@benpate@mastodon.social
@benpate@mastodon.social avatar

benpate

@benpate@mastodon.social

Thoughtful comments on at least one irrelevant topic. #writing #software #democracy #pirates.

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benpate, to random
@benpate@mastodon.social avatar

Well written article with many good reasons to NOT fork Mastodon.

https://wedistribute.org/2024/05/forking-mastodon/

My favorite part was about a previously attempted fork called the Florence project. According to the article, they were apparently better at having meetings than producing actual code. I laughed. I cried. I relived so many years of software development trauma.

benpate, to random
@benpate@mastodon.social avatar

Woo Hoo! Check out Baby's first FEP...

If you're a developer, please check out FEP-3b86 at https://codeberg.org/fediverse/fep/src/branch/main/fep/3b86/fep-3b86.md

I'm working on "Remote Likes" and "Remote Shares" that help you jump back to your own home server to post when you find something cool on another website.

Imagine those "Share on Facebook" buttons, without all the ick.

I know it needs some work (that's what FEPs are for, yea?) so please read, comment, and help me get this over the finish line.

benpate,
@benpate@mastodon.social avatar

I've posted a big update to this proposal on my original PR branch: https://codeberg.org/benpate/fep/src/branch/fep-3b86/fep/3b86/fep-3b86.md

It addresses (most?) (all?) of the issues you all have raised.

I really appreciate your attention to this. It's already made the FEP so much better. So, thank you!

benpate, to ShareYourMusic
@benpate@mastodon.social avatar

HEY! Check out this update to my #Emissary demo I posted a couple weeks ago:

https://kumi.tube/w/pmqy4eUy6iz88Z6Rh1cM5K

We're working to make a #Federated alternative to #Bandcamp where up and coming bands can connect with fans and share their music on the Fediverse.

The progress is really encouraging, so it's time to get some feedback from real #musicians

My goal is to have something you could actually use in the next month or two. So please get your ideas in so's I can squeeze them into my launch calendar.

benpate,
@benpate@mastodon.social avatar

I owe you all some links:

I'm building all of this in the open on GitHub.So I'd love to collect suggestions as GitHub issues, if you're able to post there:

https://github.com/EmissarySocial/app-planetary/issues

But, if you're not a software nerd like me, just send me a reply to this thread (or as a DM) and I'll do the rest.

Sharing, Directories, and Discovery are important parts to this, but I still have to build those out. LMK if you have thoughts/feelings about how that should look, too.

🤘

atomicpoet, to random
@atomicpoet@atomicpoet.org avatar

Thanks to @deadsuperhero, I now know how to create an SVG logo that changes according to a system theme. Here’s how to do it:

  1. Open the SVG logo in a text editor
  2. Text editor will then display XML code
  3. Look for fill= and a colour hex code (the hex code is identifiable with a “#” prepended to it)
  4. Change the hex code to “currentColor” so that it says fill=”currentColor”
  5. Save

Now your logo will be adjustable according to a webpage’s dark/light theme.

On another note, I just learned that SVG logos are editable with a text editor.

RE: https://atomicpoet.org/objects/daeb8be5-d668-43ff-bc2d-e1a6ae360ea2

benpate,
@benpate@mastodon.social avatar

@atomicpoet

Fantastic hack! And to think I just swapped between duplicate SVGs...

I’ll have to try this with icons, too. I’ve been dying to unload my webfont icons because the font file is soooo big. If this works with a remotely loaded SVG, I’ll be in hog heaven.

Thank you!

benpate, to random
@benpate@mastodon.social avatar

At , @n00q discussed a Federated music service for refugees. After a few days of drawing up requirements and specs, and a couple days of code, something interesting is taking shape.

Here's a too-fast-tour of a hypothetical album page built with . Custom skins, uploads, and transcoding music is still TBD, but so far this feels like magic.

Bands' profiles will be native citizens of the Fediverse to like, share, and comment. Excited yet?

video/mp4

benpate, to random
@benpate@mastodon.social avatar

In one session of , I said that I really needed "a map" of the tools and communities for building apps on the Fediverse.

To follow up on that, I've posted a first draft of what this looks like to me.

If you know more about the Fediverse than me (that's most of you) please take a look and let me know how I could make this list better:

https://emissary.dev/fediverse-resources

Hopefully it's a starting place that'll help other to get their projects moving.

ricmac, to random
@ricmac@mastodon.social avatar

Lots of great demos at today. Particularly looking forward to Emissary by @benpate, which was described as an "RSS Server", but it seems to be a lot more than that. I like that it brings the indie web and ActivityPub together. https://github.com/EmissarySocial/emissary

benpate,
@benpate@mastodon.social avatar

@ricmac Thanks, Richard! I'm pretty excited about this, too (and a little scared, tbh)

is a personal / small group server that sends and receives ActivityPub, RSS, and IndieWeb (MicroFormats, WebMentions, etc)

It's also a programmable toolkit for others to build their own Fediverse apps. To anyone who's interested: I'm looking forward to helping you build cool stuff with Emissary. :)

benpate, to random
@benpate@mastodon.social avatar

So, it seems that watching me type is incredibly boring. So, even though I could live-code a custom Fediverse app in the first 10-15 minutes of a session, it's probably better to just show it working.

It's only ~100 lines of JSON config, and less than than in HTML templates. You all won't mind if we skip my typos and get to the good stuff, will you?

Looking forward to Day 2 of the online unconference tomorrow, my speed demo, and hopefully some good follow up discussions after.

benpate,
@benpate@mastodon.social avatar

If you've ever wished there was some custom Fediverse app that served your specific community, we should talk.

is new, and still needs some work, but it's ready for devs and other bleeding edge radicals to start building the next:

music sharing...
workout tracking...
garage selling....
location posting...
neighborhood gossiping...

Fediverse app.

benpate, to mastodon
@benpate@mastodon.social avatar

Hey - anyone have a common solution for minimizing the load from 's Delete/Person messages?

I'm working on a standalone ActivityPub server and OH MY GODS Mastodon sends an Imperial Tonne of junk messages.

I don't know what I'd do if I hadn't heard that accounts like mastodon.social/users/fghgh5tr had been deleted....

benpate, to random
@benpate@mastodon.social avatar

If anyone had paid attention in psychohistory class, Hari Seldom would have told you that the current uproar was unavoidable. SOMEONE was bound to make a bridge to BlueSky as soon as they opened up.

And, SOMEONE was bound to complain about it from a position of fear and ignorance.

I just want to say that @snarfed.org@snarfed.org has done tons good work for the Fediverse, and I appreciate his latest project.

Ryan, you’re awesome. Ignore the haters.

benpate, to random
@benpate@mastodon.social avatar

I figure it's about time to post more about progress on .

Tonight I'm working on the Mastodon API. My goal for February is for the API library to be robust enough to use third-party Mastodon clients with an Emissary server.

Right now, I'm actually able to publish some basic messages to Emissary using https://semaphore.social/ - which is an absolute godsend for developing a server API because it shows me every API call going through the browser. Glorious!

alcinnz, to random
@alcinnz@floss.social avatar

What to expect from your framework - Johan Halse:
https://johan.hal.se/wrote/2023/02/17/what-to-expect-from-your-framework/

benpate,
@benpate@mastodon.social avatar

@alcinnz Love this article. Thank you for sharing!

Under the “no solutions” section, I’ll suggest https://htmx.org as a potential option. Yes, socials are filled with silly memes, but that’s only to reinforce the point that today’s “front end” devs have taken themselves way too seriously.

The library itself has been a breath of fresh air for me, in an otherwise absurd world where simple things are obfuscated into oblivion by layers of meaningless abstractions.

benpate, to fediverse
@benpate@mastodon.social avatar

While I’m at it.. I don’t know if are a thing or not, but I think they’re worth a look.

Mastodon publishes all my follows.. why not let me publish the trolls I’m muting and blocking, too?

The default setting in is to label posts that my friends have blocked, but it’s easy enough to automatically block people that my trusted friends have flagged.

I see an ecosystem.. where tomorrow’s mods publish to many opt-in followers in real time using , not CSV files.

benpate, to fediverse
@benpate@mastodon.social avatar

is an client and reader. It uses page metadata (like data and ) to make every page on the Interwebs work just like an ActivityStreams document.

It works like a cross between self-hosted blogs and a Mastodon mega-instance, letting one hosting provider serve many individual sites that pool resources (like shared caches and worker queues) while remaining portable and distinct from one another.

It’s (finally) getting close to ready...

wjmaggos, to fediverse
@wjmaggos@liberal.city avatar

With , could you have no character limit for the size of posts but then have them for replies? Posts (like articles) should go viral, replies should make for a great conversation and not deter from further engagement.

benpate,
@benpate@mastodon.social avatar

I'm working on something loosely related - a personal view of the Fediverse (called ) that feels a lot more like an old school RSS reader than Mastodon, Facebook, Xitter, and the rest.

It lets me curate the slice of Fediverse posts that I want to see and blocks out a lot of other noise.

I love it. Others may not. That's cool. Any population of N people will have > N+1 mutually exclusive needs.

I think that's the best we're going to get in any Democracy.

@wjmaggos @DrSeltsam

benpate, to fediverse
@benpate@mastodon.social avatar

Speaking of "the Future of the " - have you tried the Mammoth mobile app on iPhone? It is a glorious preview of things to come.

They've given their solid mobile app a significant advantage by bundling additional services that fill in the gaps left behind by . It makes the user experience top-notch.

Services like this (search, user directories, content caches, moderation tools, etc) will be the next big growth area on the Fediverse.

benpate, to fediverse
@benpate@mastodon.social avatar

I should take a break from whining about to crow about my big breakthrough. Today, I successfully sent my first messages and replies between and . And all it required was a complete overhaul the custom ActivityPub outbox.

It’s a small step forward, but a huge milestone for me. Hopefully, it will translate to big wins for other devs who can use my libraries in the future.

benpate,
@benpate@mastodon.social avatar

@jjude Hey, thanks for asking. is a new server for individuals and small groups that combines , , and . The app is very flexible, so developers can reprogram most of its behavior, while still empowering non-techies to manage their own personal servers.

Most of the core is done, but ActivityPub support has been a big challenge. So, it’s not ready for the real-world yet, but I’m excited about the progress.

https://github.com/EmissarySocial/emissary

benpate, to golang
@benpate@mastodon.social avatar

I'm pretty excited to publish Toot: a Mastodon API for Go applications: https://github.com/benpate/toot

I wanted to access using Mastodon clients (like IceCubes and MetaText) but there was no easy way to do it. The Mastodon API is enormous and it took a ton of time just to organize every one of the endpoints. Toot makes it easy.

Hopefully, this helps other Gophers to Mastodon-ize their apps too. I'm all-in on making the Fediverse a better place for developers.

benpate, to random
@benpate@mastodon.social avatar

I've been a little quiet about - in between moving and refactoring one of the core libraries, it's honestly been pretty broken for a little bit.

But my desk is set back up and I'm excited at making some progress again. Now, two libraries that power emissary are also nearing completion, so others can build on this work without having to implement the whole server.

benpate, to fediverse
@benpate@mastodon.social avatar

You can tell I'm getting a lot of work done today, because I'm non-stop whining about the spec.

Like, why isn't there a simple way to tell how an outbox is sorted?

Yeah, I know, just do what Mastodon does and get over it. But the point of a spec is so I don't have to guess at what the popular kids are doing.

There should be rules about where things go. But no, there's no rules out here - only thoughts and prayers.

benpate, to fediverse
@benpate@mastodon.social avatar

Here are Reactions (finally) working in . It's a silly little feature, but I'm excited to show it off.

The hard part is sending out notifications and IndieWeb . The UX right was the icing on the cake.

video/mp4

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