<p>Hi <a href="https://mastodon.social/@pfefferle">@<bdi>pfefferle@mastodon.social</bdi></a>, I was trying to figure out something else (which I'll ask in a separate topic), and then went down a rabbit-hole when I discovered I could no longer find @notiz.blog (:point_left: see, no link!)</p> <p>NodeBB was unable to retrieve the Group actor because the webfinger response notes its' ID as <code>https://notiz.blog/%40notiz.blog</code>; note the <code>%40</code>. Possibly related, the actor self-reports its own ID as that value as well.</p>

<p>I've seen hints of backfill working really well, but hadn't seen good examples until recently. As more and more instances upgrade to the newer versions of Mastodon that support <code>context</code>, backfill from Mastodon instances will improve across the board.</p> <p>Today one of the most popular topics on my NodeBB instance was <a href="https://activitypub.space/topic/785b7a43-ce02-4051-bcaa-a862455db802/good-morning-to-the-forkiverse">an update from the admin of The Forkiverse</a>, a brand new up-and-coming instance.</p>

In January 2026, I will begin working full time in my role as Director at the Social Web Foundation. I am looking forward to the challenge of growing this young non-profit and fulfilling our mission to make a bigger, better Fediverse. As a refresher: I have been working in the area of federated social networks since starting Identi.ca in 2008. Federated social networks are social platforms that let users on one platform connect to and interact with users on another platform. Linked up with open standard protocols, these platforms together form a _Social Web_ that puts people first. In 2018, I was a co-author of the ActivityPub standard for social network interoperability. I currently maintain the spec for the W3C and develop extensions for it. In 2024, I wrote ActivityPub: Programming for the Social Web for O’Reilly Media. And I co-founded the Social Web Foundation to further encourage the use of ActivityPub in social networks. For the last year, I’ve been working nights, lunchtimes and weekends on SWF while holding down my full-time role as Director of Open Technology at the Open Earth Foundation. I love working at OEF; the organization build Open Source software to help cities fight climate change. I have felt very fulfilled in my work there, and I’ve made really strong friendships with the team. It’s been a very special place to work that has changed how I think teams can be. But over the last year, SWF has had some really amazing opportunities, and in 2026 we’ll be making some big steps forward for the Social Web. I can’t keep doing both jobs, and I feel like, after 4 years at OEF, I’ve done what I can to build up that organization, and I am ready to start on this next one. It will feel good to have my full attention focused on the Social Web. I’m looking forward to seeing my Open Source friends at FOSDEM 2026 in Brussels at the end of January where I’m helping to organize the Social Web track. I’m speaking at Princeton mid-February, and I’ll be in the Bay Area at the beginning of March. All this time, I’ll be working hard to get the next version of ActivityPub released and to push out several software projects to make the Social Web more fun and interesting. Thanks to everyone who’s put time, effort and help into the SWF. Thanks to my coworkers at OEF for encouraging me on my next steps in my career. Thanks to my wife and family for tolerating yet another leap into the void. I hope you have as exciting a New Year as I will. ### Share this: * Click to share on Mastodon (Opens in new window) Mastodon * Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook * Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X * Like Loading... ### _Related_

<p>Apologies in advance if I misrepresented anybody or missed any crucial bits of information.</p> <hr /> <h2>Attendees</h2> <ul> <li>Julian (@julian@activitypub.space)</li> <li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/macted/" rel="nofollow ugc">Ted Thibodeau Jr</a> (he/him) (<a href="http://openlinksw.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">OpenLinkSw.com</a>) // GitHub:<a href="https://github.com/TallTed" rel="nofollow ugc">@TallTed</a> // Mastodon:<a href="https://mastodon.social/@TallTed" rel="nofollow ugc">@TallTed</a></li> <li>Jesse Karmani (<a href="https://mastodon.social/@jesseplusplus">@<bdi>jesseplusplus@mastodon.social</bdi></a>)</li> </ul> <h2>Agenda</h2> <ol> <li>Mastodon context issues (backfill not possible at the moment)</li> <li>Context (topic/thread) deletion and moving between audiences (communities/categories) <ul> <li>Draft FEP for the above</li> </ul> </li> <li>Deleting entire tree vs. one post.</li></ol>

<p>For context:</p> <ul> <li>Two big threadiverse implementors (and probably mbin) currently federate <code>Announce(Delete(Object))</code> for deletion of content — all synchronized communities follow suit and delete the content as well.</li> <li>If that object is the root-level node, and it is deleted, <em>everything below it is also deleted</em>.</li> <li>Lemmy and Piefed are investigating the possibility of changing this behaviour so that the action deletes the <em>object itself only</em>, and the reply tree stays.</li> </ul>

<p>Monthly meetings are held on the first Thursday of each month, at 13h00 to 14h00 Eastern Time (currently 18h00 to 19h00 UTC). You can find them listed in the SocialCG Calendar. The next meeting will be held (tomorrow) on 4 December 2025.</p> <p>Meeting link: <a href="https://meet.jit.si/ap-forum-wg" rel="nofollow ugc">https://meet.jit.si/ap-forum-wg</a></p> <p>Discussions will continue re:</p> <ul> <li>Mastodon <code>context</code> issues (backfill not possible at the moment)</li> <li>Context (topic/thread) deletion and moving between audiences (communities/categories)</li> <li>Draft FEP for the above</li></ul>

<p>NodeBB federates out the <code>Announce</code> activity in two ways.</p> <ol> <li>The "plain object" way, which is an <code>Announce</code> activity wrapping an object (either a uri or the full object itself.)</li> <li>The "1b12" way, which is an <code>Announce</code> activity wrapping another activity (e.g. <code>Create</code>)</li> </ol> <p>Up until now I haven't needed to handle the reverse (which in AP-speak is the "undo" of an activity), but since NodeBB sends <code>Announce</code> when moving a topic <em><strong>in</strong></em> to category, it now makes sense to <code>Undo(Announce)</code> when moving a topic <em><strong>out</strong></em> of a category.</p>

<p>So, <a href="https://startrek website/post/31953450 rel=">this meme</a>.</p> <p>tl;dr Mastodon users occasionally spam mentions and Lemmy (and probably Piefed) ingests them all and makes the post across all of the mentioned communities.</p> <p>Sucks, right, because on the theadiverse, <em>you're not actually able to do that so easily</em>.</p> <p>Basically, it's because Mastodon mixes mentions with addressing. Every mentioned person gets addressed, even though sometimes you don't mean for it to go into that community.</p>

Apologies in advance if I misrepresented anybody or missed any crucial bits of information. Julian (myself) and Ted (@tallted@mastodon.social) began the se...

<p><em>Apologies in advance if I misrepresented anybody or missed any crucial bits of information.</em></p> <hr /> <ul> <li>Julian (myself) and Ted (<a href="https://mastodon.social/@TallTed">@<bdi>tallted@mastodon.social</bdi></a>) began the session discussing moderation tools in USENET <ul> <li>There are comparable systems to how the threadiverse propagates content. Messages are sent to a remote server who is then responsible for distribution.</li> <li>In relation to moderation, there was more ambiguity.</li></ul></li></ul>

<p>Hi <a href="https://activitypub.space/user/nutomic">@<bdi>Nutomic</bdi></a>, thanks for joining the forum.</p> <p>While I have you, I wanted to ask you about the removal of <code>audience</code> from Lemmy. I believe the rationale for it was that it was not used outside of Lemmy, but both Piefed (<a href="https://piefed.social/u/rimu">@<bdi>rimu@piefed.social</bdi></a>) and NodeBB use it.</p> <p>I still think the explicit use of the <code>audience</code> property is more helpful than not.</p> <p>I discovered another use case for it, although it is a bit of an edge case. Last night a user from <code>lemmy.ca</code> posted to <code>activitypub@community.nodebb.org</code>.</p>

<p><strong>November 2025 ForumWG Meeting</strong></p> <p>Monthly meetings are held on the first Thursday of each month, at 13h00 to 14h00 Eastern Time (currently <strong>18h00 to 19h00 UTC</strong>). You can find them listed in the SocialCG Calendar. The next meeting will be held (today) on 2 October 2025.</p> <p><em>Please note the time difference if applicable</em>, ForumWG meeting times follow Eastern (± Daylight) Time Zone.</p> <p>Meeting link: <a href="https://meet.jit.si/ap-forum-wg" rel="nofollow ugc">https://meet.jit.si/ap-forum-wg</a></p> <p>Discussions will continue re:</p> <ul></ul>

<p>There are rumblings of a general strike in Alberta after the provincial government used the notwithstanding clause to force 51,000 teachers back to work.</p> <p>This follows on the heels of a mass student walkout in solidarity with the teachers' union.</p> <p>That the notwithstanding clause has been used more and more often for comparatively trivial ways to force bad legislation on Canadians is a sign that those in power think they can rule by fiat. This happens a lot in Ontario too!</p> <p>Your move Alberta.</p>