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So a little problem with the Fediverse. Some platforms, such as #Friendica, which I cannot stop going on about, allow very rich content. Not just going over 500 characters, but tables, quoting of other posts, properly threaded replies, rich text, etc etc.

But anything you're gonna write is gonna get federated to the elephant in the room, which because it's pretending to be #twitter is very much a lowest common denominator.

Should we just go ahead and do it anyway, or should users of more compositionally capable #fediverse software limit ourselves to what we know is going to render sensibly on #mastodon and its various clones?
#fediverse #Mastodon #twitter #friendica

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Vel 🍕
Vel 🍕  
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if you're on friendica then use friendica's features. If mastodon doesn't render it properly then that's mastodon's shortcoming.
Vel 🍕
Vel 🍕  
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Also, it is worth noting that this is a case where Mastodon actually strips formatting from other platforms on purpose because the lead dev doesn't like rich text lol https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/pull/10629#issuecomment-501741304

Accept richer text from remote statuses by ClearlyClaire · Pull Request #10629 · mastodon/mastodon

Support abbr, del, pre, blockquote, code, strong, b, em, i, ul, ol, li and h1 to h5 tags in remote statuses.
GitHub
Sarah Brown
Sarah Brown  
Oh FFS. This is why we can't have nice things
Holly Brigstocke 🏳️‍⚧️
Holly Brigstocke 🏳️‍⚧️  
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Possibility of content scaling. Will need backend to accommodate it though.

Back in the day Ceefax news page was staffed by very good writers who managed to say more in one limited page than a normal TV bulletin.

So maybe force an abstract for platform with constrained output, and richer text for more expansive platforms.

But then forums versus blogs were a thing back in the day too.
Sarah Brown
Sarah Brown  
It's not the comment length thing. Mastodon handles that.

It's more things like this and this and this,
and also this,

which given you're seeing this on Mastodon, you can't see at all.
Holly Brigstocke 🏳️‍⚧️
Holly Brigstocke 🏳️‍⚧️  
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I don't see the problem. It's just a classic scaleability issue.

Manual versus automatic.

Code handles it, or lo-fi and hi-fi accounts can be used. abstract in one. Shiny stuff in the other.

Basically less than one page of a standards guide.

It's really just a question of will, or if it's worth the effort. I can't make that decision for anyone else.
Kingsley Uyi Idehen
Kingsley Uyi Idehen  
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@goatsarah,

Never limit yourself, especially in this burgeoning #Fediverse.

Loose-coupling of everything is the name of the game, and that can also lead to better products that compete on functionality rather than artificial choke-holds based on monopoly etc..

IMHO -- you should always up the ante competitively as long as it doesn't break Fediverse interoperability 😀
#fediverse @Sarah Brown
Sarah Brown
Sarah Brown  
Oh, I like how you put that a lot! Thanks.
volkris
volkris  
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It’s up to each #Fediverse program to handle all of the content it’s receiving, as best it can, in whatever way it thinks best for its users.

So yep, go ahead and post whatever you want in the format that makes the most sense for the content.

To hold yourself back for the sake of #Mastodon is to deprive all of the other clients of better content, while also maintaining that same, crippled status quo.
#fediverse #Mastodon
Alexandra Lanes
Alexandra Lanes  
I also wonder whether there are different social norms between the platforms or whether that's kind of gone by the wayside since everyone expects their content to be federated freely anyway. (Does friendica have content warnings?)
Sarah Brown
Sarah Brown  
It honours mastodon’s warnings. I believe it supports bbcode spoilers

a spoilerlike this
Sarah
Sarah  
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@ajlanes wow, they really don’t federate at all well.
@Alexandra Lanes
Old White Dude
Old White Dude  
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I think you need to make that decision based on the participants on your server. Just remember that there may be formatting & other issues that mean that others of us who aren't on your instance will not be able to see. Because of this, interactions may be limited.
Ian Patterson
Ian Patterson  
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mostly I think it’d be good to push it, to get people to appreciate fediverse is more than just Mstdn, and help nudge new client apps in right direction too. But nothing too ridiculous, to keep it as open as possible
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