Posts tagged with "Social Media"

The Many Purposes of Timeline Apps for the Open Web

Tapestry (left) and Reeder.

Tapestry (left) and Reeder.

Writing at The Verge following the release of The Iconfactory’s new app Tapestry, David Pierce perfectly encapsulates how I feel about the idea of “timeline apps” (a name that I’m totally going to steal, thanks David):

⁠⁠What I like even more, though, is the idea behind Tapestry. There’s actually a whole genre of apps like this one, which I’ve taken to calling “timeline apps.” So far, in addition to Tapestry, there’s Reeder, Unread, Feeeed, Surf, and a few others. They all have slightly different interface and feature ideas, but they all have the same basic premise: that pretty much everything on the internet is just feeds. And that you might want a better place to read them.⁠⁠
[…]
These apps can also take some getting used to. If you’re coming from an RSS reader, where everything has the same format — headline, image, intro, link — a timeline app will look hopelessly chaotic. If you’re coming from social, where everything moves impossibly fast and there’s more to see every time you pull to refresh, the timeline you curate is guaranteed to feel boring by comparison.⁠⁠

I have a somewhat peculiar stance on this new breed of timeline apps, and since I’ve never written about them on MacStories before, allow me to clarify and share some recent developments in my workflow while I’m at it.

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A Bluesky-Based Photo-Sharing App Is Coming→

Sebastian Vogelsang, the Berlin-based developer of Skeets, an alternative to Bluesky’s official client, is working on a new photo-sharing app called Flashes that is built on the same codebase as Skeets. As reported by Sarah Perez at TechCrunch:

When launched, Flashes could tap into growing consumer demand for alternatives to Big Tech’s social media monopoly. This trend has led to the adoption of open source, decentralized apps like Mastodon and Bluesky, among others, including the recently launched Pixelfed mobile apps, built on Mastodon’s ActivityPub protocol. It’s also, in part, what’s fueling TikTok users’ shift to the Chinese app RedNote ahead of the U.S. TikTok ban — that is, U.S. users are signaling that they would rather use a foreign adversary’s app than return to Meta at this point.

The idea behind Flashes is fundamentally different from Instagram. Whereas Instagram is a standalone product that allows users to cross-post to Threads automatically, Flashes is being built on top of the same social graph as Bluesky. That means Flashes will act as a Bluesky filter focused on photo and video content instead of your entire Bluesky feed. It’s an interesting approach that sidesteps the messiness of cross-posting entirely and allows Vogelsang to focus Flashes’ feature set on photos and video.

I’m looking forward to giving Flashes a try. Instagram is more deeply embedded in many people’s lives than Threads, which makes it harder to replace. However, I’m glad to see Vogelsang and Pixelfed trying. There are enough people like us who are fed up with Meta’s policies that these sorts of alternatives may have a shot at gaining traction with users.

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MacStories Won’t Stand for Meta’s Dehumanizing and Harmful Moderation Policies

Just over two years ago, MacStories left Twitter behind. We left when Elon Musk began dismantling the company’s trust and safety infrastructure, allowing hateful speech and harassment on the platform. Meta is now doing the same thing with Threads and Instagram, so we’re leaving them behind, too.

We were initially optimistic about Threads because of its support for federation and interoperability with Mastodon. The relatively young service has never done as much as it should to protect its users from hateful content, as Niléane documented last year. Yet as bad as it already was for LGBT people and others, things took a much darker turn this week when Meta announced a series of new policies that significantly scaled back moderation on Threads and Instagram.

Meta has abandoned its relationships with third-party fact-checking organizations in favor of a “community notes” approach similar to X. The company has also eliminated filters it had in place to protect users from a wide variety of harmful speech. As Casey Newton reported yesterday, the internal Meta documents that implement these new policies now allow for posts like:

“There’s no such thing as trans children.”
“God created two genders, ‘transgender’ people are not a real thing.”
“This whole nonbinary thing is made up. Those people don’t exist, they’re just in need of some therapy.”
“A trans woman isn’t a woman, it’s a pathetic confused man.”
“A trans person isn’t a he or she, it’s an it.”

Newton also reports:

So in addition to being able to call gay people insane on Facebook, you can now also say that gay people don’t belong in the military, or that trans people shouldn’t be able to use the bathroom of their choice, or blame COVID-19 on Chinese people, according to this round-up in Wired. (You can also now call women household objects and property, per CNN.) The company also (why not?!) removed a sentence from its policy explaining that hateful speech can “promote offline violence.”

For more on Meta’s new policies and their impact, we encourage MacStories readers to read both of Casey Newton’s excellent Platformer articles linked above.

This is ugly, dehumanizing stuff that has no place on the Internet or anywhere else and runs counter to everything we believe in at MacStories. We believe that platforms should protect all of their users from harm and harassment. Technology should bring people together not divide and dehumanize them, which is why we’re finished with Threads and Instagram.

I’d like to think other media companies will join us in taking similar action, but we understand why many won’t. Meta’s social networks drive a significant amount of traffic to websites like MacStories, and walking away from that isn’t easy in an economy where media companies are under a lot of financial pressure. We’ll be okay thanks to the support of our readers who subscribe to Club MacStories, but many others don’t have that, which is why it’s important for individuals to do what they can to help too.

We know that in times like these, it’s often hard to know what to do because we’ve felt that way ourselves. One way you can help is to make a donation to groups that are working to support the rights of LGBT people who increasingly find themselves threatened by the actions of companies, governments, and others. With Niléane’s assistance, we have identified organizations you can donate in the U.S., E.U., and U.K. that are working to protect the rights of LGBT people:

Thanks to all of you who donate. The world of tech is not immune from the troubles facing our world, but with your help, we can make MacStories a bright spot on the tech landscape where people feel safe and welcome.

– Federico and John

MacStories Is on Bluesky

It’s been another busy year for social networks. It seems more recent, but it was nearly a year ago that Threads became available in the EU and we introduced readers to the MacStories team there.

Now, Bluesky has taken off, with many MacStories readers moving their social media lives there or splitting their time between multiple services. So today, we wanted to let readers know where they can find all of us on Bluesky.

Our [MacStories Starter Pack](https://go.bsky.app/MSyjAAg) includes the accounts for the site, podcasts, writers, and hosts.

Our MacStories Starter Pack includes the accounts for the site, podcasts, writers, and hosts.

MacStories and each of our six podcasts have brand-new official accounts on Bluesky, and you can find each of our writers and podcasters there, too. Best of all, it’s easy to find us using the MacStories Starter Pack, which will take you to a list of every account. From there, you can follow all of the accounts at once or pick and choose among them; you can also browse a timeline of all of our posts.

The MacStories.net Starter Pack: go.bsky.app/MSyjAAg

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— MacStories (@macstories.net) November 16, 2024 at 8:22 PM

Now, I know some of our readers don’t like Bluesky and may be concerned that we’re dumping Mastodon to chase the latest social media trend. We’re not. If anything, in the eleven months since MacStories became active on Threads, we’ve been even more active on Mastodon. So there’s no need for concern.

We’re splitting our attention across three social media platforms, which in some respects isn’t ideal, but that’s simply what social media has become in 2024. And while each of us has our own preferences among the latest crop of social networks, our goal as a team is to reach as much of the MacStories audience – and potential MacStories audience – as possible. So we’re not leaving Mastodon, or anywhere else for that matter.

If you follow MacStories on Mastodon or Threads, you already have a pretty good idea of what to expect on Bluesky. We’ll be posting links to the stories we publish and what’s going on with Club MacStories, as well as highlights of other things the team is doing. The podcast accounts will be posting links to the latest episodes and whatever else the hosts of those shows want to share with their listeners. You’ll also find the entire MacStories team on Bluesky, each doing their own thing.

It’s worth noting that we’re expanding our podcast presence on Threads, too. AppStories is already up and running there, as well as on Instagram, and you can expect to see other shows pop up there in the near future.

Thanks as always for reading MacStories.net, joining the Club, and listening to our podcasts. It means a lot to all of us here, and with the addition of Bluesky, we hope that even more people who enjoy what we do now have a way to keep up with us.

Croissant: A Beautifully-Designed App for Cross-Posting to Multiple Social Media Accounts

Social media has splintered across multiple services since the decline of Twitter. I’ve always managed a lot of social media accounts between my own and ones for MacStories, but today the situation is worse than ever. There have always been services like Buffer that make it easier to juggle multiple accounts and services, but they are more expensive than most indie developers, artists, websites, and other creators can afford and offer more features than most need.

That’s where Croissant comes in. It’s a new iPhone app from Ben McCarthy and Aaron Vegh that simplifies cross-posting to Mastodon, Bluesky, and Threads at an indie-friendly price. The app doesn’t try to replicate the many features you’ll find in services like Buffer. Instead, it’s focused on making it easier for indie creators or anyone with multiple social accounts to post on multiple platforms at once.

Croissant's tint color, app icon, and posting button icon are all customizable.

Croissant’s tint color, app icon, and posting button icon are all customizable.

I’ve been testing Croissant over the past week, connecting it to two Bluesky accounts, two Threads accounts, and five Mastodon accounts, and I’ve been loving it. First off, the design is top-tier, as you’d expect from one of Ben’s apps. The UI’s focus is on drafting your posts, and it’s accented with a deep yellow/orange hue that I love. However, the app offers seven other color options to choose from. There are also a total of seven app icon options and three icons to pick from for the button that publishes a post.

Managing accounts in Croissant.

Managing accounts in Croissant.

If you have a lot of accounts you want to use with Croissant, you’ll need to start by signing into each, which requires a little patience. However, once you’re set up and ready to go, the rest is smooth sailing. You’ll see icons for each of the accounts you’ve signed into at the top of the app’s compose view. Tap on the row of icons to manage your accounts, removing any you no longer use and adding any new ones. The gear icon in the top-left corner of the view reveals tint, post icon, and app icon settings, and the box icon at the top-right is used to access draft posts that you can save using the app’s Menu button at the bottom of the compose field.

That same Menu button also allows you to delete a post, add to an existing thread, add a content warning, and pick from various audience options. Plus, there are buttons to tag someone, add hashtags, and attach photos or videos to a post. Croissant displays a character counter at the top of each draft post, too.

I appreciate the 'Do you really want to post this everywhere?' step.

I appreciate the ‘Do you really want to post this everywhere?’ step.

My favorite part of Croissant is the interaction that takes place when you’re ready to launch your latest hot take into the social media wilderness. Before you post, a list of every account you’ve connected to Croissant slides up from the bottom of the screen. By default, all of your accounts are selected. Tap the big Post button at the bottom of the list, and you’ll launch your words of wisdom into the world across every service you’ve configured. Before you post, you can also de-select any of the accounts listed. That’s great because, although I could fairly be accused of being a chronic cross-poster, even I rarely post everywhere all at once, so I appreciate the chance to fine-tune where my posts will be published.

I like the simplicity of Croissant a lot, but there are a couple of things I’d love to see added in future updates. The first is Shortcuts support. An action that allows me to pick the accounts to send a post from, coupled with Shortcuts’ ability to pull items from RSS feeds, would make publicizing new MacStories articles and podcast episodes a lot easier. Second, a scheduling feature would go a long way toward completely eliminating the need for services like Buffer for a lot of people. Of course, an iPad and Mac version of Croissant would be great too, but I’ve found using the iPhone app on my iPad and on my Mac with iPhone Mirroring to fill that need well so far – except that on the iPad it means logging into all of my accounts a second time, which is a little tedious.

Sometimes the hottest takes cool after a few days in the drafts box.

Sometimes the hottest takes cool after a few days in the drafts box.

There’s an added side benefit to using Croissant that I didn’t realize at first but Brendon pointed out to me. Croissant lets you post without the distraction or stress of getting sucked into your timelines. I’ve often had times where I felt like I needed a break from social media but felt compelled to jump back in to make sure we were promoting everything happening at MacStories. With Croissant, you can have it both ways, letting the world know what you’re up to without needing to scroll your timeline.

Croissant, which is available on the App Store for free but requires a subscription for some features, is a clear win for anyone who works online and wants to promote what they make or who maintains active accounts across several services. Neither group is a good fit for expensive social media management services, but for $2.99/month, $19.99/year, or a one-time payment of $59.99, Croissant is a no-brainer.

LGBT and Marginalized Voices Are Not Welcome on Threads

As Twitter was crumbling under Elon Musk’s new leadership in 2023, various online circles found themselves flocking to alternative platforms. While some may have kept using Twitter (now known as… X), a non-negligible number of communities migrated over to Mastodon and other smaller platforms. Meanwhile, Meta shipped its own textual social media platform, Threads. The service initially launched in most parts of the world except for the European Union, but it’s been available in Europe for over six months now and has seen its usage soar.

For many, Threads understandably felt like a breath of fresh air following the chaos that engulfed Twitter. Unlike the latter, Threads is not run by someone that I and many others find to be an exceptionally despicable human. Its algorithmic timeline contrasts with Mastodon’s exclusively chronological feeds, and its integration with Instagram has attracted a number of big names and stars.

I’m an activist. In my daily life, I work and advocate for the advancement of trans people’s rights in France. As a result, my expanded online social circle mostly consists of LGBT people, and most of them are activists, too. However, in the span of a few months, almost everyone in that circle who was excited about Threads launching in Europe has now stopped using it and migrated back to Twitter, Mastodon, or elsewhere. When I ask around about why those people left Threads behind, their responses vary, but a trend persists: most felt like they were being shadow-banned by the platform.

Without hard data, it is difficult to investigate this feeling, to understand if it is truly widespread or specific to some online bubbles. But one thing is certain: Threads hasn’t felt like a breath of fresh air for all who tried to use it. In my experience as a trans woman, at its best, it has felt like Jack Dorsey’s old Twitter: a social platform overrun by an opaque moderation system, free-roaming hate speech, and a frustrating algorithm that too often promotes harmful content.

As months go by, incidents where Threads consistently failed to uphold its understood promise of a better-moderated Twitter-like platform have added up. Today, for many non-white, non-straight, non-male users, it is a repulsive social media experience, where their voices are silenced and where hate speech offenders who target them go unpunished.

Let’s talk about this.

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Highlighting Journalism on Mastodon→

Eugen Rochko, writing on Mastodon’s blog today:

To reinforce and encourage Mastodon as the go-to place for journalism, we’re launching a new feature today. You will notice that underneath some links shared on Mastodon, the author byline can be clicked to open the author’s associated fediverse account, right in the app. This highlights writers and journalists that are active on the fediverse, and makes it easier than ever to follow them and keep up with their future work—potentially across different publications. Writers often work with different publishers over the span of their careers, but Mastodon is the perfect platform to amass a loyal audience that you, as the author, truly own, and can take with you across the fediverse.

When Eugen approached us about being one of the first publications to implement this new feature, we jumped at the chance. You may have noticed that we believe pretty strongly in writing and writers, so we’re pleased to be joining The Verge and MacRumors in implementing author bylines. Now, when you see a MacStories post on Mastodon, you can click on the author byline at the bottom of the post to jump to the author’s profile.

What’s more, the feature is incredibly easy to set up. It took Robb Knight about 15 minutes to add the creator OpenGraph tag to MacStories, and ever since, our posts have linked to our authors’ fediverse profiles:

Clicking the author link in a post takes you to that person's Mastodon profile.

Clicking the author link in a post takes you to that person’s Mastodon profile.

Currently, the authorship feature requires you to use the web version of Mastodon or its official app and have a mastodon.social account or be on a server running recent nightly releases. However, the new feature is part of the Mastodon API, so it shouldn’t be long before third-party apps begin supporting it, too.

Like a lot of people, we follow our favorite publications, but also our favorite writers. Mastodon’s author byline is an excellent way to shine a spotlight on both.

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feeeed: Embracing Feed Diversity and Personal News Curation

With The Iconfactory launching Project Tapestry this week, I was reminded of an indie app that I first started testing a few months ago. feeeed – that’s with four ‘e’s – by Nate Parrott is a feed reader app unlike any other I’ve seen on iOS.

Today, with our favorite content scattered across social media platforms, apps, blogs, and newsletters, it’s honestly really hard to keep up, and there is clearly a demand for an app that could juggle with all of them. feeeed is an attempt at embracing that diversity, and letting you build your own feed, merging all those sources into one continuous and beautifully designed stream.

I was excited about this app when it originally came out, and for the past week, I have once again given it a prime spot on my iPhone Home Screen to properly try it out as my main reading app.

Let’s jump in.

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The Iconfactory Launches Project Tapestry, a Kickstarter Campaign to Create a Universal Inbox for RSS, Social Media, and More

Source: The Iconfactory.

Source: The Iconfactory.

We’re at an exciting moment in the history of the Internet where the downsides of walled gardens of content have become painfully obvious to more people than ever. Those downsides weren’t so clear when companies like Twitter got their start. As it and other companies grew, the convenience and instant gratification of social media put a dent in things like blogging, RSS, and other ways people shared their thoughts, links, and other media online.

But, if there’s a silver lining to what’s become of Twitter, it’s that it opened the eyes of a lot of people who are now helping revitalize the open web standards that never went away for many of us. The trouble is that the feeds we monitor are spread over more places than ever before. There’s RSS, of course, but there’s also ActivityPub, Bluesky, and more. That makes it the perfect time for a new approach like the one The Iconfactory has announced via a Kickstarter campaign.

The campaign was launched today to fund the creation of Tapestry, an iOS universal inbox for the feeds in your life. The Iconfactory makes it clear that it doesn’t intend for Tapestry to replace your RSS reader or Mastodon client, though. Instead, the company wants Tapestry to be a unified, chronological timeline that will help you keep up with what’s new so you can pick the best that your favorite sources have to offer. The Iconfactory has also said the app will have a simple API for adding your own data sources to your feed.

I love this idea and backed the project immediately. The Iconfactory says that they expect the development to take 9 - 12 months, which comes with the usual caveats about the risks of funding a Kickstarter campaign, which is why I rarely link them except in cases like The Iconfactory’s, which has a proven track record. The initial goal is $100,000, and as of the publication of this story, they’re about 25% of the way there. The first stretch goal is $150,000, which would add features like muting, theming, bookmarking, filtering and searching, local notifications, a share plugin system similar to Shortcuts, a curated library of plugins, and a Mac app.

There are also multiple reward levels with a variety of rewards for anyone who pledges $5 to $1,500. To learn more, check out the campaign on Kickstarter and The Iconfactory’s blog.