Make remote users' public link more discoverable from the web UI #20744
Comments
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Related to #20593. |
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This was deliberately changed quite recently in response to user reports that the existing linking was confusing and causing accidental navigations away from their home instance. Maybe it would make sense to make this configurable for those who want it? One "power user" reason for preferring the current (4.0.*) approach is that you can open multiple posts in new tabs with a right click while staying inside your home instance. This doesn't leak your IP to any other instances and allows you to interact with the post later. |
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Yeah, this threw me off quite a lot since installing 4.0.* |
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would it be enough to bring the "view on original instance" link out of the dropdown menu and make it always visible somewhere as a dedicated link? |
I understand the previous linking (via the avatar) being confusing, compared to how other platforms behave. I don't want to go back to the old way. I would just like the link to be more prominent than in the current 4.0 implementation. Is their any reason why linking the username/handle in the local profile wouldn't work? I.e. the text A separate "View on original server" link visible on the local profile. as @trwnh suggested, would also be acceptable to me. I rather like the idea of having it be a bit explanatory, like the banner that shows at the bottom of remote users' timelines ("Older posts from other servers are not displayed. Browse more on the original profile"). |
I'd again propose using something similar to the solution chosen by Pinafore, see screenshot from the issue linked above: Make the user name a link to the original profile (Pinafore even accompanies that by an additional link icon to make it more obvious). I can't quite imagine that being stuck on an - usually outdated and incomplete - cached copy on the local instance is a better user experience. |
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I don't have strong feelings on where exactly this is surfaced, but I think it would be extremely useful to decorate links like this to other instances with a icon clearly indicating that they're external links. Something like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:External_link_icons |
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I am personally a big fan of opening as much as possible on the home instance and feel that should extend as far as "quoted" (http links to other people posts) posts opening in the home instance rather than another. It allows following without having to interact with the popup modal and makes interactions (favorites, boosts, replies) feel more native. I am however receptive to the fact that many users prefer the original behavior of opening in its origin instance so to that end a setting should be added to enable this default functionality on a case by case basis. In general I think a better solution can be found for the best way to surface the |
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[edit] Sorry, this post slightly deviates from the topic, but it seems these two changes - removing links from avatars and from the timestamp of a post - were driven by the same motivation, so I'd like to mention they both have an impact @CEbbinghaus This situation in 4.0 - and even more so the other change that removes the link to the origin instance from the timestamp of a post - are extremely frustrating on smaller instances where profiles and threads are incomplete. It is already hard enough to explain to users how they are able to see more of the Fediverse, and adding steps to that workflow, as minor as they may seem, puts in even more friction. I understand that these changes may seem advantageous on nexus instances like mastodon.social - but when you have a couple hundred users and much more holes in your timelines, hiding the links to source instances is a major obstacle. |
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Was about to file an issue about this, cause my instance was just updated to 4.0.2 and suddenly there is no way to 'option click' a profile to open a new tab. This is a MAJOR regression in usability for many many reasons. What this is going to result in is many more people sharing links like https://mastodon.social/@liaizon@wake.st and thinking that is the canonical link to a profile. "Open original page" in the hamburger menu is also not available unless you are logged in so the only place to copy the profile link is in the address bar. Also, if you control click on the profile picture and select open in new window/tab it opens the image not the profile in a new window. This is another major regression. If you 'command click' the profile image (something I have been doing for years) to open a profile in a new tab (needed to actually see the whole feed of any user you haven't been following since the day they joined) it opens only the image in the new tab, not their actual profile. |
Something worth mentioning is that for a lot of new users, the issue swings in the other direction - or at least it used to. It was too easy to accidentally end up on a different instance, where you are (confusingly) not logged in, can't properly interact with things, and don't know how to get back to your timeline where things just work. I think both sides have a legitimate point here. It's not (yet) possible to do everything you might want to do from within the proxied comfort of your home instance, so there needs to be an easy way to access a profile on a remote instance. Vice versa, the default links to a post and profile shown on your timeline need to keep you on that timeline by default, because anything else makes a mess out of federation and breaks common use cases like right click -> open in new tab. |
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@abochmann That is a very good point. At this point there are two opposing worlds of "Nexus" instances and "Small" Instances where Either behavior is detrimental to the experience on one of them. I think that 4.0 in its current state benefits larger instances which seem to be where the main increase in user count seems to have happened. This means that the current behavior is benefiting the larger amount of users but that doesn't mean it should stay this way. I do however think that the real solution is improving the experience of visiting a user account on a home instance on smaller instances rather than reverting this change. People would care less if it opened in the home instance if it behaved like it would when opening it in its origin instance.
I do agree that this is very real problem and that a better solution to it should be found but the options to fix it are somewhat limited. The only real solution I can see is a sort of "Share" button (Perhaps ala Mobile |
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Preventing people from visiting other websites is surveillance capitalist thinking that should not creep into Mastodon. |
None of this is preventing users from visiting other websites. I am a little perplexed about where you got that notion from but the entirety of this conversation is making the UI more usable. Unfortunately, there seems to be a tradeoff no matter which users we make the UI more usable for, However with good design and perhaps improved functionality I believe we can give both camps what they want. |
This for me would be a good compromise for the profiles. I already received a few unintentional pinafore links for statuses instead of the original one, so I think something more clear is needed for the statuses. |
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I notice the behaviour is now also inconsistent between being logged in to an instance and the public web UI: When not logged in, clicking on the timestamp of a remote post on the currently shown instance jumps to the originating instance, as in previous releases. |
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Being redirected while logged out makes sense. It's probably not a good idea to universally allow browsing profiles on domains which aren't authoritative for them... It's the logged-in behavior that's contentious. You usually want to stay in-app so that you can interact, and jumping out of that should be an intentional decision. |
It doesn't do that, at least not for me! I think it should, though. Test it on the explore page in a private browsing window for example: https://mastodon.social/explore There's actually an active bug report for this here: #21203 |
Very good point. I fully agree that logged out behavior should in fact always redirect to the authoritative source, Although this would cause further inconsistencies on its behavior with the authentication status now being another factor |
This is clearer for users (showing all posts, as one would expect), while patching a potential vector for leaking information to search engines/etc. Related: mastodon#20744
Pitch
Make the remote user's handle as shown in the web UI a link to their public profile page.
Alternately make the link more visible somewhere else visible on the profile, without having to hunt in a menu.
Motivation
In v4.0.1 we can only get to a user's public page by selecting "Open original page" from the hamburger menu on the local version of their profile. This feels pretty hidden. I'm an experienced user and it took me a bit to find it. In v3.5.x versions we can just click their avatar.
I view remote profiles a lot. It is often valuable to visit a remote user's public page to get a better idea of their personality before following them, for example. Sometimes (often) you cannot see 100% of a remote user's public information in the web UI.
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