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36 posts total
Evan Prodromou

If you're working on #ActivityPub, I *highly* recommend the new draft report on using HTTP Signature and ActivityPub by @snarfed.org and @nightpool . This draft just hit the stands this week, and it's a really complete coverage of the topic.

swicg.github.io/activitypub-ht

witchescauldron

@evan @snarfed.org @nightpool

Interesting that this is more about identity than "privacy" so native to #4opens a breath of fresh air in this.

Evan Prodromou

"Everyone is allowed to implement ActivityPub."

#EvanPoll #poll

Anonymous poll

Poll

Strongly agree
291
85.8%
Somewhat agree
39
11.5%
Somewhat disagree
7
2.1%
Strongly disagree
2
0.6%
339 people voted.
Voting ended 20 March at 23:40.
Show previous comments
Andrew Eisenberg❗️

@evan It’s an open standard. If someone isn’t allowed to implement it, then it’s not open.

It’s equivalent to putting up a billboard in a public place and questioning if everyone is allowed to read it.

Paul Fuxjaeger

@evan want to share the motivation to run this #EvanPoll?

Evan Prodromou

The unbearable shame of using ddrescue

Григорий Клюшников

...via a shell script that runs it in a loop

Evan Prodromou

I am so grateful to be part of the fediverse with you.

Alan Langford

@evan You're in the middle of one of those artsy-fartsy be-one-with-the-universe seminars, aren't you? ;)

Evan Prodromou

I'm implementing some sample code for the #ActivityPubBook at github.com/evanp/bots-rodeo . I'm realizing that we can really get wedged on delivery between using `sharedInbox` and `bto` or `bcc`. Preventing double delivery is kind of a chore, here.

Evan Prodromou

Basically, if `userA@domain1` has followers `userB@domain2`, `userC@domain2`, and `userD@domain2`, and they have an activity that has `to`: `followers` and `bcc`: `userD@domain2`, and domain2 has a shared inbox, you can't deliver to the shared inbox without double-delivery to userD. domain2 can do double-delivery-detection, but that kind of sucks.

Evan Prodromou

"This document is dedicated to all citizens of planet Earth. You deserve freedom of communication; we hope we have contributed in some part, however small, towards that goal and right."

I really like this dedication. #ActivityPub

w3.org/TR/activitypub/#acknowl

Evan Prodromou

I don't know who actually wrote this but `git blame` says @cwebber added it and honestly that is some pure crystal Christine Lemmer-Webber energy if I've ever seen it.

Dr. Matt Lee

@evan if you can easily alter this it seems to deadname @cwebber and way-less importantly gets GNU social’s name wrong.

Evan Prodromou

I'm interested in hearing from #ActivityPub developers who've successfully mapped #OpenGraph properties from <meta> tags in Web pages onto the `Page` type and its properties in AS2.

Evan Prodromou

"Facebook was better in the Platform era (2007-2011), when third-party developers could add widgets to profile pages, and in-stream interactive experiences."

Anonymous poll

Poll

Strongly agree
88
31.5%
Somewhat agree
123
44.1%
Somewhat disagree
37
13.3%
Strongly disagree
31
11.1%
279 people voted.
Voting ended 16 Dec 2023 at 16:50.
Show previous comments
jack

@evan it was better in that era but not because of third-party apps. the third-party apps (Joe McAcquaintance has invited you to play Super Pirate Candy Cove Battles!) made the experience Worse

Evan Prodromou

Are there any Mastodon clients that use the `replies` collection to get the full list of replies from a remote server?

Show previous comments
infinite love ⴳ

@evan this wouldn’t be the job of the mastodon client, no? it’s the job of the activitypub client / mastodon server. a mastodon client would use the mastodon api for fetching conversations, and may choose to fetch from the root’s origin instead of your local server (although this bypasses your local blocks and mutes)

Григорий Клюшников

While not a "Mastodon client", Smithereen does use it to recursively load complete reply threads when you open a post using the search or when someone boosts a remote post at you.

There's also a problem: if there's a deleted reply somewhere in the thread, it will make the other part of the thread unreachable (up or down, depending on where you started traversing from). Smithereen solves this by not deleting such replies completely, but instead serving a Tombstone object that still has `id`, `replies` and `inReplyTo` fields.

While not a "Mastodon client", Smithereen does use it to recursively load complete reply threads when you open a post using the search or when someone boosts a remote post at you.

There's also a problem: if there's a deleted reply somewhere in the thread, it will make the other part of the thread unreachable (up or down, depending on where you started traversing from). Smithereen solves this by not deleting such replies completely, but instead serving a Tombstone object that still has `id`, `replies`...

Evan Prodromou

For today's issue triage, I worked on an #ActivityPub primer page on testing:

w3.org/wiki/ActivityPub/Primer

There are a lot of TBD elements in there. In particular, I need to figure out the best way to make the hostnames of different implementations visible in container environments.

I also need to figure out how to turn off SSL cert validation in different AP implementations.

Evan Prodromou

So, if I were going to make a tech manifesto, it might be something like:

- protocols not platforms
- coops and unions
- technology should not actively hurt us
- people not users
- seven generations, seven continents
- free markets require antitrust enforcement

Show previous comments
Derek Caelin 🌱

@evan what does "seven generations" refer to? Or should I wait for the manifesto!

Brendan Jones

@evan @ntnsndr I like, though “technology should not actively hurt us” feels a bit like a bare minimum! Surely that requirement can be raised higher, and maybe framed positively.

Also something about non-human impact would be nice, something about minimising material & energy footprint.

Dogzilla

@evan @ritawho But the reality is the world doesn’t need *any* tech manifestos period. They’re all just techies masturbating in public and expecting praise. Maybe just focus on not enshittifying the world instead.

Evan Prodromou

One part of the enshittification process that @pluralistic leaves out of his equation is third-party developers. Developers are like the canaries in the enshittification coalmine.

They create a huge part of the value of a platform for both end users and businesses.

Platforms encourage this value creation in the ecosystem, and cherry-pick the best apps to either clone or acquire.

Then, they shiv developers with an API TOS change.

Evan Prodromou

@pluralistic Facebook Platform did this. LinkedIn did this. Google. Twitter has been knifing its developer community for over a decade.

Alan Langford

@evan @pluralistic I used to have an add-on that aggregated and filtered several feeds from a social media site, so for example one could just see posts with a specific keyword or hashtag.

An emergency response org in the US used it to present a true real time dashboard of all the things that were happening from its field stations across the state.

All gone now. As always the real value is in the long tail, but because that can't be turned into revenue, it doesn't matter.

Evan Prodromou

Wow; I just re-read the old socialcg minutes for why we don't have an extension process, and apparently I just got tired of working on it without a vote and downvoted it out of consensus.

chat.indieweb.org/social/2018-

It was a perfectly reasonable proposal.

github.com/w3c/activitystreams

I should have stuck to it! #ActivityPub would be much better now with that process in place!

Dmitri | 🇺🇦

@evan Wholly agree with you, that was a great Extension process proposal!

Evan Prodromou

So, one weird thing about parasocial relationships is that people feel familiar enough to make what seems to them to be fun, teasing comments with their Internet pal.

For the person on the other side of the relationship, it's yet another rando with anger issues coming out of the aether to ruin their day.

Don't pretend to be someone you're not -- an angry person, a stupid person -- with people who don't know who you are. They can't tell that you're pretending, and will take you at face value.

Evan Prodromou

I've signed an agreement to write a book about #ActivityPub for O'Reilly Media. The book should be available sometime after summer 2024.

Blog post here: evanp.me/2023/09/07/activitypu

Show previous comments
    n8   Doesn't follow you 🇺🇦

@evan I'll give you 20 bucks if you let me pick the first word.

No tricks, either; I'll tell you publicly what the word is before you have to agree. But it's a binding contract, so I have to know the terms are settled before I say.

pixelfed

@evan THIS IS HUGE!!

We can't wait to buy a copy! 🎉

Evan Prodromou

How many books are you reading?

#EvanPoll #poll

Anonymous poll

Poll

0
83
14.6%
1
136
23.9%
2 to 5
321
56.4%
6 or more
29
5.1%
569 people voted.
Voting ended 2 Sep 2023 at 0:53.
Evan Prodromou

Fediverse developer, when someone reports a security issue with your software, there is one and only one correct course of action.

Say thank you. Prioritize an immediate fix. Publish a hot patch version for all applicable major versions within hours or days. Publicly acknowledge the report.

Avoid minimisation, whataboutism, personal attacks, and complaining about the work involved.

Stefan Bohacek

@evan Typically you have to pay for things like QA, user research, security audits, etc.

And most people don't even bother telling you when they encounter issues with your website or app, they just move on.

People really need to learn to be humble and appreciate when a stranger takes the time out of their day just to help them improve their work.

Mark Gardner

@evan F̶e̶d̶i̶v̶e̶r̶s̶e̶ developers, when someone reports a #security issue with your software, there is one and only one correct course of action…

fixed it for you

gabbo wafrn guy

@evan@cosocial.ca an old user I banned here for being a transphobe. he sent me an email and I had to rotate the keys of all the users. the software still was not being used anywhere else. fixed the issue and acknowledged the issue

Evan Prodromou

"Proprietary software services should support ActivityPub."

#EvanPoll #Poll

Anonymous poll

Poll

Strongly agree
223
44.6%
Somewhat agree
205
41%
Somewhat disagree
43
8.6%
Strongly disagree
29
5.8%
500 people voted.
Voting ended 10 Jul 2023 at 17:16.
Show previous comments
Sam
@evan Ooooo I'm still not sure about how I feel about this yet. On the one hand I like the idea of being able to follow everyone from Mastodon or something (basically like an RSS feed for socials) but idk if I would want to see Threads content on here lol, it's kinda cringey.
kel

@evan

I am a strong no but only because I am sick the the back teeth of being had over by proprietary software services and they all need to shut down and do nothing, never mind start interfering with even more stuff.

Consent is applicable in more ways than one and they have been taking far too many liberties for far too long.

It's time we started 'fingering' them for a change - figuratively speaking!

Evan Prodromou

Wow, this is a lot higher than I expected.

I'm a strongly agree. When proprietary software services implement open standards, it gives people a choice on what services to use.

In the case of ActivityPub, I want people in walled gardens to have access to the entire social web. I want them to see what's here, and I want them to know they can be here, too.

Thanks to everyone who replied.

Evan Prodromou

Identi.ca opened up 15 years ago today.

Show previous comments
Luke T. Shumaker

@evan It would be hard to overstate what an impact connections made on identi.ca have had on my life. @smv@identi.ca denting at me about #Parabola set me on a path.

Chema Hernández Gil :sf:
@evan Happy anniversary 🎉🥳! Fifteen years of the #fediverse and it's never been stronger. That's an accomplishment worth celebrating. Congratulations and I hope it only gets bigger and better.

(And it would be good to have a name for today!)
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