Quick update on API improvements (Patreon)

This is but a quick update before I finish some of the bigger features. The API has been improved with added CORS headers (so that client-side JavaScript apps can use it), a Server header (so that applications can tell that the domain is running Mastodon) and pagination Link headers to traverse results like status lists/timelines and user lists.

I've added configuration options to enable Amazon S3 for file uploads instead of local file storage.

If you scroll down in a timeline and a new item is added at the top, your scroll position will be kept in the right place (no jumping around). Furthermore, emojis are now converted to images on the frontend (using the Emoji One pack).

The image modal was improved to resize correctly. Video player playback can now be toggled with a click - this is required for it to work on Android at all, since Android disables autoplay.

The cute image you see here I've commissioned from Dopatwo  for the error page. In case something does go wrong or the site goes down, people need to see that they're still in the right place and Mastodon hasn't disappeared completely, just experiencing temporary technical issues.

There are also various improvements to how the public timelines work, though those should be not noticable because now it works more or less like expected (e.g. if a status is removed, it's removed from the public timeline in real-time, etc)

I've upgraded the default Ruby version from 2.2.4 to 2.3.1 because apparently 2.3 contains some good garbage collection improvements, so yay performance!

I'm currently waiting for the maintainer of the react-autosuggest library to accept my contributions that fix the up/down and enter key misbehaviour of that library in our compose form. But meanwhile, I've improved the autosuggestions results. They now hit a new account search API, so you get proper results and not just a filter of all accounts that have been loaded into the UI previously for unrelated reasons.

I'm also now aware of a few apps being developed for Mastodon. You can follow  jeroensmeets@mastodon.social  and  zatnosk@mastodon.social  for updates on those. (If you are also developing something, please let me know!)

Thanks a lot to all who decided to be my patrons. It's incredible that we've hit not just the hosting expenses goal but also my food expenses. Hurray for not starving!

As always, spread the word about Mastodon if you can. While yes, Twitter is hard to beat at the moment, people need to simply be aware of this viable alternative in case something happens. Every time there is a discussion about what's wrong with Twitter or how the service should belong to the users, and someone mentions Mastodon, is a little victory for us.

If you want to bring your friends, my recommendation from personal experience is to pick a time when you can all join at the same time. Social networks are like that scene from The Office where Michael hosts a party and people come and go because they don't see anyone else there. It's much better when people come together.