[FEATURE] Follow public local timelines from other instances

[ghost]

Just what the title says.

Maybe implemented like the "show a toot from another instance"-feature: Copying the full URL of the instance into the search bar opens the local timeline of this other instance.

Which makes following interests easier, since a lot of instances are specialised on some specific interests, but a person does'nt follow only one. So to mix things a lot more up.

[Cassolotl]

Do you mean like, to make the local timeline of another instance a pin-able column? (This sounds awesome.)

[ghost]

Do you mean like, to make the local timeline of another instance a pin-able column? (This sounds awesome.)

Yes, that's exactly what I think of! Only shorter and to the point, thanks.

[Cassolotl]

Browse Other Instances' Public Timeline #1053 was closed without being implemented a few hours ago. That discussion was super messy and started a long time ago, before we had public timelines on /about pages, which partially solved the OP's needs.

This new issue is more specific and I think it should stay open.

[deutrino]

Duplicate of #979?

[Cassolotl]

Certainly could be included in #979! ("Configurable federated timelines aside from "local" and "federated"")

it would be more clever to allow users to configure additional timelines by specifying the servers they want to see toots from. The server would no longer need a whitelist (although they might have the possibility to configure a default curated whitelist timeline), but could show the whole federated timeline when the users wishes to do so.

[nightpool]

If we're going to continue this discussion here, which is fine, I'll repost my earlier comment, which I think is still releavent:

There are third-party website that will allow you to do this, but my opinion is that if you want to view the instance timeline of another instance as part of your day-to-day browsing of the service, you should sign up for an account on it. Otherwise you have this weird culture where a small number of users are "performing" for a much larger audience, and there's no way for the users viewing that timeline to "join in", and post things to that timeline. this leads to very awkward possible community issues.

[antoniotorresm]

@nightpool I agree with you, but I don't think having people to have multiple accounts is enough user friendly. Maybe some kind of subscription system? There are a lot of thematic instances and it's natural to want to participate in various ones without having a bunch of accounts.

[Cassolotl]

There are a lot of thematic instances and it's natural to want to participate in various ones without having a bunch of accounts.

Groups (#139) would probably resolve that issue - toots about a subject would end up in your timeline whether you follow the person posting or not.

[deutrino]

I think it would be cool to follow scholar.social but I'm not a scholar and don't want or need an account there.

Other people might want to follow the timeline from the recently created cars/racing instance.

Etc.

[SatanicMechanic]

I made a small donation on bountysource for this.

[sprite-1]

Having this feature would make following along multiple instances way easier.

[kasinjsh]

Having this feature would make following along multiple instances way easier.

Otherwise it is hard to stay for example up to date whit FOSS news and discussions living on My own instance.

[sprite-1]

It would also incentivize joining of smaller instances. People who may be looking for more activity will of course join larger instances making said instance even bigger. If this gets implemented, the instance they join would stop mattering as much and they can choose more freely.

[sparr]

This issue would make more sense without "follow" in the title. "Follow" already has a specific meaning on Mastodon. Following a whole instance would be... interesting, but is not at all what this discussion is about.

[rickisen]

Could this be implemented by simply making the instance a toot was made on a searchable field, similair to how hastags work in the search interface?

So if you want to see how the timeline in "linuxrocks.online" looks like you'd type "@linuxrocks.online" in the search, and the latest toots made there would show up.

[aranud87]

+1, it is same to Relay :

Relay add many many instances i don't want, it would be easier to add instances directly i want to show on wall for all users on my local instance.

[Cassolotl]

@aranud87 You might be interested in Instance-wide subscription #8082!

[Cassolotl]

Imagine all the email accounts you would need

It's okay, you can use the same email address on all instances because they're totally separate websites. :)

Not needing to sign up to an instance in order to see and interact with its local timeline seems good though anyway.

[Virtheon]

Uh, since no one has mentioned this. If this feature was implemented, would you be able to post to remote instances?

[sprite-1]

Uh, since no one has mentioned this. If this feature was implemented, would you be able to post to remote instances?

I would hope not, that's going to be ripe for abuse

[trwnh]

Uh, since no one has mentioned this. If this feature was implemented, would you be able to post to remote instances?

I would hope not, that's going to be ripe for abuse

You don't post "to" an instance. You post to a collection of actors, like your followers, or to Public. You would need a separate account/profile on that instance, if you wanted your post to show up in that "local" public timeline.

[sprite-1]

You would need a separate account/profile on that instance

I believe that's what the other guy was asking. If it would be possible to post to have your pots show up in a remote instance's timeline which is why I said it would be ripe for abuse

[orenTal]

@robsonsobral,
I think your suggestion is excellent and I am all in favour of the warning.

you answered your own question. There's no difference, and that's the problem. In case the user browse to a website, she choses to do it. Like @brendanjones , I'm going to try to not be too technical.

but in the case of following an instance, it is also something she chooses to do.

[Terra100f]

FYI -- The EU recently created this page. I was able to follow accounts, even from other instances, directly from the page -- https://social.network.europa.eu/explore. It was easy.

[orenTal]

FYI -- The EU recently created this page. I was able to follow accounts, even from other instances, directly from the page -- https://social.network.europa.eu/explore. It was easy

It doesn't work for me. when I try to follow, it asks me to sign in or sign up.

And that is the whole point of the requested feature, that we will be able to see the accounts, and feeds of other instances.

[cgohier]

It doesn't work for me. when I try to follow, it asks me to sign in or sign up.

Interestingly, it works if I'm logged in on mastodon.online.

[brendanjones]

Of interest: https://github.com/lartsch/FediFollow-Chrome

[robsonsobral]

As this discussion has a broader aspect, I posted my suggestion where there are others developers already talking about it.

[ashed]

Would you implement this functionality: Follow public local timelines from other instances?
I vote in this thread (#6942 (comment))
Option 5

[nettbeast]

Just what the title says.

Maybe implemented like the "show a toot from another instance"-feature: Copying the full URL of the instance into the search bar opens the local timeline of this other instance.

Which makes following interests easier, since a lot of instances are specialised on some specific interests, but a person does'nt follow only one. So to mix things a lot more up.

It would GREATLY encourage organizations to build their own mastodon environments if you could follow the public timeline on any server. IE maybe the Washington Post creates "mastodon.washingtonpost.com" and I could subscribe and follow the whole thing if I wanted to...

[cgohier]

t would GREATLY encourage organizations to build their own mastodon environments if you could follow the public timeline on any server. IE maybe the Washington Post creates "mastodon.washingtonpost.com" and I could subscribe and follow the whole thing if I wanted to...

It is already possible in some clients. FediLab for example.

[jadedgnome]

yeah on reddit it's possible to combine two or more subreddits so users can view submissions for both simultaneously.

https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy + https://www.reddit.com/r/PrivacyGuides = https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy+PrivacyGuides

it would be nifty to be able to do something similar on mastodon.

I'd want to combine Local feeds from niche but similar instances so I can scroll through 2+ local feeds simultaneously.

[sami-huvilanet]

Following steadily other Local timelines should be possible if an instance would allow it and not block followings from elsewhere.

Some selective special instances would likely –and understandably– be more protective with their Local feeds.

[KaKi87]

There's already access control for /public/local as well as equivalent API endpoints.

As long as the route is available, then it's allowed for use.

This feature would only bring the convenience of not requiring the user to copy/paste profile/post URLs to interact with those.

[KaKi87]

So, since this doesn't seem to be happening anytime soon, I'm creating an open source webapp that will allow this :

It's not ready yet (unusable on mobile, unimplemented menu) but I'll release it at mastovuepp.kaki87.net as soon as it is.

[Pxtl]

In my above-linked feature I have a specific idea for how the textual UI for this could work:

1. Make #@instancename.tld a special hashtag that's implicitly automatically applied to every post on instancename.tld.
2. Therefore the "local" feed on instancename.tld is practically a search for #@instancename.tld.
3. Allow admins/moderators of instancename.tld to moderate #@instancename.tld to control posts on there that come from other instances.

Then off-instance users can manually search, post, and follow #@instancename.tld as a hashtag, with no additional front-end UI needed. In fact, it means the "minimum viable product" for building a new Mastodon front-end goes down because the "local" feed is no longer needed as an explicit UI feature - the "local" feed is the same as searching for your own #@instancename.tld.

It would eliminate the FOMO problem of "I picked the wrong instance when signing up!" because you can view and post to another instance like a native by using the #@instancename.tld tag.

Mastodon has many clients, so any features that require new front-end UI means an explosion of labour across every UI to support it. By making this back-end-only that's trivially accessed through the Mastodon text-interface, it's accessible "for free" in existing UIs, and as needed front-ends can spiffy up the UI as they like.

[LuNeder]

This would be similar to Akkoma’s Bubble Timeline feature, which is probably a good inspiration for how to implement this

[KaKi87]

I don't know that one, I also discovered the antenna feature from Firefish a while ago.

[LuNeder]

I don’t know that one

It’s quite similar to what this issue asks for tbh. It’s like the local timeline, but from more than one instance (handpicked by the instance admin tho). It shows toots from the local timeline of the selected instances.
I guess the only difference is that on this case I think the bubble timeline participants are selected by the instance admins.

[KaKi87]

handpicked by the instance admin tho

Oh, that's not what's wanted here then.

Meanwhile, Firefish's antenna feature does allow users to select which instances they want to see posts from.

Thanks

[omentic]

I think this would pair particularly nicely with the exclusive lists that were recently added - one could follow a timeline, add it to an exclusive list (so as to remove it from the default home feed), and then switch to it in the sidebar whenever.

[eddeemn]

I'm amazed that this has been an open discussion for six years. Is there any progress on this or possibility of it happening?