dannekrose

dannekrose, 11 months ago

@Kaldo

Have you tried other types of threads other than Links? I'm not on Mastodon, but Calckey.

I've had no issues with Articles showing up on my Calckey timeline.

Also, is there any meaningful difference between link/article/photo/video threads besides content formatting? I see no way to differentiate them once they are posted, it's just a thread™. You say it's a different activityPub type underneath but it doesn't seem like it matters that much to kbin and lemmy from an user's perspective, the only distinction that matters is thread (for kbin magazines) vs post (mastodon-type "toots/tweets")

Probably not much at this time.

I haven't specifically compared all the different thread types, but given the fact that Articles seem to show up fine for me on Calckey (and I believe for Mastodon as well), points to design choices to try to match behavior somewhere else. If I get a chance, I'll try to see how the different thread types differ under the hood. I already have information about Articles so I'll have to check Links.

dannekrose, 11 months ago

@Kaldo

The fact that the different platforms call things differently for similar content is confusing for sure. Mastodon sends all its content as a single “type” under the hood known as a “note.” Mastodon doesn’t call them “notes” though. It calls them “posts” or until a little bit ago “toots.”

Those “notes” show up on other platforms where different terms are sometimes used. Misskey doesn’t call them “posts” but “notes” for example. Kbin called them “posts” and they show up in the microblog section of a magazine.

To answer your question about this thread:

This Thread was created as an "Article" or "Thread" in newer code commits. (That’s confusing for sure) and it isn’t sent under the hood as a “Note.” It’s sent as something called a “Page” which different platforms will treat differently. Some platforms use and understand “Pages” in a consistent way while others don’t.

As for the question is this both a Thread and a Post touches on which platforms’ interpretation of those terms.

Part of the confusion comes from the fact that the underlying format of the data exchanged between instances and platforms (ActivityPub) is actually pretty vague about “meanings” of the different types. Every platform is more-or-less free to define what the different “types” mean (Notes, Pages, and a bunch of others) within the vague guidelines.

(Note: the types are listed here:
https://activitystrea.ms/registry/object_types/
)

So when one platform starts to gain a large number of users, the interpretation of what a “Note” for example, will tend towards that larger platform’s meanings if other platforms want to have a more “consistent” experience.

The story of why the meanings are vague is an interesting one and I’m not knowledgeable enough to explain details but from what I understand, it’s a result of a lot of people trying to come up with a universal standard for interacting between platforms that are going to approach things very differently all without a central decision-maker driving it.

If instead of Mastodon being the largest platform on the Fediverse it has been a Reddit-like-alternative like Lemmy or Kbin, the interpretation for the various types of data would likely be different today.

To partially summarize
Colloquial term vs ActivityPub object
Mastodon:
Post = Note

Kbin:
Thread = Page (at least for articles. I still have to check the others)
Post (microblog) = Note

dannekrose, 11 months ago

@kill

Do you have your notifications enabled in the Settings tab of your account? If you click on your account name and select Settings, on the General tab underneath the Writing and Privacy sections should be the notification section to choose what to enable.

dannekrose, 11 months ago

@kill

I’ll add my personal thoughts a little bit.

I think enabling both options in the Writing section to add the mentions automatically to anything you write might be helpful as well. As you can see here, this should show up as a mentioned notification which can help when sifting through notifications about new threads or posts. I understand why it’s not enabled by default but I’ve found it useful so far.

dannekrose, 11 months ago

@mpro

Welcome and I hope things are not too overwhelming.

It’s not quite the FAQ I think you’re looking for, but this little one might help with a few things. I’m working on more and hopefully will have a third one soon.

https://kbin.social/m/kbinfaqs@kilioa.org/t/20459/A-small-FAQ-to-hopefully-help-new-users-to-kbin

Good luck and cheers

dannekrose, 11 months ago

@Otome@kbin.social

I believe it’s due to the nature of the federation. I haven’t tested but each instance’s copy of a remote magazine will have local to that instance moderators (or maybe just the instance admin) even if the source-of-truth is on a different server. I believe those moderators can moderate content in a remote magazine but I wouldn’t expect that to change what an account on the source of truth instance saw.

dannekrose, 11 months ago

@cendawanita
I updated my FAQ in kbinfaqs@kilioa.org with more clarification on following magazines from microblogging platforms like Mastodon or Calckey.

It’s more an issue with the microblogging platforms.

dannekrose, 11 months ago

@ThatOneKirbyMain2568

Thank you for sharing. There needs to be a lot more for sure added to kbin.

As for the ideas, I haven’t searched for these yet, but you can see which ones have been submitted and which ones have code changes already waiting for review here:

https://codeberg.org/Kbin/kbin-core/issues

The Pull Requests have some code changes waiting for review.

dannekrose, 11 months ago

@peroleu

This is a great question and certainly confusing for those not used to the federation aspect.

A quick explanation:

If the magazine has a domain name at the end of it that isn’t the same as your kbin account, then it means that the magazine’s “home” is on a different instance.

Example:

technology@fedia.io

That means that all the instances (servers) will push content and updates to the “home” instance and receive updates and content from the “home” instance.

When an instance (server) subscribes for the first time to a magazine on a different instance, it will start to receive new content from that moment forward. However, older content isn’t pushed out to the newly subscribing instance. You can think of it as subscribing to a newsletter or something. You won’t automatically be sent copies of all the older content but you will get new things moving forward.

You can have older content show up by manually entering the direct link to the older content into the search bar on your home instance (in this case kbin.social) but it’s a manual process.

That why the message shows up about “may not be complete” since it doesn’t know how much total content there is on the remote instance.

This topic (called “backfilling posts/contents”) is one that has been discussed on the Fediverse for some time.

dannekrose, 11 months ago

@lavender

I did a quick set of tests and I can use direct Pixelfed image links so far. I think it would be better if kbin could process the embedded version of the links, but that always needs to be coded correctly to avoid potential security issues.

I could see it being useful for people who produce or create their own content.

I also think that setting up Pixelfed accounts on existing servers just to upload memes or other content downloaded from other sites to then link into kbin is something to ponder. I feel like a large scale push to turn Pixelfed into Imgur just as an “off-computer/off-mobile device” storage without any expectations of having the uploaded content be interacted with or discovered outside of kbin would have some effect on those Pixelfed instances.

In the extreme case of “I’m just using this Pixelfed account as a type of Google Drive storage location for media”, I think Pixelfed instance admins would feel friction and frustration especially since nearly all Pixelfed content is OC. Posting screenshots of SNS messages, or reposts or older content or gifs of SNS videos (Tik tok or similar) would change the local timeline on those Pixelfed instances for sure and I’m not sure how that would affect the user’s experience on those instances. Unlike Imgur, Pixelfed doesn’t have “Top, Rising, New” so the local timeline would just be like Imgur’s “Usersub - newest” with no way to quickly filter out or block. Especially if it becomes common.

dannekrose, 11 months ago

@lavender
I think the most responsible way would be to expand object storage support beyond the current AWS-hosted S3 storage to support the different hosting services who offer compatible storage. There is already an issue for it and I hope it gets added relatively soon officially. (There is a patch that does seem to add it)

https://codeberg.org/Kbin/kbin-core/issues/117

dannekrose, 11 months ago

@lavender

That’s a good question. I think I’ll start linking to my Pixelfed account if I start using more images and upload there. Time to test some things.

dannekrose, 11 months ago

@Cyzaine

Hi! I’m just testing how to link or otherwise leverage Pixelfed maybe for image or media storage when I want to post something I’ve created or captured. These are just test posts for now but here is to being hopeful.

dannekrose, 11 months ago

@Jerry

I see a lot of magazines on your instance now.

dannekrose, 11 months ago

@maikelthedev
There is at least one with that name but I think it’s on a Lemmy instance.

As for why it shows up with a CW, that’s because Threads have a “subject” line separate from the body which is how Calckey and others do CW on posts. When they receive the content, they treat it as a post with a CW since that’s what they do.

dannekrose, 11 months ago (edited 11 months ago)

@fiofiofio

Not that I've heard. I hope someone does work on a directory since it's going to just get even more busy I think. For reference, the first 3rd party kbin server as part of this recent migration is less than 2 weeks old and until then it was just the main English one, the main Polish one, and a dev one or two. The Lemmy servers have been around for many months.

dannekrose, 11 months ago (edited 11 months ago)

@Vildravn
It’s certainly is a different system.

The easiest way to think about it is that each magazine including the domain name is a separate magazine. The domain name tells you where the “Source of truth” for that magazine lives and all other instances will push or have pushed to them updates.

The reason you don’t see all the content is that there is not system to “back fill” content from magazines where the source of truth is on a different instance. So, unless someone manually goes and retrieves older threads and posts (this is done by pasting the full url for the thread/post as it exists on the remote instance into the search box) only new content from the moment of first subscriber onwards will automatically show up.