relatica/user_manual.md

# Relatica User Manual

## Introduction

[Friendica(https://friendi.ca/) is a free and open source decentralized social network project that
allows users and/or organizations to create a social network server that operates with a similar
sort of user experience idiom as Facebook (posts/comments threads, groups, etc). It interacts with
software projects like [Mastodon](https://mastodon.social/) (a Twitter-like decentralized social
network), [PixelFed](https://pixelfed.org/) (an Instagram-like decentralized social network),
and [PeerTube](https://peertube.tv/) (a YouTube-like decentralized social network) to create a web
of interacting users and content that combined create a network of millions of users across
thousands of servers called "the fediverse" or "social web". [Elena Rossini]() has
created [this great video](https://news.elenarossini.com/fediverse-video/) to help describe this
concept in a very approachable way.

The Friendica project itself is solely focused on the development of the server side software. It
does not host any "main" instance. All Friendica hosts are independent. At the time of this writing
there are approximately 80 "public" servers in
the [Friendica directory site](https://dir.friendica.social/) from which users can choose
to join. The [Fediverse Observer](https://friendica.fediverse.observer/stats) statistics site shows
over 280 active Friendica servers on the fediverse, hosting thousands of users writing millions of
posts/comments each month.

The Friendica project also does not write any client side software for mobile/desktop devices.
Instead it has implemented application programming interfaces (APIs) that allow independent projects
to interface with the server software programmatically. There have been other independent mobile
apps that can interface with Friendica. Some projects have even targeted Friendica directly for
Android. At the beginning of this project there was no project for iOS however.

Relatica represents an independent development to develop a mobile and desktop client for Friendica
that will allow users to interface with Friendica servers that they have accounts on. It will allow
them to create/edit/delete posts, take pictures to upload, check notifications on posts they've
written, basically most of the usual types of things that one likes to do with Friendica or any
other social network. By "independent" I mean that the project is not a part of nor receives any
official sanction from the Friendica project itself.

## Document Overview

This manual is a brief tour of various common features of the Relatica Friendica client and how to
use them. Many of the features are self explanatory and common for a social network application.
Many of the workflows follow the same paradigm that the main Friendica website uses. Others are more
unique and/or configurable. This manual attempts to make those features and/or workflows more clear.

## Unique Features

* Slow network assistance: Low Bandwidth mode and request timeout controls
* Focus Mode
* Non-infinite scroll
* Filters
* Per Network Capabilities Management

## Tabs

### Timelines

#### Timeline Types

* My Posts
* My Network
* Global Fediverse
* Local Fediverse
* Circles
* Groups
* Channels

#### Post/Comment actions

* Clicking on a post
* Popup menu
    * Open post (same as clicking on it)
    * Show Likers
    * Show Reshares
    * Block User
    * Report Post/Comment
    * Open in Browser
    * Copy URL
    * Copy Post Text

### Notifications

### Contacts

### Explore

#### Searching

#### Trending

* Global Tags
* Local Tags
* Statuses
* Links

#### Followed Tags

#### Suggested Users

## Drawer Menu

### Profile Management

### Focus Mode

### Gallery Viewing/Management

### Direct Messages

### Blocks

### Filters

### Circles Management

### Settings

#### Low Bandwidth Mode

#### Network Request Timeout

#### Group Notifications by Type

#### Spoiler/Content Warning Hiding

#### Confirm Reporting Prompt

#### Open Tags in App

#### Dark Mode Theme Setting

#### Clear Local Caches

#### Logging (Setting Level and Viewing)

#### Network Capabilities

## Moderation

### Reporting Posts/Comments

* No API method for doing reports so must be done in Friendica UI proper
* Workflow for report
    * Menu item
    * Confirm (user configurable)
    * iOS Launches WebView with the post/comment highlighted
    * Android?

### Blocking a User

### Managing User Blocks

### Filtering

### Controlling Spoiler/Content Warning/Hiding