macfranc

joined 3 years ago
[–] macfranc@poliversity.it 0 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

@p03locke I understand your outburst, and personally, I think it's quite well-founded. However, I remind you that the problem lies in the fact that Mastodon has chosen to implement proprietary solutions that don't follow the Activitypub standard, and that almost the entire Fediverse wants to conform to this supposed de facto standard. The fact that Lemmy adopts solutions that are different from other software, but still more in line with Activitypub, shouldn't be considered a problem.

[–] macfranc@poliversity.it 0 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

@p03locke interoperability makes all software equal; those that aren't, are each equal in their own way... 😅
Jokes aside, Mastodon is the elephant in the room of interoperability in the Fediverse.

[–] macfranc@poliversity.it 0 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

@Phantaloons The idea would be very interesting. Could you explain it better? In fact, at first glance, it would seem simpler to run Orbot directly before launching the application.
Perhaps rather than adding Orbot to the application, it would be better to create a RaccoOnion fork 😅

[–] macfranc@poliversity.it 0 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)

@OpenStars

I am not sure that you would get this unless I add your user tag @macfranc ?

Yes, I'd still get it, even if you didn't mention me. The problem arises when you reply to someone who replied to me: in that case, I might not receive the notification. Unfortunately (as often happens), the fault lies with Mastodon, not Lemmy/Piefed.

It is not your fault. The entire Fediverse is still being built, and it only gets better over time.:-) The fact that Lemmy + PieFed + mBin + nodeBB can intercommunicate at all is fantastic, even though yes there are some kinks remaining to be worked out:-).

I also believe this statement. Since I've been an instance administrator (Friendica, Lemmy, NodeBB, and Mastodon Glitch-soc), I've always been concerned with how the Fediverse software integrates with each other and with spreading knowledge of the various platforms

My intention was to make light of the reasoning behind criticism of your post, while pointing out to Threadiverse users that once you get past that, the actual content is quite solid. So less “wall of text” than merely “odd-looking introduction”. It’s a good post!

Thank you for your feedback. It's somewhere between a press release and an informational post about the Fediverse. I'm only surprised because, usually, the criticisms about length come from Mastodon users, not Lemmy users...

And yeah the giant text looks weird, haha! 😂

Usually, the problem is solved at the user interface level. BBCode and Markdown have a certain number of standard levels for titles, and it's up to the final interpreter (the interface) to manage their display based on the tool (desktop browser, mobile browser, mobile app, etc.).

Especially since at first it is a repeat of the title, but then goes into new territory after that. I do not know if there is anything that can be done about it though, except further code development on the side of all the myriad varieties of recipients of the message.

Repeating the title, on the other hand, is the best possible solution for integrating threads opened in the forumverse by microblogging users: Lemmy takes the first 200 characters of the first paragraph and converts them into a title, disabling formatting, links, and mentions. That data, however, is re-proposed at the beginning of the post text.
I understand there are some issues, but I don't see any better solution than this.

I should add that, unfortunately, Mastodon's recent implementation of quoted posts has made it difficult for Lemmy to manage opening posts, because Mastodon formats posts that quote another post as:

Re: fedilinkhttpsPost text

And therefore, the title of a Lemmy thread would become
"Re: fedilinkhttps" 🤬

[–] macfranc@poliversity.it 1 points 3 weeks ago

@cannedtuna

New account, was an hour old at the time I wrote the above, first thing they do is hop to this post to comment about downloading it.

...and as I explained here, it wasn't a "new" account, but rather one that was "intercepted" by Lemmy.world only when he replied to my post.

[–] macfranc@poliversity.it 1 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

@cannedtuna Can you explain better what you mean? Which accounts have been active for an hour?

[–] macfranc@poliversity.it 2 points 3 weeks ago (7 children)

@OpenStars I'm both disappointed and amused by this inconvenience.

Unfortunate, because my intention was to highlight the app's qualities, not to annoy as many readers as possible.

But I'm also amused, because unfortunately, many Lemmy apps format titles poorly, transforming #/h1 tags into something like "format a gigantic title that takes up one screen for each syllable." 🤦‍♂️🤣

@ggtdbz

[–] macfranc@poliversity.it 3 points 3 weeks ago

@fizzle Given that machine translation systems have nothing to do with LLMs, I see you understand perfectly well that it's perfectly fine not to know English, just as it's perfectly fine to use machine translation systems.

However, I can't be concerned about those who manage to turn what should be a legitimate and justified concern about the proliferation of AI-generated texts into a complete obsession.

@givesomefucks

[–] macfranc@poliversity.it 6 points 3 weeks ago (8 children)

@givesomefucks I'm sorry, but you're making serious and false claims that do not honor either your reputation or your ability to recognize the synthetic origin of a text or code.

I wrote the post in Italian and first translated it into English (a language I don't know) using a machine translation system. I then did a back translation to make sure everything was at least comprehensible.

Regarding the app, if you had the necessary knowledge, you could take a look at the code to understand that the development wasn't done with vibe coding, but was done over the course of almost two years, integrating observations and addressing issues.

[–] macfranc@poliversity.it 4 points 3 weeks ago

@tio Your instance is one of those shortlisted by Raccoon both because it's very well moderated and because it has a local timeline accessible even without logging in.
I'm glad you'll recommend this app to your contacts. In that regard, although none of us are in love with Google (🤬), we must admit that the presence of the 1.0 release on the Play Store is essential to overcome the psychological barrier of all those users who do not want to go to alternative stores or download the .apk package.

@pfefferle @jerry @informapirata @notizie @alex @fediverse @janTeko @ruud

 

When the Open Social Web Hybridizes: Raccoon for Friendica is a new app... Mastodon. And it even has a little Lemmy in it! That's why the Free Software + Fediverse duo is such a valuable resource.

@fediverse

Raccoon 1.0 was finally released for Android in recent days, a rather innovative client originally created for #Friendica, but which has now become one of the most innovative apps for the user experience on #Mastodon. The app is available for Android (already on the Play Store and Izzidroid, and will soon be available on F-Droid), but a #Debian package has also been released. An iOS version remains to be seen for its success.

The app introduces some very important innovations to the federated app landscape.

1. Navigate the Fediverse from an app, even without creating an account

Raccoon is the only app that lets you browse the Fediverse even without an account. When you install it, you can select any Friendica or Mastodon instance and "leverage" its local public and federated timelines. This way, users can explore multiple instances before choosing which one to open an account on. Of course, even after adding an account (the app manages multiple accounts), you can browse the timelines of servers other than the one you signed up to.

2. "Browse through" messages: "swipe" navigation

Unlike all other social apps (both those for the Fediverse and those for commercial social networks), #RaccoonForFriendica lets you open a post in your timeline and continue browsing through previous and next posts by simply swiping left and right.
This is a truly interesting ergonomic innovation.

3. Finally a formatting bar in social apps

Since the app was created for Friendica, it features a built-in formatting toolbar reminiscent of Lemmy clients (in fact, the developer @janTeko first experimented with app development with a Lemmy app). The formatting toolbar can also be used for Mastodon instances running the Glitch-soc fork, such as infosec.exchange, tech.lgbt, and my poliversity.it instance, which was the one the developer experimented with.

In addition to being more immediate, writing formatted posts is also made easier by a "preview" function that helps avoid errors in Markdown or BBCode coding.

4. Finally, Mastodon users will be able to enjoy Fediverse groups too.

As you may know, Mastodon doesn't support the display of group posts. Even if you select a group, you'll still see a single timeline where top posts alternate with replies. Searching for a thread on Mastodon is therefore very complicated, but the #Raccoon developer has found a way to enable "topic" viewing across all accounts that are "activitypub groups," be they #Lemmy, #NodeBB, Piefed, Mbin, Peertube, Wordpress, Mobilizon, Flipboard, etc.
This idea also came about thanks to the fact that the developer had previously tried his hand at developing an app for Lemmy and was able to experiment with the formatting bars and display of Lemmy "communities," which are nothing other than "#activitypub groups."

5. Other interesting features

Among other features, you can

6. What's still missing?

The app features all the features found in most other Mastodon apps, except one: the correct handling of Mastodon posts that quote other posts. These are still displayed in a fairly primitive way. The developer is trying to decide whether to adapt to Mastodon specifications or reinterpret the feature in a more personalized way.
It must be said that, unfortunately, the implementation of quoted messages (already present in Friendica for ages) was implemented by Mastodon very late, only in recent months, and in a very "personal" way that many other software developers did not appreciate.

7. Raccoon is an app that will benefit users who already use Mastodon but also those who have never "tried" the Fediverse

This app has been under development for almost two years, and the beta version is just over a year old. However, version 1.0 has resolved all previously encountered issues.
Based on user feedback, the developer will evaluate whether to create an iOS version and even a Windows version.
Anyone who wishes to allow reporting of application errors can enable anonymous crash reports.

8. Links and Resources

This is the developer's profile:
https://androiddev.social/users/janTeko

This is the app repository: https://github.com/LiveFastEatTrashRaccoon/RaccoonForFriendica/

This is the Play Store link:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.livefast.eattrash.raccoonforfriendica

This is the link on IzzyDroid (the app will be released on F-Droid soon, but is currently under review):
https://apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid/index/apk/com.livefast.eattrash.raccoonforfriendica

Here is the developer's blog:
https://livefasteattrashraccoon.github.io/blog/

Finally, from here you can download the .apk or .deb package without using the online stores. line:
https://github.com/LiveFastEatTrashRaccoon/RaccoonForFriendica/releases/latest/

One last recommendation

The public's response will be important to enable the further development of this app.
If you want to test it on Mastodon, I recommend using instances running the glitch-soc fork. Among these, I'd recommend the infosec.exchange instance, which is well managed by @jerry. And of course, but only if you communicate in Italian or Esperanto, I'd be happy to host you on my poliversity.it instance.
Regarding Friendica, I recommend two instances: friendica.world, managed by @ruud and featuring a rather lively timeline, and, of course, social.trom.tf, excellently managed by @tio.
If you communicate in Italian, I'd be happy to host you on my poliverso.org instance.

Greetings to all and let me know if you need further information, if you have tried the app and how you found it.
Francesco
You can also interact with me through the Mastodon account @informapirata and the Friendica account @notizie