Minds App And New Burger Menu
Minds Community Open Source Initiative (MCOSI) and several Minds staff members have spent several months examining the Minds Android app and exploring various methods in relation to further promoting the full, unfettered version. A couple of weeks ago (June 25th), the MCOSI also held a public viewable meeting, in which several senior Minds staff members attended and discussed the various options that would help easier access to the unfettered version of the Minds Android app.
As many community members are already aware, due to Google’s restrictive policies about types of apps that can be promoted via the Google Play Store, this has caused the staff to develop a restrictive version of the app that can be accessed, downloaded and installed via the usage of the Google Play Store. To combat this situation and to provide full access to the Minds platform, the staff have also provided access to the full (uncensored, unfettered) version of the app, which whilst is not accessible via the Google Play store, is available from the Minds platform.
However, whilst the Minds (unfettered) version has been available via the Minds platform for several months, the promotion of this app has been limited to a confined amount of links being displayed (within small text) throughout the platform. The Minds Help and Support representatives, as well as various community members have provided the link to the unfettered version within replies to various quires that have been posted to the Help and Support group. Therefore it was decided to try and make it easier for community members to have access to the Minds unfettered app.
During the last three months, the staff and MCOSI members have been reviewing the platform’s user interface, and have produced a redesigned burger menu, which now includes links to the Minds merchandise store and the unfettered app’s download page.
With the introduction of the new burger menu links, the staff (with the support of the MCOSI) are intending to produce a user guide which is intended to provide easy to follow installation instructions for the unfettered Minds app (Google has introduced several security options to Android, which unless manually changed by the user, makes installation of any non-Google Play Store based apps more difficult to install and use).
To further promote accessibility, the staff have decided (with the support of the MCOSI and various community members) to release the app on the F-droid store (an alternative Play store that is dedicated to promoting open source projects). The F-Droid provision will be introduced over the next several weeks, which will help to further promote the Minds platform and associated services.
Minds Community Open Source Initiative would like to congratulate all members (both staff and the wider community) that have contributed to the implementation of these changes and encourages community members to provide further contributions as to improve the accessibility, provisions and support of the Minds open source, social media platform.
Reference:
* Minds Official App
* Minds App, Google Play Store and Burger Menu
* Discussion Between MCOSI And Minds Regarding UI (Gitlab #1331)
* MCOSI Meeting with Bill Ottman - June 25th 2019
* Minds Merchandise Store
* F-Droid Open Source Android Store
* Minds Community Open Source Initiative
* 2019, MCOSI and Community Collaboration
* Introducing Minds Community Open Source Initiative