Ask for it

Until now, asking a fediverse project for a feature meant finding the right issue tracker, making an account there, and hoping someone saw it. A lot of good ideas end up as a post that scrolls away. We wanted one place per project, open to anyone on the fediverse, where the most wanted ideas rise to the top and the people building the software can answer.

Suggest a feature#

Open any software listing and go to the Suggestions tab, like Pixelfed’s. A suggestion is a short title, up to 80 characters, and a description of up to 500. Anyone can vote, one vote per account, and comment in 240 characters or less.

Every suggestion shows who posted it, linked to their FediDB profile. Accounts newer than a week can vote and comment, but can’t post suggestions yet. It keeps the spam down without keeping new people out.

Duplicates, handled#

The same idea gets posted twice. It always does. Anyone can mark a suggestion as a duplicate of another, and when a maintainer confirms it, the two are merged. Votes move over to the original, and if you voted for both, you still count once.

Merges can be undone, and the votes go back where they came from.

Already shipped? Show us#

Sometimes the feature people are asking for already exists. If you know where, claim it: link the commit or pull request in the project’s repo and the version it shipped in. Other people can confirm it works or say what’s still missing, and a maintainer makes the call. Accepted claims mark the suggestion implemented, with the version next to it.

Who wants this#

Once enough people vote, a suggestion shows where the votes come from: which servers, and how many voters run a server themselves. A request backed by twenty server admins reads differently from one backed by twenty people on the same instance. Small servers are never named.

The list of who voted is private. Maintainers and FediDB admins can see it, everyone else sees the count.

Maintainers#

People who work on a project can now ask to become its maintainer on FediDB. Maintainers set the status of suggestions (planned, in progress, implemented, declined), merge duplicates, decide claims and hide spam, for that project only.

To ask, open the project’s Maintainers page and prove the connection one of three ways. Add a .fedidb file to the root of the repo with a line like maintainer=@[email protected], link to a page on the project’s website that mentions you, or just explain. A FediDB admin reviews every request. Projects without a maintainer yet are looked after by our moderators.

If you follow a suggestion, you can get a DM when its status changes. It’s off unless you turn it on.

Software pages, rebuilt#

Software pages were one long scroll. They’re now split into tabs: Overview, Servers, Versions, Feature support, Suggestions, Community notes and Changelog, each with its own page you can link to.

The overview has three layouts.

• Welcome is the default and is built for someone deciding whether to try a project: servers with open signups right next to the pitch, what it can do, what people are asking for, then the details server admins care about

• Pulse puts the numbers first

• Sections keeps the overview short and leaves the rest to the tabs

Use the Layout button to pick one, and with localStorage, it becomes the the default layout on your device. To share a specific view, add ?layout=pulse or ?layout=sections to the link.

The server list has its own page now, with the filters in the URL, so a list of open Pixelfed servers in Europe is just a link.

Sign in with Loops#

You can now sign in to FediDB with a Loops account, alongside Mastodon, Pixelfed, GoToSocial, Akkoma, Pleroma, Iceshrimp and Friendica. Everyone else can still sign in with a code by direct message.

Thank you#

FediDB is community funded, and features like this only work if people use them. Go ask for something, vote for the ideas you want, and if you work on a project, claim it.