@cassidy@blaede.family
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

cassidy

@cassidy@blaede.family

Building useful, usable, delightful products that respect privacy.

:eos: Partner success at https://floss.social/@EndlessOS Foundation
:gnome: @gnome Foundation member
:flathub: https://floss.social/@flathub contributor

Previously: co-founder and CXO at elementary OS, UX architect at System76.

Frequently posting about #OpenSource, specifically in #GNOME and #Flatpak realms. I also enjoy #StarWars, #LEGO, & #3DPrinting.

I have a background in UX architecture, open source, product design, communication, and project coordination.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

cassidy, to random
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

@rsms I feel like this was mentioned somewhere on social media or an issue tracker but I'm failing to find it. Do you have a recommendation for an OS default monospace font to pair with Inter?

There’s some chatter in GNOME design spaces…

feoh, to random

@cassidy I was tickled just now running htop on my @pop_os_official desktop to find that their software shop is Elementary App Center! So nice to see Elementary's awesome percolate out through the community.

cassidy,
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

@feoh @pop_os_official last I checked it was very, very out of date with upstream, though. 😬 It might be better these days…

cassidy, to fediverse
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

“We believe it’s important for Mastodon to be good as a product on its own merits, and not just because of its ideology. If we only attract people who already care about decentralization, our ability to make decentralization mainstream becomes that much harder. Making the onboarding process as easy as possible helps new users get past the sign-up process and more quickly engage with others.”

👏👏👏

https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2023/05/a-new-onboarding-experience-on-mastodon/

cassidy,
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

@jos it’s almost like you didn't read the quote, read the post, or use the new flow in the app.

This is explicitly designed to help onboard people onto a decentralized network. They explain what servers are right in the onboarding flow. They have a one-tap convenience button to join a suggested server—from which you can migrate at any point. They also built a great server picker where you can drill down into specific interests—or just have it choose a random general server in your language.

cassidy,
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

@scottytrees agreed!

cassidy,
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

To me, this is an excellent and necessary step to make it much, much easier to get people onto the Fediverse. Of course I think there are ways it can be improved further:

• As many have suggested, perhaps round-robin the default between several well-established general instances

• Make migrating between servers even easier, e.g. handled in-app (and bring posts with? 🤞)

• Make it easier to share a link to join a specific server! For example, use mobile platforms' deep linking capabilities here

cassidy,
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

All that said, greatly improving onboarding was what needed to be done first. I’ve invited several people to join Mastodon and the old flow was abysmal and was absolutely the main reason people would not join the Fediverse. Now we can focus on getting them here, and then make the experience of moving elsewhere even better.

For example, if in the Mastodon app you end up interacting most with a specific server, the app itself could suggest you migrate to that server!

cassidy,
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

I’ll expand on the deep linking point above:

What if I could share a link to e.g. joinmastodon.org/blaede.family and it was the homepage for the site, but when you go and install the app from that page, it then sets the default instance to blaede.family? This could theoretically be accomplished with Firebase dynamic links which open the Play Store, prompt the user to install the app, then pass certain information on to the installed app.

cassidy,
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

@mks_h if the concern is, “Mastodon is too centralized!” then maybe for users who signed up to the mastodon.social instance through the app, it could intelligently suggest if/when the user might want to migrate to a smaller server to encourage federation.

It’s not a perfect idea and it probably has some flaws, but you can imagine a scenario where I joined Mastodon to keep up with artists, and if they’re mostly on a smaller art focused instance, I might want to move over there.

cassidy,
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

@mks_h so I could see a little in-app banner:

Join 97 of your friends on art.social

You joined the mastodon.social server, but interact most with people on art.social. If you move to art.social you’ll keep all of your followers and can still follow and interact with people on any server.

Learn More
Start Migration

Then “Learn More” could explain why it’s important to the core idea of Mastodon that people are on a variety of servers instead of all on one centralized one.

spreadmastodon, (edited ) to welcoming
@spreadmastodon@mastodon.social avatar

Can we make the fediverse the welcoming-est place in social media?

We’re a soft-launching a new welcoming committee. All you have to do is reply to introduction posts to say hello and offer help.

We hope you’ll follow @welcoming and mention to the group how many people you welcomed, so we all know that we’re working as a team.

You can point people to https://SpreadMastodon.org, https://discover.fedified.com, or any other resources you like!

@spreadmastodon

cassidy,
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

@spreadmastodon @welcoming @spreadmastodon using the Mastodon logo and branding in this way is not allowed, or frowned upon at the very least. I love the message but I worry it’s co-opting the brand. I thought this was something from Mastodon until I got to the verrrrry end.

https://joinmastodon.org/trademark

>Do not use or register, in whole or in part, the Mastodon marks as part of your own or any other trademark, service mark, domain name, company name, trade name, product name, or service name.

rodhilton, to random
@rodhilton@mastodon.social avatar

3 months ago: "signing up and joining an instance SHOULD be difficult, we don't need to do anything to attract Twitter users!"

now: "why are all the Twitter users joining Bluesky instead of the fediverssseeeeee"

cassidy,
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

@rodhilton also, the official app literally made the same onboarding change as Bluesky and it was shit on by people on Mastodon. 🤦

cassidy, to internet
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

Bluesky is going great. The whole no-moderation thing was a great idea when you opened the floodgates to tens of thousands of people.

“You can mute people!” is the entire current moderation plan, so this is what you get.

Screenshot of Bluesky where someone says, “lmfao fucking faggot” and the reply is, “omg can we say faggot here”
Same poster from the previous reply, saying, “kill yourself faggot”

cassidy,
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

@chucker @realcaseyrollins yeah it doesn't do anything with said posts. I have those all set to warn

seldo, to random
@seldo@alpaca.gold avatar

What's that you say? Bluesky crossed a few hundred thousand users and immediately started having moderation issues? You don't say! Who could have possibly predicted? etc.

cassidy,
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@seldo but Laurie, it’s decentralized*! So they have unique problems nobody else has considered, like how blocking should work when there are multiple servers involved! Totally unsolved problem across decentralized platforms. Yep, no way to implement it. Just can’t realistically be done.

*there’s actually only one instance but shhhhh

evan, (edited ) to random
@evan@cosocial.ca avatar

If offered the chance, would you leave Earth?

cassidy,
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

@evan qualified yes because I would love to experience space travel and even the surface of another celestial body… but I also have family and friends here on Earth that it’s already hard enough to see! So maybe just a visit.

I also think we have enough problems on Earth that in general it’s not the best idea to try to colonize other planets, but then again I appreciate all of the research and advancements that happen thanks to the hard problems and discoveries of space travel.

cassidy, to random
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

Work Profile is one of the best features on .

All my work apps. On during working hours, off—like entirely disabled—outside of that. I have this week off? I can just turn them off and keep them off. I want to check in briefly at some point? I turn the apps on, do what I need, then turn them off.

When they’re on, they’re sandboxed from my personal photos, apps, etc. When they’re off, it’s like physically powering off a work phone. No potential for tracking notifications, anything.

cassidy, to random
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

If you have kids, Bluey is SO FREAKING GOOD. I dunno why I slept on it for so long, but it’s great. You can tell it’s written by folks with kids, as they nail all the ridiculous things kids and parents do to get by and have a good time.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ from me and the toddler

rafa, to random
@rafa@mastodon.design avatar

I’ve been pronouncing it as “Blue-ski” in my head and I can’t stop it.

cassidy,
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

@rafa SAME

cassidy, to random
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

FreeDesktop dark style preference winning again. 💪

Now elementary OS, GNOME, KDE, GTK, Qt, Firefox, Chrome, and more all support the cross-desktop preference I proposed and championed. Good work, everyone!

@omgubuntu https://floss.social/@omgubuntu/110249606340106632

gnuplusmatt, to random
@gnuplusmatt@fosstodon.org avatar

What is the logic behind packaging server as a ? It's not like you can't run as a rootless container on any machine that could also run flatpak.

Are new users hosting on or something?

https://flathub.org/apps/org.jellyfin.JellyfinServer

cassidy,
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

@gnuplusmatt it’s 1000× easier to click “install” in an app store than to figure out who a pod man is and why they want me to use a terminal.

cassidy, to random
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

As someone who has tried to onboard folks IRL to Mastodon, I am 100% okay with this design. This helps solve THE biggest barrier to getting people into the Fediverse. I like the suggestion to round-robin signups between a few well-known and well-supported generic instances as well, but it should be incredibly easy to say, “Hm, I want to check this Mastodon thing out,” and sign up for an account without understanding or caring what an instance is.

@feditips https://mstdn.social/@feditips/110233282251253677

cassidy,
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

@feditips I also think it should be made easier and more robust to switch instances down the line—and maybe we can even build that into client apps? If you end up interacting with a ton of people from an instance other than the one you’re on, Mastodon could actively suggest moving to that instance!

feoh, (edited ) to linux

users poll:

when you’re done using your Linux laptop for the day, do you:

cassidy,
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

@dottorblaster @feoh I don't know why, but even though sleep has worked flawlessly for me on most hardware over the years, mentally I like the explicit, intentional choice to shut down. I think it's the daily ritual of closing everything, making sure everything is filed away, basically, so I can start the next day with a clean slate.

cassidy, to programming
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

Bluesky is a React “““Native””” Twitter clone and you can tell both of those things after using it for 2 secs.

It is extraordinarily jank and it just feels like every other janky React app on Android. Which is to say: not native at all. The UI is nice because it just clones Twitter. But like, why in 2023 would you launch a new app using a non-native framework?

Actual modern Android development from a clean slate would result in such a better-feeling app…

cassidy,
@cassidy@blaede.family avatar

@jcrabapple ah yes very true 😅

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