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!Friendica Support I want to create a new functionality and I need some ideas. I want to add an option to contacts, so that their posts don't appear in the network timeline anymore. But in difference to "ignored", "collapsed" or "blocked" this has got no further consequences. It is meant especially for contacts that you want to aggregate in a dedicated channel. So for example you could decide to subscribe to a lot of news channels, but you don't want to see them in the network timeline, since they post that often. Instead you create a channel for them and browse them from time to time. Same could be an option for groups or for feeds.

This filter would work for threads that are started by this special account. I would try to expand this to posts that are reshared by these accounts or by threads that are fetched, because this account commented in the thread. (The last two parts could be more challenging)

My questions are:

  • Do you think that this is a good idea?
  • Could it be done better than an option on the contact page?
  • How could this be named, so that users don't misunderstand the functionality?
Kristian (inactive/moved)
Very individual answers: Yes, want that rather badly. Personal preference would be indeed contacts page and more or less a clone of the current "channel settings" - would it make sense to add just the same as a "timeline settings" configuration that holds exactly the same settings but for the contact in a particular non-channel timeline?
Kristian (inactive/moved)
(Maybe even another option, for that particular use case though: Add a toggle to the current "channel settings" saying "hide from non-channel timelines"?)
Michael Vogel
I did it now this way:
Setting "Channel Only" in the channel settings
Kristian (inactive/moved)
@Michael Vogel Yeah. Thanks. That looks pretty much like it. 🙂
Unity :Friendica: ⁂
@Michael Vogel
But that's not yet in the current RC, is it?
Michael Vogel
No, it will be in the next release, not this one.
Michael Vogel
I've got a bunch of stuff in the pipeline that will be part of the next version:

  • This "Channel Only"
  • An automatic switcher that closes registrations, when the admin is absent for more than some weeks
  • A dedicated field for the "summary" (the field, that is used for the "content warning" in Mastodon
Hypolite Petovan
@Michael Vogel This sounds exactly like the “Ignore” feature. What are the “further consequences of ignoring a contact?
Michael Vogel
Ignored contacts don't appear in circles. They also won't appear in the global or local community. A post from an ignored contact isn't even stored for the user who blocked the contact.
Hypolite Petovan
@Michael Vogel This isn’t universally true though, in the forum context you can end up receiving posts from ignored and blocked contacts, which then become collapsed.

Given that channels are manually created, I’d be okay to relax the Ignore feature so that ignored accounts’ posts show in this context, or to add a specific channel flag to allow/disallow ignored posts in them.
Michael Vogel
I already heard complaints from people who said that they don't want to see posts from blocked or ignored people at all, but this is another pit hole.

I see a difference between "I don't want to see posts from that contact" and "I don't want to see posts from that contact here".
Hypolite Petovan
@Michael Vogel Sure, but we don’t even do the "I don't want to see posts from that contact" very well, so I don’t think we should add yet another similar confusing feature.
Michael Vogel
The "ignore" functionality is active for comments as well, while this new one would only filter for posts that had been created by that contact.
Hypolite Petovan
@Michael Vogel Oh this is even more specific than I thought? I don’t think it’s a good idea, we don’t explain the simpler features well enough already.
Wilhelm
Sure, but we don’t even do the "I don't want to see posts from that contact" very well, so I don’t think we should add yet another similar confusing feature.

👆 This. For as long as I have been using Friendica I had trouble understanding what Ignore and Block actually do. I blocked a ton of contacts and yet I keep seeing posts from them. Maybe this is logical in some technical way, but I think it isn't what users expect to happen when blocking a contact.

Instead of adding yet another mechanism, maybe before doing that, Ignore and Block should be improved. Maybe we need to have a discussion about those functionalities.
hoergen
@Michael Vogel maybe don't define it as contact, so people don't get confused. Do you mean with channel "circles" ? If yes, then it could be called like a "circle source" or "news source". So it is bound more to this area instead of a classic contact.
Think the term "news source" would hit it more precise as well i can imagine people better understand the difference between contact and news source.
I like the idea.
Michael Vogel
Channels and circles are something different. Circles are the group of contacts, while channels are content that is based on some algorithmic calculations.
Michael Vogel
Based on your idea, we possibly could name this option something like "only display in channels", "channel contact", ... This would sound more positive and would be more distinguishable from the "blocked", "ignored" and "collapsed". settings.
Serenityfreaksout
@Michael Vogel Isn‘t that already the fact when I search a contact and choose "show all" in the channel settings without following? I did not try yet, but thought this is a really nice feature. So if I'm wrong, I would appreciate that.
This entry was edited (12 months ago)
Hypolite Petovan
@Serenityfreaksout @Michael Vogel If users can already include contacts they aren’t following in a channel, then I’d say the feature already exists.
Michael Vogel
This wouldn't work for example for feed accounts. Also if no one follows that contact on that system, then it wouldn't be guaranteed that you get all the posts from that contact. Also you could decide to follow some channel relay and to display their posts only in a dedicated channel. Since the channel relay always posts private, you couldn't do so, when you wouldn't follow the account.
Serenityfreaksout
@Michael Vogel @Hypolite Petovan Now I understand the problem. So now it's a kind of lottery to set a contact in a channel without following.
Michael Vogel
Posts from accounts that you don't follow, often appear only because someone on your server follows them or someone else reshared them or someone you follow replied to them. Or possibly some replay server reshared them.

This means that the chances are high that you don't see all of their posts that way.
Schaf (fka Bionk)
In this case it should be named fetch-account instead of contact.
Michael Vogel
Yeah, I can understand that. I guess that there are different opinions about that, so it maybe is the best to let the user decide, if these posts should be completely hidden or only collapsed.
Michael Vogel
Update: Instead of using words like "ignore", "block", "hide" or whatever, we could name it exactly according to their purpose. These contacts are meant to be displayed only in your channels, but not in your timeline. So we could name this "only display the contact in channels" or "channel contact" or something like this instead.
Hypolite Petovan
@Michael Vogel Shouldn’t this be decided when you initially follow the contact? And then be a setting in the contact page. An additional link in the post contextual menu isn’t welcome.
Michael Vogel
It is intended to be a setting on the contact page, most likely in the channel settings.
Schmaker
So for example you could decide to subscribe to a lot of news channels, but you don't want to see them in the network timeline, since they post that often. Instead you create a channel for them and browse them from time to time. Same could be an option for groups or for feeds.


I remember - when I had #hubzilla account - I used their "affinity" feature to filter this. Affinity was number from 0-100 (iirc) and you used slider to chose what will appear in timeline. I can imagine creating separate channels for close contacts with affinity <50 and "filler" contacts with affinity <50 afterwards. Hubzilla had slider to chose how close contacts you would like to see on your timeline.

Just an idea to consider.
#hubzilla
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