2021-12-07_Roadmap.md 4.3 KB


title: "Roadmap" author: gargron date: 2021-12-07 draft: true categories:

  • News ---

To give you an insight into our current tasks and future plans, here is a snapshot of our current roadmap.

  • Post editing

Instead of using Delete & Redraft which erases the context of a post we want to allow people to edit their posts in-place, while showing an edit history and notifying people who have interacted with the post about the change to prevent abuse.

Status: In progress \ Timeframe: Short to medium term

  • Reply controls

We want people to be able to disable replies on their posts or limit them to specific people.

Status: Not started \ Timeframe: Short to medium term

  • Conditional suspensions

Appealing a suspension is currently a manual process. If you want to unsuspend someone on the condition that they delete the posts that resulted in the suspension, it is a clunky workflow because suspended users currently cannot do anything, so you have to unsuspend them and rely on their promise to delete the posts, and then check back manually. We want to add a workflow known from Twitter and Instagram wherein a suspended user can delete offending posts and automatically get their account reinstated.

Status: Not started \ Timeframe: Short to medium term

  • Overhaul moderation UI

We want to optimize moderation workflows by reducing the amount of clicks and page switches needed for getting certain information and performing certain actions, by e.g. redesigning some UIs and adding batch actions whenever possible.

Status: In progress \ Timeframe: Short to medium term

  • Overhaul phrase filters

Currently you must create one filter per phrase or keyword, and all filtered content is displayed as simply “filtered”. We want to allow people to add multiple phrases and keywords to a single filter rule, allow the rules to be named, and add additional per-filter options such as whether the filtered content should be viewable on a click like with a content warning, or remain hidden like now.

Status: Not started \ Timeframe: Short to medium term

  • Dynamic role system

Currently Mastodon is hardcoded to have a user, moderator and admin roles with specific sets of permissible actions. The decision about what a moderator can and cannot do, e.g. reset someone’s password or disable someone’s 2FA, is left to us as a developer. With a dynamic role system, we want to allow server owners to define their own roles that befit their community.

Status: Not started \ Timeframe: Long term

  • Unified public/web UI

The current split between the Single-Page App (“web UI”) and the pages accessible to logged out users (“public interface” or “permalinks”) is a source of user confusion and code duplication. We have similar but separate styles for posts and profiles and they do not behave the same way in terms of navigation, leading even logged in users to sometimes feel lost if they land on a public-facing page. We want to create one overarching interface for both logged-in and logged-out users by expanding the SPA to handle anonymous access and ensuring congruity between URL schemes.

Status: In progress \ Timeframe: Long term

  • Groups

We see groups as a better version of the local timeline feature, in that you could join any number of them across the fediverse without creating separate accounts, and make posts only visible to other group members instead of the whole world.

Status: Not started \ Timeframe: Long term

  • iPad support for the iOS app

One of the first things requested by our iOS users was support for the iPad. But we are not content merely letting the phone app's interface stretch to a bigger screen. We want to add first-class support with designs that make optimal use of the additional screen estate.

Status: In progress \ Timeframe: Short term

  • Discovery tab overhaul for the iOS app

Status: In progress \ Timeframe: Short to medium term

  • Android app

Now that we have an official iOS app, we need an official Android app as well.

Status: Not started \ Timeframe: Short to medium term

  • E2EE messaging for the iOS and Android apps

Status: Not started \ Timeframe: Long term