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
I am not sure that you would get this unless I add your user tag @macfranc@poliversity.it ?
It is not your fault. The entire Fediverse is still being built, and it only gets better over time.:-) The fact that Lemmy + PieFed + mBin + nodeBB can intercommunicate at all is fantastic, even though yes there are some kinks remaining to be worked out:-).
My intention was to make light of the reasoning behind criticism of your post, while pointing out to Threadiverse users that once you get past that, the actual content is quite solid. So less "wall of text" than merely "odd-looking introduction". It's a good post!
And yeah the giant text looks weird, haha! 😂 Especially since at first it is a repeat of the title, but then goes into new territory after that. I do not know if there is anything that can be done about it though, except further code development on the side of all the myriad varieties of recipients of the message.
@OpenStars
Yes, I'd still get it, even if you didn't mention me. The problem arises when you reply to someone who replied to me: in that case, I might not receive the notification. Unfortunately (as often happens), the fault lies with Mastodon, not Lemmy/Piefed.
I also believe this statement. Since I've been an instance administrator (Friendica, Lemmy, NodeBB, and Mastodon Glitch-soc), I've always been concerned with how the Fediverse software integrates with each other and with spreading knowledge of the various platforms
My intention was to make light of the reasoning behind criticism of your post, while pointing out to Threadiverse users that once you get past that, the actual content is quite solid. So less “wall of text” than merely “odd-looking introduction”. It’s a good post!
Thank you for your feedback. It's somewhere between a press release and an informational post about the Fediverse. I'm only surprised because, usually, the criticisms about length come from Mastodon users, not Lemmy users...
Usually, the problem is solved at the user interface level. BBCode and Markdown have a certain number of standard levels for titles, and it's up to the final interpreter (the interface) to manage their display based on the tool (desktop browser, mobile browser, mobile app, etc.).
Repeating the title, on the other hand, is the best possible solution for integrating threads opened in the forumverse by microblogging users: Lemmy takes the first 200 characters of the first paragraph and converts them into a title, disabling formatting, links, and mentions. That data, however, is re-proposed at the beginning of the post text.
I understand there are some issues, but I don't see any better solution than this.
I should add that, unfortunately, Mastodon's recent implementation of quoted posts has made it difficult for Lemmy to manage opening posts, because Mastodon formats posts that quote another post as:
And therefore, the title of a Lemmy thread would become
"Re: fedilinkhttps"🤬There are so many fascinating differences in how your comment reply here shows vs. not.
Like on all of https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/70448923 and https://lemmy.world/post/48069327 and even https://piefed.zip/comment/5630582 your most recent comments here do not show up at all, despite it having been sent 2 hours ago. Though somehow your earlier comments are visible, but not your latest ones?
And yet I see them on my instance. I am not sure why, or if your tagging my username specifically helped cause that to happen for this instance but somehow no other instances.
The formatting if I ask to "view markdown source" is messed up - everything is on a single line, and some formatting indicators are missing - but the traditional, regular display mode of the message is perfect.
Interrelation between the different platforms still needs improvements, but it is encouraging to see it get better over time.:-)
I'm still @macfranc@poliversity.it
If I remember correctly, there was a problem in Lemmy that should be fixed with the upcoming 1.0 release and has already been fixed with the latest Piefed releases. This meant that third-level comments that didn't originate from Lemmy or Piefed weren't processed correctly by the platform.
They're out now, but I should compare them with the replies appended to the original post. https://poliversity.it/@macfranc/116736605177662762
PieFed is running circles around Lemmy, even with the highly irresponsible code vulnerability disclosures awhile back.
As you know better than I, Friendica struggles mightily with scalability, Mastodon is slow to add new features especially those asked for many years, and Lemmy and Mbin are likewise exceedingly slow, whereas PieFed adds new MAJOR features quarterly even.
My hopes for the future of the entire Threadiverse lies with PieFed.
What you say is true, but that's exactly why I have a lot of faith in Lemmy 1.0 which should feature a completely new architectural design.
From what I can see, that is not a back-end restructuring but as far as a new architectural design it will purely affect the front-end UI. Which will begin to look somewhat more similar to PieFed, yet without coming anywhere close to what PieFed offers today, as opposed to what PieFed offered like a year ago. e.g. there will be no ability to hold polls (or to share those custom-built feeds?).
More relevant is that Lemmy 1.0 may take a year or so to become fully deployed across the Threadiverse, if past experience is any judge. The devs say to explicitly expect major breaking bugs and perhaps to avoid deployment in prod as a result. And ofc apps are going to need to catch up as well. This one being a breaking change may lead most older apps unable to connect to an instance that uses the newer software (unless I am misreading that part about the older backwards compatible API).
Lemmy.world in particular, which holds ~50% of Threadiverse users and >90% of the most highly-active communities (unfortunately for the aim of decentralization) is well-known for delaying deployment until the Lemmy code fixes such issues.
So a year from now Lemmy will begin to catch up to some of what PieFed had almost a year ago in the past already, and meanwhile I expect PieFed will not itself be standing still all that time... I am glad to see that Lemmy is still being actively worked on, truly I am, but also I find it hard to actually be excited about that pace, by comparison. Then again, any movement forward still counts, and improves the Fediverse as a whole, so by however much, it is still a good thing! :-)