Thread view redesign in Catodon
Today I merged many UI changes, mostly around how threads are viewed and navigated.
I took some of the good elements of Reddit, so now we have sorting by Old/New/Top (the default for the microblogging timelines is Old, and for forums it’s Top - both can change in settings) and a flexible replies section with collapsible/expandable branches.
Top-level posts now show the total number of replies under the whole thread, not just the direct/first level replies (but again you can change it back in Settings). I also saved much vertical space, so now you can read long threads with less scrolling.
If I may say so myself, I honestly believe it’s one of the best UIs on fedi, especially for reading conversations. I think that if anyone tried it, they would agree. Really, really happy with the results. It’s still fresh, so I will probably refine things here and there, but it’s pretty much exactly as I envisioned it.
Let us know what you think!
#catodon
#mbin
6 posts · Last used 19h
[v1.11.0] Block instances, further improve the UI of feeds, bugfixes and more
Crossposted from https://fedia.io/m/mbinReleases@gehirneimer.de/t/4440654
After quite some slow development, finally we can release a new version of Mbin. It contains new features for users, performance improvements and important security fixes.
Summary for Users
Show who boosted content in the feed (Combined view + subscribed + newest)
Add ability to block instances. Content from blocked instances will not show up in the feed and search anymore.
Fix emoji autocomplete inserts ’null’
Show a placeholder when an image embed could not be loaded
Improve design of posts and comments in some areas of the site
Fix endless loop when compressing uploaded images
Fix layout when a comment contains a very wide table
Bugfixes for some federation issues (handling of Mastodon posts with multiple images, embedded video formats, buggy mentions, etc.)
Change layout of list of cross posts
Fix the issue of browsers wanting to download a file when unsupported media files are used in an embed
Add translation for Swedish (by Jonatan Nyberg)
Summary for Server Admins
Minimum software requirements updated to PHP 8.5, Node 24 and Ubuntu 24.04 recommended
Upgraded most of our dependencies. For more details see #2162
Add ability to block instances globally.
Instances blocked this way will be blocked for all current and new users. Users can unblock them manually afterward; thus allowing a “soft” way to moderate the content shown by default for your users. For more details see #2155
Added the new queue async_slow for long-running tasks. If your async queue have gotten full often in the past, consider creating a separate messenger for async_slow.
The sessions are now stored in Redis instead of Postgres. You need to enable persistence in your Redis server, if you want to keep open sessions on restarts of Redis.
Fixed a couple of security vulnerabilities
PostgreSQL autovacuum is tuned for high-churn tables
Summary for developers
Mbin:
Minimum software requirements updated to PHP 8.5 and Node 24
Upgraded most of our dependencies. For more details, including possible breaking package changes, see #2162
Fediverse:
Fix issue that to value might be an object instead of array in some edge-cases
Upgrade Instructions
There are significant changes in the DB. It is advised to create a DB backup before upgrading.
After the post-upgrade script has run, you should not clear Redis / Valkey.
For Docker
Get the official image or checkout the code and build it locally
Stop all containers docker compose down
Start all containers docker compose up -d
For Bare Metal
Ensure you have PHP 8.5 and Node 24 installed
Login as the mbin/kbin user: su mbin
Go to your repo cd /var/www/mbin
Get the new release: git fetch && git checkout v1.11.0
Run the update script: bash bin/post-upgrade
Run exit so we are back at the root user (or put a sudo in front of every command)
Clear your opcache by reloading php fpm systemctl restart php8.5-fpm
Restart the messengers: supervisorctl restart messenger:*
Introducing the Threadiverse Catalog
I'm the maintainer of Catodon, which offers both microblogging and forums (Lemmy-compatible communities), and we noticed that discoverability is not the threadiverse's strongest point: Our server only showed forums/communities that it "knew" because someone from the server already followed them. In Reddit it's easy to see if there is a community for a subject you care about; on the Fediverse it's not that easy.
So I looked at what indexes there are, and most were focused in Lemmy - lemmyverse.net has added MBin and PieFed explorers, but I was looking for something that covers more platforms, and is a unified directory, rather than per-platform only. Maybe there is something that I missed, but I didn't find what I was looking for: a directory for the threadiverse. So I decided to build it.
The Threadiverse Catalog lists forums/communities from Catodon, Discourse, Friendica, Lemmy, Mbin, Mobilizon, NodeBB and PieFed. It hasn't been online for many days, so it hasn't indexed everything, but we already list over 20.000 forums/communities. If there are any bugs or other issues, please let me know.
We built this primarily for Catodon, and on our latest release (26.10.0 "Bongo Cat") users have access to its results through the in-app Search and Explore features, but it's open for everyone to use. It's open source and written in Go. Other projects are also welcome to use it.
Cheers =)
#threadiverse #fediverse #catodon #discourse #friendica #lemmy #mbin #mobilizon #nodebb #piefed
A question to the Fediverse about that old favourite topic: federation!
I wrote this post on Pixelfed the other day: https://pixey.org/p/bammerlaan/978063577283062656
If I look at it through Mastodon, from this account, I think I see all of the replies. Among others, there's one from someone asking for details about zips and buttons, and someone asking where I got the sewing pattern. I replied to both of them using my Mastodon account. I then replied to one of my own replies with photos and more information.
If I look at the post from Pixelfed, though, I only see two replies. My first replies to them are visible, but not the follow-up reply with more pictures.
If I look at the original post of the person asking for the pattern (https://sh.itjust.works/comment/26164267) I notice that my reply to them isn't even shown. Looking at the post from Mbin, which I use, I also don't see all of the replies: https://thebrainbin.org/m/sewing@lemmy.world/p/780358
This is a problem, I'd say. It makes the Fediverse seem emptier than it is, let alone the fact that my reply doesn't seem to be visible even to the person I'm directly replying to. What's going on and what can be done to fix this?
@FediTips@social.growyourown.services #AskFedi #AskMastodon #FediTips #Fediverse #Federation #Pixelfed #Lemmy #MBin #Mastodon
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