For this #FollowFriday, I added several *very* sought-after features to the the Discover Mastodon portal. To make it even easier to find great content on here:
- anyone with an established Mastodon account can opt-in for a profile
- if you have a profile already, you can directly modify the topic tags on your profile (choose from 70+)
- more accessibility-related improvements *everywhere* (tooltips, aria-labels, and more!)
(1/x)
(2/x) If you don't have a profile already and you have an established* Mastodon account, then you'll see this smiling icon as soon as you log-in. Clicking on it takes you to the topic selection modal- all you do is choose your topics and click Submit.
*Here's what qualifies accounts that are:
- at least 30 days old
- have more than 200 followers
- not a bot or group
- not hosted on an instance listed on Fediblock's top offenders list
(3/x) The basic idea behind the eligibility criteria is to prevent spamming via sockpuppet accounts while making the site as open, accessible, and welcoming to everyone else.
Also: any accounts that are locked, "no index," or disabled the "Make me discoverable" feature will not be able to create a profile. That's because I programmed the site to use those privacy settings as indicators that the profile should be hidden or removed.
(4/x) In terms of privacy and security: we don't hold onto your login information. That stays in your browser's temporary storage/cache. It gets deleted the moment you close the tab/window. If you click the "Log out" button, then we'll actually log you out by revoking the token with your server (which not every 3rd-party app does btw).
So, why even ask people to log in? ...
(5/x) Asking folks to use their Mastodon login:
a) confirms that the account owner (or their authorized representative) are the ones opting-in
b) allows the site to route follow requests through the account-owner's Mastodon instance. This means that blocks, mutes, and other instance- and user-level moderation features continue to work as intended.
The goal is to make it easier to discover great content on Mastodon, while being mindful of individual preference vis à vis privacy and visibility.
(6/x) TL; DR: The easy way to find great content on Mastodon is to visit https://discover.fedified.com. The recommendations are organized by topic and (as of today!) the recommendations change every 4-6 hours (cadence reflects posting activity across the Fediverse).
Also, if you are a content creator that would like to reach a larger audience then consider adding your profile to the mix-- it's private, secure, and takes less than 2 minutes.
@DataDrivenMD I was excited to try it out, but it seems that I can't login because my instance is ostensibly on some block list for reasons I can't fathom. Can one easily look at the list it's referencing?
