Everything is designed and engineered following my taste and vision. This is a personal side project for me to learn about Mastodon and experiment with new UI/UX ideas.
- **Status actions (reply, boost, favourite, bookmark, etc) are hidden by default**.<br>They only appear in individual status page. This is to reduce clutter and distraction. It may result in lower engagement, but we're not chasing numbers here.
- **Boost is represented with the rocket icon**.<br>The green double arrow icon (retweet for Twitter) doesn't look right for the term "boost". Green rocket looks weird, so I use purple.
- **Short usernames (`@username`) are displayed in timelines, instead of the full account username (`@username@instance`)**.<br>Despite the [guideline](https://docs.joinmastodon.org/api/guidelines/#username) mentioned that "Decentralization must be transparent to the user", I don't think we should shove it to the face every single time. There are also some [screen-reader-related accessibility concerns](https://twitter.com/lifeofablindgrl/status/1595864647554502656) with the full username, though this web app is unfortunately not accessible yet.
- **No autoplay for video/GIF/whatever in timeline**.<br>The timeline is already a huge mess with lots of people, brands, news and media trying to grab your attention. Let's not make it worse. (Current exception now would be animated emojis.)
- **Hash-based URLs**.<br>This web app is not meant to be a full-fledged replacement to Mastodon's existing front-end. There's no SEO, database, serverless or any long-running servers. I could be wrong one day.
- From the fetched posts (e.g. 20 posts per fetch), if number of boosts are more than quarter of total posts or more than 3 consecutive boosts, boosts carousel UI will be triggered.
- If number of boosts are more than 3 quarters of total posts, boosts carousel UI will be slotted at the end of total posts fetched (per "page").
- Else, boosts carousel UI will be slotted in between the posts.
### Thread number badge (e.g. Thread 1/X)
- Check every post for `inReplyToId` from cache or additional API requests, until the root post is found.
- If root post is found, badge will show the index number of the post in the thread.
- Limit up to 3 API requests as the root post may be very old or the thread is super long.
- If index number couldn't be found, badge will fallback to showing `Thread` without the number.
-`npm run fetch-instances` - Fetch instances list from [joinmastodon.org/servers](https://joinmastodon.org/servers), save it to `src/data/instances.json`
All translations are available as [gettext](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gettext) `.po` files in the `src/locales` folder. The default language is English (`en`). [CLDR Plural Rules](https://cldr.unicode.org/index/cldr-spec/plural-rules) are used for pluralization. RTL (right-to-left) languages are also supported with proper text direction, icon rendering and layout.
On page load, default language is detected via these methods, in order (first match is used):
1. URL parameter `lang` e.g. `/?lang=zh-Hant`
2.`localStorage` key `lang`
3. Browser's `navigator.language`
Users can change the language in the settings, which sets the `localStorage` key `lang`.
### Guide for translators
*Inspired by [Translate WordPress Handbook](https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/handbook/):
- [Try to keep the same level of formality (or informality)](https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/handbook/translating/expectations/#try-to-keep-the-same-level-of-formality-or-informality)
- [Don’t use slang or audience-specific terms](https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/handbook/translating/expectations/#try-to-keep-the-same-level-of-formality-or-informality)
- Be attentive to placeholders for variables. Many strings have placesholders e.g. `{account}` (variable), `<0>{name}</0>` (tag with variable) and `#` (number placeholder).
- [Ellipsis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellipsis) (…) is intentional. Don't remove it.
- Nielsen Norman Group: ["Include Ellipses in Command Text to Indicate When More Information Is Required"](https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ui-copy/)
- Apple Human Interface Guidelines: ["Append an ellipsis to a menu item’s label when the action requires more information before it can complete. The ellipsis character (…) signals that people need to input information or make additional choices, typically within another view."](https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/menus)
- Windows App Development: ["Ellipses mean incompleteness."](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/uxguide/text-ui)
- Date timestamps, date ranges, numbers, language names and text segmentation are handled by the [ECMAScript Internationalization API](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Intl).
- [`Intl.DateTimeFormat`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Intl/DateTimeFormat) - e.g. "8 Aug", "08/08/2024"
- [`Intl.RelativeTimeFormat`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Intl/RelativeTimeFormat) - e.g. "2 days ago", "in 2 days"
- [`Intl.NumberFormat`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Intl/NumberFormat) - e.g. "1,000", "10K"
- [`Intl.DisplayNames`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Intl/DisplayNames) - e.g. "English" (`en`) in Traditional Chinese (`zh-Hant`) is "英文"
- [`Intl.Locale`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Intl/Locale) (with polyfill for older browsers)
- [`Intl.Segmenter`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Intl/Segmenter) (with polyfill for older browsers)
### Technical notes
- IDs for strings are auto-generated instead of explicitly defined. Some of the [benefits](https://lingui.dev/tutorials/explicit-vs-generated-ids#benefits-of-generated-ids) are avoiding the "naming things" problem and avoiding duplicates.
- Explicit IDs might be introduced in the future when requirements and priorities change. The library (Lingui) allows both.
- Please report issues if certain strings are translated differently based on context, culture or region.
- There are no strings for push notifications. The language is set on the instance server.
- Native HTML date pickers, e.g. `<input type="month">` will always follow the system's locale and not the user's set locale.
- "ALT" in ALT badge is not translated. It serves as a a recognizable standard across languages.
- Custom emoji names are not localized, therefore searches don't work for non-English languages.
- GIPHY API supports [a list of languages for searches](https://developers.giphy.com/docs/optional-settings/#language-support).
- Unicode Right-to-left mark (RLM) (`U+200F`, `‏`) may need to be used for mixed RTL/LTR text, especially for [`<title>` element](https://www.w3.org/International/questions/qa-html-dir.en.html#title_element) (`document.title`).
- On development, there's an additional `pseudo-LOCALE` locale, used for [pseudolocalization](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudolocalization). It's for testing and won't show up on production.
- When building for production, English (`en`) catalog messages are not bundled separatedly. Other locales are bundled as separate files and loaded on demand. This ensures that `en` is always available as fallback.
Go to [Releases](https://github.com/cheeaun/phanpy/releases) and download the latest `phanpy-dist.zip` or `phanpy-dist.tar.gz`. It's pre-built so don't need to run any install/build commands. Extract it. Serve the folder of extracted files.
Download or `git clone` this repository. Use `production` branch for *stable* releases, `main` for *latest*. Build it by running `npm run build` (after `npm install`). Serve the `dist` folder.
- Web page title, shown in the browser window or tab title
- App title, when installed as PWA, shown in the Home screen, macOS dock, Windows taskbar, etc
- OpenGraph card title, when shared on social networks
- Client name, when [registering the app for authentication](https://docs.joinmastodon.org/client/token/#app) and shown as client used on posts in some apps/clients
-`PHANPY_WEBSITE` (optional but recommended, default: `https://phanpy.social`) affects:
- Canonical URL of the website
- OpenGraph card URL, when shared on social networks
- Root path for the OpenGraph card image
- Client URL, when [registering the app for authentication](https://docs.joinmastodon.org/client/token/#app) and shown as client used on posts in some apps/clients
-`PHANPY_DEFAULT_INSTANCE` (optional, no defaults):
- e.g. 'mastodon.social', without `https://`
- Default instance for log-in
- When logging in, the user will be redirected instantly to the instance's authentication page instead of having to manually type the instance URL and submit
-`PHANPY_DEFAULT_INSTANCE_REGISTRATION_URL` (optional, no defaults):
- URL of the instance registration page
- E.g. `https://mastodon.social/auth/sign_up`
-`PHANPY_PRIVACY_POLICY_URL` (optional, default to official instance's privacy policy):
-`PHANPY_LINGVA_INSTANCES` (optional, space-separated list, default: `lingva.phanpy.social [...hard-coded list of fallback instances]`):
- Specify a space-separated list of instances. First will be used as default before falling back to the subsequent instances. If there's only 1 instance, means no fallback.
- May specify a self-hosted Lingva instance, powered by either [lingva-translate](https://github.com/thedaviddelta/lingva-translate) or [lingva-api](https://github.com/cheeaun/lingva-api)
- List of fallback instances hard-coded in `/.env`
- [↗️ List of lingva-translate instances](https://github.com/thedaviddelta/lingva-translate?tab=readme-ov-file#instances)
I am one of the earliest users of Twitter. Twitter was launched on [15 July 2006](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter). I joined on December 2006 and my [first tweet](https://twitter.com/cheeaun/status/1298723) was posted on 18 December 2006.
I know how early Twitter looks like. It was fun.
Back then, I [made a Twitter clone](https://twitter.com/cheeaun/status/789031599) called "Twig" written in Python and Google App Engine. I almost made my own [Twitter desktop client](https://github.com/cheeaun/chidori) written in Appcelerator Titanium. I [gave one of my best talks about the Twitter client](https://www.slideshare.net/cheeaun/story-of-a-thousand-birds) in a mini-conference. I built this thing called "Twitter [Columns](https://twitter.com/columns)", a web app that shows your list of followings, your followings' followings, your followers, your followers' followers and so on. In 2009, I wrote a blog post titled ["How I got started with Twitter"](https://cheeaun.com/blog/2009/04/how-i-got-started-with-twitter/). I created [two](https://twitter.com/cheeaun/status/1273422454) [themes](https://twitter.com/cheeaun/status/1487781343) for DestroyTwitter (a desktop client made with Adobe Air by Jonnie Hallman) and one of them is called ["Vimeo"](https://dribbble.com/shots/31624). In 2013, I wrote [my own tweets backup site](https://github.com/cheeaun/tweets) with a front-end to view my tweets and a [CouchDB backend](https://github.com/cheeaun/tweet-couch) to store them.
