Notices by Scott Jenson (scottjenson@social.coop)

I did a little end-of-year googling and was shocked to discover I made the front page of HackerNews 3 times last year! Shocked because I only knew of one of them. It's very odd reading a conversation long after the window when you could have replied.

Note to self: The commenters on HackerNews are a bit odd....

RE: https://dair-community.social/@emilymbender/115833119822086661

We really have a problem here. Good people are being mansplained/harassed off of the platform. (It's been a problem for years actually)

It just takes just 1% of us to make this place feel overwhelmingly bad. 99% of us are lovely, tolerant people.

We can't let these victims fend for themselves. Call out reply guy/mansplaining/(or worse) behavior. We fix this by supporting each other.

We get the culture we tolerate.

There was a recent poll here about what Desktop OS you use and Linux was the most popular answer. This proves this community is far more technical than your average consumer.

I'm not critical of that, I'm just saying we need to appreciate we aren't representative of that vast majority of people out there. I can't even get "normies" to *consider* joining the fediverse.

I don't want to "chase numbers" I want my family members to be safe but we're doing a terrible job attracting them.

I just finished "The Bezel" by @pluralistic which I strongly recommend. It is a delightful mix of thriller and social commentary. It is read by the Internet's @wilw who does an amazing job. His enthusiasm in reading the book is infectious.

But by far, the hardest laugh I got was in the epilogue where Wil read first thousand digits of PI In ALPHABETICAL ORDER. Just like the garlic sauce in the book, it was transcendent.
https://torpublishinggroup.com/the-bezzle/?isbn=9781250865878&format=hardback

The problem I have with "Quiet Public" is that it is nearly useless. If I reply to you resetting my reply to Quiet Public it doesn't practically matter. As a) very few people use federated or local timelines and b) the people that follow me will see it anyway.

My point is that assuming 99% of the time people are just viewing their feed, quiet public doesn't really change anything.

Happy to be corrected of course. If I'm wrong, it just goes to show how easy it is to misunderstand this topic.

@cheeaun I've noticed this a few times now. Some posts (in this case a reply) do not allow me to edit them. But I can edit top level posts in Phanpy. Is this an edge case? Am I missing something simple?

My Ubuntu Summit talk is up! Where I talk about:
1. How Desktop UX is effectively dead
2. Why I hate the term UX/UI with the heat of 1000 suns
3. How OSS can actually innovate in #ux

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fZTOjd_bOQ

Yesterday, I noticed a table view with a hover highlight that just felt "flickery." It reminded me of a harsh fluorescent lightbulb. Sure, it worked. It's even what we expect. But inspired by Amber Case and her "Calm Technology" manifesto, I wondered if there was a way to make this simple, even trivial, interaction feel more analogue and calm.

I tried a few things and explain them in this one-minute video.

In today's profit-driven, move-fast-and-break-things mentality, this type of exploration may feel out of place. But that's the whole point; we've lost what's important and why we're here in the first place. What does this type of thinking unlock?

You can play with this on my website: https://jenson.org/x/highlight.html

What would you do differently? This is an experiment, not a solution. I hope there are other, better ideas to try.

@MichaelPorter Ha! It's funny you should mention the diagonal tracking on Mac hierarchical menus. I worked at Apple then and the team was very proud of that little touch. In their mind, it would be inconceivable to ship without that addition. There are so many ways that Linux/Windows is *still* catching up to the early Mac.

I'm glad you liked both Smooth and Fade. My goal was just to play, see where it took me. I'm trying to think of other ways visual feedback could be made more stable/calm.

@jyasskin @inthehands we're actually working on this pretty hard right now. For 4.6 (early 2026) we're working on adding a stronger way to add recommended accounts. It's a version of BSky's starter packs but with some more trust and safety wrappers around it.

The new #Mastodon team is starting to hit its stride! We're about to ship Quote Posts in 4.5 and our next release (4.6) will have (Starter)Packs (name tdb). It's fun to see our momentum building!

We reviewed the design today at #FediForum and the FEP is available for public feedback.
https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2025/10/our-ideas-about-packs/

@cheeaun @abraham Private + only mentions really needs to be pulled out of this conversation IMHO. I'd like there to be a more dedicated DM section and stop making "Posts" which implies an audience into something that is more of a message

(that that's likely a bigger change that might take awhile)

#Mastodon trust and safety people, I need your help

I'm trying to understand how "Quiet Public" is used. In nearly every UX discussion I have with people the vast majority not only don't understand it, but it actively confuses them.

That doesn't mean we shouldn't have it, but I would like people to at least know WHY we have this. Given you can already opt out of search results w/ a setting, why you wouldn't just use "Followers only" instead?

@evan I get it, if there is a big "umbrella brand", like Mastodon in your head and you've signed up for "bobscoolserver.social" it's easy to see how you could loose track of that.

We're looking at onboarding now for the next release (4.6) and we're looking at little things we could do to help people, e.g. a cleaner welcome email getting them to follow a few more folks more quickly. The current email is fine, just likely a bit overwhelming for some.

Looking for additional suggestions?

So excited that quote posts are rolling out. It's not a 'me too' copy but a well thought out release that protects user privacy. No other platform has taken the time to be this thorough.

This is a subtle feature and hard to discuss because so many assume quoting is ONLY about dunking. It's not! We've learned by talking to community leaders that it's a powerful tool to build community.

#Mastodon will be better, and safer, with this.

https://mastodon.social/@Mastodon/115187078125939270

@tchambers @cederbs Thanks Tim, we're trying to figure out how to use volunteer UX folks with the team. UX tasks are inter-related so it's hard to outsource something easily.

A gentle reminder that if someone replies to you in a way that makes you feel uncomfortable, you don't have to reply!

1. Do nothing, you don't *owe* them a reply
2. Block them, you certainly don't owe them an explanation

While the fediverse is almost always a very nice place, a few abuse the rules of social conduct. If someone isn't playing nice, then just don't play back.

I see this type of #UX mistake all the time. People use a control in the wrong location and have to create high energy signs to 'fix it'.

The first image has the button effectively *behind* you vs the normal placement of having it *next* to you. This one physical layout difference makes the signage so much simpler and intuitive.

@paul @andypiper Paul fun to hear you're playing around with Activity Pub! I'm volunteering with the Mastodon team. Happy to help if you have any other questions