@ unattributed 𓂃✍︎ @ Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @ Social Web Foundation @ Sovereign Tech Agency @ Bonfire Ideally, one day, the highly advanced permissions system available on Hubzilla (based on Zot, ActivityPub optional), (streams) (based on Nomad, ActivityPub optional) and Forte (based on ActivityPub) would be cast into one or multiple FEPs.

This would solve this issue by not only controlling who receives a DM, but also who is permitted to see the DM. In combination with FEP-171b Conversation Containers (which was invented on (streams), inherited by Forte and backported to Hubzilla), the permissions of the DM would be inherited by all comments and replies to the DM with no way of ever changing these permissions anywhere in the conversation.

See, if I send a DM to Alice and Bob, then only Alice, Bob and I are permitted to see the DM. Also, only Alice, Bob and I are permitted to participate in the conversation, and Alice, Bob and I can see each comment and reply, but only the three of us are permitted to see them. The entire conversation has the exact same permissions all over, inherited from the initial DM.

Anyone of us can mention Carol all we want. But that does not give her permission to see anything in the conversation, not even the comment/reply that mentions her. Once the initial DM is out, its permissions are set in stone, and it's also set in stone that any and all follow-ups in the same conversation have the same permissions as the initial DM.

This does not even require encryption. That said, at least Hubzilla does offer encryption on top of the permissions system; however, it's only compatible within Hubzilla AFAIK.

# Long # LongPost # CWLong # CWLongPost # FediMeta # FediverseMeta # CWFediMeta # CWFediverseMeta # Hubzilla # Streams # (streams) # Forte # FEP_171b # ConversationContainers # Permission # Permissions # DM # DMs # DirectMessage # DirectMessages # PrivateMessage # PrivateMessages

# Hubzilla and # streams both have it. # forte as well.

# Hubzilla and # streams both have it. # forte as well.

@ Ben Pate 🤘🏻 Well, I'm used to having not only full native data portability, but even live, hot, bidirectional, real-time updates of entire Fediverse identities that contain stuff which 99% of the Fediverse doesn't support. Natively without an external application. Available for longer than Mastodon itself. Between any number of independent servers. So I'm not easily impressed.

I would be kind of impressed if LOLA managed to move a Mastodon account into a brand-new, virgin Hubzilla channel

• automatically activating all necessary apps from PubCrawl to Privacy Groups to Superblock to NSFW if the Mastodon account has at least one hiding filter
• activating all features that are either hard-coded or switched on on the Mastodon source account, but off by default on new Hubzilla channels
• (optionally) setting the channel role to Custom and configuring it in such a way that Hubzilla behaves as closely to Mastodon as possible, permissions-wise
• translating all followers and followed into Hubzilla's system of Facebook-style mutual-by-default contacts
• reconnecting all followers and followed on their end
• translating each Mastodon list into a Hubzilla privacy group, all members included while keeping the default "Friends" privacy group and adding all contacts to it
• converting followed hashtags into FediBuzz contacts (Hubzilla cannot follow hashtags, but we want the Hubzilla destination channel to be as close to the Mastodon source account as possible)
• translating not only the entire timeline of the Mastodon source account into a Hubzilla stream, but also importing entire threads behind and around each post in the timeline (this is absolutely necessary for the Mastodon user to keep their replies to other people's posts because a Hubzilla comment cannot exist without the start post and the entire branch of the conversation that led to it; also, it's a Hubzilla killer feature over Mastodon that you always see entire conversations instead of single-message piecemeal)
• transferring all posts, replies and DMs with all media in them
• converting Mastodon's loosely-tied threads, no matter who has started them, into Hubzilla-style enclosed conversations as per FEP-171b Conversation Containers with unified permissions for all messages within a conversation
• translating mentions and links into Hubzilla-specific markup
• translating faves into thumbs up
• translating Mastodon 4.6-style quotes into Hubzilla-style shares, automatically recognising which Hubzilla version the destination channel is running on and deciding which Hubzilla share format to use
• translating CWs in comments into [summary][/summary] tags (this would require Hubzilla to actually fully support summaries in comments which it currently doesn't because that doesn't make sense from a Facebook/blogging POV)
• translating Mastodon's post visibility settings into Hubzilla's permission system as far as that's possible (only for start posts, that is, because comments always inherit their permissions from the start post; also, this will have to be done after taking care of all contacts because "followers only" Mastodon toots will have to be converted into non-public posts which grant permission to see them only to the "Friends" privacy group, and likewise, DMs will have to have the contact(s) to whom they were originally sent assigned as those who are permitted to see them)
• importing all images, videos and other attached files into the Hubzilla channel's file space, including appropriate permission settings and, ideally, sorting them into Hubzilla-style "year-month" folders
• converting all media attachments into embedded links to the locations of the respective media files in the file space, including adding alt-texts to the embedding code
• importing the block list on the Mastodon source account into Superblock (that is, Hubzilla cannot block entire servers, but maybe this could automatically be translated into filter lines)
• converting blocking filters into channel-wide filter lines, converting bare keywords into regular expressions if the whole word option is set for these keywords on Mastodon
• adding the keywords of hiding filters to NSFW, converting bare keywords into regular expressions if the whole word option is set for these keywords on Mastodon
• translating the selected languages on the Mastodon source account into channel-wide filters on Hubzilla (even though this probably won't work exactly identical because Hubzilla neither sets nor knows per-message language settings)
• recognising the contents of Mastodon's free-text profile fields and moving them into the appropriate ones of Hubzilla's several dozen purpose-bound profile fields
• populating Hubzilla's keyword field with all hashtags found in the profile text of the Mastodon source account
• setting your channel language according to the language that most of your posts are in
• bonus points for entering Mastodon's colours into the Redbasic colour settings and changing the PDL layout settings so that the look of the Hubzilla destination channel is closer to that of the Mastodon source account than by default

Even that wouldn't give you a 100% identical copy of your Mastodon account. Hubzilla doesn't support quote-post control; the only way to make your posts non-quote-postable is by making them non-public (something that Mastodon can only understand as a DM), and you have no control whatsoever over the permissions of your comments on other people's posts anyway. Also, as I've already mentioned, Hubzilla currently doesn't support summaries (= Mastodon CWs) in comments.

However, vice versa, it'd be even harder to shoehorn Hubzilla's wealth of features into a new Mastodon account.

# Long # LongPost # CWLong # CWLongPost # FediMeta # FediverseMeta # CWFediMeta # CWFediverseMeta # Mastodon # Hubzilla # NomadicIdentity # LOLA

@ IFTAS @ Connected Places I don't think it's that easy to develop an external moderation tool that

• ties into Mastodon and the way Mastodon works
• ties into Hubzilla, (streams) and Forte and their highly advanced permissions systems (everything on these three is permission-driven) and self-moderation capabilities all the same, also seeing as such a tool must be capable of moderating groups/forums

I mean, you could try. But be warned: These three work much, much more differently from Mastodon and the rest of the Fediverse than their presence in the Fediverse may indicate. You'll have to work both with permissions (use the permissions system to achieve what you need to achieve) and past permissions (if you bluntly try to latch your tool onto these three from outside, chances are that their permissions systems won't even let you in).

You'll have to deal with enclosed conversations as per FEP-171b "Conversation Containers" in which the start post always forces its permissions on all comments and replies. You'll have to deal with nomadic identity, with channels simultaneously residing on multiple independent servers. On (streams) and Forte, you'll also have to deal with DIDs according to FEP-ef61 "Portable Objects".

On Hubzilla and (streams), you'll have to deal with servers that don't even use ActivityPub as their base protocol and with both servers and channels that have ActivityPub turned off entirely. And on Hubzilla, you'll have to deal with connections that use wholly different protocols yet again, e.g. diaspora* (remember the $200,000 crowdfunding run back in 2010?).

Also, you'll have to deal with three Fediverse server applications that do not have the Mastodon client API implemented, with feature sets that are completely incompatible with the Mastodon client API and with developers who staunchly refuse to implement it because they basically despise Mastodon with a hot, flaming passion.

And no, making server apps that are nothing like Mastodon at all become more like Mastodon, just so that they can be moderated with a tool that's made for Mastodon, is not a solution because it simply won't happen.

# Long # LongPost # CWLong # CWLongPost # FediMeta # FediverseMeta # CWFediMeta # CWFediverseMeta # Hubzilla # Streams # (streams) # Forte

@deutrino

Forte

Advantages:

• written in PHP, runs on a LAMP stack
• uses much fewer system resources than Mastodon while being magnitudes more powerful
• comes with a git-based update script
• result of over 15 years of development (traces back to Friendica from 2010)
• developed by a retired professional developer with almost half a century of experience who has made more Fediverse server apps than anyone else and even more decentralised protocols than anyone else
• does not cache everyone's images and media
• Facebook-like; not a microblogging system
• highly configurable Web UI
• your login/account is not your identity; you can have as many fully independent channels/identities (each corresponding to one full-blown Mastodon account) on the same login/account and switch between them without logging out
• nomadic identity; if you run another server (or you find a public server, and Forte doesn't have any), you can clone your channel between multiple servers and make it resilient against server outage
• over 24 million characters
• full set of text formatting, using BBcode, Markdown and HTML
• supports both titles and summaries (Mastodon understands summaries as CWs)
• embed as many images as you want within the post (as in text, image, more text, another image, even more text etc., like a blog post)
• can double as a long-form blog
• can optionally send multiple-paragraph posts as Article-type objects
• the most advanced permissions system in the whole Fediverse
• full support for threaded conversations; see entire conversations by default instead of single-message piecemeal like on Mastodon; supports FEP-171b Conversation Containers
• supports groups; built-in group functionality including moderated groups and private groups as well as hiding groups (and other channels) from directories
• has at least one support group on (streams)
• built-in cloud file storage which is also used for embedded images; ties into the permissions system; WebDAV connectivity
• built-in federating event calendar
• built-in headless CalDAV calendar server
• built-in headless CardDAV addressbook server
• highly modular, comes with lots of add-ons called "apps"

Disadvantages:

• steep learning curve, especially if all you're used to are Twitter and Mastodon (this looks, feels and handles absolutely nothing like Mastodon, so you'll have to relearn everything from the ground up and learn tons of stuff on top)
• does not cosy up to Mastodon at all, makes few to no concessions for more compatibility with Mastodon
• will need configuration before you can really get started
• doesn't post in public by default; configuration needed if you want to always post in public
• poor documentation
• doesn't work with any phone app out there; progressive Web app with the Web interface is the best you can do on a phone

Advantage or disadvantage, decide for yourself:

• implements ActivityPub by the book (whereas other Fediverse server applications "implement Mastodon" rather than implementing ActivityPub)

(streams)

How it compares to Forte:

• direct precursor of Forte which is forked from it
• from the same developer
• officially and intentionally nameless and brandless ("streams" is the name of the code repository)
• has at least two public, open-registration servers, but they're hard to find
• uses the same support group
• based on its own protocol, Nomad, which has even better support for nomadic identity; ActivityPub is optional and on by default on new channels
• cannot clone from or to Forte

Hubzilla

How it compares to (streams):

• older than Mastodon (forked from a Friendica fork in 2011, development started in 2012, became Hubzilla in 2015, still 10 months before Mastodon)
• created by the same developer, now maintained by two other devs
• server lists readily available on FediDB and Fediverse Observer (in case you want to try it first or clone to a public server)
• even steeper learning curve
• ActivityPub is off by default for new channels, must be activated in order for Hubzilla to federate with most of the rest of the Fediverse
• can optionally federate with diaspora* as well
• can subscribe to RSS and Atom feeds
• requires another bit more of configuration before you can get started
• way better documentation written by a user
• one public and multiple private profiles per channel, can be assigned to certain contacts
• over 16.7 million characters
• text formatting only with BBcode
• cannot send Article-type objects, always sends Note-type objects
• the second-most advanced permissions system in the Fediverse (a bit more complicated and less adapted to today's Fediverse; also, not quite as detailed reply control)
• even more configurable UI
• CalDAV calendar can use the event calender UI
• optional non-federating long-form articles
• optional non-federating wikis (as in multiple wikis per channel with multiple pages per wiki)
• optional non-federating "planning cards"
• optional non-federating webpages

Here you can find lists with detailed comparisons between Mastodon, Friendica, Hubzilla, (streams) and Forte.

# Long # LongPost # CWLong # CWLongPost # FediMeta # FediverseMeta # CWFediMeta # CWFediverseMeta # Hubzilla # Streams # (streams) # Forte

@ Tokyo Outsider (337ppm) ...which, in turn, came to exist due to @silverpill's plan to implement nomadic identity à la Hubzilla, (streams) and Forte on something that a) only supports ActivityPub, b) is non-nomadic and c) ties the identity to the login.

I've got my doubts that whoever started the FEP draft, like the vast majority of Mastodon users, has ever really heard of silverpill, Mitra, Mike Macgirvin, Hubzilla, (streams), Forte and/or nomadic identity. Nobody in the thread mentions either of these even only once.

Besides, even Mitra still has a long way to go until it's really as fully nomadic as Mike's creations, also because silverpill most likely doesn't want to implement anything that isn't covered by a FEP. And I can't see Mastodon itself ever going nomadic, seeing as the devs have already silently rejected client-side OpenWebAuth support.

# Long # LongPost # CWLong # CWLongPost # FediMeta # FediverseMeta # CWFediMeta # CWFediverseMeta # Mitra # Hubzilla # Streams # (streams) # Forte # NomadicIdentity

@ Julian Fietkau I'm surprised to read that (streams) allegedly has FEP-e232 implemented. As I happen to have two (streams) channels myself, and as (streams) allows me to have a look at the whole source code of any activity (whereas Hubzilla only shows me that of the content), I've checked a fairly recent post of mine that includes a link. And while it does define the hashtags just like Mastodon and Hubzilla, it does not define links in a way that conforms to FEP-e232. Either that, or (streams)' implementation of FEP-e232 is newer than the software was when I sent that post.

---

Next, I wanted to see if (streams) had its way of quote-posting changed in the last seven years or so of development and forking. I expected it to quote-post like Hubzilla, namely by turning a BBcode short code into a dumb copy of the original upon sending, but I wanted to see proof. As (streams) is a fork of a fork of three forks of a fork (of a fork) of Hubzilla that's still maintained by Hubzilla's own creator, I would have been surprised if he had changed the way (streams) quote-posts at some point on the way.

So I quote-posted my own post on (streams) just to see what happens. And (streams) acted exactly like Hubzilla and not at all like described in FEP-044f on the surface. It still inserts a dumb copy.

Good thing I have access to the full source code of any message on (streams). So here's what happened, namely what I expected to happen: (streams) quote-posts like Hubzilla.

First of all, when I clicked the "Share" button, this short code was inserted into the post editor:

[share⁠=1198713][/share]

The number, by the way, is the running number of the message to quote-post on the server.

Upon sending the post, (streams) automatically "expanded" the short code into the dumb copy I had expected.

[⁠share author='Jupiter+Rowland' profile='https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/channel/jupiter_rowland' portable_id='_moYLN61-o3FbP3jyThygMDf-bjF2cApXgkrwlAE77iKy19xM1_6F06V4b71eTkqqNaTUjGiN0lfw2dyn5nXRw' avatar='https://streams.elsmussols.net/xp/6b50efa4bb804860f6128bba791b74fab4a0a5e09dbcbee8d8ca77cee00f0330-6' link='https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/item/0a1cdda5-eb1c-4a33-9574-ddd896977b4f' auth='true' posted='2025-09-21 19:42:56' message_id='https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/item/0a1cdda5-eb1c-4a33-9574-ddd896977b4f'] ...(the source code of the original message goes here)... [/share]

Both Hubzilla and (streams) render this the same way, namely with a header line above the copy that includes the profile picture of the original author, the name of the original author with a Zot/Nomad-type link to their channel/account and a Zot/Nomad-type link to the original of the post ("Zot/Nomad-type" means that [zrl][/zrl] is used rather than [url][/url] which means that the ID of an observer on Hubzilla/(streams)/Forte is attached to the link for OpenWebAuth identity recognition purposes.)

At the same time, curiously, (streams) includes the line "rel": "https://misskey-hub.net/ns#_misskey_quote" and a line that starts with "name": "RE: and continues with the URL of the original message into the code for the link to the original message. The latter is identical to what Misskey and all Forkeys have in quote-posting notes in plain sight, only that (streams) only reveals it in the source code rather than in the content as well.

So this part of FEP-044f is implemented, albeit concealed from most people and only happening in the code.

---

Now, looking at the quote policy part, that looks like it could be possible to add to the Fediverse's permission champions Hubzilla, (streams) and Forte. After all, they already have comment controls with no FEP backing it (and if GoToSocial's quote policy can be made into an FEP, maybe so can (streams)' and Forte's comment controls so that they actually do blank out reply buttons on the farther ends of the Fediverse if the software on the farther ends implement support for that FEP).

This could be done at three levels again. I'll illustrate this with (streams) and Forte because they're quite a bit less complex than older Hubzilla.

At channel level, quote-posting (and maybe quoting as well) could be set as usually, namely to semi-public (= everyone in the Fediverse = no quote policy), restricted (= only your contacts) and only yourself. (Seriously, you don't want random passersby with no accounts to quote-post you. Even though you can allow them to comment on your posts if you dare.)

"Only yourself" could be overridden at contact level by permitting certain contacts to quote-post (and maybe quote) your messages. This is actually standard behaviour on (streams) and Forte.

And then there is the per-post level which would be similar to (streams)' and Forte's comment controls. These allow you to limit who may comment on a post to only your contacts and those who have already participated in the same conversation, and they allow you to turn off comments altogether.

Quote authorisation would not be much different in handling from manually moderating comments from those who technically aren't permitted to comment (only that spammers don't quote-post, at least not yet, and they probably never will because that simply makes no sense). So that'd be nothing really new.

Of course, this would have some limitations which come from how Hubzilla, (streams) and Forte work and from their conversation architecture.

The first limitation is that you could only give certain contacts permission to quote-post your posts if you didn't give it to the whole Fediverse. Channel-wide permissions are always inherited by contact-specific permissions, and this cannot be overridden. So you couldn't generally allow everyone to quote-post your posts except for one certain contact of yours.

The second limitation is that you can only control the permissions of contacts, but not of non-contacts. So you can't disallow some stranger whom you aren't connected to to quote-post your posts while everyone else is allowed.

Then again, FEP-044f doesn't make either of these two possible either. It can only define who is permitted to quote-post a post, not who isn't.

The third limitation is that, on Hubzilla, (streams) and Forte, comments always have the same permissions as the post that they belong to because comments always have the same owner as the post that they belong to. Basically, if FEP-044f was to be defined for each comment individually, it would have a chance of clashing with conversation containers as per FEP-171b.

Here on Hubzilla, as well as from (streams)' point of view, everyone's comments in this thread are owned by me because I've started the thread. And the permissions on all these comments are defined by my post. I've seen my share of permission clashes whenever someone on Mastodon replied to a public post or a public comment with a DM, and Hubzilla overrode this by forcing the permissions of the post on that reply.

In practice, this means that the quote policies of all comments would be the same as that of the post. At least that's how Hubzilla, (streams) and Forte would understand them because the concept of comments having different permissions than the post is alien to them. So if you say that I'm not permitted to quote-post your comment, but I say that anyone can quote-post my post, Hubzilla and (streams) override the quote policy that you've given your comment on Mastodon with the quote policy that I've given my post on Hubzilla, and I can quote-post you.

So the actually difficult part would be to implement an exception in how Hubzilla, (streams) and Forte handle comment permissions for quote policies and make them individual for each comment rather than making comments inherit them from the post.

Well, and lastly, if you permitted all your contacts to quote-post a post of yours, and you had a few more contacts, the "canQuote" section would end up monstrous. (A bit less so if you could cherry-pick those who are allowed to quote-post you on a per-post base, just like you can cherry-pick those who are allowed to see the post in the first place.) Also, I'm wondering just how well policies as per FEP-044f (and their implementations in various server applications) will work with DIDs as per FEP-ef61 which (streams) and Forte use, and I guess, so does Mitra now.

# Long # LongPost # CWLong # CWLongPost # FediMeta # FediverseMeta # CWFediMeta # CWFediverseMeta # Fediverse # Misskey # Forkey # Forkeys # GoToSocial # Hubzilla # Streams # (streams) # Forte # Mitra # QuotePost # QuotePosts # QuoteTweet # QuoteTweets # QuoteToot # QuoteToots # QuoteBoost # QuoteBoosts # QuotedShares # Permission # Permissions # FEP_044f # FEP_171b # FEP_e232 # FEP_ef61

@Decenta Lyzed @your purple friend AFAIK, Mitra has not rolled out full-blown nomadic identity yet (as in, no, you can't clone your Mitra identity between two Mitra servers). Even the development branch is only in a state in which it understands nomadic identity.

As for what nomadic identity is: https://joinfediverse.wiki/Nomadic.identity

There are three Fediverse server applications where you're guaranteed to have solid, proven-to-work nomadic identity:

• Hubzilla
  Fork of fork of (non-nomadic) Friendica by Friendica's creator
  2012/2015
  https://hubzilla.org
  https://en.wikipedia.org/Hubzilla
  https://joinfediverse.wiki/Hubzilla
  Server lists:
  https://hubzilla.fediverse.observer/list
  https://fedidb.com/software/hubzilla?version=latest®istration=open
  No iOS apps
  No Android apps
  Can be installed as a Progressive Web App
• (streams)
  Fork of fork of three forks of fork (of fork?) of Hubzilla by the same creator
  2021
  Intentionally and officially no name, no brand, hence the parentheses around the unofficial name ("(streams)")
  No official website
  https://codeberg.org/streams/streams
  Open-registration server in North America (USA):
  https://rumbly.net/register
  Open-registration server in Europe (Hungary, German admin, speaks German and English):
  https://nomad.fedi-verse.hu/register
  No iOS apps
  No Android apps
  Can be installed as a Progressive Web App
• Forte
  Fork of (streams) by the same creator
  2024
  No official website
  https://codeberg.org/fortified/forte
  No open-registration servers
  No iOS apps
  No Android apps
  Can be installed as a Progressive Web App

#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #Fediverse #Mitra #Hubzilla #Streams #(streams) #Forte #NomadicIdentity

@Decenta Lyzed I haven't seen Mitra in action yet, so I can't say anything about it.

Hubzilla creator and (streams) and Forte maintainer, that'd be @Mike Macgirvin ?️. By the way, the only one of the three that's actually ActivityPub-based is Forte. It just doesn't have any public, open-sign-up servers right now AFAIK.

Did I show you my Mastodon/Friendica/Hubzilla/(streams)/Forte comparison tables yet? If not, here they are. But lastly, you have to lay your hands on at least one of them to see how the family differs from the microblogging side of the Fediverse.

#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #Mitra #Hubzilla #Streams #(streams) #Forte

@silverpill Who are the longformers anyway?

They're those who either are commercial or looking for professional/commercial users or both. Flipboard. Automattic (WordPress). Ghost. These kinds.

They know themselves. They know each other. And they know Mastodon. And that's it.

None of them has ever heard of Pleroma or Akkoma.

None of them has ever heard of Misskey or the Forkeys.

None of them has ever heard of Mitra.

None of them has ever heard of GoToSocial.

None of them has ever heard of Hollo.

None of them has ever heard of Friendica, Hubzilla, (streams) or Forte, even though Friendica and Hubzilla are both older than Mastodon. And apparently, neither has @ Helge. But then again, Friendica and its nomadic, security-enhanced descendants are being overlooked by almost everyone. That's why there's always on-going work for features to be "introduced to the Fediverse" which Friendica has had for a decade and a half.

Granted, the HTML support on Friendica, Hubzilla, (streams) and Forte can be summarised with "yes". But elaborate tables that show what either of them supports how would be very useful.

Also, granted, everything I've mentioned above (normally) uses something else than HTML for formatting in the frontend. For example, Misskey and all Forkeys use MFM ("Misskey-Flavoured Markdown"). Friendica uses extended BBcode with the option to use Markdown instead. Hubzilla uses even more extended BBcode. (streams) and Forte can use the same even more extended BBcode and Markdown and HTML at the same time within the same post, although not all markup languages support all features.

# Long # LongPost # CWLong # CWLongPost # FediMeta # FediverseMeta # CWFediMeta # CWFediverseMeta # Fediverse # Mastodon # Pleroma # Akkoma # Misskey # Forkey # Forkeys # Mitra # GoToSocial # Hollo # Friendica # Hubzilla # Streams # (streams) # Forte # LongFormContent # BBcode # Markdown # HTML # TextFormatting

@silverpill

The dataset doesn't include some other popular platforms like Friendica, but I am sure they also display long form content just fine.

Friendica and its descendants from the same creator, Hubzilla, (streams) and Forte, can produce long-form content just fine. With just about all bells and whistles from a title plus six levels of headlines to an unlimited number of images embedded within the text.

So yes, they can display it as well. However, outside of their own communities, hardly anyone knows what they're capable of. Thus, Fediverse developers often try to solve problems that aren't even really there because they were solved before they became problems.

Mastodon's lack of support for articles, linking to the originals instead, is not really a lack. It's a deliberate design decision from around 2017 or so.

See, the first ActivityPub implementation was on Hubzilla. That was in July, 2017. And Hubzilla implemented ActivityPub by the book.

Mastodon followed two months later. But Mastodon has always had its own "interpretation" of ActivityPub that was limited by Mastodon's own intentional design limitations in order to remain Twitter-like, purist, minimalist, old-school, original-gangsta microblogging with as few features that Twitter didn't have as possible.

This is also why Mastodon has a HTML "sanitiser" built in. Up until the release of Mastodon 4.0 in October, 2022, that "sanitiser" reduced any and all incoming HTML to plain text. And it did so for all object types, including the Article-type objects which Hubzilla sent. After all, Hubzilla can act as a fully-fledged long-form blogging platform.

However, the ActivityPub spec defines Article-type objects as formatted long-form content. Still, Mastodon defaced Hubzilla's Article-type objects by reducing them to plain text.

So Mike Macgirvin got into contact with Eugen Rochko and told him to adhere to the spec and deactivate Mastodon's "sanitiser" and make it support full HTML rendering for Article-type objects.

And Eugen Rochko said that bold type and italics and bullet-point lists and images in the middle of the content have nothing to do with old-school microblogging, so they have no place on Mastodon, so he won't implement them.

This head-butting went back and forth. Eventually, Eugen presented a "solution". And that was not to render Article-type objects at all anymore. Instead, Mastodon links to them and adds their title above if they have one.

This was only done to shut Mike up so he'd stop complaining about Mastodon defacing Hubzilla posts and breaking the spec by doing so. From Mike's perspective, however, what Eugen did was flip Hubzilla the bird by completely refusing to show actual Hubzilla content and practically lock out a competitor.

Mike's reaction was to break the spec himself and switch Hubzilla from sending Article-type objects to sending Note-type objects, regardless of Mastodon still defacing them.

With the exception of a very short period after the release of Hubzilla 9.0 when Mario Vavti and Harald Eilertsend learned the hard way that Mastodon still links to Article-type objects, Hubzilla has only sent its posts as Note-type objects ever since.

Mike's other creations have different ways of handling object types.

Friendica, by default, sends posts with titles as Article-type objects and posts without titles as well as comments as Note-type objects. This can be deactivated so that Friendica only sends Note-type objects.

CC: @ Laurens Hof

# Long # LongPost # CWLong # CWLongPost # FediMeta # FediverseMeta # CWFediMeta # CWFediverseMeta # Fediverse # ActivityPub # Mastodon # Friendica # Hubzilla # Streams # (streams) # Forte # ArticleType # NoteType # LongFormContent

@silverpill

The dataset doesn't include some other popular platforms like Friendica, but I am sure they also display long form content just fine.

Friendica and its descendants from the same creator, Hubzilla, (streams) and Forte, can produce long-form content just fine. With just about all bells and whistles from a title plus six levels of headlines to an unlimited number of images embedded within the text.

So yes, they can display it as well. However, outside of their own communities, hardly anyone knows what they're capable of. Thus, Fediverse developers often try to solve problems that aren't even really there because they were solved before they became problems.

Mastodon's lack of support for articles, linking to the originals instead, is not really a lack. It's a deliberate design decision from around 2017 or so.

See, the first ActivityPub implementation was on Hubzilla. That was in July, 2017. And Hubzilla implemented ActivityPub by the book.

Mastodon followed two months later. But Mastodon has always had its own "interpretation" of ActivityPub that was limited by Mastodon's own intentional design limitations in order to remain Twitter-like, purist, minimalist, old-school, original-gangsta microblogging with as few features that Twitter didn't have as possible.

This is also why Mastodon has a HTML "sanitiser" built in. Up until the release of Mastodon 4.0 in October, 2022, that "sanitiser" reduced any and all incoming HTML to plain text. And it did so for all object types, including the Article-type objects which Hubzilla sent. After all, Hubzilla can act as a fully-fledged long-form blogging platform.

However, the ActivityPub spec defines Article-type objects as formatted long-form content. Still, Mastodon defaced Hubzilla's Article-type objects by reducing them to plain text.

So Mike Macgirvin got into contact with Eugen Rochko and told him to adhere to the spec and deactivate Mastodon's "sanitiser" and make it support full HTML rendering for Article-type objects.

And Eugen Rochko said that bold type and italics and bullet-point lists and images in the middle of the content have nothing to do with old-school microblogging, so they have no place on Mastodon, so he won't implement them.

This head-butting went back and forth. Eventually, Eugen presented a "solution". And that was not to render Article-type objects at all anymore. Instead, Mastodon links to them and adds their title above if they have one.

This was only done to shut Mike up so he'd stop complaining about Mastodon defacing Hubzilla posts and breaking the spec by doing so. From Mike's perspective, however, what Eugen did was flip Hubzilla the bird by completely refusing to show actual Hubzilla content and practically lock out a competitor.

Mike's reaction was to break the spec himself and switch Hubzilla from sending Article-type objects to sending Note-type objects, regardless of Mastodon still defacing them.

With the exception of a very short period after the release of Hubzilla 9.0 when Mario Vavti and Harald Eilertsend learned the hard way that Mastodon still links to Article-type objects, Hubzilla has only sent its posts as Note-type objects ever since.

Mike's other creations have different ways of handling object types.

Friendica, by default, sends posts with titles as Article-type objects and posts without titles as well as comments as Note-type objects. This can be deactivated so that Friendica only sends Note-type objects.

CC: @ Laurens Hof

# Long # LongPost # CWLong # CWLongPost # FediMeta # FediverseMeta # CWFediMeta # CWFediverseMeta # Fediverse # ActivityPub # Mastodon # Friendica # Hubzilla # Streams # (streams) # Forte # ArticleType # NoteType # LongFormContent