i’m tired of clicking “open in browser” in my mastodon client to see all the replies to a post / look at a user’s profile who i don’t follow
is there any mastodon client with a “fetch more data” button or something which will automatically do this for me and show the posts to me in the client?
i forgot how different the experience of using mastodon on a single user instance vs big server is, so many replies to this tweet are from people on big servers saying they don’t have this problem (which is great! i love that about big servers, would just like the tiny server experience to be better)
@b0rk You could try FediFetcher on your server: https://github.com/nanos/FediFetcher
This does wonders for my single user instance. I probably still don't see all replies but a lot more. This way it's also client-independent.
@b0rk fwiw one reason it’s manual is technicaly it violates your privacy since the remote server now has your IP etc. There’s a proposed feature to have instances support doing this on behalf of their own user. That allows maintaining privacy and also the instance’s block lists and such can apply and filter out possible stuff the user or their instance blocks.
@tcely@b0rk Well I'm on mastodon so it wouldn't be python. :)
But I think the idea is that instead of a client reaching out to the REMOTE server for a post, they make a request to their own instance (who they presumably trust) to fetch any missing replies. Then the server loads the remote post and any replies IT has, merging them into the state the instance has for that thread, applying any rules it has, then the user gets that view. Which yes, that does seem to be private enough.
@b0rk As another single-user-instance-user, I have often wished this were simpler / on by default at the server level—but a smart client's maybe even better. Let me spend my hard-earned money federating!
@b0rk
I wrote this bash script to help populate a local instance with replies. It's hamstrung by the unauthenticated 60-reply limit most other instances serve, but it's better than nothing. https://mastodon.lwr.wtf/@jxyzn/109565169845897879
@b0rk I firmly believe that we shouldn't even have these huge servers. Of course not everyone can self-host, but a few hundred to maybe at most ten thousand users is plenty big.
@b0rk The big issue here is privacy: there is an (non written?) expectation that your clients only interact with your server, to avoid any privacy leakage. This is why all the media is copied by your server, and official apps dont load from other servers.
There are obvious UX drawbacks to this issue, but it is also sensible privacy/security wise.
I think we (Mastodon) would be open to improving this with server-side post fetching for replies, but we are very under-staffed :(
@b0rk@renchap it's interesting, in the single-user server case the privacy implications are the same as the client fetching directly. seems like this is a case where a "more-private by default" client really needs to weigh the usability tradeoffs.
(even on large instances threads and profiles from other instances can be pretty sparse compared to popping open a browser, and that's... not great)
@b0rk I’m confused by this post. I use IceCubes, and it seems to me like it’s doing what I read you saying you want it to do. I visit a profile for someone I don’t follow whose account is on another instance, and it shows me their posts just by scrolling down. I also see the replies to a post just by swiping. I must be missing something?
@b0rk thanks for bringing this whole issue up. I joined way back in the ancient days and never understood this was an issue. Whole we’re at it any good MacOS / Linux reco’s? Currently Mastonaut, and Tokodon respectively in use at my house.
@relistan also you follow me so it makes sense that your server already has some info about my past posts -- this issue comes up when looking at a profile who
a) you don't follow
b) nobody else on your instance follows either
@relistan@ripienaar yea i completely forgot in my original post that people on big instances just don't experience this problem at all and have not had to build a complete mental model of how federation works. mastodon is weird
@b0rk are you meaning that the client fetches a cached result from the server, but the server’s cache is out of date?
Automatically falling back to “load from remote server” feels like the right solution, if the first request fails.
Although it may be hard to detect failure if it “successfully” gets the cache. I wonder if clients know how stale the cache is. If the server handles it then the client still needs fo handle the failure case where their server worked, but failed to reach the remote one in a reasonable time.
I haven’t noticed this issue on Ivory yet, but maybe I’m misattributing the issue to something else. I wonder if loading a profile from a remote url in ivory search works, as that’s what I tend to do most of the time anyway.
@tcely
Thanks to this toot I've tried Fedilab, and thanks to its "Display remote conversation" Mastodon has come alive! I can see now that toots have replies, interactions! Love it! Thank you!
(Although I now noted that from the remote conversation, clicking on @apps from this toot gives an error 🤔)
@b0rk I keep thinking, ignoring the privacy issue, it should not be that hard for clients to fetch from other servers right?
I am also on a very small server and it is a pain
I'm looking for the same, but for Android 🥺
Tusky does not, and I moved to Elk thinking it might, but it doesn't yet.
Will keep this toot in hand to check if someone adds a good alternative 🤞
@b0rk Mona on iOS or Mac? Generally the number of replies shown in a post are significantly fewer (sometimes 0) than those I see when tapping on a post to see replies which suggests Mona might be doing what you want.
@b0rk I’m using ivory too. Remember that it’s still in de development and not complete. Best thing to get this feature in Ivory is sending a support request. They work very hard to get the best client that is out there.
@b0rk Subway Tooter does this. The UI is a little janky until you set up protected columns to maintain the specific views you want; I have follows, notifications, local feed and fedifeed as my protected columns. Sometimes I stand up and protect a hashtag column if I'm deeply interested in it for a time.
@b0rk I use Tusky which makes it possible to have settings for these things. I realise it is android only. elk.zone is a fairly good PWA client and it seems to me it can do what you're describing
> “FediFetcher is a tool for Mastodon that automatically fetches missing replies and posts from other fediverse instances, and adds them to your own Mastodon instance”
@b0rk@njr I’m confused. I use Ivory on iOS and macOS and I don’t feel like I’m experiencing the issue you described in the original post, so I must be missing something
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