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   Elia :verifiedtrans: (elia@fedi.quiescent.nexus)'s status on Sunday, 24-Dec-2023 21:13:21 JST Elia :verifiedtrans:

   I’m starting to think fedi needs a two-tier follow system.

   1. “follow” as in “I want to see all public posts from that account on my timeline”.
   2. “folllow” as in “I want to actually be a follower and see followers-only posts”.

   now we only have 2. but there are valid use cases for 1. that I am encountering both as a follower and as someone others want to follow.

   as far as I can tell, there is no reason for 1. to not exist: those posts are public anyway. is it possible and practical at protocol level? is there a way to get the source instance to federate all such posts to the “follower’s” instance despite no “real” follow? no clue. someone who knows activitypub would have to chime in.

   as for my use cases: I am posting almost everything public, but sometimes do a more personal post (usually related to mental health) that’s followers-only. I restrict my followers to queer neurodivergent beings that pass my vibe check because that’s the audience I’m comfortable sharing this with.

   but there are others interested in less personal things I post and right now they have no way to get those things on their timeline. this is annoying.

   sure, I can do multiple accounts. but that feels like a kludge that got carried over as a “solution” from tw*tter instead of doing it right in the first place. also, using multiple accounts is a pain in existing frontends. they implement an impractical paradigm of switching the context of the entire application, instead of presenting a combined timeline. then there’s the entire bullshit with having to boost things from the other account so they reach the rest of the relevant audience and so on. kludge.