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

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 ▲

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

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 :

@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

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

Have been thinking about new and better Instance. [Part 2]

This morning, I wrote this Toot at a new instance, which I found and registered at late last night.

And picture of my busy Tabs list in #Waterfox browser showed 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—>

Glitch-Social — Instances List is Needed!

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. A few hours of sleep and...
• Hello again, coffee and we get back into it.

Now I am writing this page, to document and describe not only the process, but mainly the Why — the reasons which lead me to look for alternatives in Fediverse, what they can offer, etc.

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...

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.

Got my attention, quickly! Lots to like...

We had planned putting online a new Mastodon instance for a long time but then we saw that a small German instance would go offline soon and decided to take it over.

Continuing an existing service and making sure that all existing users don't lose their digital home is much better than creating a completely new service out of the nothing.

You can find the instance at Muensterland.social but it's mainly meant for people near Muenster and most posts are in German.

Interesting — a thoughful admin is important, and he seems a good one. And it gets Better.

Using GlitchSocial and allowing 5,000 characters for Toots!

The instance runs with the GlitchSocial software (Git repo) which is a fork of Mastodon which allows more settings for users as well as server admin.

For example GlitchSoc makes the 5000 chars limit instead of 500 chars possible [the usual and pesky Mastodon limit] and that's important for having real conversations and not just a short message.

Wow. To have support for larger Toots and messages is ESSENTIAL for my self expression. I have campaigned for about 6 months now, and it's an uphill battle, to tell you the Truth. Why?

• Many of the senior developers in the Mastodon project, starting with Eugen R. himself, came from Twitter.
• The cramped 144 characters there forced users to adapt and try to find clever ways to instill meaning in those miserable spaces.
• As it's prone to happen, people will adapt and thrive, somewhat, even in sh1ty conditions.
• Case in point, all those old TwitterHeads who can't understand why 500 chars is not sufficient. Freak, it's 3 times the TW limit!

My Response to that? Screw your 500 Hard Limit!

Ha, ha, ha, thanks God and some illuminated beings, we DO have instances in mastodon and elsewhere that DO allow more than 500 Characters. Qoto.org has 65,535 characters max limit, a generous allowance even for a very verbal writer.

( I have personally used up about 5,000 tops, I would say. In extreme cases, so this limit is a God-send, yes please. )

And then, the Closer :

A few lines down, this gem :

Additionally we do now have a #Halcyon instance at web.Muensterland.social so you can use it with the easy and beautiful design of Twitter.

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!

Halcyon's Client — Main Features :

Nick is using the well-regarded Halcyon mastodon and Pleroma client. A screenshot below (reduced in size) shows Eugen's account at Mastodon.social as rendered in Halcyon. [img source – Halcyon]

From the homepage for Halcyon :

• It looks like Twitters user interface which you may already know
• It supports custom character limits of Pleroma and modded Mastodon instances
• It supports custom emojis in posts and user names and has a emoji picker
• It's completely free of advertisements and trackers
• It's open source – You can help adding features you're missing
• It has full support for the lists feature including create/edit/delete
• It has full support for the filters – Also from other clients
• There are dozens of free Halcyon instances – No single point of failure
• Halcyon is available in many different languages – Currently 9
• Who to follow feature to easily find other users with similar interests
• Supports different media files like GIFs,videos or audio files
• Privacy friendly players for content from YouTube,Vimeo and Peertube

Looks good, and can be tried without hassle or expense.

Halcyon's Additional Resources :

• List of free Halcyon instances you can use.
• Git instance for the project
• Nick's personal account and projects page

Famous Last Words :

I would like to sincerely thank all the dedicated people who put in a lot of effort, time and resources in providing us all the Software, the Instances and Content for the Fediverse.

It's thanks to them that we can enjoy a rich experience, the freedom to move and find communities we enjoy, and the ability to ignore or even shut the door in the varied annoyances that Internet living has those days (a subject to another post, another day).

Please visit and see new content at your friendly #FediReporter home at TeDomum.net

Originally partially posted at Qoto.org, with many thanks for excellent services and a refined user experience.

#wordCount : 1333 words, 8,021 characters used. Thank you qoto.org for a HIGH limit allowance. [note that this is the actual MarkDown source for this page, and includes tons of URLs and Formatting code.]

#QotoJournal #webstories #Fediverse #Culture

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

An interesting suggestion

Received via Direct Message, it said :

What do you think about: Starting a hashtag like : “qotoarticle” and all qoto-users who publish journalism-like or good pieces from the internet shall use this # to make it possible to find an interesting collection of qoto-news, without all the fun-stuff burying it?

This is a nice idea — and I am opening a Discourse Forum thread to chat about it. <!—more—>

Why there, not in the normal Mastodon Local timeline? A few reasons:

• we won't be posting all kinds of tag ideas with hashes that will go live, and maybe never used again.
• it's open to anyone who wants to read it, as I will add thread URL here, and it's publicly readable to all.
• it's open to replies, all you need is a quick registration, confirm the email, and presto, you are in.

So all good, isn't it?

Consider it done;

Done, my friend, and here are some of my hash suggestions.

• They need to be easy, short if possible.
• easy to spell so both posters and searchers can use the tag for their own means.
• unique, so they will collect the intended posts and no strain content.

Which do I think could work? Uhmmm... Brainstorming, put ideas out and don't judge them. Add more ideas. Decide later, at evaluation time.

Maybe : qoto-news . qoto-journal . qoto-daily . qoto-top . qoto-stem . qoto-hq .

or : stem-news . stem-hq . stem-daily . stem-mvp .

Do they have to include the “qoto” word and brand ID? not necessarily, we are just considering ideas here.

• If including, they might get people to pay attention to our instance in general.
• It could be used by others, in fact any hash tag can be overwhelmed and spammed, unfortunately;
• not much defense from that other than blocking the twits who did it.

There, the ball is at play, let's hear what you all think?

Thank you for considering and participating.

#STEM #science #math #Engineering #Math news are of interest to people all over the #Fediverse

Follow-Up :

All of my long posts are not written in the Toot Editor box — too small for serious writing. I use a simple Text Editor, EditPad Lite, free and powerful. Love to get into it and away from the zillion Tabs open in my browsers (2 to 3 sets, in separate windows. I know, busy guy here.)

• So, I wrote all of the above in the text editor.
• Then copied it to Clipboard, pasted into the Discourse Forum, new Thread.
• Copied the URL (address) of that new thread, to use in Mastodon announcement.
• Switched tab to Qoto Mastodon; pasted the Clipboard contents, first the full text, then the URL, also stored in it.
• I had searched on Bing for a good image, sized it for my normal Blog post header at 640 pixels width.
• Opened and added it to post via Toot Editor insert Image (paper clip icon).

Hit Enter and now that was complete! Ah, sent my friend a link to the Forum with the URL too.

Some replies followed, and considering their content (showing interest, support and some extra suggestions), I made one more longer post, next.

Additional Contents Requirements ?

I found it was a wonderful idea and suggestion — was glad to receive it, can see the use, for sure.

We need a good hash word, as outlined above, so it will get used.

I like the suggestions of *some content standards for people using the tag*. These not only liven each post, but can lead the way to everyone following the model and producing richer posts all the time.

Some of the possibilities for suggested requirements:

• a relevant image in each post. Size should be manageable, too large a file uses disk space everywhere, we can including an image at about 700x700 pixels comfortably. And include a link in the post if you think a higher resolution version is important; then it's available if people want to see it.

• A clear and relevant Title in the first line. Before starting the post, put a blank line after it. So the title will stand out on it's own in people's Feedlines. A better change to snag a reader is important!

• Always provide any relevant links with the post. If something is a more extensive post, maybe it can benefit from a Blog placement; Like the posts I write and post at WriteFreely. Still, these longer articles can be Announced in Mastodon, with the same format as other, shorter ones; a Clear Title; some text Body; link to full article elsewhere; Always a Good Image! (we are fighting for people's attention, everyday)

• You can post longer pieces in Mastodon as well; Qoto is very special in allowing a HUGE 65,000 characters max per Toot. But even elsewhere, it's feasible to make a Thread, successive posts in reply to the previous one; Best done as a Thread with the 2nd and later replies all set to Unlisted privacy setting (to avoid clogging Local timelines)

• if doing multipart posts, you need to work careful and quickly — to try and avoid anyone jumping in with a comment or reply while you are still mid-stream in the posts. It's possible, but a bit tense (I did this before). Best done with a machine supporting an enhanced Clipboard, capable of storing multiple pieces of information.

• I have and use this daily — Windows 10 now supports it, all you need is to press WinKey-V, and it will show all current clipboard contents, in time order; you can select any of them, text, URL, image, to insert at this point. So a multi-part post can ALL be copied to Clipboard, piece by piece, then inserted into Toot Editor in quick succession. Insert, Toot. Click Reply, insert next, Toot. and so on, until complete. You will overwhelm any humans looking at the post, less likely to have a stray response.

I made a nice and long thread with the story of a visit to a Museum, posted here. Later it became a Full Blog post, which took more work but all the story was written already. I used a plain text editor in my laptop, and tuned away all the distractions.

At the end of a post, it would be nice to find some References — links, see also, anything related to your article. This can be done in a simple way, as a list of words and links to further info, as seen in the very last Toot in my Museum thread.

Stopping at this point, as it's getting long, but I already see this thread as my topic of the day for a blog post. ;–)

Conclusion?

We now have the Forum thread, and it allows for easier reading to anyone using a laptop or Desktop computer. Posts there can also be edited, enhanced with in-line images, and use all of the formatting power and beauty of the MarkDown language. A lot of this was formatted there.

Later, I copied all of the text into Clipboard, and into my own WriteFreely instance — my editing platform for Blog work is running in my own laptop here, so I can use it even if Internet goes down, and the responses are lightning fast.

Once I am happy with the text and layout, imagery, I can copy and paste the full MarkDown source into my blog hosts.

Hopefully we get good response in the Forum thread, where everyone can respond fast and easily with their comments, ideas. Again, the Discourse Forum Thread is Here. Please visit there or respond to our Mastodon Thread about this idea here.

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