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Ignorant question - how usable / viewable / searchable can Mastodon content be to a random browser / google non-logged-in user? Twitter makes it needlessly pai

Ignorant question - how usable / viewable / searchable can Mastodon content be to a random browser / google non-logged-in user? Twitter makes it needlessly painful to scroll down these days, but historically while I never got a twitter account I could still check e.g. my public utility outage notices on Twitter if I had to. Facebook is harder or impossible these days to view any content without signing in. Where does mastodon lie?can content creators choose open policies?

robobro 4y ago
Example Mastodon user -- in this case, the project lead: https://mastodon.social/@Gargron https://mastodon.social/@Gargron It's easy for me to view and scroll his feed despite not having an account on his platform. Also easy for me to find his posts via Google. And (in case it's not obvious in your browser) it's also easy for me to find the automatically generated RSS feed of his posts. YMMV.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
kibwen 4y ago
Mastodon is just open software that anyone can run. By default, this software produces a website with a feed that is public even to users who aren't logged in. Of course, anyone could modify the software to remove this feature on their own instance.
pmayrgundter 4y ago
Tim Bray had a good look at this recently https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2022/12/30/Mastodon-Privacy-and-Search https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2022/12/30/Mastodon-...
rakoo 4y ago
Creators can create public posts just like they can create private posts, followers-only posts, local-only posts. Instances may or may not display content to non-logged users. It's not up to the software, it's up to what the admins and the users want to do. But if it's open, then you most probably even have access to an RSS feed of a user's public posts, so it can even be checked from outside the browser (and the specific app)
Ciantic 4y ago
I would say it's much easier, because it supports even RSS, you just add .rss at the end of user account and you get RSS Feed, e.g. https://mastodon.social/@Gargron.rss https://mastodon.social/@Gargron.rss Of course it's all up to the instance owners.
- rsynnott 4y ago
  When did Twitter stop doing RSS, anyway? That’s mostly how I used it for the first few years.

robobro 4y ago

Example Mastodon user -- in this case, the project lead: https://mastodon.social/@Gargron https://mastodon.social/@Gargron It's easy for me to view and scroll his feed despite not having an account on his platform. Also easy for me to find his posts via Google. And (in case it's not obvious in your browser) it's also easy for me to find the automatically generated RSS feed of his posts. YMMV.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

kibwen 4y ago

Mastodon is just open software that anyone can run. By default, this software produces a website with a feed that is public even to users who aren't logged in. Of course, anyone could modify the software to remove this feature on their own instance.

pmayrgundter 4y ago

Tim Bray had a good look at this recently https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2022/12/30/Mastodon-Privacy-and-Search https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2022/12/30/Mastodon-...

rakoo 4y ago

Creators can create public posts just like they can create private posts, followers-only posts, local-only posts. Instances may or may not display content to non-logged users. It's not up to the software, it's up to what the admins and the users want to do. But if it's open, then you most probably even have access to an RSS feed of a user's public posts, so it can even be checked from outside the browser (and the specific app)

Ciantic 4y ago

I would say it's much easier, because it supports even RSS, you just add .rss at the end of user account and you get RSS Feed, e.g. https://mastodon.social/@Gargron.rss https://mastodon.social/@Gargron.rss Of course it's all up to the instance owners.

rsynnott 4y ago
When did Twitter stop doing RSS, anyway? That’s mostly how I used it for the first few years.