Gregory's ServerWe are excited to launch a new project that will help small and medium-sized fediverse servers and their users have better access to search and discovery through the use of pluggable Fediverse Discovery Providers, supported by a grant from @EC_NGI. See our new dedicated website for details:
 40 comments
  @MastodonEngineering @EC_NGI I for one welcome our new universal search pluggable providers!  @EC_NGI @MastodonEngineering current Fedi search is inadequate for most users on many platforms, and independently, pluggable providers for anything seem like a major step forward for Mastodon. definitely going to be watching this.  @MastodonEngineering @EC_NGI this is pretty cool, and means it will be even easier to use Mastodon and such over time. As a small server for just me and a few friends this will be fantastic. I am already pretty well federated but this will make it by far easier in the future.  @schizanon allow us to eventually have better search and discovery for smaller instances on the fediverse such as my privately run Mastodon server. @chiefgyk3d so they say, but how does that work? As I understand it, your instance can delegate search to another instance instead of having to manage the index yourself? What if the results come from instances you don't federate with, or have fediblocked? What if there's CSAM or something in the results?  It will definitely make running a single user instance a bit easier from scratch. Concidering I need to think up how I want to do community features on a few sites it maybe help a lot there as well. Looks like it will allow for a plugin ecosystem for search and search providers in a federated system. Making it easier to find people through search as opposed to going through instances and searching separately. It's optional as well so. @CWSmith so your small instance can use someone else's search index? that seems useful. Elastic search is a beast  @wysteriary @MastodonEngineering @EC_NGI There are key differences between relays and a generic search provider like proposed here. I think pointing those out is crucial. I hope that a flow graph of a draft, maybe including a direct comparison, will be available soon. I discussed this quite some time with the Mastodon guys and #FOSDEM and it was not easy for me to get the point.  @wysteriary Feels like relays will still serve a separate purpose, but as they mention in the post that these Discovery Providers may eventually serve other purposes as well, it could be possible. With proper federated search and discovery features I would feel less need for relays.   @wysteriary @MastodonEngineering @EC_NGI it may end up somewhat similar to a relay - we are in definition phase. It is not the intent and it may have other requirements.  @katzenberger The fact that the referenced passage links to a blog post about third-party data collection and algorithmic contraband media detection might provide a clue @katzenberger @MastodonEngineering @EC_NGI  @MastodonEngineering @EC_NGI@ec.social-network.europa.eu perfect! I think this will really help new users find their crowd - especially those who use social media to share their specific skills, products or services and are looking to network with a broad range of people.   @MastodonEngineering@mastodon.social @EC_NGI@ec.social-network.europa.eu Cool idea but how would you implement content searching and also keep it anonymous? If all you want to do is publish trends, then sure, but that doesn't seem to have as much value add as content searching..?  @scottytrees @MastodonEngineering Better search. If an admin connects their instance to a search provider, the posts from their instance will be searchable by all other connected instances. But this will not happen for a while since this is just an announcement that this will be developed.  @MastodonEngineering @EC_NGI I think itโs best for account holders from another server can creat a delegate account on a popular server to allow proactive exposures of the account, not like passive waiting someone to follow your account then your existing will be recognised by that server. @MastodonEngineering @EC_NGI I wonder if managed hosts will be implementing this, would like to see it through toot.io managed hosting, at least  Are you considering whether licences could be added / tagged to content to make it clear content can be used? - Is that relevant?  @MastodonEngineering @EC_NGI Where do I sign up to become notified once there is a spec regarding ascension from Relay to Provider? @astro I am not sure I know what you refer to when using โascension", but we will post here once we have a public repository with specifications. @MastodonEngineering @MastodonEngineering @EC_NGI so cool! And will the moderation tools get some work too, to help people manage their communities? |
@MastodonEngineering @EC_NGI great idea, looking forward to this