from before Internet access was a consumer commodity like it later became.

I wrote memoirs and dialogues I had here with some other old-timers, and greatly enjoyed that. The pages were well received and informed a newer generation on how things were in the past.

Turns out they were quite similar!

Happy here, thank you Niklas!

I don't think users show appreciation for the effort, work, time and talent people put into making those instances and services available for anyone. No corporate backing, no advertising revenue, no personal data harvesting and brokering for profit.

This instance is quite special for me. It's like my very own, personal instance, with the advantage that I enjoy it running on beautiful hardware, and with professional management. From my first post about Muensterland :

Muensterland.social runs on a HP ProLiant DL380 G6 server with two Intel Xeon Quad Core CPUs,32GB memory and 4x72GB RAID5 HDDs so there is still much space for new users.

For a geek like me, the server description was saliva inducing. OMG. I want in, thank you!

And a location in the European Union, which for me is essential for personal privacy and comfort. Wrote a Blog page about how I had just discovered Muensterland.social, and it had 820 page views in the 5 months since publication. This for a small, Tech and Fedi focused blog like mine, is significant.

This is soon to be in a Blog page...

...as what started as a Toot, due to it being written in a superior Platform (Glitch-Social), in an instance allowing MarkDown rich text format and perfectly presenting it; turns out I soon saw I should take it to my normal text editor, and add links to relevant post as well. Which is done and will be in the completed Toot when sent, soon.

A copy will be saved here, and that will receive the full love of a Blog post, which for me is my ultimate Content Production experience. I aim for a Magazine style and quality, and am happy that my work has the shine and information like one of the professional ones.

I enjoy this journey as a Citizen Journalist, and this post marks a return to my active #FediReporter tag and work.

Thank you again, Niklas, for the great service. Glad my Nomad heart brought me to a better caravanserai.

Sincerely,

rgx@muensterland.social

#Fediverse #Glitch #Glitchsocial #markdown love #nomad

Banner image is a photo by Dzmitry Dudov (Dead_Angel) on Unsplash

Follow Blog via your Fediverse/Mastodon account :

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R.G. @rgx@muensterland.social ^—top of page

“Take your information and do what you want with it.”

That suggestive text sounds like Freedom of movement is granted and important, doesn't it? That is directly copied from Documents at JoinMastodon.org.

The truth is less rosy though. There are easy and reliable ways to :

• Export the list of people you Follow.
• Export lists of people you Mute (hiding their posts from your view)
• Export lists of people and instances you Blocked (barring their content reaching you).

This is done by creating small text files, with the '.csv' (comma-separated values) extensions. In some cases you might not have any data in one or more of them (zero Blocked Domains, or blocked instances, for example). In those cases, exporting the data is NOT needed, as it would be a Blank, empty file.

At any time you want, you can go to Settings > Export and download a CSV file for your current followed accounts, your currently created lists, your currently blocked accounts, your currently muted accounts, and your currently blocked domains.

Backups are important :

Creating these files regularly gives you a personal backup — if the instance you are using disappears suddenly (which DOES happen), having the files means you recover much easier that starting from scratch.

So, consider creating these, and update them once a month or so!

Once you have the files, what can be done ? At any other Mastodon, Pleroma, Glitch-Social instance, the files can be easily Imported :

Your following, blocking, muting, and domain-blocking lists can be imported at Settings > Import, where they can either be merged or overwritten.

Clarifying Words is important, as they have very different results :

• Merging the backup files means any new data in them is ADDED to the existing lists (Following, Muted, etc.)
• Overwriting means existing data is LOST — and likely not what you are aiming for. So select carefully.

Importing works well, and the .csv files are a big help in restoring some of your normal work environment in a new account.

These Export options DO NOT offer you a copy of your Followers list.

Facebook Does It !

Facebook HAS a new tool that allows an Export of an user's photos and videos — and it works wonderfully in my experience.

• all photos were exported successfully.
• it does NOT require any user effort (try downloading, 100 albums or more!)
• Albums are created in the new destination (for the moment, supports exporting to Google Photos, only; others expected soon)
• Albums have the same names as the originals, with the addition of “Copy of [user's original title]”

And even each photo goes with the poster's comment attached to it.

Completely automated, reliable, full featured. I am impressed, kudos to Facebook for this.

#FediReporter thinks it's time we got something BETTER here too ?

Full details on Facebook Data Exporting in this Android Police post.

Mastodon Account — Personal Data Archive

Don't think there's much we can do, sadly. Just searched and there's a good page but the news are NOT good.

You CAN request a zipped archive, of all your posts, images included. But :

Mastodon currently does not support importing toots or media due to technical limitations, but your archive can be viewed by any software that understands how to parse ActivityPub documents.

“Any Software” capable of handling that, even in a personal, offline, non-federated way — I haven't seen any yet. If you know, let me know, thank you.

Sadly needed, at least for personal references!

Asked in Fediverse for “Any Software” :

To complement this article, I decided to post a question to some admin friends — to see if anyone knew of a possible tool to view a user's personal backup archive.

Some responses came back, negative. Then one, by fluffy, offered a possibility :

you can use JSON.awk

Sadly, this is a command line, Unix / Linux tool; and I wonder how useful it could be with a large archive. We need a Graphical User Interface, a GUI tool, for productivity.

Maique suggested contacting Eugen R, the lead Mastodon developer, and sent a Toot. I joined in as well.

Fingers crossed, hopefully the idea will germinate and some usable solution might appear.

Moving House — Your Options, not great.

There are a couple of choices, and they are well explained in this page — but beware that both will cripple the existing account's posting ability.

So, READ the fine print, understand it, and DECIDE if this is a good option, or not.

The alternative is to leave the old account and simply communicate to your followers that you are relocating.

Mastodon Moving Options – Choice 1 :

Redirect your Profile.

Redirecting your account disables posting from that account and displays a “profile moved” notice indicating your new account. Anyone viewing your profile can see this notice and will know to follow you at your new account. Following redirected accounts is not possible. The redirect can be cancelled at any time.

My take on this ?

• it's a reversible option, can be cancelled if desired.
• You can cancel and resume posting to the account after that.
• Not harmful to your data, which stays there.
• Not very Useful either; as it's simply a Notice, posted in the old profile.

You might do better by contacting people yourself, with a nicely made post — and sent with “Followers Only” privacy setting.

Choice 2 :

Move your Profile

Moving your account is the same as redirecting your account, but it will also irreversibly force everyone to un-follow your current account and follow your new account, if their software supports the Move activity. Your toots will not be moved, due to technical limitations. There is also a very heavy cool-down period in which you cannot migrate again, so be very careful before using this option!

My take on this ?

• This is effective, will switch Followers to the new account automatically.
• But it's also a 'Goodbye Johnny' to the older account, you get locked out of it.
• This is pretty much a 'Sayonara option', you don't plan to use the older account anymore.

...most of those points are not great from my user's perspective.

But there are those two official and documented options.

Plus the common practices of people, sending mass DMs being one of them (there seems to be some software allowing that; DMs are sent to followers, one copy per person, nobody sees the full mail list).

Aliases are Needed :

Profile moves can only be initiated when your two accounts have been aliased. Account aliases are currently not used for anything other than profile moves, where you will need to set your old account as an alias of your new account before initiating the move. Setting aliases is harmless and reversible on its own.

This is a necessary step, and it's not damaging at all, reversible.

#FediReporter on options for consideration when you plan to re-settle.

#rgxJournal for reference #NewUsers #Tips #Mastodon

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R.G. @rgx@muensterland.social ^—top of page

Intro

To love is sometimes to let go, respect someone's need to be out and observe, marvel at so much the world has to offer. Sometimes people have a hard time accepting that, while part of a community, or in a closer relationship with someone, all humans have curiosity and it's rich to see and let it blossom.

I offer this post to my friend Coralie, we met very recently, and yet she has such a sensibility, that it saw deeply into my heart and soul.

Yesterday she surprised me, messaging privately and offering a comment that delighted me — that she could perceive my inner nature so clearly. <!—more—>

It closely related to the theme of this page. A toot, written from the hip, not polished or edited but coming from inside, prose flowing. A response to the local system administrator, which sometimes shows concern about my wanderings all over the Fediverse.

This morning, she favourited and boosted it – which brought it into my notifications and a re-read confirms it's poetic, and should be published. To Coralie, I offer this.

Thanks dear friend.

“One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes.” — Antoine de Saint Exupery

And so I wrote.

Well done, very good.

And excellent work on implementing that feature, new in non-Japanese instances (in Nippon they created that for Misskey).

I was honoured that you pursued this feature to serve my own nomad lifestyle, lol, but I need the real thing, to join and post as a Local in any instance I am interested it is my modus-operandi.

Thanks to the power and flexibility of the great Pinafore client for Fediverse, each of my current 11 or so instances are ONE click away; I do keep various tabs of Pinafore open, with the most frequently used instances loaded in each.

As I have stated and explained before, this is a personal choice, for a inquiring mind and mid to advanced level users. Not for the average user, who is better served by locating one good instance and staying with it.

Qoto.org has many good things, and that is the reason I volunteer and put many hours and thousands of posts here.

But that's only one side of me; and I have interests that make having various accounts desirable; and I act on them, as you know.

This morning I am connected and actively communicating from 3 instances atm; each with a focus and local feature set that makes it interesting and useful.

But the feature you are referring to, and which got endorsed by a well created poll, is not an important one for me (reasons stated above).

Getting a better software instance is Number one — I am moving to Glitch-Social instances as much as possible. Pleroma awaits a thorough evaluation, which I plan to publish in my Blog.

Enhanced text formatting is so satisfying that I dread anytime I post something significant — like this very post, which I will use as part of a Blog, real soon — in an instance which doesn't offer me that.

I remain a user here, but Nomad is my heart.

Muensterland.Social – a new Instance joined

#FediReporter #WriteFreely #Nomad #Culture #Instances #QotoJournal #KoyuJournal

in response to a system admin post.

Follow Blog via your Fediverse/Mastodon account :

@rgx@write.tedomum.net

This page created entirely in MarkDown language. Thank you for reading, feel free to comment about this post – reach me at my Writer's Lounge.

R.G. @rgx@muensterland.social ^—top of page

Pleroma, have you met ?

I have a lot of curiosity for the different places and software we encounter on the Fediverse, if we are open minded and like to travel and see places.

I love Travel in the physical world, and similarly, am enchanted by travel in cyberspace, through the many corners and alleys, express lanes and boulevards, parks, of the Fediverse.

There are some ugly areas, which I carefully investigated, months ago; a quick look from the shadows, incognito, and it was clear it wasn't a good place, so I left never to return.

Now some of those corners are changing, still there but moved to new communication protocols — we don't see their posts anymore.

Mastodon is not all there is, not even close. It is the largest part of the Fediverse, in terms of instances (servers) and registered users.

But there's more and that is a good thing. <!—more—>

The Alternatives :

I have written recently on my blog about the Glitch-Social instances — which are a Fork, a split from the Mastodon project; a team of people who worked in the main project and for various reasons decided to leave, and start their own development team.

I have had an account in a Glitch-Soc instance for maybe 6 months now, and enjoyed it. Recently I wrote a full blog page with lots of detains on my search for a new, alternative account for my Blog Publishing – detailed here.

Besides having experienced Glitch-Soc, I also had looked at and registered an account in a Pleroma instance — the one with the memorable name of Expired Mentality, R.I.P., created and maintained by my friend @a1batross.

As part of my explorations, I already posted in toots about both of those alternatives, and elaborated more on the Glitch-Social one with this recent page.

Time to look and see more of Pleroma, so I went and tried some things out, configured a comfortable user space, and started taking screenshots.

I will be going deeper into it, there are many enhancements in Pleroma that need a good reportage, detailing and explaining them.

This is a first part, looking at the general user interface and experience.

Why look for a change?

I am really committed to leaving Mastodon behind and moving to better platforms.

GlitchSocial is one, Pleroma is another, I have accounts in BOTH types of instances, and love their added features, design improvements, and many, many new things.

The Pleroma FE (front end, or user interface — Intro Guide here) is a bit unusual for a mastodon user – but it has a second choice of Client; many pleroma instances have the GlitchSocial Web client as an option, sometimes as a link in their Front pages even.

For those of us who like to Read The Friendly Manual, there's a detailed Pleroma FE Guide here.

These notes now appear in a polished Web Magazine here. I developed various pages as extensions of toots and conversations had in various instances; one of the reasons I love having various accounts and always looking for interesting ones to try. #FediReporter I am...

The Basics :

What is Pleroma ?

Pleroma is a federated social networking platform, compatible with GNU social, Mastodon and other OStatus and ActivityPub implementations. It is free software licensed under the AGPLv3. It actually consists of two components: a backend, named simply Pleroma, and a user-facing frontend, named Pleroma-FE. It also includes the Mastodon frontend, or Mastodon-FE, if if you prefer a more familiar interface.

How can I use it ?

Pleroma instances are already widely available — a list of current instances can be found here. Information on all existing fediverse instances can be found at Fediverse.Network.

Got an account. Now what ?

Great! Now you can explore the fediverse! Open the login page for your Pleroma instance (e.g. https://expired.mentality.rip/ , let's use EMR for short) and login with your username and password. (If you don't have an account yet, click on Register)

The Looks :

Pleroma instances at first glance seem very open, and look different. You can observe a stream of posts, in the Pleroma FE default interface, even before you sign up or login to an account. (Mastodon doesn't offer that, usually).

Here's a screenshot of EMR when you first open the site:

The visual is the Pleroma Front End, with wallpaper and colours as selected by the local admin. (click on image for a larger version)

The screen shown is from my laptop's wide screen display, this image was 1600 x 826 pixels (widthxheight). To fit in the Blog better, I have resized it to 640 x 330 pixels.

Pleroma FE Basics :

It has one vertical Panel to display posts. What is shown in this panel can vary. It is selected from the menu items in the Left side controls :

• Timeline (or Home feed – people you Follow.)
• Interactions (or notifications)
• Direct Messages (as in mastodon)
• Public Timeline (the Local feed)
• Whole Known Network (or Federated feed)

At the Left side, there's a Toot Editor at the top, which includes some extra controls, since Pleroma offers additional options — things like Reactions (Likes, Loves, similar to FB)

While this is the default user interface, in this page there is a button to allow a connection to the instance's MastodonFE front end. This will usually be installed at the same URL as the instance address, with the added “/web” part.

So, for EMR, the URLs are :

• https://expired.mentality.rip/ — (for Pleroma FE)
• https://expired.mentality.rip/web — (for Mastodon FE)

The Mastodon FE experience :

Well, it looks quite familiar to a mastodon user — in fact it IS the Glitch-Social web client, which is similar to the mastodon web client most commonly used everywhere.

Snapshot, configured in Single Column display. (Click for larger image)

Advanced Web Interface :

It can also be configured in Advanced Web Interface or AWI mode, with multiple narrower columns, each loading a different feed. (but those are not a good experience for me, as they are too narrow for comfortable use)

Here's a view of an AWI desktop, configured with three display panels (Notifications, followed by the Toot editor column, then the Local feed and the Federated one.) (Click for larger image)

To allow displaying multiple columns, we switch Display Settings as shown :

Controlling the Panels in AWI mode :

To get a detailed guide on how to configure the Columns, move them around, etc, see my detailed Discourse Forum post — Setting up Advanced Web Interface.

And that's all for now. Thank you for reading!

Addendum — June 23, 2020 :

As requested by various readers, I prepared pages with Pleroma instance suggestions — including both how to find and evaluate one (part 1), and a selected list of Recommended sites (part 2). See them in these new pages :

• Pleroma – Finding the Good Instances, part 1. This page is rich in search and screening tips. A couple of instances are selected.

• Pleroma – Finding the Good Instances, part 2 This page provides direct recommendations, based on criteria that make them good places.

Follow Blog via your Fediverse/Mastodon account :

@rgx@write.tedomum.net

This page created entirely in MarkDown language. Thank you for reading, feel free to comment about this post – reach me at my Writer's Lounge.

R.G. @rgx@muensterland.social ^—top of page

Introducing a new and Friendly Instance :

I have been speaking with Tom, who is the admin at Kafuka.me, an interesting new instance.

Tom is running my current Favourite instance software — the Glitch-Social variant, an Elite and Avant-garde, enhanced Mastodon.

Quite recently I wrote a nice Blog page, describing not only How, but Why I have been searching for better instances. I am very happy with my new account at Muensterland.social.

Similarly to Munsterland.social, Kafuka.me is Small and a Labour of Love – with all the good that a dedicated administrator can bring into a focused effort project.

<!—more—>

Improvements — Larger Max Toot, Bio and Display Names :

Tom listened to my argument for Larger Maximum Toot Sizes — and upon consideration, agreed and implemented new ones at his instance.

That was very pleasant to me — in months on my Crusade for Bigger Toot Allowance, the battles are many, the victories, few. So thank you indeed.

They also have a nice Focus, as described in their About page

And curious Cats of course like to stray, and they came...

So Yann2 went looking. And reported to HQ :

Coming in, setting up house, looking good.

@realcaseyrollins says he liked it here too. Thank you for the service and all the work you put into it.

I was Really Impressed by the various and so pretty Themes you have installed. Well done!

And that's not all!

Love the Dark Themes, and Ultra Dark Roast, The Dark Minty one and Dark Raspberry are all lovely.

Do you share the source for those? I could propose them as additions to another instance I belong to, if you don't mind.

They deserve to be seen. 👍

To which, Tom promptly replied!

@yann2 Everything source and theme related is always published in the github repository. 🔗 https://github.com/kafuka-org/mastodon

They are not separately stored so you'll need to poke around and most are glitch flavor focused. If that doesn't scare you than by all means! Our themes are open!

Getting the Word Out !

My Bro Yann was greatly impressed, and sent me the links and Story for #FediReporter publication!

And the attached original shot (Click for Larger Image) :

Screen Captures of Some of Tom's nice work :

All images – Click to see larger sizes

Dark Theme — Rich Dark Mint Flavour

Dark Theme — Rich Dark Raspberry Flavour

Dark Theme — Ultra Dark Roast Flavour

And my personal Impressions ?

All of them are stunning, elegant, comfortable on the eyes. Those shown here are all Dark Themes, but Tom also has Light coloured ones if you prefer.

Great work deserves to be seen. The world will get to know these. 👍

Thanks to Tom for all this creative work, and Yann2 for the Heads-up.

Cheers!

Follow Blog via your Fediverse/Mastodon account :

@rgx@write.tedomum.net

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R.G. @rgx@muensterland.social ^—top of page

I have been thinking about a new and better Instance.

And a small snapshot of my busy Tabs list in #Waterfox browser shows that I really was looking for some good GlitchSocial instances.

Found a nice one, here. Muensterland.social came up in my search, from one of those tabs in the header banner.

Thank you, 🐘nipos@muensterland.social ! 😺

#MarkDown love for me. #xp #glitchsocial <!—more—>

How did I find it ?

One of the search tabs I had open (quite hard to locate a List of GlitchSocial instances, when you need one), showed a page which is Nick's Blog and mentioned this new mastodon service he was bringing online.

This whole page is based on a conversation yesterday at Qoto's timeline. Lightly edited for clarity and formatting, adding links, etc.

Crossposting — Gone Wild...

The Funniest part of this — for me anyways, was HOW did this end up here, at Qoto, OMG ??

Not intentional, at all; post was created at a remote new instance, a brand new account. But for good in the end; I am REALLY committed to leaving Mastodon behind and moving to better platforms.

GlitchSocial is one, Pleroma is another, I have accounts in BOTH types of instances, and love their added features, design improvements, and many, many new things.

The Pleroma FE (front end, or user interface — Intro Guide here) is a bit unusual for a mastodon user – but it HAS a second choice of Client; many pleroma instances have the GlitchSocial Web client as an option, sometimes as a link in their Front pages even.

For those of us who like to Read The Friendly Manual, there's a detailed Pleroma FE Guide here.

These notes now appear in a polished Web Magazine here. I developed various pages as extensions of toots and conversations had in various instances; one of the reasons I love having various accounts and always looking for interesting ones to try. #FediReporter I am...

So How did this post end up here, unexpectedly ?

The real screenshot snippet in OP above is just part of the Tabs Overload in my current browser (#Waterfox Current always).

And I HAD been intensively searching for a list (non-existant, afaik) of GlitchSocial instances. They tend to be blended in with generic mastodon ones (no thanks), so it was quite a chore.

[ parenthesis : I will provide that as soon as possible, there is a need ]

And then, what happened ?

My search went into late last night.

• By that time I had found a nice one, created an account and started trying things out.
• Looking good, the basics taken care or, some notes and screenshots saved.
• off to bed, near 3 am.
• Hello again, coffee and we get into it. Configuring a crossposter for the new account, next...

Crossposting ?

Yep. As in, moving posts and content from one network to another. I do enjoy that, there's no denying that there's GOOD stuff in every one. Some are plagued by bad actors, arses and other undesirables.

But, there's The Economist, BBC News, Scientific American, The Guardian and NY Times —– full feeds with quality content I love. Plus, Cats. Lots. of. Cats...

All of those I can chose to share with #fedi friends; easy, with a crossposter.

• for this, my Qoto.org account, I use Moa Bridge, as it is agnostic and doesn't mind my instance name. Recommended for #qoto people. Simple and barebones, functional, a little less explained than the other options.
  

And another, better alternative ;

• if your instance is NOT objected by the hosting instance, a BETTER and EASIER to configure tool is available – the awesome Crossposter, created by Renato Lond at his Brazilian instance.

Rightfully seen as a top notch tool, it has all the controls, works magnificently, fast and has PRETTIER output. Yep. I love it, and use it if the account is acceptable.

There are possibly others, and I welcome suggestions and reports from their users, if desired.

And HOW did it get here ?

...that OP above ? Yeah, you see, you can configure your crossposter of choice to use a Keyword.

• Moa defaults to '#moa' and '#xp'. The shorter one is easy-peasy to remember and only takes 3 chars on the freaking limited Twitter char count. So, I of course use it.

• Renato's tool allows your choice of keywords (yeay for user friendliness!). Since I am always busy, '#xp' is a nice one. Ooops.

...that explains, the surprise appearance of this OP above, here at Qoto.

Woot ?

...was my first response on getting a reply notification to it — I hadn't posted it at Qoto.org, or intended to.

• but the original post at Muensterland.social , had the #xp tag. Intended to bring it into Twitter, which I intended to.
• regardless of my forgetting, Moa is watching for that tag too, and bam! wham! off to Qoto it goes, when it shows in my Twitter stream.

Moral of the Story – be careful with your keywords, as unexpected results do occur.

A revision is in order, after which I will copy and make this into Today's Web Magazine post.

At your friendly #FediReporter home at TeDomum

#QotoJournal #webstories #Fediverse #Culture

#WordCount : 958 words, 7,051 characters used. Thank you qoto.org for a HIGH limit allowance.

Follow Blog via your Fediverse/Mastodon account :

@rgx@write.tedomum.net

This page created entirely in MarkDown language. Thank you for reading, feel free to comment about this post – reach me at my Writer's Lounge.

R.G. @rgx@muensterland.social ^—top of page