*banned 4 MarkDown love* @design_RG@qoto.org

* Memories, a visit to the Archeology Museum *

It started this morning, the thread. And over short posts, someone told a story. Of a Greek man, who lived in antiquity, by the Mediterranean side; in a city whose name is still preserved, and today is written "Marseille".

This series of posts was interesting, liked it and went to the top to find the rest.

Enjoying his post, I remembered similar thoughts, of History, and how things worked, how small bits and pieces came to me as I visited an exposition, at the Archeological Museum, in Lisbon.

Now the story is on my blog: https://write.tedomum.net/rgx/memories-a-visit-to-the-archeology-museum

You can also see a mirrored copy at our Discouse Forum at Qoto.org : https://discourse.qoto.org/t/memories-a-visit-to-the-archeology-museum-blog-mirror-here/169

** Author notes:

This is one of my favourite posts in my blog, I really enjoyed writing it, first as a series of Toots, then as a fleshed out and enriched Blog post.

I am grateful to @kashi for the original suggestion and inspiration of our new Qoto Journal hashtag.

#QOTOJournal #History #Technology #Geography

@JulianRott Thank you for posting - it's an interesting and data rick article. Well done. 😃

@sda Thank youm, that was an interesting article! 😃

@snow @freemo A new Toot editor in Collapsed Mastodon Looks like this. Admittedly, it could be wider...

@snow @freemo

The proper use of wide screen displays is one of my pet peeves. I have collected a few folders here of screenshots, and posted even at mastodon.social itself, with a couple of them, asking Eugen to consider a different, more writer and reader friendly AWI feature.

He did respond to it, and was surprised I was not interested in having multiple columns with live feeds on them - which would be too distracting for my personal use. I like the layout on the screenshot Snow linked to above -- and even went and made a fresh one to document the better AWI setting in the Dark Theme that Qoto and Todon.nl have.

These two were the only two instances were I was able to use AWI in a pleasant way. I am attaching here at comparative screenshot, taken just now, with Todon.nl in AWI mode, which is identical to the Qoto AWI dark screen theme as far as I know.

I kind of silenced my campaign for general usability improvement, since I have discovered that a lot of sys admins, and most crucially, the lead project developer, are all long time Twitter users and seem to think that is the way to go.

Which explains features I abhor :

- 500 characters maximum Toot size is hard coded into the Mastodon project files, and not in a configuration file as it should for ease of keeping modified settings from getting erased by an update or version upgrade.

- the assumption that AWI is the shits, and that emulating TweetDeck is the best way to use real screens in laptop or desktop computers.

If someone wants to have 3 or 4 columns, and live feeds in each of them, well, enjoy it. What I prefer is to have 2 columns, and a proper Toot editing area.

In reality, I have found that the "Collapsed Mastodon" add-on for Firefox is a giant improvement.

- Not only if allows me to set my preferred to active columns mode, but it does so while collapsing totally the leftmost column (the one is writing about, where the Toot Editor lives).

So, it's not 20, 30 or 40% of the screen -- it's zero, as the functions which use that area can be perfectly executed in the columns in use themselves. It will open a reply Toot editor (with the much larger and more comfortable width the columns already have) right below any message you intend to reply to.

A new Toot all together (not a reply to someone) will open an overlay near the "Pencil" icon and proceed to take user input for the new post.

Best of all -- for people who use Firefox and this add on, we can configure our preferred work arrangement without having to beg each system administrator in instances we use to please consider making improvements to their AWI css files.

Attached Screenshots :

#1 : Todon.NL, AWI mode, enhanced Dark Theme Full Width instance theme. (Without Collapsed Mastodon)

#2 : Qoto.or, AWI mode, enhanced Dark Theme Full Width, with "Collapsed Mastodon" enabled.

Not the HUGE reply box I am using on this reply -- the FULL width of the Rightmost column. No lack of space in this setup.

@freemo Ah, thank you -- this explains the difference in behaviour, the feed accessed via the dots menu (and by the API call) fill up instantly, while the Subscribe Domain method will populate as new posts are made in that instance.

Remote API calls might be blocked in some places (it was being discussed by some admins in regards to the major scraping done by the University researchers recently), while the Federated feed pull will always work.

The story about Map Projections and the people who favour each of the methods. (web comics, karge image)

https://m.xkcd.com/977/

@freemo This was so surprising to me that I took the time to login into another, non-moderator account, to make sure a regular user could see this feature.

It does work, for any QOTO user account, as shown in the screenshots (taken from my alt, secondary Qoto account).

And it is NOT present in any other instances, where I logged on locally to check if I had so far missed this. Nope, not there. Exclusive. 😃

QOTO.org new January 2020 Features Added - 6 - Quick View Remote Timeline.

This is something I have just discovered, as I prepared screenshots for a previous post.

It is similar to the "Domain Subscriptions" feature listed previously. But :

- It can be done from ANY post, and allows you to instantly open a column showing the originating Instance's Local Timeline.

- Done taking a look? Just back out of it, open any other timeline and move on.

If you liked what you see in their timeline, then you could consider Domain Subscribing as described at https://discourse.qoto.org/t/qoto-org-new-january-2020-features-added-detailed-descriptions/192/7 .

* Why would someone be interested in that?

- for diversity : the fediverse has a myriad of instances, and that means there's many different places. Some are big, some are small, many we can't even read the local languages, but it's fun to travel and see.

- when things get quiet at Qoto's local timeline... we open one of these and have freshly posted content from whichever instance we selected.

Isn't this snooping, or uncool, or frowned upon? No, not at all.

- we can only see posts that were made Public at their original instance.

- these posts will be Federated and will join the millions of others in the Home and Federated feeds.

* How do we open this Quick View into a Remote Instance ?

Reminding everyone that this feature is now available here at Qoto.org, and it will not work elsewhere (unless the instance installed similar modified software).

But, I was really surprised on finding it here too - even @freemo hasn't mentioned it, and likely is unware this is now possible.

- From ANY post in the Home or Federated feeds, click on the "..." Dots menu in their lower part.

- There are various options, some quite useful for controlling unwanted content (mute, report, etc.)

- And on this list we now find "*Open instance.name timeline*". (see screenshot #1)

- Voilá.. Click on that, and the screen will display a Full column of the remote instance posts; their Local timeline in fact. (see screenshot #2)

As shown in the screenshot, *we are still on the qoto.org domain*, but the timeline displayed is from ***blob.cat's posts***.

That's it, simple as that!

Like it? See the instructions and Subscribe to their Domain if desired --> https://discourse.qoto.org/t/qoto-org-new-january-2020-features-added-detailed-descriptions/192/7

** You can also see this post in prettier, easier to Read format at the Discourse Forum : https://discourse.qoto.org/t/qoto-org-new-january-2020-features-added-detailed-descriptions/192/9

** Why, Prettier? Because.. Text formatting, Header sizes, Bold and Italicized text styles, Inline images inserted in the proper place on the text, that's why. 😛

...and as it turns out, I think I just discovered a new, enhanced and so far undocumented Feature added to our Qoto mastodon Web Clients.

Woot...

Now preparing a post for it (hint: viewing Remote instance local timelines VERY easily, without the Subscribe Remote actions previously described)

QOTO.org new January 2020 Features Added - 5 - Account Subscriptions.

As per the original annoucement post by @freemo :

"Account Subscriptions - This allows you to follow a remote accounts public toots in your Home timeline without actually following them, great for following users with locked accounts."

So this is another new and unique feature -- we can see posts from users similarly as if we Followed them, but without actually Following them.

Why would someone be interested in that?

- For Locked accounts (which display a small padlock besides the user name); these normally will require you to click the "Follow" button as usual, but will only work once the user approves your follow request.

- so you can get similar access, but only to their "Public" posts. You will not see "Unlisted" or "Followers Only" posts.

- If this is an account you have a slight interest in, that might be enough.

Isn't this snooping, or uncool, or frowned upon? No, not at all.

- we can only see posts that were made with "Public" privacy setting at their original instance.

- these posts will be Federated and will join the millions of others in the Home and Federated feeds.

The advantage is that we see them in the same way we see the posts from users we actually Follow.

How to "Subscribe" to a user?

- If you visit any user's Profile page, you will see a new "Subscribe" icon, which looks a bit like the typical WiFi one (see screenshot #1)

- Notice that this particular user has a Locked profile (padlock icon beside his username, as highlighted in screenshot #1)

- Regardless of the Locked Following, we click on the Subscribe button.

- and it immediately switches to a Blue, highlighted button, indicating a Subscribed account.

- bringing the mouse over it shows an "Unsubscribe" action legend (see screenshot #2)

From this point on, things will work very similar to being a Follower to that user.

- you will see any of their new Public posts in your "Home" timeline (the one with the little House icon).

- you will not see posts if they were made with more restricted Privacy settings (Unlisted, Followers only, or Direct Messages)

- And if you are no longer interested, visit their profile and unsubscribe from them, similar to Unfollowing a user.

** This post can also be seen in Prettier form at the Discourse Forum : https://discourse.qoto.org/t/qoto-org-new-january-2020-features-added-detailed-descriptions/192/8

** Why, Prettier? Because.. Text formatting, Header sizes, Bold and Italicized text styles, Inline images inserted in the proper place on the text, that's why. 😛

@freemo
I just gave it a polishing pass, adding Header sizes, ocasional Bold and Italicized styles here and there, and it's pretty. 😄

Reseved a couple of replies at the bottom to add this new feature that pschwede mentioned and I had missed. Will prep a toot later and once done add it to the Forum thread as well.

It's really neat to have the Forum, as it allows for some beautiful formatting, and insertion of images inline, inside the text blocks -- much like a magazine article, and better than we could ever do on a Toot.

@pschwede

@pschwede

LOL.... You wish, eh.

Many people come here for the pretty ladies though. 😜
@Sphinx @freemo

@pschwede

Good question -- and that is a new feature I missed making an explanation post for.

@freemo

The forum post is all ok, other than this new feature I had missed explaining.

But I will make a post later this morning (in Mastodon), and later copy it to the Forum thread, so it's ok if you want to link it in any announcements.

@freemo Screenshot of masto.donte.com.br in wide screen, showing the Green Theme I mentioned...

@freemo And I have expanded the niceness of our optimized WideScreren Dark Theme even more with my usage of the Firefox Collapsed Mastodon add-on.

As shown in this screenshot attached, taken as I wrote the post above, it will open a Toot Editor right below a post, anywhere -- click the Reply arrow, and it pops up.

Which means we can free the vertical space at the Left side -- normally reserved for the Toot Editor and a Replied message preview above it.

Now this would be a tremendous thing to add to Mastodon itself. A great idea, imo.

I should go and dig up the Dark Green theme that Renato Lond has at masto.donte.com.br, as the colours he uses are great visually - comforting green background, but with some nice contrasting elements, like buttons and scroll bars, much easier to find than in the Mastodon Dark Theme (scroll bars particularly, as there's a small difference in shade between them and the surrounding areas only)

@freemo What I really think is unique and highly valuable -- and VERY uncommon, as I have only seen it here and at Todon.nl, is to have a theme that uses the Wide screens in our laptops properly.

Geez, that is one sore point, I have to get back into a campaign for promoting that.

The AWI setting does add some use to the wider screens, but it's too much like TweetDeck (Eugen's admitted inspiration for its design). And the columns widths are TOO Skinny, unless you want 4 columns with fast updating going on, it's a pain.

The modifications you implemented here, (and that they have at Todon and no other instance that I have seen yet), these really allow for good use of the screen width.

I like my screen as Two columns -- one being the local timeline (at the left), the other containing the Notifications, or one of the other possible timelines (Home or God forbid, Federated madness).

@freemo LOL....

I am glad we kept the Full Width Dark Theme pure as it's delightful.

Less distractions, I say. 😛

@freemo @pschwede Could look at this Forum post as well, with each new major feature explained and illustrated.

https://discourse.qoto.org/t/qoto-org-new-january-2020-features-added-detailed-descriptions/192