People like @fullyabstract have asked me in what way federation causes me problems. There's a thread at the bottom of which is this, and I don't even know what I'm missing. (Clicking on the link shows me NO replies or even a thread, just one message.)
@shriramk @fullyabstract I am curious about the "fetch all replies feature" hoping it will solve these issues https://neuromatch.social/@jonny/113486088666816575
@gadmm @fullyabstract I suppose it could be. But until that happens, the fragmentation is real. I get that fragmentation is central to the design of Mastodon. It just happens to be the opposite of what *I* want, which is why this is never going to be my default social network.
@shriramk You can see this as a fundamental issue, and then the cause is indeed federation. But you can also see it as a pragmatic problem and accept a probabilistic solution, and then it becomes a client problem: Mastodon clients want to speak to only one server.
If you give up that constraint, there is a simple solution: crawling the federation.
https://blog.khinsen.net/posts/2023/11/05/following-branching-conversations-on-mastodon.html
@khinsen @fullyabstract Interesting perspective, thanks. But I really don't have the energy or inclination that you do (which I admire).
@shriramk What I find surprising is that none of the popular Mastodon clients implements some form of crawling, considering how many people complain about not seeing replies.
@khinsen
If many people complain about it, then it further confirms that I'm not alone ( @fullyabstract ). To me this is a basic design consequence of the "fediverse". I get why some people want this. It's the opposite of what I want, though. (And I'm glad the opposite exists for those who want it! It's just not…me.)
@shriramk Are you tagging me because you think I still don't understand your point?
@fullyabstract I didn't know you ever did, but if you do, great!
@shriramk For me, having to crawl for replies is the price to pay for the robustness of federation. A trade-off I am happy with.
@khinsen@scholar.social @shriramk@mastodon.social @fullyabstract@fosstodon.org FYI there's work being done on getting all the replies fetched at the instance level here: https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/pull/32615
@shriramk @fullyabstract
Bluesky is not showing me everything (I checked), X, Facebook, instagram, etc definitely do no show me everything. Indeed, I'm pretty sure they show me what they want me to see.
You may not see this - and if so you are missing out.