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Chris Trottier

Because some people believe that full text search on Mastodon hasn't been implemented for technical reasons -- this isn't the case.

Here's full text search as performed on vancity.social, a Calckey server that I personally run.

Full text search on the Fediverse already exists.

65 comments
Aaron

@atomicpoet we also have full text search over here on universeodon.

Arnel Šarić Sharan :verified:

@atomicpoet What do you think about the feature? I kinda miss it discovering new interesting stuff. Most people don't hashtag their things properly.

Although I understand the risks.

Chris Trottier

@sharan I believe full text search is critical to the adoption and growth of the Fediverse, and I'm thankful that there's options.

Mark Britten

@atomicpoet comes back to "people don't want it because Mastodon isn't twitter, so let's make up crap", I suspect.

Chris Trottier

I really wish more people would try more Fediverse server software other than Mastodon.

It's easy to do, takes you just a few minutes of your time, and answers so many questions about what the Fediverse is capable of doing.

Chris Trottier

So many times when people ask me a question about Pixelfed or Akkoma or Calckey, I am really tempted to just say, "Why don't you give it a try?"

But I don't because it's hard enough to convince most of you that there's a Fediverse beyond Mastodon.

Chris Trottier

@geordie No one stopping you from continuing to use Mastodon. I use Mastodon. I also try out the rest of the Fediverse.

Seriously, why not give the rest of the Fediverse a try?

Geordie Pordy Puddin’ n’ Pie

@atomicpoet oh I do, I quite like Pixelfed. And WriteFreely. But it just seems weird how popular it is to see people enjoying something and loudly insist there’s more. I mean ok, there’s more.

Elizabeth Tai | 戴秀铃 🇲🇾

@atomicpoet @geordie because not many are like us, people who like trying out new software for fun. For many, the thought of doing that tires them out. That's what a few of my friends told me 😁

Chris Trottier

And I don't mean to be smug, but what's with the aversion to trying new things?

It's almost as though everyone on Mastodon is playing out the plot of Green Eggs & Ham on a mass scale.

You don't know if you're going to like something unless you try it.

Chris Trottier

I'll be real. I've used Fediverse software with a UI/UX so horrendous, I wonder how it ever made it into production.

Still, I learned something even from terrible software -- and I'm grateful that I tried it out.

Manu M

@atomicpoet That's not exclusive of fediverse software. Many open source projects don't have any focus on UX/UI, and that's a factor of why many users reject open source. It's sad but I think that's one of the reasons.

Heliograph

@atomicpoet yes. only diversity makes you really see stuff, good and bad.

Chris Trottier

Look, I’m not telling any of you to use other Fediverse software if you’re totally satisfied with your experience and lack any curiosity.

But if you want a feature, and it exists elsewhere on the Fediverse… why not use the software that has those features?

Pat Reynolds

@atomicpoet
Personally, lack of spoons.

Is there a "thing" where you can put your must haves, would likes, etcs and it points you at three or four you could check out?

Tom

@atomicpoet I *like* toying with software. I like learning it, tweaking it, etc. etc. But most people don’t, so learning a new app is a barrier to what they actually want - doubly so in the open source world where #UX is an afterthought at best. So why try 5 platforms that may or may not offer a feature in a way you like, have terrible onboarding and are undoubtedly missing some aspect of #mastodon that you want? Who has that kind of time?

DELETED

@atomicpoet

5 things I'd love would be:

1. longer post length than 500
2. Previewing a multi post thread (with variable visibilty and CW per post)
3. Greater sense of "owning" my posts, by paying some service to be my server & data warehouse & do all that admin stuff I have no spare bandwidth for.
4. Have all my pics uploads stored easily with the alt text so I can reuse easily in posts.
5. Have post links open to that post NOT the damn start of thread.

1/n

@atomicpoet

5 things I'd love would be:

1. longer post length than 500
2. Previewing a multi post thread (with variable visibilty and CW per post)
3. Greater sense of "owning" my posts, by paying some service to be my server & data warehouse & do all that admin stuff I have no spare bandwidth for.
4. Have all my pics uploads stored easily with the alt text so I can reuse easily in posts.
5. Have post links open to that post NOT the damn start of thread.

Matthew Thomas

@atomicpoet This reminds me of the era when people claimed that Linux On The Desktop was going to take over the world, but their standard response to “it doesn’t have basic feature X” was “sure it does, it’s just in this other ‘distro’, so you’ll have to install a new system to get it”.

More generally, if I was ever tempted to publicly wish that users would put in more effort, I’d know it was time for me to take a break.

Chris Trottier

@mpt Sorry, how is trying a new service anything like installing a new OS?

And what am I supposed to be taking a break from?

Stark

@atomicpoet

The original #Apple kouse had to be plugged in from the bottom.

#UX is apparently not important anymore.

Carolyn

@atomicpoet Because for a lot of people, it was a hurdle to pick an instance. They just wanted to join something like Mastodon with a join, not look around and make a decision before they could sign up to Mastodon, but not really, just an instance of it. They don't need more than what they found, they don't want to have to learn about other stuff they really don't understand or want to understand. They are tired, busy, just wanted a substitute for the fascist site. ;)

Chris Trottier

@CStamp Which is fine until people start asking, "Why can't I do X?"

In which case, I have to say, "Well, you can -- just not on Mastodon."

And then they ask me to explain it -- and I really, really just wish they would try it out and discover it for themselves.

It would save so much time.

giorgos

@atomicpoet I totally agree with your last sentence…but habits is a powerful mechanism!

Matthew Cooper

@atomicpoet I find it quite funny that this attitude is so prevalent here considering a lot of the same people give others grief for not leaving twitter and coming over here. If they don’t want to try new things themselves, how can they be upset when others don’t want to uproot from their previous social media home and come here?

Phil Maeser

@atomicpoet I endorse this attitude!

however, the masses do not tick like that (much to our advantage)

Jason Quinn

@atomicpoet for me, I try to keep my online footprint small and minimize creating accounts because they often can’t be deleted. That being said, PixelFed looks awesome.

Matthew :mastodon:(he/him)

@atomicpoet This is a silly question but I was looking at
Plume to make a blog but most instance I found either closed down or disabled registering an account? Do I know any good blogging fediverse services I can give a try instead?

cuan_knaggs

@atomicpoet have you played with the nextcloud fedi app yet? i haven't gotten it running yet but i need to re build my nextcloud first.

ps. ubuntu dist upgrades can, in fact, do much damage and you can have trouble with out db backups

Chris Trottier

@mensrea I tried it a long time ago but haven't in awhile.

Ang Black

@atomicpoet
I'm just gonna tell people thr Fediverse is the new city they're in and Mastodon is just the tourist shit where all the crowds are. Get to know the rest of the place, it's deeper than they know...

Then send then here
Https://fediverse.party

LFpete

@atomicpoet Most of us will not venture far, but your messages are not wasted effort.
#Fediverse

Tomi the Slav and 1024 others

@atomicpoet I've tried Pixelfed yesterday. Took a full day from registration to successful login.
Argh.
TAM (Technology Acceptance Model) model strikes again. Tools need both: Usefulness and ease of use to be used.

gwen windflower 📊🤷🏻‍♀📈

@atomicpoet i think, based on examining my own hesitancy here, that for a lot of people it might not be about complexity, time, or confusion, but just a mental model that we've been trained into that a social network = 1 app. like there's perhaps a lack of belief that the fediverse is really federated. if i join calckey i'll miss out on what's happening with mastodon somehow. even though that's not really true.

Chris Trottier

@winnie What's to lose? If you don't like Calckey, you can always delete your account or abandon it. You'll be no worse for wear.

gwen windflower 📊🤷🏻‍♀📈

@atomicpoet i did that very thing! i made a calckey account, i liked it *better*, and then i went back to mastodon. trying to understand that.

Chris Trottier

@winnie I mean, I use Mastodon too. This is a Mastodon account. There are creature comforts with Mastodon.

That said, I bet you learned something about the Fediverse from Calckey 🙂

DELETED

@atomicpoet I’m just using metatext to read all three timelines here. I’m not techy, and as long as that works I doubt I’ll be changing.

DELETED

@atomicpoet As what do you mean 'other' software? Like for example "Akkoma" ??

Nyme

@atomicpoet i have Hubzilla on my „tryout“ - list.
What other projects would you recomend to try out? Manly i use Ivory because i can use the list feature in combination with filters to have nice usability…. Still waiting for the „mute from Hometimline“ function on more clients.

Stark

@atomicpoet

Personally, it is my only need at the moment. I am not #Facebook or #Instagram guy, but "enjoyed" #Twitter.

If #PeerTube gets more support and has content I wanted to watch, I would get it. #Lemmy also just needs to get some traction and fixes.

Gen X-Wing

@atomicpoet Number one reason: I don’t want an extra identity for an extra app.

That’s it. If I could do pixelfed AND mastodon on this identity I would be in business.

I’m cool with instances and all that. I this it’s better in many many ways. But if i want to post retro computer stuff (and pets!) I need to build up a new set of followers and a new “grid” of people.

I think it’s a big issue for a lot of people. No feature will make up for it I’m afraid.

Alex (they/them)

@atomicpoet When I heard about Mastodon, I googled it, landed on the join Mastodon, picked a server and applied. Beyond that, I wouldn't even begin to know where to start even finding other parts of the Fediverse, and I doubt I'm the only one. And I like tinkering and looking around! Not everyone is like that. Some of that's just lack of knowledge and ability.

Crazy Pony

@atomicpoet please tell me, how you would guide your grandmother to do it

What can i do to have access to a fulltext search?

Please excuse that i have no spoons to set up accounts "just to try out something" and perhaps even abandon the account that i have grown since years.

Chris Trottier

@crazy_pony If you’re asking me to explain something but you won’t try it, what’s the point? Your time is not more valuable than mine.

Iggy

@atomicpoet I installed it on my single-user Akkoma instance no problem; works great!

DELETED

@atomicpoet
Is this just your feed or the whole network?
Do other sites sunset text as fast as we do?

Chris Trottier

@Cassandra It’s every instance that federates with my own. And the text remains as long as I want it to.

DELETED

@atomicpoet
Don't we all have individual settings as to when posts disappear?

Chris Trottier

@Cassandra If you’re talking about auto-removal of your own posts, yes.

DELETED

@atomicpoet
I have collected a list of Fed apps. I'm looking for some clarity.
-Which ones are in dev
-Which ones are in beta
-Which ones are in full release
-Which are standalone and which are plugins to something else
-For the many Mastodon apps, what are some distinguishing features
-For the other apps, what do people need to know about them?

Is this something you could help me with? If not, do you know who might?

@atomicpoet
I have collected a list of Fed apps. I'm looking for some clarity.
-Which ones are in dev
-Which ones are in beta
-Which ones are in full release
-Which are standalone and which are plugins to something else
-For the many Mastodon apps, what are some distinguishing features
-For the other apps, what do people need to know about them?

DELETED

@atomicpoet
OK, I think you will know a lot of this off the top of your head.
Where can I send it?

Michael

@atomicpoet I’m running full text search on my mastodon server too, thanks to @vyr ‘s hard work.

It’s not even that it hasn’t been implemented - it’s that Eugen has a refused to merge a really good implementation, for purely personal reasons.

(Yes, you probably know that, but your followers may not)

Brett Elliff

@atomicpoet
Checking out Calckey, I wasn’t aware of the project.

@rabble

Brett Kosinski

@atomicpoet To be clear, I have to assume this feature only indexes posts that arrive at your Calckey instance, which is basically equivalent to the Federated timeline in Mastodon, and doesn't represent all of the content on the Fediverse. Correct?

For the record, I dug around and it was tough to find a clear answer to that question, but given the way ActivityPub works, I don't see how it can function any other way...?

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