Post by @rolle@mementomori.social

Curious, as I've been testing the upcoming Mastodon design in our dev environment for the past 2 days. The new design isn't widely available yet, but [mastodon.social](http://mastodon.social) likes to test with real users and installs alpha versions early.

So, a quick poll for [Mastodon.social](http://Mastodon.social) users and anyone on other instances with the new v5 design enabled (feel free to share this to reach more people):

#Mastodon #Mastodon5 #MastodonAlpha #MastodonNightly #NewMastodon #MastodonSocial #Design #UI #UX

I like it

25%

I don't like it

No preference / It doesn't bother me / I mostly use an app

Poll Open

4 days left 106 votes Federated

Mastodon hosted on mastodon.social

Mastodon.social

The original server of Mastodon, operated by Mastodon GmbH for the common good.

Mastodon hosted on mastodon.social

Mastodon.social

The original server of Mastodon, operated by Mastodon GmbH for the common good.

2 Boosts

0 Likes

mborus

@mborus@mastodon.social 5 min. ago

@rolle There's one thing about the new design that really annoys me. The transparent shade just below the header that partly hides the top post as soon as you begin scrolling a bit. It touches what I'm reading, which should not happen.

I'm assuming that whoever designed that is not using a smaller monitor/ resolution or using the manual refresh of the timeline. The other elements also seem to work better above full-HD resolution.

I'll probably try to fix it client-side if it doesn't improve.

Luca Sironi

@luca@sironi.xyz 1 hr. ago

@rolle

a bit offtopic but I somehow would like #mastodon to separate the backend from the frontend, leaving last one optional.

There are clients, even web one, like phanpy that I'm using , which are perfectly fine for most of the uses.
If not better.

I'd rather like mastodon to push more development forces into evolving activitypub in standard committees, migration of postd, customizable posts length, instead of constant UI rewriting

John Colagioia

@jcolag@mastodon.social yesterday

@rolle The basic interface seems fine to me. The advanced interface, they fixed my two big problems (the static but mostly useless panel on the left and the narrow columns), really only leaving the weirdness on the right-most columns (like the empty one that's just...there) and my needing to get used to the first big change in almost a decade.

Dinah 🕊🇺🇦

@metagrrrl@mastodon.social 3 days ago

@rolle To be precise, I, like @GoatsLive, use the multi-column Advanced Web Interface, and I do not like the changes there. Haven't seen what it looks like in single-column mode.

Juho Mäntysalo

@iju@mastodon.social 3 days ago

@rolle

Don't like it, no sir I don't.

https://mastodon.social/@iju/117473341784954191

Message by me: This Mastodon v5.0 interface is awful. Blimey.

It makes me wish I were a Nazi so I could go back to X. — Message by me: This Mastodon v5.0 interface is awful. Blimey. It makes me wish I were a Nazi so I could go back to X.

Janne Uu

@janneuu@mastodon.social 3 days ago

@rolle For the most part I like it, but there should be a setting to remove, or even a hack to hide, the ”Translate” link from posts that are not in the same language as my UI. It wastes a lot of phone screen real estate.

Rolle Laukkarinen

@rolle@mementomori.social 3 days ago

@janneuu That's less about UI design and more about a missing feature. Here at mementomori.social, we've had the translate link hidden for posts in our own language for years, among other improvements. The core adopts some improvements and intentionally ignores others.

Eggs now in different baskets.

@the_wub@mastodon.social 3 days ago

@rolle I am now using Tokodon mostly. Not ideal but better than the new UI.

I have a Vivaldi social account with the old interface but there is no point switching to using that as they will likely upgrade to the new web UI eventually.

So I am considering self hosting in some vain hope that I can get some personal digital sovereignty over the online tools I use.

A cloud services is where you place your stuff on someone else's computer. For better or for worse.

Rolle Laukkarinen

@rolle@mementomori.social 3 days ago

@the_wub If you're thinking about moving or self-hosting but don't want to take such a huge leap, our instance offers multiple themes and will continue to support Mastodon Bird UI. If there's enough demand, we could also add support for the "classic v4 Mastodon" theme. https://mementomori.social/@rolle/117496541666081314

Eggs now in different baskets.

@the_wub@mastodon.social 3 days ago

@rolle The Mastodon Bird UI has the same problem now with the updated version.

The notification panel, profile link are at the bottom of the screen. It seems that Bird also bunches follow requests in with normal post notifications.

The issue with things at the bottom. If you live in a house with lively energetic offspring, where tidying up is a constant activity then things get placed in front of screens.

Don't place important stuff at the bottom of a UI. They get blocked.

Eggs now in different baskets.

@the_wub@mastodon.social 3 days ago

@rolle Thank your for your toot.

The issue with offering the "classic v4 Mastodon theme" is who is going to maintain it? Especially if suddenly there is another eMudhra/PHP type incident that means that changes have to be made and made quickly.

This just seems to be panning out like all of the major UX changes I have experienced. Thunderbird lost me as a daily user during the change from v2 to v3, then completely with the change to the new UI. Similar with Firefox.

Rolle Laukkarinen

@rolle@mementomori.social 3 days ago

@the_wub Yeah, maintainability is an issue. If it's not easy, I probably won't do it and will only support the core mastodon theme and my own (as I've been doing for the past 4 years).

FinchHaven hachy

@FinchHaven@hachyderm.io 3 days ago

@rolle

And when I say "No" I did, in fact, work up a method for brainstorming what Mastodon v5.x might look in the manner that --> I <-- use Mastodon

Oh, the hubris!!

Why would I expect Mastodon ever support what I want to spend my time using?

Here: https://hachyderm.io/@FinchHaven/117481072336428869

Rolle Laukkarinen

@rolle@mementomori.social 3 days ago

@FinchHaven I hear you, and I'm with you on the empty right column. I said the same thing two weeks ago when I first tried the main branch: it felt unfinished and should have stayed behind a feature flag until everything was in place.

That's also why I'm not rolling it out as is on our instance. In our fork, the right column has search, trends and follow suggestions, and we use Mastodon Bird UI on top. Here's my progress: https://mementomori.social/@rolle/117496541666081314

Hopefully the core team fills that space and fixes the details before the stable release.

Personally, I like the new design direction more than v4 Mastodon, but since I'm used to my own themes anyway, I don't have a strong opinion against it.

FinchHaven hachy

@FinchHaven@hachyderm.io 3 days ago

@rolle

Yeah...

I hesitate to ask my instance admins when (if?) they'll put up the latest version of the new Mastodon

Figure I'll notice immediately and go on from there...

One thing I'm watching:

it's still just a "Bump version to 5.0" on Github, not a formal "Release v5.*"

Rolle Laukkarinen

@rolle@mementomori.social 3 days ago

@FinchHaven I'm pretty sure everyone will update once it's officially stable. It'll still take some time to get there, since it just landed as an alpha.

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