Dev.to Interaction Bar

Zack Dunn — Wed, 19 Sep 2018 14:26:41 +0000

I'm not a fan of persistent chrome in apps, especially on mobile. I don't like having screen space taken and chrome distracts me from reading the actual content. While I can and do use extensions on desktop to get rid of the bar, Chrome for Android doesn't support extensions so I'm stuck with the bar.

My proposal is that Dev.to introduce CSS variables to control the position of the interaction bar. CSS variables, or custom properties, are set in a ::root rule and always begin with --.

::root {
    --interaction-bar-position: fixed;
}

Their value can be any valid CSS value. To use the variable, use the var function.

.container .article-actions {
    position: var(--interaction-bar-position);
}

Then override the variable only in specific rules.

.container .article-actions.relative {
    --interaction-bar-position: relative;
}

And that's it. By default, the interaction bar will be fixed at the bottom. A simple checkbox in settings could control the presence of the relative class on the article-actions element.

Here's the complete CSS.

::root {
    --interaction-bar-position: fixed;
}

.container .article-actions.relative {
    --interaction-bar-position: relative;
}

.container .article-actions {
    position: var(--interaction-bar-position);
}

Implement ActivityPub?

Zack Dunn — Thu, 19 Jul 2018 15:10:24 +0000

Hi. I'd like to propose Dev.to implement ActivityPub. ActivityPub is a W3C standard for decentralized social networking. It's currently implemented by a few different projects, including Pleroma, Mastodon, PeerTube, Plume, PixelFed, and more are coming every day. GitLab and Ghost both have open issues discussing adding support.

Adding ActivityPub support would expose dev.to to more than a million new users. Users on the other platforms would be able to follow and interact with dev.to users. Dev.to would gain much larger exposure, while still retaining full control of its own moderation. The lead dev of Mastodon wrote a post that explains the benefits here

Thanks for taking the time to read this. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them here or over at my Mastodon account.

Forem: Zack Dunn

Dev.to Interaction Bar

Implement ActivityPub?