Notices by Jorge Caballero, MD (datadrivenmd@fedified.com), page 4

For #FollowFriday I released a feature-packed version of Fedified's friendly fork of the Elk Mastodon client, which makes it easier to discover great accounts and fresh content by adding a section featuring:
- "Who to follow" (based on existing relationships)
- Fediverse-wide Trends

Check it out, at https://felk.social

Note: you may have to do a "hard" reload/close-reopen browser windows for the update to appear

This will become a 🧵 with more details and answers to FAQs throughout the day

I poke my head into Bluesky from time-to-time— and every time I do I end up blocking at least one person I had previously blocked on Twitter for being a bigot. Every. Time. So, that's how that's going.

In case anyone was wondering

The vibe at Bluesky, in a word: sophomoric

Strong Beavis and Butthead vibes, except that the most active accounts on there wouldn't understand the reference

'"In light of what's happened over the last several months — and over the weekend — I believe we're at an inflection point where the risk/benefit analysis for folks such as myself is shifting to looking at going somewhere else," said [ @DataDrivenMD], founder of Distal Labs, a non-profit that builds digital tools for grassroots advocacy groups.'

https://www.axios.com/2023/06/20/scientific-community-eyes-doors-twitter

So, I got tired of the confusing DM situation on Mastodon, so I fixed it by adding:
- unread message badge
- split out the messages into threads, so that you're able to see all the messages that are part of the conversation
- made the connecting line in the thread bigger and bolder when the conversation changes from public --> DM.

Oh, yeah, and it streams the data, so you get notified in real-time. In. Real. Time.

Check it out at https://elk.fedified.com

OK, but what if you had #quote toots *and* trending posts from *across the fediverse* and it was all happening within Mastodon's existing privacy framework? Check it out at https://elk.fedified.com

h/t @ummjackson for graciously offering access to https://feditrends.com, which are used for logged out-users

Today's update: https://elk.fedified.com now has on-demand translations - any post that is written in an foreign language will automatically offer you the option to translate it to your current language (as selected by you through the settings in the app).

h/t to @supernovae (admin of https://universeodon.com) for providing access to their language translation service API.
 
https://fedified.com/users/DataDrivenMD/statuses/110427839597868506

Today's update: https://elk.fedified.com now has interactive quote toots for all incoming messages. If the post includes a link to a Mastodon-compatible post, it will automatically look and feel like a QT*

The sidebar notifications previews also received better styling because why not?

* Key exceptions: you won't see the automatic expansion if the post isn't on the public internet or if you're blocked by the original author.

OK, so, what if you had #quote toots that were accessible and visible on all Mastodon clients **and** the app *also* automatically expanded links to *any public* Mastodon post that happens to appear on your timeline. And that linked post were fully interactive, so you could see all the images, follow the author, click through to reply, etc.? And all of this were done within Mastodon's existing privacy framework?

Sound good? Check it out at https://elk.fedified.com
 
https://fedified.com/users/DataDrivenMD/statuses/110398034263397484

@timkmak For boots-on-the-ground coverage from #Ukraine, check out this great thread and follow @timkmak

Hear me out: 1-click privacy-conscious quoting. And you don't have to move to a different server. And you don't have to install new software. And it's visible to anyone on any client. And it's available now* at https://elk.fedified.com

*Still a work in progress but ready for public testing

If you're in the anti-quoting camp kindly take a deep breath, and read the rest of this thread. I want to share what I mean by "privacy-conscious" (1/x)

The awesome thing about open source is that, license permitting, you can build WTF you want. In this case, I added #quote toots to the amazing (and delightfully elegant) Elk client. It's still a work in progress, but you can try it out today-- no need to change servers or anything. Just log on at https://elk.fedified.com

@profcarroll @mattblaze I reached out to AOC via Twitter DM (we're mutuals) last week to ask (again) about a establishing a presence on here, but didn't receive a response 🤷🏻♂️

@mattblaze @profcarroll agreed, though the lift shouldn't be as heavy if we're talking about personal/campaign accounts, which AOC and most members of Congress have. I offered to help her team set up a Mastodon instance but no luck. Did the same for a few other members of Congress that follow me in Twitter. I'm guessing there's a natsec issue/concern that's not being addressed because it's not being openly discussed, but that's just a guess on my part

@Gargron quick follow-up: would de novo webfinger resolution return the correct status?

ICYMI: Fedified's Discover Mastodon site (https://discover.fedified.com) is a dynamic collection of Mastodon accounts that have been active within the last 7 days－ and the listings are organized by topic. You can create your own profile if your account has more than 200 followers, in good standing (i.e. not limited/suspended), and is at least 30 days old.

Additional updates:
- you can now create your own topic tags (no hate, bigotry, etc allowed)
- updates every 10-15 minutes based on trends/activity

Increasingly clear that quote posts are the key differentiator between BlueSky and Mastodon

For this #FollowFriday, I added several *very* sought-after features to the the Discover Mastodon portal (https://discover.fedified.com) . To make it even easier to find great content on here:
- anyone with an established Mastodon account can opt-in for a profile
- if you have a profile already, you can directly modify the topic tags on your profile (choose from 70+)
- more accessibility-related improvements *everywhere* (tooltips, aria-labels, and more!)

(1/x)

#BlueSky is "decentralized" in the same way that OpenAI is "open"

The problem isn't BlueSky, the problem is the kowtowing to self-appointed tone police and product/feature deference to accounts whose entire brand is telling everyone else that they don't belong.