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Mastodon 4.2 released, with (opt-in) search, and UX improvements
(blog.joinmastodon.org)
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this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2023
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This is what I don't understand: When people mark a post as public and discoverable, meaning Google and Bing and such can already find and index it, why would one need to opt-in to making it available via Mastodon search? Isn't that what Unlisted is already for?
@woelkchen @andypiper Consider it a compromise, given how many people were dead set against *any* search.
But public posts are already searchable because they are public. That's what all public posts on the internet are. They are visible to Google and Bing. Defaulting to not make public posts searchable from within Mastodon just drives people to proprietary search engines.
@woelkchen I didn't say it was logical, but that doesn't stop a lot of people from objecting.
And I agree it just drives people elsewhere.
I'm not on Mastodon, why were people against search?
@SorteKanin Some people object to any feature they have seen be abused on Twitter, whether or not it also has legitimate uses. And as it turns out almost any feature *can* be used to harass. If you want to just have your own little space, search allows bad guys to find you. It of course allows good guys to find you too. Some still do not think that's a worthwhile tradeoff (I don't agree, and I think it's futile, and I support search, btw.)
Probably because they are illiterate about very basic concepts on the internet.
Which privacy when it comes to posts explicitly tagged as public?
And why wouldn't this be the same thing? Public content is public content. 3rd party services can already access the posts.
I already wrote that. And what's the point of tagging a post as public and then not being able to find it on Mastodon's search? Public posts are indexable by Google and such already, no matter if the search opt-in checkbox was ticked or not.
Is it opt-out for performance reasons? If it was opt-in, maybe large instances will crumble.
Anyway, this is a wild guess.
It's been awhile since I made a new account on a Mastodon instance, but is search engine indexing enabled by default? If it isn't, then that would probably be part of why this is being made opt-in for Mastodon search, as there's been a vocal portion of folks on Mastodon opposed to search across the board.
Even if search engine indexing was enabled by default, y'know those vocal folks probably disable it ASAP and would be making a fuss if this update went & enabled Mastodon search by default. Which, well, why post publicly at all if the concern's related to privacy or not being bothered by internet randos, but 🤷♀️
Well, those can tag their posts as Unlisted.
This is opting in to Mastodon's search, not third party search engines.
Yes, that's what I wrote. And my question is what the point is when all public posts are indexed by Google anyway.