The Fediverse deserves a dumb graphical client

https://adele.pages.casa/md/blog/the-fediverse-deserves-a-dumb-graphical-client.md

by speckx • 3 months ago

73 19 3 months ago

adele.pages.casa

superkuh• 3 months ago

It really does. But also, having to do this points out a glaring flaw in the design of the fediverse websites. They're applications and not documents. They require executing complex code from unknown third parties just to show a bit of text and some multi-media. This isn't needed at all. And it wasn't like this till mastodon v3 when they broke it.

Despite requiring Javascript execution mastodon actually does have the post contents of a URL in the hidden meta-content HTML header on the page where it scolds you and blocks you for not executing their arbitrary code. All they'd have to do is put that same text in the HTML as actual <p> text. And it's not just mastodon instances, the other fediverse "applications' are just as silly in their intentional breaking of accessibility for no reason.

lynx97• 3 months ago

I have yet to find a social network which is actually accessible. The Google thing (circles?) was never actually useable, it was the biggest horror show of all. m.facebook.com was basically the only website that was ever really accessible. All the other players, including the "free and morally superior" alternatives couldn't give two fucks about people with disabilities, which reflects nicely on the fact that they are actually not an alternative, they are a playground for misguided developers...

Fact is, if you are launching a social network which is not accessible from the get go, you are part of the problem. You have no moral high ground, you're just playing around and widening the digital divide, leaving people behind.

capitainenemo• 3 months ago

At least Xitter has Nitter proxies after they went full Javascript - which is also great since it allows accessing content that's often behind a registration wall.

ndegruchy• 3 months ago

In addition to this guys app, there's also brutaldon[1]. A web1.0 client that serves as a web interface for mastodon.

[1] https://brutaldon.org/about

mindslight• 3 months ago

First, I take issue with the idea of calling something "dumb" for trying to avoid modern app bloat, even as marketing. I understand the precedent of a "smart" device being something that backhauls your personal information to the surveillance industry (decidedly not smart!). But still, can we find a better name for the concept? "Native" ? "Lean" ? It shouldn't be about giving up some purported betterness of bloaty software, but rather about the benefits we get by doing so.

Second, it's kind of depressing that this is still tying itself to web technologies. What about a straightforward desktop client that uses a native desktop toolkit? I get that this is a difficult problem because a lot of protocols bake in reliance on web technologies and whatnot, but if I am looking for a simple graphical client I would expect something that aims to not simply dump content into webviews, nevermind still being dependent on an actual browser!

herewulf• 3 months ago

I read it as in "dumb terminal". It's just rendering HTML as is, not trying to do anything clever. But maybe I'm just pining for the days of VT100.

My ideal client would be an Emacs one, focused on plain text but can still display images. No doubt this exists.

But.. I've never gotten into the Fediverse or indeed any social media. The decentralized, small web premise sounds nice though.

floren• 3 months ago

Sidebar, am I alone in absolutely hating "smol"?

all2• 3 months ago

Its the memetic inverse of "swol". Dunno if that helps or not.

dgunay• 3 months ago

No, there's tons of backlash against the "le reddit chungus" era of memes like doggo pupper smol bean etc.

pkal• 3 months ago

No, I just guess that most people who dislike it (like me) dislike it on an "eyeroll" level, where you wouldn't use it yourself but don't have the energy to make a fuss about it.

guywithahat• 3 months ago

Somewhat unrelated but these sorts of clients are becoming great targets for AI coding. I've been able to create minimal gtk C++ apps for small sites with good API's in relatively little time, and they run beautifully since they're native apps.

I like the project though, it'd be cool to have a picture of what it looks like either on the git page or the blog article but I like the spirit of the project.

cachius• 3 months ago

Would love to hear more, some examples.

righthand• 3 months ago

Wouldn’t removing the dumb excessiveness of most graphical clients, make it a “smart” client?

kogasa240p• 3 months ago

What about Akkoma?

not2b• 3 months ago

I looked at it and it is impressively lightweight. It would help if it could collapse duplicate notifications, right now the notifications page is filled with repeats even though I'm not all that popular on fedi.

prmoustache• 3 months ago

Adële is building and hosting small but really nice things in the spirit of the internet as I knew it before the Great Enshitification Malaise Era we are living in.

Thank you Adële.

Note to myself: stop commenting and update your damn gemini capsule

alsetmusic• 3 months ago

Are there any plans to add support for Lemmy?

AlBugdy• 3 months ago

Might be unrelated to the specific GUI discussion but I absolutely hate how there is no threaded discussion on Bluesky or Mastodon (or Twitter which they desperately try to mimic for some reason). You have to use "@username" which does nothing useful when clicked.

You can barely select text on a post. If you click on it, you lost your place and go inside the post?

Why aren't comment GUIs like those of HN, lobsters or the old reddit-style not more popular?

I think I understand why YouTube, Facebook and Twitter intentionally cripple usability by only allowing 1 level of replies and (ab)using the @username way to discuss things - to cater to stupider people with less attention span, to keep discussions lighter and broader and to show more of the top level comments. But all of these would've been accomplished if there were more "show more" buttons, like new reddit does it. It's still dumb as hell but at least it keeps the discussion threaded/nested.

Off topic, but I just realized when I collapse something on HN, it sends a request to HN telling it it's collapsed. Useful for when reloading a page, but I would love a setting that makes the collapse client-only with no requests (and maybe no persistence on reloading).

Anyway, I never used any social media, including Twitter, save for the occasional link I found that I use Nitter or XCancel for. I was really hoping to finally participate in the new fediverse but when I saw the UI decisions, I don't see a point. Twitter clones and alternatives can still be Twitter-like without the dumbing down of the threading/nesting of the comment sections.

Edit: Forgot to mention both Bluesky and Mastodon load much slower than HN or Lobsters or reddit with or without Tor.

butz• 3 months ago

I think Dillo developer will love this.

The Fediverse deserves a dumb graphical client

Related Stories