When the Open Social Web Hybridizes: Raccoon for Friendica is a new app... Mastodon. And it even has a little Lemmy in it! That's why the Free Software + Fediverse duo is such a valuable resource.
Raccoon 1.0 was finally released for Android in recent days, a rather innovative client originally created for #Friendica, but which has now become one of the most innovative apps for the user experience on #Mastodon. The app is available for Android (already on the Play Store and Izzidroid, and will soon be available on F-Droid), but a #Debian package has also been released. An iOS version remains to be seen for its success.
The app introduces some very important innovations to the federated app landscape.
1. Navigate the Fediverse from an app, even without creating an account
Raccoon is the only app that lets you browse the Fediverse even without an account. When you install it, you can select any Friendica or Mastodon instance and "leverage" its local public and federated timelines. This way, users can explore multiple instances before choosing which one to open an account on. Of course, even after adding an account (the app manages multiple accounts), you can browse the timelines of servers other than the one you signed up to.
2. "Browse through" messages: "swipe" navigation
Unlike all other social apps (both those for the Fediverse and those for commercial social networks), #RaccoonForFriendica lets you open a post in your timeline and continue browsing through previous and next posts by simply swiping left and right.
This is a truly interesting ergonomic innovation.
3. Finally a formatting bar in social apps
Since the app was created for Friendica, it features a built-in formatting toolbar reminiscent of Lemmy clients (in fact, the developer @janTeko first experimented with app development with a Lemmy app). The formatting toolbar can also be used for Mastodon instances running the Glitch-soc fork, such as infosec.exchange, tech.lgbt, and my poliversity.it instance, which was the one the developer experimented with.
In addition to being more immediate, writing formatted posts is also made easier by a "preview" function that helps avoid errors in Markdown or BBCode coding.
4. Finally, Mastodon users will be able to enjoy Fediverse groups too.
As you may know, Mastodon doesn't support the display of group posts. Even if you select a group, you'll still see a single timeline where top posts alternate with replies. Searching for a thread on Mastodon is therefore very complicated, but the #Raccoon developer has found a way to enable "topic" viewing across all accounts that are "activitypub groups," be they #Lemmy, #NodeBB, Piefed, Mbin, Peertube, Wordpress, Mobilizon, Flipboard, etc.
This idea also came about thanks to the fact that the developer had previously tried his hand at developing an app for Lemmy and was able to experiment with the formatting bars and display of Lemmy "communities," which are nothing other than "#activitypub groups."
5. Other interesting features
Among other features, you can
- view the HTML code of messages;
- send scheduled posts;
- fully configure the interface;
- support for writing in HTML, useful both for Mastodon Glitch-soc and for writing WordPress posts by integrating the plugin "Activitypub for Wordpress" from @pfefferle and the "Enable Mastodon App" plugin from @alex
- integrate translation libraries
6. What's still missing?
The app features all the features found in most other Mastodon apps, except one: the correct handling of Mastodon posts that quote other posts. These are still displayed in a fairly primitive way. The developer is trying to decide whether to adapt to Mastodon specifications or reinterpret the feature in a more personalized way.
It must be said that, unfortunately, the implementation of quoted messages (already present in Friendica for ages) was implemented by Mastodon very late, only in recent months, and in a very "personal" way that many other software developers did not appreciate.
7. Raccoon is an app that will benefit users who already use Mastodon but also those who have never "tried" the Fediverse
This app has been under development for almost two years, and the beta version is just over a year old. However, version 1.0 has resolved all previously encountered issues.
Based on user feedback, the developer will evaluate whether to create an iOS version and even a Windows version.
Anyone who wishes to allow reporting of application errors can enable anonymous crash reports.
8. Links and Resources
This is the developer's profile:
https://androiddev.social/users/janTeko
This is the app repository: https://github.com/LiveFastEatTrashRaccoon/RaccoonForFriendica/
This is the Play Store link:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.livefast.eattrash.raccoonforfriendica
This is the link on IzzyDroid (the app will be released on F-Droid soon, but is currently under review):
https://apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid/index/apk/com.livefast.eattrash.raccoonforfriendica
Here is the developer's blog:
https://livefasteattrashraccoon.github.io/blog/
Finally, from here you can download the .apk or .deb package without using the online stores. line:
https://github.com/LiveFastEatTrashRaccoon/RaccoonForFriendica/releases/latest/
One last recommendation
The public's response will be important to enable the further development of this app.
If you want to test it on Mastodon, I recommend using instances running the glitch-soc fork. Among these, I'd recommend the infosec.exchange instance, which is well managed by @jerry. And of course, but only if you communicate in Italian or Esperanto, I'd be happy to host you on my poliversity.it instance.
Regarding Friendica, I recommend two instances: friendica.world, managed by @ruud and featuring a rather lively timeline, and, of course, social.trom.tf, excellently managed by @tio.
If you communicate in Italian, I'd be happy to host you on my poliverso.org instance.
Greetings to all and let me know if you need further information, if you have tried the app and how you found it.
Francesco
You can also interact with me through the Mastodon account @informapirata and the Friendica account @notizie
Why are people upvoting this?
If OP used AI to "make" this post, obviously the app is gonna be slop too
@givesomefucks The post was not even published by the developer of the app (me btw), how can you assume the way its code was written by just reading an article by someone else? If you want to help with development you're welcome! @macfranc
Well...
The fact that so many zombie account are suddenly all active and super supportive of this ai slop?
Like, this is some of the worst astroturfing Ive ever seen.
If the code is Ai slop, we might could, I dunno... have some proof? Maybe? It just might help your argument avoid another goal-post move.
OP saying it?
But if everyone stopped to investigate every piece of slop thrown in front of them, all they'd do all day is that.
This isn't an argument, if you think goalposts are moving it means you still don't understand any of it.
But most importantly, I don't really give a fuck if people end up understanding. Go for it bro, slop em up, get those steaks super sloppy and slick your hair back reaaaaaal nice.
I think you're extrapolating statements as admissions for the sake of your own benefit.
The OP being slop doesn't mean the original dev's code is.
...isn't an admission of vibecoding
So, let's back up.
https://github.com/LiveFastEatTrashRaccoon/RaccoonForLemmy
There's the source, so you don't even have to go looking yourself, not that you were.
@givesomefucks I'm sorry, but you're making serious and false claims that do not honor either your reputation or your ability to recognize the synthetic origin of a text or code.
I wrote the post in Italian and first translated it into English (a language I don't know) using a machine translation system. I then did a back translation to make sure everything was at least comprehensible.
Regarding the app, if you had the necessary knowledge, you could take a look at the code to understand that the development wasn't done with vibe coding, but was done over the course of almost two years, integrating observations and addressing issues.
@macfranc #DNFTT
@givesomefucks
So...
AI "wrote" this post, like I said...
And AI coded it to?
You're just saying you put more effort in instead of just vibes?
Even your comment sounds like AI, it disagrees but then immediately acknowledged everything I said was correct.
Even your fucking chat or knows I'm right, you just told it to say I'm wrong.
Why would anyone download this fucking slop?
I share your concerns about AI slop but you're being a bit of a jerk.
Not everyone speaks English.
@fizzle Given that machine translation systems have nothing to do with LLMs, I see you understand perfectly well that it's perfectly fine not to know English, just as it's perfectly fine to use machine translation systems.
However, I can't be concerned about those who manage to turn what should be a legitimate and justified concern about the proliferation of AI-generated texts into a complete obsession.
@givesomefucks
There are many cases where AI is harmful, translation from Italian to English is not one of them.
...
So you think OP honestly typed it themselves and just used standard AI formatting?
Bro...
AI may have wrote it first in Italian and then translated. But even if OP won't admit it, a human didn't write the post in any language.
They're just lying because they can't image it's obvious to some people
@givesomefucks wrote
AHAHAH! You're a freak of nature! You're a curious mythological character, half paranoid obsessive, half troll. 🤣
But maybe you're just a jealous little person... In that case, you're just salty because you've probably never even been able to program a washing machine.
@macfranc
Chatbot accounts always crash out after running out of tokens...
Always turns into jr high insults after 2-3 replies in a row.
~~I mean, the 1h old account, who’s first comment was this post, chiming in about downloading the app wasn’t a giveaway?~~
Nvm it’s weird fediverse shit
You @cannedtuna and you @givesomefucks are the new Sherlock Holmes and John Watson 🕵🧑💼️♂️
@cannedtuna I understand what you mean: you're referring to the post published by @lorenaal (here's Lemmy's post and here's the original on Friendica).
As you can see from the image, the user has been around for years (since August 8, 2021).
friendica.world/profile/lorena…
The date you find on Lemmy is because the user has likely never participated in a discussion on Lemmy.world.
lemmy.world/u/lorenaal@friendi…
I therefore ask you to amend your comment in light of the arguments I've presented.
Interesting how Lemmy shows the date. Fair enough.
@macfranc @cannedtuna How come I'm also registered on lemmy.world? I've never registered on lemmy.world.
@lorenaal no, tranquilla 😅 non ti sei mai iscritta su lemmy.world. Quella è solo la pagina del tuo account Friendica che viene riportata su un'altra istanza. Si tratta di una cosa normale, perché oggi sei "entrata" in un Thread ospitato in una community di lemmy.world e quindi è stato creato un "profilo fantasma" che serve all'istanza lemmy.world per gestire i tuoi post e le tue interazioni
@cannedtuna
@macfranc @cannedtuna Oddio che casino! 🤯
@cannedtuna Can you explain better what you mean? Which accounts have been active for an hour?
New account, was an hour old at the time I wrote the above, first thing they do is hop to this post to comment about downloading it.
There’s been a slew of posts recently about new apps, primarily on !selfhosted@lemmy.world that appear to be AI coded.
I did see you’ve got a number of people involved in this project so, maybe it’s unwarranted suspicion. My apologies if that’s the case. Just not a fan of AI.
@cannedtuna
...and as I explained here, it wasn't a "new" account, but rather one that was "intercepted" by Lemmy.world only when he replied to my post.
You are not gonna like the next 20 years.
Tbf, no one will,...
but still!