Hi, I tried a new Lemmy app yesterday. I was already kind of annoyed by different sort icons when using Photon and Voyager, but something snapped when I opened the menu in Interstellar. The third meaning of this arrow was too much.
Voyager Photon Interstellar

Here’s a table of all sort icons:

Some of these differences I’m okay with, like controversial sort, but others not so much. Especially when the same icon is used for different things. The symbols become useless if the meaning is different in every ui. I guess because Lemmy-UI doesn’t use icons for sorting, other devs just picked something in isolation.

So, my solution is to build a reference icon set that apps / frontends would loosely follow. This could then be added to Lemmy documentation. Any thoughts?

My ideas so far:

  • Hot: fire
  • Controversial: Anything negative or conflict
  • New: leaf, sprout
  • Old: clock, hourglass
  • Scaled: I don’t like the scale icon, but it’s still better than random.
  • Most comments: Multiple speech bubbles?
  • New comments: Single speech bubble? I like the unread dot in interstellar.
  • Top: trophy, medal, podium
  • Avoid: star (reserve for favorites)

This post was kinda lemmy-specific, but I’m posting to the generic /c/fediverse since other platforms could have similar issues, and extra perspectives don’t hurt.

Links:

  • JubilantJaguar@lemmy.worldEnglish
    9·
    1 day ago

    Meanwhile, I’m still not clear on the difference between “Hot” and “Active” (even though I remember understanding at one point). I bet I’m not the only one.

    • MHLoppy@fedia.io
      4·
      1 day ago

      They say spaced repetition helps the brain remember things, so here you go:

      Active (default): Calculates a rank based on the score and time of the latest comment, with decay over time Hot: Like active, but uses time when the post was published

      • JubilantJaguar@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        24 hours ago

        Oh I get it! But unfortunately that is so completely unmemorable and unconnected to the terminology that I’m now certain I’ll soon forget it again. In fact I think I’ve forgotten already.

        • OpenStars@piefed.socialEnglish
          3·
          12 hours ago

          Hot is popular, implies new bc who are we kidding

          Active is… active as in ongoing discussion, even if it’s a week old

          (Scaled is the one I never use, so someone else would have to take that one)