Quick vibe check on @elk usage.

[techassi@chaos.social]

@ayo @elk I exclusively use Elk on the desktop, but never used it on mobile. There I use the official Mastodon app.

[feudjais@eldritch.cafe]

@skaverat @ayo @elk came here to say this.

[webfussel@mastodontech.de]

@ayo @elk I've used it since I've known about it. By far the best UI for (at least) Mastodon.

[tekhne@mamot.fr]

@ayo @elk I use both @phanpy (which is much better for notifications than Elk) and Elk (where you can copy and paste while switching accounts but still stay on the previous one).
The main issue with Elk : it doesn't support quotes yet.
The main drawback of Phanpy : switching accounts isn't as convenient or quick as it is on Elk.
@cheeaun

[ayo@social.ayco.io]

@tekhne @elk @phanpy @cheeaun That’s why both clients exist and very much friends haha

[ayo@social.ayco.io]

@tekhne @elk @phanpy @cheeaun But I’m taking a lot of notes for Elk improvements, so thanks a lot for sharing!

[sharibaby@c.im]

@elk @ayo I checked it out just out of curiosity when it was announced, and I returned to it every once in a while just to see what was going on. But I still use Metatext as my main app every day.

[daj@gofer.social]

@ayo @elk “discussing the future of..." never sounds good.

[bebatjof@twoot.site]

@ayo @elk I voted "yes sometimes" because I use tusky on my phone and elk on my laptop. (So not really "*started* using something else").

I'm very happy with elk and I've recommended it. I haven't used it on my phone cause I'm happy with tusky also

Edit to add: apart from the fact that it's prettier than the regular mastodon website, the feature I like the most is very simple: the size of the text box to write a post in.

So no fireworks, I just bookmarked elk instead of mastodon web and it's nice.

[sgt1372@sfba.social]

@ayo @elk

I've been using #Elk exclusively on my #Android phone & #Windows laptop since I 1st discovered it 2 or 3 yrs ago.

Liked it better than #Tusky which I compared it with at the time.

I liked the visual appearance & organization of Elk better & never switched or bothered to see if there's currently anything "better" out there now because I'm not unhappy with how Elk performs.

However, I also keep the main #Mastodon app on hand for when I need or want to do things Elk doesn't or can't.

This doesn't happen often but better integration of Elk with Mastodon would eliminate the need for this entirely.

[piebob@metasocial.com]

@ayo @elk i used elk for over a year but switched to phanpy about 6 months ago and imo it's much nicer and is updated more frequently.

[ecstrema@mas.to]

@ayo @elk I use it everyday. It does everything, is clean, installable as a PWA, very responsive. Never had any issues with it, and find it significantly more nice to the eyes than the default client,

[Guest]

@ayo @elk I love Elk and it’s the only Mastodon client I can stand looking at, day in, day out 🥲

[ghosttie@mastodon.gamedev.place]

@ayo @codinghorror @elk is there a page somewhere that says what the differences are?

[dirk@gts.0x7be.net]

@ivory @claudinec @ayo @elk I hope for that since I started using Elk some years ago. It absolutely needs a toggle between rendered and raw Markdown.

Elk trying to be smart sometimes hinders me writing messages how I want them to be.

[ivory@tapbots.social]

@dirk We don't support writing markdown yet as that isn't a feature of Mastodon yet. As soon as the API allows for it, we will add it. For now it's read only as it is in Mastodon.

[wcbdata@vis.social]

@ayo @elk Looks like a Mastodon client with built in AI? No thanks.

[crocodisle@woof.tech]

@ayo @elk I tried web app a few times and I like it, but it's a bit out of the way and I only feel as excited to use it as I do towards the default mastodon interface.

Having more features to enhance the masto experience sounds cool, but I also worry about drifting too far into specialized-UI land that it could end up making the default interface feel too clunky to use by comparison. Since I don't have too many complaints about the default interface, I don't feel too pressured to change rn.

I do think Elk is neat though!

[ifilipau@mas.to]

@ayo @elk

IIRC there were features missing + rough edges "paper cuts".

I used Elk because it worked best for doom-scrolling the trending. Not without bugs, but better than rest of mastodon clients. But then one update broke the doom-scrolling. So... Elk is just too unfinished. It needs a decent amount of systematic UX polishing.

[mcdanlj@social.makerforums.info]

@ayo @elk Elk is my primary client. It's definitely my favorite and the experience is generally much better than the default client, or in general all the other clients that feel the need to wrap everything up in boxes inside boxes on virtual "cards". Phanpy is the only one that makes that work at all, in my opinion (though I don't like the boost carousels; personal preference), and for every other client I know, the UIs look like they are a few decades old.

Two flies in the ointment for me, though...

Editing glitch+soc formatted posts in Elk generally kills formatting, which forces me back to the default UI. The built-in formatting doesn't know about bullet lists and keeps turning them into italics, which is frustrating.

The experience is getting worse running Elk main on mobile Firefox (Android), to the point that I'm struggling. I have to assume that no Elk devs are using mobile Firefox as a daily driver.