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evan, to random
@evan@cosocial.ca avatar

OK, I've got a question for #ActivityPub developers. I'm working on an extended example for the O'Reilly Media book I'm writing, focusing on the federation protocol. I'm going to cover using HTTP Signature, handling and sending the important set of Activity types defined in the AP spec (Follow, Create, Add, ...).

evan, to random
@evan@cosocial.ca avatar

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.

trwnh,
@trwnh@mastodon.social avatar

@evan yes, and it creates a sort of "thundering herd" unintentional ddos for web sites on underpowered providers. there have been ideas on how to solve the trust issue, like randomly verifying some small subset and tracking reputation, or like deferring to a semi-centralized pre-trusted "link preview provider" that is shared between several instances, or even simply ignoring the issue and depending on people to report misleading links. (i prefer the provider approach)

evan,
@evan@cosocial.ca avatar

@trwnh another option is accepting the sender-provided metadata to start, and then verifying on a schedule that recognizes that thundering herd problem -- say, a randomized delay between 1 and 300 seconds, with an exponential backoff. And I definitely think having a trusted shared caching server can help immensely.

evan, to random
@evan@cosocial.ca avatar

#ActivityPub is the default social networking protocol because we took the time to standardise it at the W3C.

You don't have to be part of the W3C to build on top of ActivityPub. You can make extensions and new applications without ever dealing with a formalised standards organisation.

But the benefit of having the W3C behind us is crystal clear. There have been dozens of distributed social networks, and none has gotten as much traction as AP and AS2.

evan,
@evan@cosocial.ca avatar

There are some folks who want a faster-moving, constantly-updated AP and AS2 docs.

We have a great process for making new extensions and applications of AP and AS2. It moves fast and is really loose:

https://codeberg.org/fediverse/fep

And you can do this kind of development outside of the FEP process, too.

AP and AS2 need to move slow and stable so everyone can build on them. Extensions can be fast and wild, because that's where new things happen.

evan, to random
@evan@cosocial.ca avatar

I think it's been mentioned before but I just want to make sure that everyone here knows that we are having THREE sessions at next week.

TPAC is a hybrid working event for the W3C. Some of us will be in person in Seville. If you're not, you can call in and participate remotely.

Details here!

https://www.w3.org/2023/09/TPAC/participation.html

evan,
@evan@cosocial.ca avatar

Meeting details!

12 September 2023 9:30-11AM CET

This is our main meeting and we'll be covering a lot of different topics. Hopefully addressing extensions!

https://www.w3.org/events/meetings/5aafc3e5-aac6-49f8-bcc4-3afd7fb00ce6/

13 September 2023 12:15-13:15 CET

A session on test suites, including next steps from previous special meeting.

https://www.w3.org/events/meetings/919c2a7d-e925-4249-8a29-09001c15b48a/

13 September 2023 14:30-5:30 CET

A session on data portability.

https://www.w3.org/events/meetings/46ce9082-710a-4fe2-8cf8-5dcdc207c877/

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