Mastodon: GeoTag toggle for post (Enhancement)

[ZiiX]

I REALLY like that Mastodon strips image metadata; however, it'd be great to have a separate toggle to:
Add precise geolocation to post
OR
add less-precise geo-location for the post such as at city level.

*maybe retroactively add/keep geotag to image too if possible on post

[lauramichet]

I really like the idea of city-level geolocation. It would be extremely useful for posts about meetups, posts looking for resources in a specific place, and posts about political events or activism.

[Gargron]

We need to assess how popular geolocation data would be. I don't want to invest time into a feature that barely anybody will use, even if it's possible to do. Meetups and activism could be organized using hashtags, or if it's ever implemented, OStatus groups (#139)

[thiagomgd]

@Gargron I agree about using hashtags to meetups.
About how popular it would be, i there any info on how popular it is on Twitter, for example?
I don't see it being used very often, apart from a few people who enables it, but chose their cities as the location and not the place they really are. So I guess for now, it won't be a priority.

Edit: A dumb and not-so-related comparison: polls are used way more often than location, at least for what I see on my tw's timeline

[wxcafe]

Same, I don't see location being used on twitter /at all/. Should we close this for now since there doesn't seem to be any interest to implement this?

[raucao]

Why only consider Twitter? It is heavily used on Instagram and Facebook, and I love tagging my photos with location, as well as browsing others' photos of the same places. I think the vast majority of photo posts in my timeline over there are geo-tagged these days.

However, I would suggest using a location search instead of a binary toggle, which has also proven to work well on Instagram. This way, you can choose exactly the resolution you want, and it's also much nicer to render and read named locations, such as "Central Park, New York" or "Torre pendente di Pisa".

[realityfabric]

It is heavily used on Instagram and Facebook, and I love tagging my photos with location, as well as browsing others' photos of the same places.

While I agree that there are cases where geolocation data can add to the user experience, I don't think that Mastodon is built for those cases. Is Mastodon going to be rolling out map overlays like Facebook does?

It's not just whether people like those features, but how they're implemented and whether it's practical for what Mastodon is.

I would suggest using a location search instead of a binary toggle, which has also proven to work well on Instagram. This way, you can choose exactly the resolution you want, and it's also much nicer to render and read named locations, such as "Central Park, New York" or "Torre pendente di Pisa".

It's just as easy to type Central Park, New York as text as it is to enter it into a geolocation form. It's slightly more difficult to type #CentralPark #NewYork or something similar. In both cases there is absolutely no back-end modification necessary, and in the latter case you can still look through the posts.

[raucao]

It's just as easy to type Central Park, New York as text as it is to enter it into a geolocation form. It's slightly more difficult to type #CentralPark #NewYork or something similar. In both cases there is absolutely no back-end modification necessary, and in the latter case you can still look through the posts.

I think that suggestion is missing the benefits of geolocation features entirely. There's a reason you have both hashtags and locations as separate data points and URLs on most services. There's no way to render a location from a simple hashtag, and it's almost impossible to suggest the most commonly used hashtag/location when it's not based on your current geo coordinates.

[realityfabric]

I know it's less convenient, but my issue boils down to not trusting that a service that has built-in collection of this data won't at some point collect it without my knowledge or consent (even if it's by accident). The inconvenience of plaintext or tags is worth it, for me, to ensure that that data is presented only if I explicitly present it.

If it were rolled out as opt-in for both instance admins and users (where admins have to manually enable geolocation in their configuration and users have to manually add their location to any post they want it added to) then it would be less of an issue (for me). And I still wouldn't use it.

As a side note, I realize that many instances log IPs and those can be used for similar purposes, but that information isn't intended to be presented with the posts ("toots").

[raucao]

1. I didn't touch convenience in my arguments at all.
2. Nobody can get your location if you don't allow it. I don't know a single OS or browser that gives an app access to location data without user permission. So this can only be implemented as opt-in in the first place. And personally, I'd prefer the Instagram version, where it's never on by default for any post, but opt-in per post. (Just a matter of config options, of course. Some people may e.g. want to use auto-on as a safety feature, when e.g. posting from a public protest/demonstration or in other cases.)
3. Logging IPs has absolutely nothing to do with this topic/feature.

[realityfabric]

I didn't touch convenience in my arguments at all.

Suggested tags is a convenience feature. Standardizing tags by location is a convenience feature. But that's irrelevant, don't play semantics. You know what I mean, and if you don't you should just ask.

Nobody can get your location if you don't allow it. I don't know a single OS or browser that gives an app access to location data without user permission. So this can only be implemented as opt-in in the first place.

Both Facebook and Twitter have defaulted to the previous location set on posts I've made in the past. It didn't require accessing my location, because they simply used data I had already given them and re-used it.

I'd prefer the Instagram version, where it's never on by default for any post, but opt-in per post.

I agree, if it ever happens then it should always be opt-in by default. This would prevent the problem mentioned above.

Logging IPs has absolutely nothing to do with this topic/feature.

You can determine location by IP. That makes it extremely relevant, and I mentioned it to clarify the scope of my concern.