Jupiter Rowland on Nostr: @Martin Holland (streams) and probably also Forte already offer two features in this ...
@Martin Holland (streams) and probably also Forte already offer two features in this direction.
One, they can import contact lists from ActivityPub or CSV files. Okay, that still requires the handling of files, knowledge where they are on your device and knowledge what files are in the first place. But you can connect to up to 1,000 actors in one fell swoop, provided you're willing to manage that many contacts.
Two, and this is for those who want to pick people or things to follow one by one: built-in connection discovery and connection suggestions à la Facebook. A feature as old as Friendica, and Friendica is the oldest surviving Fediverse project, pre-dating Mastodon by five and a half years.
On your stream page which is hard-coded as your landing page, you have an area with two randomly changing connection suggestions on the left. It includes a link to a whole page dedicated to suggestions. On your connections page (which, unlike on Mastodon, is not buried in the settings; it can actually be added to the navigation bar if you so desire so you can get there with one click), there's the same suggestion area. Right below it, there's a small area for searching for contacts which has another link to the suggestions page.
The suggestions page is actually only the directory of almost all Fediverse actors known to that server instance, but filtered for what may be interesting for you according to your profile. Of course, the results improve when you actually fill out your profile some, especially the keywords field. Each suggestion is presented with their various profile fields (if they've given permission to see their profile), numbers of followers and followed for ActivityPub actors (even though (streams) and Forte themselves don't distinguish between them), a handy big green button for connecting and a similarly big yellow button for removing that actor from the suggestions. Not just like on Facebook, but better than Facebook. This is what you may wish dating portals were like.
If the suggestions aren't sufficient, you may also peruse the whole directory. It contains all Fediverse actors known to that (streams) instance. My two (streams) channels are on an instance with only 13 channels altogether, but it still knows lots of actors from all over the Fediverse. The directory looks largely the same as when acting as a suggestions list, only without the Ignore button. You still get complete profile previews and, for ActivityPub actors, follower/followed counts.
The directory can be filtered by keyword, either by search field or by tag cloud. In addition, it can show
only channels on the same server instance as youonly group actors (Friendica groups, Hubzilla forums, (streams) groups, Forte groups if there were any, Guppe groups, Lemmy communities, /kbin magazines, Mbin magazines, NodeBB subforums, Flipboard magazines etc.)only actors not flagged NSFW (at least Hubzilla, (streams) and Forte channels can be flagged NSFW as a whole)only actors that have fairly recently been active
Again, it's impressive how much a (streams) instance with only 13 channels knows. A much bigger and much more diverse instance would also have a vastly bigger directory.
This, by the way, is also why topic-specialised or community-specialised instances make even more sense on (streams) and Forte than on Mastodon. For one, there's more interesting stuff and less uninteresting clutter in the directory. Besides, this goes doubly for the directory in local mode. Lastly, nomadic identity allows you to have the same channel on multiple instances anyway.
Granted, this is not as easy and convenient as following several dozen gamers or Linux users or climate activists with two clicks. But it goes well beyond what Mastodon offers already now.
CC: @PotatoesFall @bocops @Max ☕
#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #Onboarding #StarterPacks #Streams #(streams) #Forte
One, they can import contact lists from ActivityPub or CSV files. Okay, that still requires the handling of files, knowledge where they are on your device and knowledge what files are in the first place. But you can connect to up to 1,000 actors in one fell swoop, provided you're willing to manage that many contacts.
Two, and this is for those who want to pick people or things to follow one by one: built-in connection discovery and connection suggestions à la Facebook. A feature as old as Friendica, and Friendica is the oldest surviving Fediverse project, pre-dating Mastodon by five and a half years.
On your stream page which is hard-coded as your landing page, you have an area with two randomly changing connection suggestions on the left. It includes a link to a whole page dedicated to suggestions. On your connections page (which, unlike on Mastodon, is not buried in the settings; it can actually be added to the navigation bar if you so desire so you can get there with one click), there's the same suggestion area. Right below it, there's a small area for searching for contacts which has another link to the suggestions page.
The suggestions page is actually only the directory of almost all Fediverse actors known to that server instance, but filtered for what may be interesting for you according to your profile. Of course, the results improve when you actually fill out your profile some, especially the keywords field. Each suggestion is presented with their various profile fields (if they've given permission to see their profile), numbers of followers and followed for ActivityPub actors (even though (streams) and Forte themselves don't distinguish between them), a handy big green button for connecting and a similarly big yellow button for removing that actor from the suggestions. Not just like on Facebook, but better than Facebook. This is what you may wish dating portals were like.
If the suggestions aren't sufficient, you may also peruse the whole directory. It contains all Fediverse actors known to that (streams) instance. My two (streams) channels are on an instance with only 13 channels altogether, but it still knows lots of actors from all over the Fediverse. The directory looks largely the same as when acting as a suggestions list, only without the Ignore button. You still get complete profile previews and, for ActivityPub actors, follower/followed counts.
The directory can be filtered by keyword, either by search field or by tag cloud. In addition, it can show
only channels on the same server instance as youonly group actors (Friendica groups, Hubzilla forums, (streams) groups, Forte groups if there were any, Guppe groups, Lemmy communities, /kbin magazines, Mbin magazines, NodeBB subforums, Flipboard magazines etc.)only actors not flagged NSFW (at least Hubzilla, (streams) and Forte channels can be flagged NSFW as a whole)only actors that have fairly recently been active
Again, it's impressive how much a (streams) instance with only 13 channels knows. A much bigger and much more diverse instance would also have a vastly bigger directory.
This, by the way, is also why topic-specialised or community-specialised instances make even more sense on (streams) and Forte than on Mastodon. For one, there's more interesting stuff and less uninteresting clutter in the directory. Besides, this goes doubly for the directory in local mode. Lastly, nomadic identity allows you to have the same channel on multiple instances anyway.
Granted, this is not as easy and convenient as following several dozen gamers or Linux users or climate activists with two clicks. But it goes well beyond what Mastodon offers already now.
CC: @PotatoesFall @bocops @Max ☕
#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #Onboarding #StarterPacks #Streams #(streams) #Forte