[HN Gopher] The Fediverse deserves a dumb graphical client
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The Fediverse deserves a dumb graphical client
Author : speckx
Score : 65 points
Date : 2026-04-14 15:42 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (adele.pages.casa)
(TXT) w3m dump (adele.pages.casa)
| superkuh wrote:
| It really does. But also, having to do this points out a glaring
| flaw in the design of the fediverse websites. They're
| applications and not documents. They require executing complex
| code from unknown third parties just to show a bit of text and
| some multi-media. This isn't needed at all. And it wasn't like
| this till mastodon v3 when they broke it.
|
| Despite _requiring_ Javascript execution mastodon actually does
| have the post contents of a URL in the hidden meta-content HTML
| header on the page where it scolds you and blocks you for not
| executing their arbitrary code. All they 'd have to do is put
| that same text in the HTML as actual <p> text. And it's not just
| mastodon instances, the other fediverse "applications' are just
| as silly in their intentional breaking of accessibility for no
| reason.
| lynx97 wrote:
| I have yet to find a social network which is actually
| accessible. The Google thing (circles?) was never actually
| useable, it was the biggest horror show of all. m.facebook.com
| was basically the only website that was ever really accessible.
| All the other players, including the "free and morally
| superior" alternatives couldn't give two fucks about people
| with disabilities, which reflects nicely on the fact that they
| are actually not an alternative, they are a playground for
| misguided developers...
|
| Fact is, if you are launching a social network which is not
| accessible from the get go, you are part of the problem. You
| have no moral high ground, you're just playing around and
| widening the digital divide, leaving people behind.
| capitainenemo wrote:
| At least Xitter has Nitter proxies after they went full
| Javascript - which is also great since it allows accessing
| content that's often behind a registration wall.
| ndegruchy wrote:
| In addition to this guys app, there's also brutaldon[1]. A web1.0
| client that serves as a web interface for mastodon.
|
| [1]: https://brutaldon.org/about
| mindslight wrote:
| First, I take issue with the idea of calling something "dumb" for
| trying to avoid modern app bloat, even as marketing. I understand
| the precedent of a "smart" device being something that backhauls
| your personal information to the surveillance industry (decidedly
| not smart!). But still, can we find a better name for the
| concept? "Native" ? "Lean" ? It shouldn't be about giving up some
| purported betterness of bloaty software, but rather about the
| benefits we get by doing so.
|
| Second, it's kind of depressing that this is still tying itself
| to web technologies. What about a straightforward desktop client
| that uses a native desktop toolkit? I get that this is a
| difficult problem because a lot of protocols bake in reliance on
| web technologies and whatnot, but if I am looking for a simple
| graphical client I would expect something that aims to not simply
| dump content into webviews, nevermind still being dependent on an
| actual browser!
| floren wrote:
| Sidebar, am I alone in absolutely hating "smol"?
| all2 wrote:
| Its the memetic inverse of "swol". Dunno if that helps or not.
| dgunay wrote:
| No, there's tons of backlash against the "le reddit chungus"
| era of memes like doggo pupper smol bean etc.
| pkal wrote:
| No, I just guess that most people who dislike it (like me)
| dislike it on an "eyeroll" level, where you wouldn't use it
| yourself but don't have the energy to make a fuss about it.
| guywithahat wrote:
| Somewhat unrelated but these sorts of clients are becoming great
| targets for AI coding. I've been able to create minimal gtk C++
| apps for small sites with good API's in relatively little time,
| and they run beautifully since they're native apps.
|
| I like the project though, it'd be cool to have a picture of what
| it looks like either on the git page or the blog article but I
| like the spirit of the project.
| cachius wrote:
| Would love to hear more, some examples.
| righthand wrote:
| Wouldn't removing the dumb excessiveness of most graphical
| clients, make it a "smart" client?
| kogasa240p wrote:
| What about Akkoma?
| not2b wrote:
| I looked at it and it is impressively lightweight. It would help
| if it could collapse duplicate notifications, right now the
| notifications page is filled with repeats even though I'm not all
| that popular on fedi.
| prmoustache wrote:
| Adele is building and hosting small but really nice things in the
| spirit of the internet as I knew it before the Great
| Enshitification Malaise Era we are living in.
|
| Thank you Adele.
|
| Note to myself: stop commenting and update your damn gemini
| capsule
| alsetmusic wrote:
| Are there any plans to add support for Lemmy?
| AlBugdy wrote:
| Might be unrelated to the specific GUI discussion but I
| absolutely hate how there is no threaded discussion on Bluesky or
| Mastodon (or Twitter which they desperately try to mimic for some
| reason). You have to use "@username" which does nothing useful
| when clicked.
|
| You can barely select text on a post. If you click on it, you
| lost your place and go inside the post?
|
| Why aren't comment GUIs like those of HN, lobsters or the old
| reddit-style not more popular?
|
| I think I understand why YouTube, Facebook and Twitter
| intentionally cripple usability by only allowing 1 level of
| replies and (ab)using the @username way to discuss things - to
| cater to stupider people with less attention span, to keep
| discussions lighter and broader and to show more of the top level
| comments. But all of these would've been accomplished if there
| were more "show more" buttons, like new reddit does it. It's
| still dumb as hell but at least it keeps the discussion
| threaded/nested.
|
| Off topic, but I just realized when I collapse something on HN,
| it sends a request to HN telling it it's collapsed. Useful for
| when reloading a page, but I would love a setting that makes the
| collapse client-only with no requests (and maybe no persistence
| on reloading).
|
| Anyway, I never used any social media, including Twitter, save
| for the occasional link I found that I use Nitter or XCancel for.
| I was really hoping to finally participate in the new fediverse
| but when I saw the UI decisions, I don't see a point. Twitter
| clones and alternatives can still be Twitter-like without the
| dumbing down of the threading/nesting of the comment sections.
|
| Edit: Forgot to mention both Bluesky and Mastodon load much
| slower than HN or Lobsters or reddit with or without Tor.
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