Some thoughts about using the Microblog functionality in kbin and why, controversially, I think it might actually beat Mastodon at it’s own game - browsing toots.
Kbin let’s you have a curated feed of posts from the fediverse (including Mastodon toots) which is sorted by new, hot, top etc.
Steps:
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First, if you are subscribed to the https://kbin.social/m/Random magazine, I’d suggest you unsubscribe - kbin drops everything which it can’t allocate to a magazine into here, which for the Microblog stuff is a lot of noise.
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Do make sure you’ve subscribed to a few magazines, but also you can subscribe to domains like https://kbin.social/d/social.bbc
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Follow people (I’m not sure of they will show up, but can’t harm)
…now look at “Subscribed”, and then choose the Microblog section (on desktop it’s a tab at the top, on mobile you’ll need to scroll to the bottom of Page 1 to find the Microblog button).
You should find this Microblog has stuff linked to the magazines you subscribe to, this is due to hastags being linked to those magazines, and also included posts from domains you’ve subscribed too. I’m not actually sure if people you’ve followed show up here(?)
Better still you can now sort and filter this list, New, Hot, Top / 3h, 6h, 12h, day, week etc.
This is sorting based on boots and upvotes.
In summary you’ve now got a custom curated feed of fediverse posts, and you can sort this feed by the posts which are most popular.
…I don’t think Mastodon let’s you sort your feed like this - this is power!
Edit: Fixed the hyperlink to Random
Somebody give this person Kbin gold
Just spread the word and I’ll be happy!
jazz hands
The best kind of kbin gold
I feel like the microblog feature would be more useful if we could get a separate feed/filter that doesn’t include the tags of magazines that you’re subscribed to. For example, I’m subscribed to /m/fediverse because I want to see the threads that people post here. I don’t necessarily want to see every mastodon post tagged #fediverse, though.
It also looks like we can’t subscribe to a tag by itself, without subscribing to a magazine that includes that tag. So yeah, some more separation there would be nice.
Does Kbin also show posts from other microblog Fediverse like Firefish? It would be really nice if it could!
Sure. I don’t know anyone on firefish, but this is dansup of pixlfed on that platform:
https://kbin.social/u/@dansup@pixelfed.social/posts
If you want to see posts from somebody on another platform just search them, something like “@ dansup@ pixelfed.social” (without the spaces) and follow them. From then on you should be able to see their posts (note you won’t be able to see old posts, just any new ones from when you followed them onwards).Super cool, thank you so much! I still am not sure if I can see Firefish posts automatically in the Microblog tab though. I also don’t know anyone there yet but I’ve been thinking of making an account after seeing a few posts here about it!
I think this instance would have to be aware of the post, so either
- Somebody on kbin.social would have to have followed the user who made the post; or
- A there needs to be direct mention of a user or a magazine here (along the lines of @ random@ kbin.social) in the post.
Once this instance knows about the post I think, yes, it can appear in the Microblog tab.
I think people are just used to how Twitter works and how to interact with it. Mastodon is the closest thing there is. It’s simple.
Kbin is nice and all with many features, but sometimes people like to have different apps for different functions.
This is true, but twitter also has an opaque algorithm to choose what appears in your feed. By default Mastodon only allows you to view your feed in chronological order, so there is an argument to make that kbin allows a more twitter like experience…
I do also get there is a steeper learning curve with kbin, and it’s basically still only an alpha release (it’s clearly not going to be right for everyone).
