Threading is an art form. By replying to your own posts you can gather a lot of information in one place or keep commenting on something that is going on. Threading is also very inconvenient: you have to dig up your own posts and reply to them.

Tusks is a Mac and iOS app for Mastodon users who really, really like to create threads. The app, from indie developer Third Culture Apps, turns any Mastodon account into a sort of private blog. The app is all about posting: you can’t browse your timeline, and you can’t see replies. What you can do, however, is view your own posts, browse them by thread, and add additional replies. It’s not a replacement for a full-fledged Mastodon client: it’s a purpose-built threading tool.

Open the app and you’ll see all of your recent posts in the left sidebar. You can click on any of the posts to expand it into a thread, complete with a reply box that you can use to add additional replies. There are some nice features for organizing your threads. You can give them a name, which will only be visible to you. You can also pin the threads you visit most often, so you can find them in one place.

I've used this on a few threads over the past week and I like how it forces me to think about my own writing. Without Tusks, it's easy to quickly post and then go back to the timeline to read other people's stuff. This app takes away that impulse by being there for one thing only: writing.