Add UI for posting circles

[noellabo]

#14354 , #14360 , #14370 , #14666 needs to be merged beforehand.

This is a composer's idea to post a circle.

[noellabo]

• Add circle to privacy
• Warning and target circle display

As shown in the example, this display is smart for a few cases, but if there are many items, it will overflow from the screen. Should I create a button and modal for circle selection only?

[brawaru]

This is kinda too many options for the privacy dropdown. Maybe make it a single option “Circle” and then if it's selected, show “Select circle” below the editing area (above Toot button)? Could been even more useful if you could post to multiple circles at the same time and circles had custom icons, but well, we have what we have.

Just a prototype

[mstdn]

• Add circle to privacy
• Warning and target circle display

As shown in the example, this display is smart for a few cases, but if there are many items, it will overflow from the screen. Should I create a button and modal for circle selection only?

Looks good but gets it scrollable or does the list extends the screen when users have many circles? :)

[noellabo]

Separated circle selection from privacy dropdown.
I chose the built-in select for the implementation.
It may not be so cool, but it should be easy to use on mobile.

For the "Limited Visibility" redraft and replay, "Limited Visibility" is selected and "Circle" is not.
This is because even the poster cannot get which circle was used. #14354 (comment)

When replying, you'll want to choose the circle of the original post, right? We can't do it now, but when that mechanism becomes possible I will add.

[noellabo]

• Added a system-defined circle "Reply-to poster" and "thread posters" that can be used only when replying
  • When replying to a circle post, "thread posters" is selected if the reply destination is in the middle of the thread
  • If the reply is to the first post, "Reply-to poster" is selected
  • Can be used regardless of the visibility of the original post
  • The reply circle may include people who are not followed, in which case they will not reach you
  • Added special values reply and thread to circle_id of POST /api/v1/statuses
• Changed to remember the id of the circle specified for posting in redis for only 3 days
  • In case of your own circle post, circle_id is additionally returned to the REST API.
  • Reflected on Self-reply and redraft
• Changed the selection of the circle displayed below the composer and separated it into an icon button and Select
  • Made the circle icon a button and opened the circle column when selecting
  • Adjusted the background color when focusing to make it easier to use when operating the keyboard
  • When opening the circle column, change to focus on input to enter a new circle title
• Added processing to add/remove mention specification in the input field when switching the disclosure range between circle and others

Circle posters have a limitation that they can only send to their followers. This prevents it from being used to send spam. However, the restriction that you can not reply by the circle if it is not followed by members on the thread of the circle is reasonable, but I think it is quite inconvenient in practical use (because implementations other than Mastodon may be able to receive it, the transmission itself is done). Technically, it can be solved by adding a mention to the unfollowed member, but it seems difficult for users to understand this behavior.

When replying to circles, I think you should avoid sending a post to someone you didn't intend to reply to. As a result, circle reply can be sent only to the direct reply destination and the thread containing the reply destination. I tried an implementation that forwards and relays to the recipient of the original circle using a special actor (for example, treating the starting status as an actor), but special processing is also required on the receiving side, and the specification of ActivityPub It seemed necessary to have a conditioning that was difficult to get an agreement with. It also seemed undesirable to have a mechanism where reply contributors couldn't control the visibility.

Instead, the circle poster informs the members of the circle of the actors in the private group and encourages them to follow the group actors. Members decide whether to join this group, and explicitly post when posting to members, and control the posting destination with their own will.

Compatibility note:
Misskey refuses to accept circle posts.
When the specifications here are fixed, we will contact the developers of Misskey.

[noellabo]

Please consider based on this suggestion or rewrite a better implementation.

[koyuawsmbrtn]

Heck, I'd love to see such a feature. This was my number one question when I migrated from diaspora* back in 2017 and I miss it to this day.

[Gargron]

I appreciate the work in this PR but the original API PR has been stalled due to concerns raised by @ThibG about bad UX around replies to limited-visibility posts which I am only now addressing in #14666. This is going to take a while 😦

[koyuawsmbrtn]

I appreciate the work in this PR but the original API PR has been stalled due to concerns raised by @ThibG about bad UX around replies to limited-visibility posts which I am only now addressing in #14666. This is going to take a while 😦

Thanks for the follow up. I'll look forward to it 😊

[noellabo]

Fixed to support limited replies by bearcaps.

In reply to the circle

• The visibility options are now only circles and direct
• The circle selection dropdown will not appear

[noellabo]

• Changed circle icon from circle-o to user-circle Add limited status icon and mention list #14360 Add UI for managing circle members #14370
• Removed privacy restrictions on replies and restored the ability to change the visibility
• It is now possible to switch context to a new circle in the middle of the reply tree
• The root of the context allows the poster to see the member list Add limited status icon and mention list #14360
• The context switch requires additional code fedibird@679aa8a fedibird@7b2ba61

The reply to the circle is forwarded to the server that posted the root of the context, and from there it is forwarded to the members of the circle. This seems to be working well at the moment.

If the circle members are not in a mutual follow, they will not appear in their respective home timelines. However, if you detail the posts that are the root of the context, you can see all of the connected posts. This is the same behavior as a traditional reply tree.

Circles are not something you join of your own volition, so I think this is about a reasonable balance. If you don't want to get involved in a circle thread, you can mute the conversation.

You can try out my proposed UI and features on the experimental temporary servers https://circle-dev.fedibird.com and https://fedibird.com .

The working code is summarized in the following branches
https://github.com/fedibird/mastodon/tree/feature-circles-fedibird

[stale]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[noellabo]

I'll continue.

[stale]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[koyuawsmbrtn]

bump

[derwinmcgeary]

How can we best progress this?