Long rant incoming...
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@lisamelton Saw that, just wanted to confirm that those of us on instances running the current release are not seeing the issue.
@larand Correct. You need the upcoming version of Mastodon to see this.
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You all know I'm trans. So, I care a LOT about presentation, about how I look and how I'm perceived.
In a medium that is primarily text-based, I would think it's important to preserve the manner in which the author's text is formatted. ESPECIALLY WHEN THAT AUTHOR IS DESCRIBING THEMSELVES!
Look, I might as well just change the BIO text field to:
"See https://lisamelton.net/about/ because Mastodon constrains self expression"
Am I upset about this issue? Yes! Aren't you?
2/3
@lisamelton Yes. It's on mine too. And I don't like it one bit.
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@larand Correct. You need the upcoming version of Mastodon to see this.
@lisamelton @larand not sure what triggers that, but it seems to come and go. I noticed it this week, but at this moment I don’t see it. Feature or bug?
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Long rant incoming...
I hadn't looked at the BIO text field of my own Mastodon profile on the Web in quite awhile. Long ago I formatted it with one extra carriage return between each paragraph to increase legibility.
But now it's rendered as a compressed, hard to read single blob with no vertical spaces. WTF?!?
Why is Mastodon taking away my agency and butchering my typography? Is this going to happen to our posts next?
This insulting and unnecessary change needs to be backed out!
1/3
@lisamelton tech people ignoring, or disregarding, or not even considering consent. Whoda thunk it.
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@lisamelton @larand not sure what triggers that, but it seems to come and go. I noticed it this week, but at this moment I don’t see it. Feature or bug?
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@sandorspruit Read the third part of my message.
@lisamelton I did
My instance is usually fairly quick to update, so I can assure that your instance is not just running an alpha, but probably the first version with this particular change. -
@lisamelton I did
My instance is usually fairly quick to update, so I can assure that your instance is not just running an alpha, but probably the first version with this particular change.@sandorspruit @lisamelton Mastodon.social is the only server running nightly versions. (for a very obvious reasons).

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Long rant incoming...
I hadn't looked at the BIO text field of my own Mastodon profile on the Web in quite awhile. Long ago I formatted it with one extra carriage return between each paragraph to increase legibility.
But now it's rendered as a compressed, hard to read single blob with no vertical spaces. WTF?!?
Why is Mastodon taking away my agency and butchering my typography? Is this going to happen to our posts next?
This insulting and unnecessary change needs to be backed out!
1/3
@lisamelton Hi Lisa, FWIW it looks okay to me on Ivory.

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You all know I'm trans. So, I care a LOT about presentation, about how I look and how I'm perceived.
In a medium that is primarily text-based, I would think it's important to preserve the manner in which the author's text is formatted. ESPECIALLY WHEN THAT AUTHOR IS DESCRIBING THEMSELVES!
Look, I might as well just change the BIO text field to:
"See https://lisamelton.net/about/ because Mastodon constrains self expression"
Am I upset about this issue? Yes! Aren't you?
2/3
@lisamelton Oh, crap. I just looked. Oh, crap. It looks crappy.

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If you don't see this behavior in your Mastodon profile, it's probably because you're running an older version of the Web software.
I'm on mastodon.social and it's currently running version v4.6.0-alpha.7+pr-38939-5f3002f.
Again, because I don't normally look at my own profile, I have no idea when this heinous formatting began in the development process.
Because my version is an alpha, I hope that means there's plenty of time for Mastodon to fix this self-inflicted mistake.
3/3
I'm using @ivory on iOS and iPadOS.
The web version depends on your instance, and what they choose.
My gripe with the web versions is that timestamps are differential. I don't want to know how long ago something was posted — I want to know *when* in system time format (I prefer 24-hour time).
And yes, I use emdashes. My COMM 1303 instructor was insistent that we learn how to punctuate them correctly, and they've easy using the TypWise keyboard.
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You all know I'm trans. So, I care a LOT about presentation, about how I look and how I'm perceived.
In a medium that is primarily text-based, I would think it's important to preserve the manner in which the author's text is formatted. ESPECIALLY WHEN THAT AUTHOR IS DESCRIBING THEMSELVES!
Look, I might as well just change the BIO text field to:
"See https://lisamelton.net/about/ because Mastodon constrains self expression"
Am I upset about this issue? Yes! Aren't you?
2/3
@lisamelton Has this been on your radar? Might be worth your time!
Stefan Bohacek (@stefan@stefanbohacek.online)
Just a reminder that Mastodon Discovery Week starts tomorrow! With live roundtable discussions and async options, this is a great opportunity for all of us to share feedback and help make independent social media better for everyone. https://app.hi.events/event/7599/mastodon-discovery-week-2026 #mastodon #MastodonDiscoveryWeek #fediverse #SocialMedia #design #feedback
Stefan's Personal Mastodon Server (stefanbohacek.online)
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Long rant incoming...
I hadn't looked at the BIO text field of my own Mastodon profile on the Web in quite awhile. Long ago I formatted it with one extra carriage return between each paragraph to increase legibility.
But now it's rendered as a compressed, hard to read single blob with no vertical spaces. WTF?!?
Why is Mastodon taking away my agency and butchering my typography? Is this going to happen to our posts next?
This insulting and unnecessary change needs to be backed out!
1/3
I'm not seeing this for reasons which you have explained.
But yeah, I understand why you're furious
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@lisamelton Hi Lisa, FWIW it looks okay to me on Ivory.

@soundclamp Thanks. Read the third part of my message.
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Long rant incoming...
I hadn't looked at the BIO text field of my own Mastodon profile on the Web in quite awhile. Long ago I formatted it with one extra carriage return between each paragraph to increase legibility.
But now it's rendered as a compressed, hard to read single blob with no vertical spaces. WTF?!?
Why is Mastodon taking away my agency and butchering my typography? Is this going to happen to our posts next?
This insulting and unnecessary change needs to be backed out!
1/3
@lisamelton
Ugh, this is annoying!
I too had my bio nicely spaced with line breaks for readability. Now the spaces are gone
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@lisamelton Oh, crap. I just looked. Oh, crap. It looks crappy.

@lisamelton What’s weird, if I go to Edit, it displays aa it’s supposed to. If I add a double space, it doesn’t affect the removing of spacing when I click done. (Obviously talking about my bio.)
I hope it’s a temp thing, just a bug.
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@lisamelton Has this been on your radar? Might be worth your time!
Stefan Bohacek (@stefan@stefanbohacek.online)
Just a reminder that Mastodon Discovery Week starts tomorrow! With live roundtable discussions and async options, this is a great opportunity for all of us to share feedback and help make independent social media better for everyone. https://app.hi.events/event/7599/mastodon-discovery-week-2026 #mastodon #MastodonDiscoveryWeek #fediverse #SocialMedia #design #feedback
Stefan's Personal Mastodon Server (stefanbohacek.online)
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I'm using @ivory on iOS and iPadOS.
The web version depends on your instance, and what they choose.
My gripe with the web versions is that timestamps are differential. I don't want to know how long ago something was posted — I want to know *when* in system time format (I prefer 24-hour time).
And yes, I use emdashes. My COMM 1303 instructor was insistent that we learn how to punctuate them correctly, and they've easy using the TypWise keyboard.
@lisamelton @ivory
This is what I see on my iPhone.
If you are here to say she's doing it wrong, leave now.
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@lisamelton What’s weird, if I go to Edit, it displays aa it’s supposed to. If I add a double space, it doesn’t affect the removing of spacing when I click done. (Obviously talking about my bio.)
I hope it’s a temp thing, just a bug.
@CStamp Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure it's intentional foolishness.
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@lisamelton Ah, that's a shame. The team would really benefit from having you included!
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@lisamelton @ivory
This is what I see on my iPhone.
If you are here to say she's doing it wrong, leave now.