Chocobozzz
Make it easy to interact with remote accounts.
It all begann with this video: Introducing the Fediverse: a New Era of Social Media. Immediately after I shared it with my not-so-techy friends someone asked: "And how can I like this video with my Mastodon account?" I started to find a solution for him and ended up writing this article: Mit einem Klick durchs Fediverse: Wie man PeerTube-Videos auch ohne Konto liken kann (English translation attached and titled One click through the Fediverse: How to like PeerTube videos without an account)
Problem
In the end I identified at least one issue in PeerTubes UI/UX, which should get improved: There is absolutely no hint for the Dow's yet, that opening some sort of remote-interaction is crucial for having the ability to like a video. (Well PeerTube Admins like me, know that somewhere it must be and start to search – but the average user has no clue about ActivityPub internals.)
Suggested Solution
- Change the error-description from "You need an account to rate videos" to "You must login or open up an remote interaction, to rate videos."
- Some button to open up this remote-interaction should be placed above (or around) all elements, which rely on it.
- Setting up remote-interaction should be explained in the FAQ and as much as possible supported from the server: E.g. filling in the username (taken from a cookie Mastodon has set?) or at least a list for autocompleting instance names.
There will always be more remote-users than instance-users so remote-interaction seems to be a very important topic!
Attachments and Background Reading
One click through the Fediverse: How to like PeerTube videos without an account.pdf
Thread on Mastodon: https://troet.fediverse.at/@[email protected]/114692068732350308 https://troet.fediverse.at/@ilanti/114726158328494803
