` *
__ __, .__.
_______/ |______,_/ |_|__|,____,.,____
* / ___/\ __\__ \\ __\ |/ _ \ / \
\___ \ | | / __ \| | | ( <_> ) | \ *
/____ > |__| (____ /__| |__|\____/|___| /
\/ \/ \/
– where capsuleers hang out –
* `
🗞️ Updates to the public feed.
The public feed on Station has become a special thing.
I added it in the early days, when we had barely anybody here. It served its intended purpose well. It showed that, even in our slow corner of the Internet, we still had lots of active people here sharing their thoughts and making this place awesome.
Fast forward 3 years and we have almost 1,500 people. The public feed hasn't changed. It still shows the last 30 posts from everyone. Recent events have shown that the way it works doesn't always play out for the best.
Folks have the right to post as often as they like. The issue is with the fact that frequent posts clog up the public feed, which is intended to be diverse and include as many people as possible.
So, I've made some small changes to the public feed.
And for context, let me be clear: what you see on your personal feed has not changed at all. You will still see every post from every user you follow, in time order.
1. Just as before, the public feed shows the most recent posts from everybody, but now within a one hour period for each user. Most people post several hours apart, so for them nothing has changed. If you post 6 times in the hour, it's the 6th that'll be shown on the public feed. A newer post (within the same hour period) simply replaces the previous one that was shown on the public feed. In theory you could post every minute, but it'll only 1 per hour will be included on the public feed.
2. Longer posts (containing 250 chars or more) are now truncated on the public feed. The point of the feed is to let you discover the post, but not necessarily to read it in full there. 250 chars is enough for about 4 lines. For most people, nothing has changed. If you see three dots at the end of a public post, click it to read the whole thing, just as you would to react or reply.
3. Because posts are now around 4 lines, the public feed shows the latest 50 posts instead of 30. Reading the front page is now a little more interesting, and actually not that much longer than before.
I've made these changes with balance in mind, and with the goal of keeping the atmospehre of Station unchanged. Let's see how this plays out. As always, I'm more than willing to further change or update how this works once we have more data.
🌐 Links in replies.
A few people have asked for this one. Since it's a proverbial low-hanging fruit, it's now on Station's menu: links in replies are auto detected (just like in top-level posts) and shown below the reply (max 5).
🔒 Identities! After a long wait (thanks for the patience, folks) Station now supports multiple identities.
You'll now find a "Manage Identities" option in "Your Account" where you'll be able to see and manage all identities associated with your account.
To add a new identity you must first set a password. Once a password has been set, join Station with the new identity and choose to associate it with an existing account.
Hopefully this will help with folks who have certs expiring soon, allow folks to create backup identities, and make it easier to access Station accounts in other/mobile clients. 👏
🗞️ Polls! Capsuleers on Station can now ask for advice in a more structured way via polls. Add a poll to your post by starting any newline with the following syntax:
[POLL <question>] <option 1> | <option 2> | <option N>
For example:
[POLL So, polls on Station are pretty cool, right?] Nope | Hell yeah! | I couldn't care less
Posts can only have 1 poll (anywhere in the post), and polls can have between 2 and 5 options.
Polls are displayed in posts as a dynamically-updated text graphic showing the current results and voting numbers:
• POLL: So, polls on Station are pretty cool, right? • · · · Results · · · · [1] 0% • Nope (0 votes) · · [2] 0% • Hell yeah! (0 votes) · · [3] 0% • I couldn't care less (0 votes) · · · • ·················································· •
To vote in a poll post a reply containing the text "[N]" (anywhere in your reply), where N is your vote number (1-5). For example:
Yeah, I like polls, so I'll vote [2].
For each user, only the last vote cast is counted – to change a vote just reply with a new one.
Happy voting!
🗞️ Query optimisations! Station is now travelling through space even quicker than before.
🗞️ Extra station activity – the homepage now shows the latest 30 logs instead of 10. Thanks @kevinsan.
🗞️ Log archive – on the account page, you'll find a "Your Archive" link which shows a complete list of your own logs. Thanks @dimitrigorvachov.
🗞️ Tinylogs – at the bottom of any user's logs you'll find a "Tinylog Feed" link, letting you "follow" that user outside of Station. See https://codeberg.org/bacardi55/gemini-tinylog-rfc for more info about Tinylog. Thanks @skyjake and @bacardi55.
🗞️ Newlines are now preserved in posts. If your browser allows you to enter newlines, Station will make sure they stay in your post.
🗞️ You can now use ``` and > lines in your posts for rendering code/ASCII art and quotes.
🗞️ Station now supports search. A search for "foo bar" (without quotes) matches all logs and replies containing either word. A search for "foo AND bar" will find results with both "foo" and "bar". Happy searching!
🗞️ In addition to bio, image and location, you can now add a link to your profile.
🗞️ Notifications are now shown on the homepage (thanks @bobby).
🗞️ On the homepage you'll also now find Station diagnostics, showing some basic stats.
🗞️ You can now mention other users by using an @ symbol before their username. If you're mentioned in a log or a reply, you'll receive a notification to let you know 👊.
🗞️ First Station release 🚀.