4 ms·

Does Mastodon have themes? I tried a few instances and none of the UIs clicked with me very much. With themes, I not only mean custom colors and fonts. I mean

by Timja 4y ago

Does Mastodon have themes? I tried a few instances and none of the UIs clicked with me very much. With themes, I not only mean custom colors and fonts. I mean custom templates, so I can rearrange the position of elements and leave out some elements altogether.

freewizard 4y ago
UI is replacable, there are quite a few frontend compatible with Mastodon API, some of them very closedly resemble Twitter.
- Timja 4y ago
  I'm not sure how to read your comment. "there are quite a few frontend compatible with Mastodon API"? Isn't the Mastodon API the ActivityPub API? Of course one could write a new ActivityPub application from scratch. But my question is: Can the Mastodon templates be easily changed?
  - bremensaki 4y ago
    No, it's incredibly difficult to style Mastodon beyond minor CSS additions via the admin panel. If you really want to change anything substantial you need to fork the entire project.
    - Timja 4y ago
      I was not so much talking about the admin panel. My question is rather if the codebase has a template directory, where one could change the templates. And if the template format will stay stable, so that custom templates won't break in the future.
  - Kudos 4y ago
    There are web frontends available where you can sign into your instance, just like you so with a mobile app. For example https://pinafore.social/ https://pinafore.social/
    - Timja 4y ago
      I don't understand how something can be a frontent for Mastodon. Mastodon is an ActivityPub client. If you write a new application from scratch that also uses the ActivityPub protocol, like Pinafore, it is not a frontend for Mastodon. It is another ActivityPub client, right?
      - spondyl 4y ago
        So as I understand it, Mastodon is a Ruby on Rails web server that speaks to other instances using the ActivityPub protocol in a technical sense. You register with a given Mastodon instance which speaks ActivityPub to other servers which may or may not be Mastodon instances as well. Now your home Mastodon instance also serves a React frontend which is technically acting as an OAuth2 client that speaks to the backend via REST APIs, compared to say: Server-side rendered HTML Similarly, mobile apps connecting to your preferred instance are also OAuth2 clients. In that sense, you can use a different frontend to speak directly to the REST APIs offered by your Mastodon instance of choice. This all being one level above ActivityPub itself of course.
        Timja 4y ago
        If I register with a Mastdodon instance, then why do I need a "home Mastodon instance"? Wouldn't I just use the web frontend the instance I registered with provides?
        spondyl 4y ago
        Your content is federated but your account is not so in order to actually perform actions, you need to make calls back to your home instance. In a literal sense, your username and password / authentication tokens live on that server and is unknowable to other servers. You might imagine that if there was federation of accounts than any random user could simply eat up passwords/password hashes. That said, you can presumably use any client as long as it uses the APIs of the home instance. You can browse other instances and do a remote follow however where that instance calls back to your home instance to initiate the follow action but it requires you telling the remote server what your full ID is (@Timja@home.instance) so it knows where to call back to
  - anecdotal1 4y ago
    > Isn't the Mastodon API the ActivityPub API? No... not at all
Cyberdog 4y ago
Judging by how all the Mastodon sites seem to have minor CSS changes at most, I'd say not in any significant way. But there are other front ends for the Fediverse network. Perhaps check out instances running Pleroma, Misskey, or Soapbox and see if any of those suit you further. Some instances even run multiple front ends at once (typically on different subdomains) and you can use the same credentials to log in to all of them.
OscarCunningham 4y ago
There's the 'advanced web interface' which allows you to choose several columns with your choice of stuff in each. You enable it by going to settings in your browser.

by Timja 4y ago

freewizard 4y ago

UI is replacable, there are quite a few frontend compatible with Mastodon API, some of them very closedly resemble Twitter.

Timja 4y ago
I'm not sure how to read your comment. "there are quite a few frontend compatible with Mastodon API"? Isn't the Mastodon API the ActivityPub API? Of course one could write a new ActivityPub application from scratch. But my question is: Can the Mastodon templates be easily changed?
- bremensaki 4y ago
  No, it's incredibly difficult to style Mastodon beyond minor CSS additions via the admin panel. If you really want to change anything substantial you need to fork the entire project.
  - Timja 4y ago
    I was not so much talking about the admin panel. My question is rather if the codebase has a template directory, where one could change the templates. And if the template format will stay stable, so that custom templates won't break in the future.
- Kudos 4y ago
  There are web frontends available where you can sign into your instance, just like you so with a mobile app. For example https://pinafore.social/ https://pinafore.social/
  - Timja 4y ago
    I don't understand how something can be a frontent for Mastodon. Mastodon is an ActivityPub client. If you write a new application from scratch that also uses the ActivityPub protocol, like Pinafore, it is not a frontend for Mastodon. It is another ActivityPub client, right?
    - spondyl 4y ago
      So as I understand it, Mastodon is a Ruby on Rails web server that speaks to other instances using the ActivityPub protocol in a technical sense. You register with a given Mastodon instance which speaks ActivityPub to other servers which may or may not be Mastodon instances as well. Now your home Mastodon instance also serves a React frontend which is technically acting as an OAuth2 client that speaks to the backend via REST APIs, compared to say: Server-side rendered HTML Similarly, mobile apps connecting to your preferred instance are also OAuth2 clients. In that sense, you can use a different frontend to speak directly to the REST APIs offered by your Mastodon instance of choice. This all being one level above ActivityPub itself of course.
      - Timja 4y ago
        If I register with a Mastdodon instance, then why do I need a "home Mastodon instance"? Wouldn't I just use the web frontend the instance I registered with provides?
        spondyl 4y ago
        Your content is federated but your account is not so in order to actually perform actions, you need to make calls back to your home instance. In a literal sense, your username and password / authentication tokens live on that server and is unknowable to other servers. You might imagine that if there was federation of accounts than any random user could simply eat up passwords/password hashes. That said, you can presumably use any client as long as it uses the APIs of the home instance. You can browse other instances and do a remote follow however where that instance calls back to your home instance to initiate the follow action but it requires you telling the remote server what your full ID is (@Timja@home.instance) so it knows where to call back to
- anecdotal1 4y ago
  > Isn't the Mastodon API the ActivityPub API? No... not at all

Cyberdog 4y ago

Judging by how all the Mastodon sites seem to have minor CSS changes at most, I'd say not in any significant way. But there are other front ends for the Fediverse network. Perhaps check out instances running Pleroma, Misskey, or Soapbox and see if any of those suit you further. Some instances even run multiple front ends at once (typically on different subdomains) and you can use the same credentials to log in to all of them.

OscarCunningham 4y ago

There's the 'advanced web interface' which allows you to choose several columns with your choice of stuff in each. You enable it by going to settings in your browser.