Possible solution for the perennial "what app" issue
So, I think I may have a grand solution to this problem and this also extends to similar forums. There's an app called "Friendly Social Browser" and its purpose is to give you one optimized "app" where you can add your sites and social sites you want to keep easily accessible and be able to navigate them conveniently and have everything in one place so you can easily "channel-surf" while maintaining overall context.
It also improves the rendering and allows you to tweak things to your liking. I would suggest it if you can get used to it since it feels a bit more stable than a random unoptimized browser, but its still true to the actual design of Tildes' web format and doesn't really depart from it in any appreciable way other than augmenting its stabillity.
Obviously there's Three Cheers and Surfboard (which is beautiful) but Friendly is a surprisingly pleasant and effective lateral answer to this question and I would encourage folks struggling with this topic to investigate it further and give it a try if possible.
I don't really understand what problem this solves. I have Firefox on my phone, which is great for browsing tildes. It's great for doing all sorts of stuff. What does the app you're promoting do better?
So I went and looked it up in the App Store and it appears that it's a web browser specifically optimized for and integrated with social media sites. So yes you can browse Facebook but you can also ask it to block ads or Stories on your timeline, or to sort posts chronologically, or to download videos you're watching — things that a general-purpose browser can't do because they involve giving Facebook special treatment. The same is true for other sites it has built-in support for. I imagine Tildes would get some specific benefit from it (for example, it looks like it allows you to set a color scheme that applies to all supported sites for a consistent experience (yes, I know Tildes lets you pick a color scheme; the benefit here is the cross-site consistency)) but not as much as Facebook does.
@triadderall_triangle is what I've said accurate?
Said it better then I could have.
Re:color scheme, it natively matches (changes its color/the color for its window) to the general color of the website or the accent chosen by the website but that can be altered.
Its kind of hard to explain but you can try it easily (get the free one) and see what I mean.
It also preserves the login info on sites that allow it so you can just open it up, authenticate with your biometrics if you choose, et voila, you're in!
Thanks. I looked at it in the app store and couldn't figure out the point. Seemed like a browser with a bookmark pop out side bar from the screenshots....so not amazingly useful.
Your insight makes it seem mildly more useful. Although I just use FF Nightly for Tildes and script stuff, and Vivaldi for everything else.
Just try it, I cannot do it enough justice. I would almost describe it as having like a little virtual subphone/springboard with all your apps (yes, I'm aware they're technically no different from simple bookmarks in a browser) and...yeah.
Check it out or don't, I'm really not invested in if people choose to drink the water I've led to here ;)
This answer is not really for users like you (who are fine with regular browser use).
I'm telling you , and emphatically so, as someone who has had to do both and also has many online accounts (forums and online bills and other accounts), this is actually a game-changing concept, and it gets even better when you realize you can use it in lieu of and to delete all those first-party apps that you needed to simply use a companies online account or service. And that they abuse to suck up as much unmediated information about you to further their data collection objectives as they possibly can for as long as they can.
It is profoundly different mode of interacting with your phone and of having your phone interact with the world to the extent I'm going to respectfully request if you agree with the above view, let your votes be your voice.
I'll be honest, one thing that is generating a lot of friction for me here at Tildes is the sheer, sometimes arbitrary contrarianism that seems to be prevalent, particularly when it piles on in a discussion that is not requesting edification with respect to its principle thesis. If I was open to that, I would express that and let it all hang out. That is not the case here.
Like, it seems anytime I post something, a substantial corpus of responses could be succinctly reduced to "Could you maybe not?" or basically just [insert antithetical hypothesis with a condescending bow to tie it all up]
I have zero problem with and I even encourage skepticism like what you've expressed here because it gives me a way to identify and discourse with what I consider to be "the problem" but if there's like 5 of you doing the same, it will crowd out productive discussion about an objective matter of currency to online forums like Tildes and HN and Reddit. It may well not matter to you and for that I am empathetic, but it should matter to us and if we don't care about these things, it will alienate others who may be able to enrich the knowledge and participatory value of those who may come and want to stay who happen to prefer an app or something in-between that irons out some of the wrinkles.
Like it or not, (and Tildes actually does have an app, which is called Surfboard, with another in development -> Three Cheers) many people would consider no-app as a dealbreaker and one is not always going to be able to conveniently and prejudically pidgeon-hole and disregard the app-wanters.
For these folks, who are completely reasonable in their preference, you are essentially saying "Too bad. I for one, welcome this platform being inherently unFriendly (pun intended) to app-wanters. Which Tildes fundamentally isn't or they would have designed it to be incompatible with Third Party developers and apps.
I happen to be an app-wanter who also happened to stumble into an interesting, undiscussed middle ground that may well be optimal that deserves to be considered in a good faith manner. Tildes != Lobste.rs.
Edit: I'm out of time for tonight but will gladly engage with this fresh tomorrow. Its a really important discussion and I want to do right by my position on the subject ;)
I'm sorry, I'm more confused than before. What exactly does the app do? I'm looking for specific problems that it solves, or new features that it brings. Or is the feature simply "this is an app" and, for reasons beyond my understanding, that is inherently desirable?
From the screenshot, it looks like it gives you bookmarks to websites, and then shows you the websites. I can add sites to my home screen on Android and iOS. Is that the same experience?
If I post in that "Whats on your mind?" box at the top of some screenshot where does that get sent? Is this app another social media platform with its own comment system?
If I use this app to browse and post to facebook, how is this app preventing facebook from getting my data?
I've used Friendly and it really just felt like a web browser with a bunch of bookmarks already in it. Maybe I didn't use it enough, but for me it didn't seem offer to anything Firefox wasn't already doing perfectly well already.
Could you expand on this profound difference a little, because I feel like I might have missed something.
Just to clarify things a bit:
Tildes has no official app. There are a handful of third party apps in various states of development by excited and skilled users from the recent Reddit exodus wave.
Tildes has no API for these apps to use; they entirely rely on web scraping. Doing so is a pain to work with (relative to an API), so while Tildes hasn’t taken any actively hostile measures against apps, the tech platform certainly doesn’t encourage it (and preventing web scraping completely is almost impossible even if Tildes wanted to).
Its for Android and iOS and Mac