Having everyone on GMail is not a good thing.
The reality, from what I’ve gleaned, is that the instance you’re on matters (for many), but you can’t come to appreciate that and what you want in an instance without first being on some instance and active on Mastodon/fediverse.
So I think the solution is that there is essentially a new-to-mastodon instance or domain (of multiple servers that all work the same). It’s for people feeling out mastodon and exploring. And there can even be a time limit for accounts there to prevent accounts sitting around forever.
That way there’d be one domain to point everyone to but the uniqueness of instances and the diversity of the fediverse can be maintained.
Main thing that needs to be cleaned up though is moving instance. It’s not hard now, but this idea would be more attractive if it was one-button-easy.
More generally, the portability of accounts across the fediverse is something I really think should be more of a thing.
My advice has been to just pick an instance and try it out, and then migrate to a different one after a month if they see one that looks like a better fit.
Ivory is literally illegal to own.
Other sources from long extinct sources like as a sibling noted, mammoths, are not. It’s not even THAT expensive. For instance, a guitar nut in mammoth ivory is about $30 vs $5 for “bone” or $10 for synthetic/graphite
> If you choose not to subscribe, Ivory will still work but will function in a read-only mode where you won’t be able to Post, Follow, Fave, etc.
Interesting.
1) do you also contribute for the development of the server software? If yes, how much?
2) is there any type of feature/functionality that would you be willing to pay to have at your instance?
To answer your questions:
1) I don't support Mastodon directly, but I do support the server I am using monthly.
2) Personally I am a bit worried about instances gaining unique features and I hope we don't see too much deviation on that front.
> I have not been super enthused about the existing Mastodon apps.
Have you considered donating to the existing/contributing to the development of the existing open source clients?
> I do support the server I am using monthly.
If I may ask: how much? And what if I told you there is a commercial instance where accounts are priced at $10/year that for all intents and purposes is managed to your satisfaction, would you consider it?
> instances gaining unique features
I am not thinking of protocol level differences, but some type of improvement that could help people be more at ease when migrating to AP servers. E.g; a better search system, or a server level bridge that can let you (or other users of the same instance) follow people on twitter/instagram/youtube "transparently"
I have been doing $8 a month right now, it doesn't get me any benefits on the server and it is through Patreon. I have been wondering if that is too much but I can afford it and I know this can be expensive to run.
Search system I am not really sure about how I would feel, I would not want to feel like I need to switch instances. Just like I wouldn't want certain instances to have different media support. Sill not fully sure how I feel about that really.
Edit: Regarding the commercial instance option. I don't really see the point? Since all (most) of the instances are connected there isn't any value in an exclusive club... and tbh I am not really sure the other servers would not just block it.
My server seems to be moderated just fine, I think its better that those that can support while most can use it for free.
2) No, beyond reliability, which it manages well enough right now.
There likely is some sort of market for commercial instances, but it's not me.
I subscribed anyway, though, since it's a nice iphone app and hopefully I can help support the development of the mac app.
FYI, Ice Cubes is an iOS app. It does run on macOS by virtue of macOS supporting iOS apps, but its App Store listing notes that it's "Not verified for macOS".
FWIW GotoSocial seems to work (although Ivory is showing that timeline under the wrong user for some reason - all the GtS timeline posts are shown as the user I logged into the Akkoma instance with.)
In summary, if you're not using a Mastodon instance, probably give it a month or two.
EDIT: Having said that, it's showing every timeline item on the GtS instance as the same one - I suspect they might be using integers for IDs (which is what Mastodon - but no-one else - does) and coincidentally this timeline has IDs that all start with `01`. Which would also explain the Akkoma problem since all those IDs are currently starting with `AR` and thus unparseable as integers.
None of the iOS Mastodon apps (except one that is proprietary and seemingly not published on the german appstore) properly support Akkoma notifications, but a somewhat broken Ivory would still be better than a halfway broken Metatext.
Depends how you implement it. e.g. If you use `int64` for your IDs, Akkoma and GotoSocial won't work. Or if you send your POST parameters in the URL, Akkoma won't work. There's other subtle stuff too - toot codes unset optional fields as `null` in the JSON it sends (rather than leaving them out) which breaks both Akkoma and GotoSocial.
In summary, someone needs to write a decent MastoAPI spec and get everyone to agree on that rather than this ad-hoc balkanisation.
Description: ID of the status in the database.
Type: String (cast from an integer but not guaranteed to be a number)
Version history:In other words, even the Mastodon API docs claim the ID isn't guaranteed not to be a string.
I'm sure there are undocumented differences, but if you base your data model on the spec then there's no reason to even assume you can just use a number.
For me the unified timeline is the key feature when switching between devices
Few people will make a living from running a fediverse server but if you have enough of a dedicated audience, you can probably at least fundraise enough to help cover costs.
very good.
Like it a lot so far. Familiar with the interface as I come from Tweetbot. I am glad to be able to support the developers who've unfortunately have to retire their bird app.
If you're still looking to follow some folks on Mastodon, you can find me at @hankruiger@mastodon.nl.
CameronBanga@mastodon.social for me! Feel free to reply your handle as well!