Mastodon: Make it clear that "local timeline" doesn't mean *geographically* local

[Cassolotl]

Because of "location of local timeline #5784".

I don't understand attributs filter for local timeline.
I'am in guadeloupe i read post from swiss, and others distant contry.

Maybe the term "local timeline" is misleading then.

I definitely agree with this. It's intuitive for people who play with computers and servers a lot, where "local" means something quite specific and technical - but for people who are maybe just looking for a Twitter alternative and who are not super computer-minded but just want a little light social media, "local" is a geographic term that needs explaining by established members, often with diagrams like the one I posted above. Diagrams should not be necessary, and I'm not sure how but I think we can do better.

I think for most people [local vs. federated is] needlessly obscure and very offputting. It gives the impression that Mastodon is hard to understand, and that makes people intimidated, and then they don't come back.

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• [x] I searched or browsed the repo’s other issues to ensure this is not a duplicate.

[Cassolotl]

Maybe change the heading/title of "local timeline" to "[instance name] timeline"?

The federated timeline could be called "the fediverse" - it's pretty clear because of the "-iverse" ending that it's referring to something bigger and more inclusive, and it's a term that has been around much longer than Mastodon. I think as a new noun that isn't used for anything else it'd be pretty easy for people to pick up and remember the meaning of.

[Cassolotl]

(Mastodon post that might result in discussion - if not I'll delete this!)

[averageunicorn]

I was not aware of this ambiguity until now, and I like your idea of renaming the local timeline to "[instance name] timeline" to avoid it! And "the fediverse" sounds really good as well, and easily understandable.

To not have the title get too long, just "[instance name]" might work too for local.

[kjhoerr]

I'll work on a PR for this, I think.

The only reservation I have about removing 'timeline' from both local and fed is that neither of the columns are pinned by default, so new ignorant users might not understand the significance and avoid them. I'd be inclined to add it to the "Home" column too so the verbiage is consistent.

At the same time, "Federated timeline" definitely sounds ugh. "The Fediverse" sounds way cooler.

[Gargron]

There is a precedent of #825 which was concluded with "we don't need to rename it again"

[trwnh]

re: #825: seems the general consensus back then was that "users will understand it during onboarding"? Out of "public", "community", and "local", I'd have to say "local" is the most confusing because it can't every properly be disambiguated in a social context. Defining a locale or locality in terms of which server you are using is a bit awkward. If I was at all involved or paying attention to Mastodon in the beginning, I would have advocated we never move away from "public".

Coming from GNU Social, they use "Public timeline" / "The whole known network" to describe the split. This makes sense. It is a timeline that contains all the public posts on your instance. It is not necessary "local" except in one very specific sense of the word that still isn't the best word to describe what's really going on (as in, it explicitly does not include unlisted posts from your instance, nor replies).

[jazmichaelking]

Maybe change the heading/title of "local timeline" to "[instance name] timeline"?

The federated timeline could be called "the fediverse" - it's pretty clear because of the "-iverse" ending that it's referring to something bigger and more inclusive, and it's a term that has been around much longer than Mastodon. I think as a new noun that isn't used for anything else it'd be pretty easy for people to pick up and remember the meaning of.

How about [My Feed] | [This.Domain] | [Fediverse]

Edit: "Home" doesn't work for me, Home in the context of Web browsing is the place I go to start over, get access to everything. In Mastodon it's where the stuff _I_ want is put. "Local" is not, it's nothing to do with geography, and I signed up for this.domain, it would make sense to name it here. And yeh, "Fediverse" is more likable and less scary that "Federated".