Nice to see a blogpost on the Mastodon blog about implementing a basic ActivityPub server https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2018/06/how-to-implement-a-basic-activitypub-server/
(Though technically webfinger isn't needed for activitypub, but it is for mastodon interop!)
@cwebber I'm curious how subscribing between different AP server implementations is going to work UX-wise. Mastodon, Pleroma and peertube all work with the user @ domain webfinger scheme, but what identifiers shall be used for implementations lacking webfinger?
Just search for https://toot.matereal.eu/users/schmittlauch instead of @schmittlauch.
@notclacke @schmittlauch @cwebber Honestly though, I've always liked the user@instance format that other federated networks use. It's a pretty useful way to think about users across the network; conceptually that identifier feels closer to email.
URL works okay, but the flow and the logic is kind of different.
@deadsuperhero @notclacke @schmittlauch yeah I get that, and people are fairly familiar with email-like ids. I'm not arguing against clients supporting that for composition of addressing anyway, but it does bother me that Mastodon uses Webfinger for some sources of information where it shouldn't matter for protocol'y things
I think that could hold back some exciting future things if it remains. But fortunately my suspicion is that it won't be hard for mastodon to evolve there.
@cwebber @deadsuperhero @notclacke @schmittlauch For the most part it seems to be based on the (mistaken) assumption that if users address each other by user@domain, then so should computers. But that's not really a valid or useful assumption... it's also already caused issues that have been solved in suboptimal ways (re: case sensitivity, account migration, username changes, etc)
@trwnh @cwebber @deadsuperhero @notclacke @schmittlauch I've been thinking for a while that I want to be able to use @strypey as my #fediverse identity, regardless of whether I'm self-hosting or using another host. The question is, what would be the equivalent of DNS that would resolve that ID to the underlying host-based ID (eg currently mastodon.nzoss.nz/@strypey)? How would I update it when I move hosts? How do I secure it against hijack?
@strypey @trwnh @deadsuperhero @notclacke @schmittlauch This is what DIDs are trying to solve
@cwebber @trwnh @deadsuperhero @notclacke @schmittlauch cool. Two questions 1) what does DID stand for? 2) Where can I found out more?
@strypey @trwnh @deadsuperhero @notclacke @schmittlauch Decentralized Identifiers. Look up various Rebooting Web of Trust papers and the w3c spec. DIDs aren't human readable, but you'll have a unique identifier for yourself for life. For the human readability, add petnames. https://github.com/cwebber/rebooting-the-web-of-trust-spring2018/blob/petnames/draft-documents/making-dids-invisible-with-petnames.md
If we can all live with the universe originating in a "big bang" and weird huge collections of matter warping space and time being "black holes", I'm sure we can handle short personal identifiers being "pet names".
I may personally call him Tricky Dick. That is my pet name for him. I don't have to be 12 years old to use pet names.
The same applies for any other object, that's just an extension of an existing use of the term.
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As for Petnames, unless multiple people can have the same or similar Petnames, all that will happen is a "get a good name before they're all gone" gold rush, because names will be rivalrous. At that point, their only advantage over @strypey's current webfinger is their permanence.
The definition of pet names is that you control the name space of the pet names you use. No gold rush.
Objects suggest to you a name they would like to be known as, an "intro name". We can all suggest to be called "bestuserever", but you'll decide when you subscribe how you want to refer to us. This is how SSB works, btw.
You can also resolve other objects' names for things, as "edge names".
So if you have access to my name book, my pet names are your edge names. "This object is what @notclacke calls @cwebber".
https://github.com/cwebber/rebooting-the-web-of-trust-spring2018/blob/petnames/draft-documents/making-dids-invisible-with-petnames.md
@lnxw48a1 @johnnynull @strypey Yes @notclacke has it exactly right. There is no gold rush in petnames, that's part of the point.
@lnxw48a1 @johnnynull @strypey @notclacke Petnames can be used with DIDs btw but the concept predates DIDs and can be used in conjunction with any naming system.