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I've been building starter packs for Mastodon in my spare time and today I want to share what I've built with the community:

fedidevs.com/starter-packs/

I've started building this when I saw how popular starter packs on Bluesky are and I think a feature like this is even more critical for Mastodon where it's harder to find people to follow across thousands of instances.

Only a small number starter packs are available right now, but I'm hoping the community will add more soon! ❤️

in reply to Anže :python:

I don't own the Fediverse, you don't need to ask my permission!

I think they just mean that I run a website at fedi.directory and an account at @FediFollows which recommends accounts to follow on various topics.

in reply to Fedi.Tips

@FediTips @Christo_459 @FediFollows yeah, there are number of directories of accounts. some are opt-in, some are opt-out. what do you do if you want to opt out from some of these - i presume consent is dependent on creator of the pack?
in reply to Anže :python:

No worries, it's working now!

This is really neat! It might be worth adding an FAQ section (the current site-wide link might confuse people a bit).

I see you already addressed one obvious question regarding consent in another thread, other than that, it would've been nice to review which accounts I added before I finalize the starter pack when first creating it.

in reply to Stefan Bohacek

(I figured I can update the list later, but I also thought this might start notifying people who were added.)

Also, removing accounts is a bit clunky, as you have to find them by the full handle again.

But this is definitely a great start! And I think it's worth fully developing even as Mastodon builds this feature natively, as it seems like it might end up being pretty limited, if you really have to follow each account before adding it to a starter pack.

in reply to Stefan Bohacek

And lastly, and this is a personal preference, but maybe the accounts could be listed in a grid and be more compact, for quicker visual scanning? Just a thought!
in reply to Stefan Bohacek

@stefan great feedback, thanks!

There are currently no notifications when people are added to a starter pack (similar to bsky's implementation), but I agree that there should be a review step at the end.

My plan is to keep working on this as long as there are people out there who find it useful! Thanks again for trying it out and creating some packs!

in reply to Anže :python:

This is great! Is there anyway to load accounts in via an existing list/.csv that i have? Manually punching in accounts is going to take forever! Also, is there a limit on how many can be in a pack?

Working on my own pack now 😁

🧡

in reply to shellsharks

@shellsharks I have a way of importing accounts through the command line so feel free to share the csv with me and I'll import it for you when I have a chance.

I am a bit hesitant to expose this feature to the web as it might be used to create spam packs, but I'll see what the feedback from the community is.

The current limit is 150 accounts per pack.

in reply to Anže :python:

If it's just 150, ill load them in myself (thanks though!). I have a "pack" but it’s over 500 accounts at this point. I’ve also noticed a weird bug that when I search for a user on the "infosec.place" instance, I get a 500 Server Error.

Probably something to do with the way @jerry has isolated that instance?

in reply to shellsharks

@shellsharks @jerry I'll investigate but I'm at work right now so it will only be in a few hours. Sorry!
in reply to shellsharks

@shellsharks not that I’m aware of. Can you tell me what you are searching? It seems to work from here ok
in reply to ChatJERRYPT

@jerry I was trying to search for buherator@infosec.place and add that account to a starter pack here... fedidevs.com/starter-packs/
in reply to shellsharks

@shellsharks interesting. I tried searching from infosec.exchange and mastodon.social and both find it without issue. Is it still happening now?
in reply to ChatJERRYPT

@jerry I mean if you search for those accounts FROM the starter pack builder on the Fedidevs.com/starterpacks site.
in reply to shellsharks

@shellsharks ahhh. I wonder if it’s because infosec.place is running Akkoma and that site may not be fully compatible with Akkoma.
in reply to Anže :python:

Also a huge shoutout to @paulox and @villapirorum who spent a lot of their time testing, reporting bugs, and giving me precious feedback!
in reply to Anže :python:

Really cool! I have one feature request: the ability to add a Creative Commons licence to a Starter Pack. That way, if Mastodon (or other Fediverse software) adds native support for them, existing starter packs with the right licence can be auto-imported.

I also ran into a couple of 500 errors, or existing handles that couldn't be found (mostly on non-mainstream servers). I don't know if there's any helpful info I can provide, or if there are server logs.

Thanks for making this!

in reply to Vincent Tunru

@VincentTunru I like the idea of adding a CC license. Does that just mean showing the CC clause on the starter pack page?

I still have to go through all the 500 errors that were logged. I think a few of them was because the instance was running an older version of Mastodon. If you give me some concrete examples I can try to prioritize those errors.

Thanks for the feedback!

in reply to Anže :python:

If you want to get fancy you could use microformats.org/wiki/rel-lice…, but yeah, as long as the data (i.e. the fact that the starter pack author agreed with the licence) is there, making it available can always be solved afterwards.

As for the 500, I got it when trying to add @noeldemartin, for example.

in reply to Vincent Tunru

@VincentTunru Thanks Vincent for wanting to add me on the starter pack :D.

Yeah, I'm running a very old version of Mastodon, so that's probably the issue 🙈. I have to update it some day, but since I'm the only one using the instance and it seems to work fine (until now xD), I was in no rush to update.