RexSystem1 voteeditedoriginally by @noisieev on GitHub7 replies
Something that could probably solve a bunch of the clutter problems and make some of these other channel types look nicer would be to have a channel that can behave as a sub-category. At first you'd think of something like discord threads BUT, what I have in mind is a bit more flexible. Basically you'd be able to allow channels to have a collapsible list of other channels attached to it. So you'd have a nice list of link channels that doesn't get messy, or be able to implement this "link in bio" idea a bit more simple and clean. You'd also be able to have different directories (I guess) for the document channel type suggested above. But overall you'd be able to organize the main channel types (text, voice, link) in a way that lets you attach related sub-channels right to them, so you could have a link or voice channel and then have a text channel attached to it. Of course as more channel types get added they'd also benefit from this functionality. I'd imagine tho that you'd want to restrict the depth of sub-categories to just 1 or 2, and default to collapsed, just to avoid making the channel lists look too cluttered and janky.
Edit: Also for permissions, I'd imagine you could add a secondary permission list to the main channel so that sub-channels would inherit permissions based on those permissions instead of the main channel's first permissions. So you could have read only and such, but also not have perms become too messy each time you move a channel to a different category or subcategory. Defaults would be something like sub-channels always inherit a main channel's secondary permissions unless otherwise stated, and when moved to a category they'd automatically sync to the category's permissions by default.
Edit2: Further clarification, this is not my take on what threads should be like for Fluxer. I think threads and channels should have a clear distinction between each other so they aren't as confusing to navigate (like on discord.) but I plan to make a post later that goes into that in more depth.
RexSystem1 voteoriginally by @coldreindeer on GitHub
In terms of user friendliness I mean, since the only way I can think of would be it would collapse the list at a tap of a button every time you want to change a channel. The only reason I suggested a link in bio one work that way would be cause you probably wouldn't use it all of the time. so that hindrance wouldn't be a big problem. But if there is some way to make your suggestion user friendly I'd be happy with that.
On PC this could be good but for mobile use I can't think of how this would work well at all.
I was actually thinking of another solution a day after posting that, but basically a way to have channel lists with layers, and I think on mobile that may work better. Specially because my idea was you could pin whatever channels from deeper layers you'd like to see all the time on the first layer of channels for quick access, but then I thought how tedious it would be finding channels on PC having to navigate multiple layers. So I guess maybe it's better to have a different solution for each?
RexSystem1 voteoriginally by @coldreindeer on GitHub
A different solution for each can be confusing for people new to the app as well as people who don't have the best memory (which seems to be like half of people over 40) lol
I mean a different solution for Mobile and PC. Navigating different channel types with different layouts can be just as or even more confusing. My current worry right now is that links can start to take up a lot of space for what they do, which even on mobile can be annoying to navigate if the amount of channels gets too long. But it's also nice having them be readily available from other parts of the community unlike if you were to make a channel with a bunch of links (which would be more annoying to navigate between on mobile).
In terms of user friendliness I mean, since the only way I can think of would be it would collapse the list at a tap of a button every time you want to change a channel. The only reason I suggested a link in bio one work that way would be cause you probably wouldn't use it all of the time. so that hindrance wouldn't be a big problem. But if there is some way to make your suggestion user friendly I'd be happy with that.
I think being able to pin channels you always want to see and have access to would solve this, but the point is to be able to organize the channel list in a way that lets you have channels you won't always use without them getting in the way. Collapsing and opening the list would only be a problem before you pin a channel you're interested in. I have no idea how well this would work for the "Link in Bio" on mobile tho, since I feel that channel type would better suited having its own type of list to be able to search members and possibly view a bit more details while navigating the list of bios before opening them (on mobile).
Okay, after going over this again, I think having the option to pin channels is fine. But to better serve mobile users you could allow nested channels whose entire navigation depends on a main channel and add a "home button" between the "back button" and nested channel's name in the channel header. That way the main channel can use whatever channel template you feel like to better present what it's trying to do. Either way, discussing mobile right now is almost pointless since the Flutter app may handle the channel list differently and the layout may work better to handle these sorts of issues.
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