Nostr notes by Julian Fietkau

There is a longstanding PR to remove replies by blocked users ...

2026-05-02T02:37:40Z

In reply to nevent1q…mw2p
_________________________

There is a longstanding PR to remove replies by blocked users from a post's context: https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/pull/18468

Reading the conversation in there leaves me with several questions, but also feeling unsure which ones of them to ask out loud.

As I understand the migration path, it's like 1. Able to ...

2026-04-06T18:42:47Z

In reply to nevent1q…8ju7
_________________________

As I understand the migration path, it's like

1. Able to receive RFC 9421 in addition to draft-cavage
2. Able to send RFC 9421 in addition to draft-cavage
3. Send RFC 9421 by default, but be able to fall back to draft-cavage if needed

So by “can't handle” I meant step 1. 🙂 Although the unspoken step 4 is to remove draft-cavage support once everyone else has taken step 1, I'm ultimately also wondering when we'll get there.

RE: https://mastodon.social/@bagder/116359048796181736 Could be ...

2026-04-06T18:04:16Z

RE: https://mastodon.social/@bagder/116359048796181736

Could be potentially nice for fediverse server testing, as more implementations make the jump to final RFC 9421 HTTP signatures.

On the flip side, ever more complex curl invocations (here: Accept header plus signature fields plus key file, presumably) suggest use of more specialized CLI tools, such as provided by Fedify: ActivityPub server framework (npub1tlf…wz08), or at least scripts/aliases.

Speaking of RFC 9421, which notable fediverse implementations can't handle it yet? Anyone keeping track?

#ActivityPub #FediDev #RFC9421

quoting
note17fk…j0hr

RFC 9421 HTTP Message Signatures support in #curl maybe?

https://github.com/curl/curl/pull/21239

I'm looking at the person's screenshot which shows your ...

2026-04-01T21:08:05Z

In reply to nevent1q…ek6h
_________________________

I'm looking at the person's screenshot which shows your Bluesky posts bridged to the fediverse. Most of them are quote posts. Your own text in them is bridged fine, it's only the quoted posts that are shown as links instead of embeds. Mastodon quote posts need a consent flag that Bridgy Fed doesn't yet provide.

Notably, even if Bridgy Fed adds the feature, it will only show quoted posts of accounts who have also opted in. This is all a bit complicated!

Anuj Ahooja (npub1zzy…9edy) Evan Prodromou (npub1764…nuj0) A New Social (npub13rs…s8u8)

Nothing on your end, sorry! We just gotta wait until Bridgy Fed ...

2026-04-01T20:54:58Z

In reply to nevent1q…cnz4
_________________________

Nothing on your end, sorry! We just gotta wait until Bridgy Fed can support Mastodon-style verified quotes.

The GitHub link I posted is where its programmers are discussing if and when that can happen. (There is currently no timeline and, again, nothing for us to really influence.)

Anuj Ahooja (npub1zzy…9edy) Evan Prodromou (npub1764…nuj0) A New Social (npub13rs…s8u8)

The GitHub issue for getting bridged quote posts visible on ...

2026-04-01T18:57:00Z

In reply to nevent1q…07n2
_________________________

The GitHub issue for getting bridged quote posts visible on Mastodon is https://github.com/snarfed/bridgy-fed/issues/1956, some good discussion in there early on. (Sorry for basically taking it over with my FEP-044f ecosystem monitoring.)

The implementation is nontrivial, since unlike most ActivityPub platforms Bridgy Fed probably won't want to issue a blanket quoting permission, but instead bridge quote post permissions from each Bluesky user and post.

Evan Prodromou (npub1764…nuj0) Laffy (npub16el…n8vf) A New Social (npub13rs…s8u8)

Probably very unlikely as long as the vocabulary isn't in ...

2026-03-26T21:01:45Z

In reply to nevent1q…qqv4
_________________________

Probably very unlikely as long as the vocabulary isn't in Fedify: https://github.com/fedify-dev/fedify/issues/452 But now that the interaction policy vocab is in, it might not take too much longer.

I saw this post when it was new, and two days later I am ...

2026-03-26T14:42:37Z

In reply to nevent1q…gumg
_________________________

I saw this post when it was new, and two days later I am remembering to come back and tell you that MDN is at MDN Web Docs (npub1azl…tw5z). 😃 Or did you know that and there's a layer of meaning to your post that's going over my head?

Alright, now I have to actually remember who runs PeerTube ...

2026-03-16T01:26:52Z

In reply to nevent1q…yrez
_________________________

Alright, now I have to actually remember who runs PeerTube servers. 😄

ozoned (npub1fnn…q8zp) runs https://tubefree.org, a sizable instance for personal and community content.
Sean Tilley (npub1zj7…lc9y) / [@sean](https://deadsuperhero.com/ ) runs https://spectra.video, a server with lots of users.
Lety Does Stuff (npub1ggl…kevu) runs https://peertube.doesstuff.social, a personal server.
Sascha Foerster :bonndigital: (npub1evt…xdke) runs https://bonn.video, which one might call an institutional server I suppose.

Any of the tagged people have PeerTube hosting advice for Bot Pup QT (npub1grn…mcsm)?

I feel compelled to try to help, but I have no experience with ...

2026-03-15T21:24:42Z

In reply to nevent1q…y6fp
_________________________

I feel compelled to try to help, but I have no experience with PeerTube hosting. 😕 The only maybe helpful thing I can say is that object storage is 5€/TB/month at Hetzner, and it's vastly cheaper than their block storage.

Want me to tag PeerTube hosters in my circles, or rather keep people you might not know out of the thread?

I wonder if the intent is still current? We've seen a few ...

2026-03-15T21:10:33Z

In reply to nevent1q…lhj8
_________________________

I wonder if the intent is still current? We've seen a few lightweight Python implementations of FEP-044f since the issue was raised. As always, I'd be happy to advise.

No experience with group actors, sorry! I don't see any ...

2026-03-15T00:53:05Z

In reply to nevent1q…a3t8
_________________________

No experience with group actors, sorry! I don't see any obvious issues with the JSON, which makes sense since it loads on Mastodon.

That one's a microformat mismatch, Mastodon looks for the ...

2026-03-14T15:13:11Z

In reply to nevent1q…df9p
_________________________

That one's a microformat mismatch, Mastodon looks for the class "mention" to skip the link preview and open the profile locally. https://docs.joinmastodon.org/spec/microformats/#mastodon

Hold on – Open Collective and Open Source Collective are two ...

2026-03-12T19:51:36Z

In reply to nevent1q…dvfr
_________________________

Hold on – Open Collective and Open Source Collective are two different institutions, right? But they are both currently integrating Persona? Am I getting this right?

New quote test, wooo! ...

2026-03-11T11:46:22Z

In reply to nevent1q…8lyx
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New quote test, wooo!

https://blog.fabiomanganiello.com/article/Madblog-federated-blogging-from-markdown

Edit: Yep, looks to be working! 😀

quoting
note1rcm…nqw5

**[Madblog: A Markdown Folder That Federates Everywhere](https://blog.fabiomanganiello.com/article/Madblog-federated-blogging-from-markdown )**

**A lightweight blogging engine based on text files, with native Fediverse and IndieWeb support**

I started working on [Madblog](https://git.fabiomanganiello.com/madblog ) a few years ago.

I wanted a simple blogging platform that I could run from my own Markdown files. No intermediaries. No bloated UI. No JavaScript. No databases and migration scripts. No insecure plugins. Just a git folder, an Obsidian vault or a synchronized SyncThing directory, and the ability to create and modify content by simply writing text files, wherever I am.

Drop a Markdown file in the directory, and it's live. Edit it, and the changes propagate. Delete it, and it's gone.

It's been running my [personal blog](https://blog.fabiomanganiello.com ) and the [Platypush blog](https://blog.platypush.tech ) for a while now.

With the new release, #madblog now gets a new superpower: it supports federation, interactions and comments both through:

https://indieweb.org/Webmention">Webmentions - already implemented some weeks ago, you can also check out the https://blog.fabiomanganiello.com/article/webmentions-with-batteries-included">previous blog article

https://indieweb.org/ActivityPub">ActivityPub

Webmentions allow your site to mention and be mentioned by other sites that also implement them - like any WordPress blog with the [Webmention plugin](https://wordpress.org/plugins/webmention/ ), or link aggregators like [Lemmy](https://join-lemmy.org/ ) or [HackerNews](https://news.ycombinator.com/ ). Interactions with any of your pages will be visible under them.

#activitypub support allows Madblog to fully federate with Mastodon, Pleroma, Misskey, Friendica or any other #fediverse instance. It turns your blog into a federated handle that can be followed by anyone on the Fediverse. It gives you the ability to mention people on the Fediverse directly from your text files, and get replies to your articles directly from Mastodon, get your articles boosted, shared and quoted like any other Mastodon post.

##

Demos
These blogs are powered by Madblog:

https://blog.fabiomanganiello.com">blog.fabiomanganiello.com — Fediverse handle: https://manganiello.blog/@fabio">Fabio Manganiello (npub17w6…48ey)

https://blog.platypush.tech">blog.platypush.tech — Fediverse handle: https://platypush.tech/@blog">Platypush (npub1pqj…al0g)

You can follow them from Mastodon (or any other Fediverse client), reply to articles directly from your instance, boost them, or quote them. You can also interact via [Webmentions](https://indieweb.org/Webmention ): link to an article from your own site, and if your site supports Webmentions, the mention will show up as a response on the original post. These blogs also have a [Guestbook](https://blog.fabiomanganiello.com/guestbook ) — mention the blog's Fediverse handle or send a Webmention to the home page, and your message appears on a public guest registry.

##

How Does It Compare?
If you've looked into federated blogging before, you've likely come across a few options:

https://writefreely.org/">WriteFreely is probably the closest alternative — a minimalist, Go-based platform with ActivityPub support. It's well-designed, but it uses a database (SQLite or MySQL), has its own (very minimal) editor, and doesn't support Webmentions. Additionally, it lacks many features that are deal-breakers for me.

No export of all the content to Markdown, nor ability to run my blog from my Nextcloud Notes folder or Obsidian vault.

No support for LaTeX or Mermaid diagrams.

No support for federated interactions - any interaction with your articles on the Fediverse is simply lost.

The UI is minimalist and not necessarily bad, but not even sufficiently curated for something like a blog (narrow width, Serif fonts not optimized for legibility, the settings and admin panels are a mess...).

No support for moderation / content blocking.

No support for federated hashtags.

https://wordpress.org/">WordPress with ActivityPub and Webmention plugins can technically do what Madblog does, but it's a full CMS with a database, a theme engine, a plugin ecosystem, and a much larger attack surface. If all you need is a blog, it's overkill.

https://joinplu.me/">Plume and https://friendi.ca/">Friendica offer blogging with federation, but they're full social platforms, not
lightweight publishing tools.

Madblog sits in a different niche: it's closer to a static-site generator that happens to speak federation protocols. It implements a workflow like "write Markdown, push to server, syndicate everywhere".

##

Getting Started
###

Docker Quickstart
mkdir -p ~/madblog/markdown cat <<EOF > ~/madblog/markdown/hello-world.md # Hello, Fediverse! This is my first post on [Madblog](https://git.fabiomanganiello.com/madblog)! EOF docker run -it \ -p 8000:8000 \ -v "$HOME/madblog:/data" \ quay.io/blacklight/madblog

Open http://localhost:8000. That's it — you have a blog.

The default Docker image (quay.io/blacklight/madblog) is a minimal build (< 100 MB) that includes everything except LaTeX and Mermaid rendering. If you need those, build the full image from source:

git clone https://git.fabiomanganiello.com/madblog cd madblog docker build -f docker/full.Dockerfile -t madblog .

See the [full Docker documentation](https://git.fabiomanganiello.com/madblog/src/branch/main/README.md#running-madblog-in-docker ) for details on mounting config files and ActivityPub keys.

###

Markdown structure
Since there's no database or extra state files involved, the metadata of your articles is also stored in Markdown.

Some things (like title, description) can be inferred from the file name, headers of your files etc., creation date defaults to the creation timestamp of the file and author and language are inherited from your config.yaml.

A full customized header would look like this:

[//]: # (title: Title of the article) [//]: # (description: Short description of the content) [//]: # (image: /img/some-header-image.png) [//]: # (author: Author Name <https://author.me>;) [//]: # (author_photo: ) [//]: # (language: en-US) [//]: # (published: 2022-01-01) ...your Markdown content...

###

Key Configuration
Madblog reads configuration from a config.yaml in your content directory. Every option is also available as an environment variable with a MADBLOG_ prefix — handy for Docker or CI setups.

A minimal config to get started:

title: My Blog description: Thoughts on tech and life link: https://myblog.example.com author: Your Name

Or purely via environment variables:

docker run -it \ -p 8000:8000 \ -e MADBLOG_TITLE="My Blog" \ -e MADBLOG_LINK="https://myblog.example.com" \ -e MADBLOG_AUTHOR="Your Name" \ -v "$HOME/madblog:/data" \ quay.io/blacklight/madblog

See [config.example.yaml](https://git.fabiomanganiello.com/madblog/src/branch/main/config.example.yaml ) for the full reference.

>
> It is advised to keep all of your Markdown content under <data-dir>/markdown> ,
especially if you enable federation, in order to keep the Markdown folder
tidy from all the auxiliary files generated by Madblog.

>

##

Webmentions
[Webmentions](https://indieweb.org/Webmention ) are the IndieWeb's answer to trackbacks and pingbacks — a W3C standard that lets websites notify each other when they link to one another. Madblog supports them natively, both inbound and outbound.

When someone links to one of your articles from a Webmention-capable site, your blog receives a notification and renders the mention as a response on the article page. Going the other way, when you link to an external URL in your Markdown and save the file, Madblog automatically discovers the target's Webmention endpoint and sends a notification — no manual step required. All mentions are stored as Markdown files under your content directory (mentions/incoming/<post-slug>/), so they're version-controllable and easy to inspect.

You can enable pending-mode for moderation (webmentions_default_status: pending), or use the blocklist/allowlist system to filter sources by domain, URL, or regex. Webmentions are enabled by default — if you're running Madblog locally for testing, set enable_webmentions: false to avoid sending real notifications to external sites.

##

ActivityPub Federation
[ActivityPub](https://www.w3.org/TR/activitypub/ ) is the protocol that powers the Fediverse — Mastodon, Pleroma, Misskey, and hundreds of other platforms. Madblog implements it as a first-class feature: enable it, and your blog becomes a Fediverse actor that people can follow, reply to, boost, and quote.

Enable it in your config:

enable_activitypub: true activitypub_username: blog activitypub_private_key_path: /path/to/private_key.pem

Madblog will generate an RSA keypair on first start if you don't provide one. Once enabled, your blog gets a Fediverse handle (@blog@yourdomain.com), a WebFinger endpoint for discovery, and a full ActivityPub actor profile. New and updated articles are automatically delivered to all followers' timelines.

Here's what federation looks like in practice:

Receiving mentions: when someone mentions your blog's Fediverse handle in a public post (not as a reply to a specific article), the mention shows up on your Guestbook page.

Receiving replies, likes, boosts, and quotes: interactions targeting a specific article are rendered below that article — replies as threaded comments, likes/boosts/quotes as counters and cards. All stored as JSON files on disk.

Sending mentions: just write the fully-qualified handle in your Markdown (Alice (npub19tr…plwd)) and save the file. Madblog resolves the actor via WebFinger and delivers a proper ActivityPub Mention tag — the mentioned user gets a notification on their instance.

Federated hashtags: hashtags in your articles (#Python, #Fediverse) are included as ActivityPub Hashtag tags in the published object. Followers who track those hashtags on their instance will see your posts in their filtered feeds.

Custom profile fields: configure additional profile metadata (verified links, donation pages, git repos) that show up on your actor's profile as seen from Mastodon and other Fediverse clients:

yaml
activitypub_profile_fields:
Git repository: <https://git.example.com/myblog>;
Donate: <https://liberapay.com/myprofile>;

The federation layer also exposes a read-only subset of the [Mastodon API](https://docs.joinmastodon.org/methods/ ), so Mastodon-compatible clients and crawlers can discover the instance, look up the actor, list published statuses, and search for content — with no extra configuration.

Madblog also supports advanced ActivityPub features like split-domain setups (e.g. your blog at blog.example.com but your Fediverse handle at @blog@example.com), configurable object types (Note for inline rendering on Mastodon vs. Article for link-card previews), and quote policies ([FEP-044f](https://codeberg.org/fediverse/fep/src/branch/main/fep/044f/fep-044f.md ), so Mastodon users can quote your articles too).

##

LaTeX and Mermaid
Madblog supports server-side rendering of LaTeX equations and Mermaid diagrams directly in your Markdown files — no client-side JavaScript required.

**LaTeX** uses latex + dvipng under the hood. Inline expressions use conventional LaTeX markers:

The Pythagorean theorem states that $c^2 = a^2 + b^2$. $$ E = mc^2 $$

**Mermaid** diagrams use standard fenced code blocks. Both light and dark theme variants are rendered at build time and switch automatically based on the reader's color scheme:

```mermaid graph LR A[Write Markdown] --> B[Madblog renders it] B --> C[Fediverse sees it] ```

Install Mermaid support with pip install "madblog[mermaid]" or use the full Docker image. Rendered output is cached, so only the first render of each block is slow.

##

Tags and Categories
Tag your articles with hashtags — either in the metadata header or directly in the body text:

# My Article This post is about #Python and the #Fediverse.

Madblog builds a tag index at /tags, with per-tag pages at /tags/<tag>. Hashtags from incoming Webmentions are also indexed. Folders in your content directory act as categories — if you organize files into subdirectories, the home page groups articles by folder.

##

Feed Syndication
Madblog generates both RSS and Atom feeds at /feed.rss and /feed.atom. You can control whether feeds include full article content or just descriptions (short_feed: true), and limit the number of entries (max_entries_per_feed: 10). limit and offset parameters are also supported for pagination.

##

Aggregator Mode
Madblog can also pull in external RSS/Atom feeds and render them alongside your own posts on the home page — useful for affiliated blogs, or even as a self-hosted feed reader:

external_feeds: - https://friendsblog.example.com/feed.atom - https://colleaguesblog.example.com/feed.atom

##

Guestbook
The guestbook (/guestbook) is a dedicated page that aggregates public interactions — Webmentions targeting the home page and Fediverse mentions of your blog actor that aren't replies to specific articles. Think of it as a public guest registry, or a lo-fi comment section for your blog as a whole. Visitors can leave a message by mentioning your Fediverse handle or sending a Webmention. It can be disabled via enable_guestbook=0.

##

View Modes
The home page supports three layouts:

cards (default) — a responsive grid of article cards with images

list — a compact list with titles and dates

full — a scrollable, WordPress-like view with full article content inline

Set it in your config (view_mode: cards) or override at runtime with ?view=list.

##

Moderation
Madblog ships with a flexible moderation system that applies to both Webmentions and ActivityPub interactions. You can run in **blocklist mode** (reject specific actors) or **allowlist mode** (accept only specific actors), with pattern matching by domain, URL, ActivityPub handle, or regex:

blocked_actors: - spammer.example.com - "@troll@evil.social" - /spam-ring\.example\..*/

Moderation rules also apply retroactively — interactions already stored are filtered at render time. Blocked ActivityPub followers are excluded from fan-out delivery and hidden from the public follower count, but their records are preserved so they can be automatically reinstated if you change your rules.

##

Email Notifications
Configure SMTP settings and Madblog will notify you by email whenever a new Webmention or ActivityPub interaction arrives — likes, boosts, replies, mentions, and quotes:

author_email: you@example.com smtp_server: smtp.example.com smtp_username: you@example.com smtp_password: your-password

##

Progressive Web App
Madblog is installable as a PWA, with offline access and a native-like experience on supported devices. A service worker handles stale-while-revalidate caching with background sync for retries.

##

Raw Markdown Access
Append .md to any article URL to get the raw Markdown source:

https://myblog.example.com/article/my-post.md

Useful for readers who prefer plain text, or for tools that consume Markdown directly.

##

Reusable Libraries
Two key subsystems of Madblog have been extracted into standalone, reusable Python libraries. If you're building a Python web application and want to add decentralized federation support, you can use them directly — no need to adopt Madblog itself.

###

Webmentions
[Webmentions](https://git.fabiomanganiello.com/webmentions ) is a general-purpose Python library for sending and receiving Webmentions. It comes with framework adapters for FastAPI, Flask, and Tornado, pluggable storage backends (SQLAlchemy or custom), filesystem monitoring for auto-sending mentions when files change, full microformats2 parsing, and built-in HTML rendering for displaying mentions on your pages.

Adding Webmentions to a FastAPI app:

from fastapi import FastAPI from webmentions import WebmentionsHandler from webmentions.storage.adapters.db import init_db_storage from webmentions.server.adapters.fastapi import bind_webmentions app = FastAPI() storage = init_db_storage(engine="sqlite:////tmp/webmentions.db") handler = WebmentionsHandler(storage=storage, base_url="https://example.com") bind_webmentions(app, handler)

That's it — your app now has a /webmentions endpoint for receiving mentions,
a Link header advertising it on every response, and a storage layer for
persisting them. See the
[full documentation](https://git.fabiomanganiello.com/webmentions/src/branch/main/README.md )
for details on sending mentions, custom storage, moderation, and rendering.

###

Pubby
[Pubby](https://git.fabiomanganiello.com/pubby ) is a general-purpose Python library for adding ActivityPub federation to any web application. It handles inbox processing, outbox delivery with concurrent fan-out, HTTP Signatures, WebFinger/NodeInfo discovery, interaction storage, a Mastodon-compatible API, and framework adapters for FastAPI, Flask, and Tornado.

Adding ActivityPub to a FastAPI app:

from fastapi import FastAPI from pubby import ActivityPubHandler, Object from pubby.crypto import generate_rsa_keypair from pubby.storage.adapters.db import init_db_storage from pubby.server.adapters.fastapi import bind_activitypub app = FastAPI() storage = init_db_storage("sqlite:////tmp/pubby.db") private_key, _ = generate_rsa_keypair() handler = ActivityPubHandler( storage=storage, actor_config={ "base_url": "https://example.com", "username": "blog", "name": "My Blog", "summary": "A blog with ActivityPub support", }, private_key=private_key, ) bind_activitypub(app, handler) # Publish a post to all followers handler.publish_object(Object( id="https://example.com/posts/hello", type="Note", content="<p>Hello from the Fediverse!</p>", url="https://example.com/posts/hello", attributed_to="https://example.com/ap/actor", ))

Optionally, you can also expose a Mastodon-compatible API so that Mastodon clients and crawlers can discover your instance and browse statuses:

from pubby.server.adapters.fastapi_mastodon import bind_mastodon_api bind_mastodon_api( app, handler, title="My Blog", description="A blog with ActivityPub support", )

Both libraries follow the same design philosophy: provide the protocol plumbing so you can wire it into your existing application with minimal ceremony. Storage is pluggable (SQLAlchemy, file-based, or bring-your-own), framework binding is a single function call, and the core logic is framework-agnostic. See the full documentation for [Pubby](https://git.fabiomanganiello.com/pubby/src/branch/main/README.md ) and [Webmentions](https://git.fabiomanganiello.com/webmentions/src/branch/main/README.md ).

##

Links

https://git.fabiomanganiello.com/madblog">Madblog (https://github.com/blacklight/madblog">Github mirror)

https://git.fabiomanganiello.com/webmentions">Webmentions (https://github.com/blacklight/webmentions">Github mirror)

https://git.fabiomanganiello.com/pubby">Pubby (https://github.com/blacklight/pubby">Github mirror)

Madblog is open-source under the AGPL-3.0-only license. The source code, issue tracker, and full documentation are available at [git.fabiomanganiello.com/madblog](https://git.fabiomanganiello.com/madblog ).

Oh excellent! Please let me know when the new version is live on ...

2026-03-10T15:29:59Z

In reply to nevent1q…qzw2
_________________________

Oh excellent! Please let me know when the new version is live on your blog and I'll test again. 🙂

Seems as good a day as any to thank @npub1upg…9n89 and team for ...

2026-03-10T15:23:46Z

Seems as good a day as any to thank 洪民憙 (Hong Minhee) :nonbinary: (npub1upg…9n89) and team for the exemplary work on Fedify: ActivityPub server framework (npub1tlf…wz08). Following Fedify's big 2.0 release, my two largest interoperability pain points in Encyclia (npub120s…0fq8) can be fixed. 🙂

https://github.com/fedify-dev/fedify/issues/473 means that people using GoToSocial (npub1hpu…lxp9) will finally be able to follow Encyclia (npub120s…0fq8) accounts soon (whenever I finish the upgrade).

https://github.com/fedify-dev/fedify/issues/472 will let me (and others) handle more account resolution edge cases and reduce failure mode traffic after Fedify 2.1 is out.

Right, and my server seems to have gotten the corresponding ...

2026-03-10T14:57:18Z

In reply to nevent1q…tw8e
_________________________

Right, and my server seems to have gotten the corresponding `Accept`. 👍 But if you look at https://social.wake.st/@liaizon/116205306320048221 and scroll down, you see that wakest likes your bugs ⁂ (npub1xse…lgk3) can't see the quote in my reply (and neither can people on any other server looking at this thread). This is because the `QuoteAuthorization` needs to be publicly resolvable: https://fediverse.codeberg.page/fep/fep/044f/#verifying-third-party-quote-posts

Alas, the PR has been merged, so it'll be a long while until ...

2026-03-10T14:31:03Z

In reply to nevent1q…4rvz
_________________________

Alas, the PR has been merged, so it'll be a long while until I bother Claire again. 🙂

But I'll keep updating my own list. I see in the code where the interaction policy is declared, but not where individual quotes are authorized. If I quote this post here, let's test if both of us will see the quote.

https://blog.fabiomanganiello.com/article/Madblog-federated-blogging-from-markdown

quoting
note1rcm…nqw5

**[Madblog: A Markdown Folder That Federates Everywhere](https://blog.fabiomanganiello.com/article/Madblog-federated-blogging-from-markdown )**

**A lightweight blogging engine based on text files, with native Fediverse and IndieWeb support**

I started working on [Madblog](https://git.fabiomanganiello.com/madblog ) a few years ago.

I wanted a simple blogging platform that I could run from my own Markdown files. No intermediaries. No bloated UI. No JavaScript. No databases and migration scripts. No insecure plugins. Just a git folder, an Obsidian vault or a synchronized SyncThing directory, and the ability to create and modify content by simply writing text files, wherever I am.

Drop a Markdown file in the directory, and it's live. Edit it, and the changes propagate. Delete it, and it's gone.

It's been running my [personal blog](https://blog.fabiomanganiello.com ) and the [Platypush blog](https://blog.platypush.tech ) for a while now.

With the new release, #madblog now gets a new superpower: it supports federation, interactions and comments both through:

https://indieweb.org/Webmention">Webmentions - already implemented some weeks ago, you can also check out the https://blog.fabiomanganiello.com/article/webmentions-with-batteries-included">previous blog article

https://indieweb.org/ActivityPub">ActivityPub

Webmentions allow your site to mention and be mentioned by other sites that also implement them - like any WordPress blog with the [Webmention plugin](https://wordpress.org/plugins/webmention/ ), or link aggregators like [Lemmy](https://join-lemmy.org/ ) or [HackerNews](https://news.ycombinator.com/ ). Interactions with any of your pages will be visible under them.

#activitypub support allows Madblog to fully federate with Mastodon, Pleroma, Misskey, Friendica or any other #fediverse instance. It turns your blog into a federated handle that can be followed by anyone on the Fediverse. It gives you the ability to mention people on the Fediverse directly from your text files, and get replies to your articles directly from Mastodon, get your articles boosted, shared and quoted like any other Mastodon post.

##

Demos
These blogs are powered by Madblog:

https://blog.fabiomanganiello.com">blog.fabiomanganiello.com — Fediverse handle: https://manganiello.blog/@fabio">Fabio Manganiello (npub17w6…48ey)

https://blog.platypush.tech">blog.platypush.tech — Fediverse handle: https://platypush.tech/@blog">Platypush (npub1pqj…al0g)

You can follow them from Mastodon (or any other Fediverse client), reply to articles directly from your instance, boost them, or quote them. You can also interact via [Webmentions](https://indieweb.org/Webmention ): link to an article from your own site, and if your site supports Webmentions, the mention will show up as a response on the original post. These blogs also have a [Guestbook](https://blog.fabiomanganiello.com/guestbook ) — mention the blog's Fediverse handle or send a Webmention to the home page, and your message appears on a public guest registry.

##

How Does It Compare?
If you've looked into federated blogging before, you've likely come across a few options:

https://writefreely.org/">WriteFreely is probably the closest alternative — a minimalist, Go-based platform with ActivityPub support. It's well-designed, but it uses a database (SQLite or MySQL), has its own (very minimal) editor, and doesn't support Webmentions. Additionally, it lacks many features that are deal-breakers for me.

No export of all the content to Markdown, nor ability to run my blog from my Nextcloud Notes folder or Obsidian vault.

No support for LaTeX or Mermaid diagrams.

No support for federated interactions - any interaction with your articles on the Fediverse is simply lost.

The UI is minimalist and not necessarily bad, but not even sufficiently curated for something like a blog (narrow width, Serif fonts not optimized for legibility, the settings and admin panels are a mess...).

No support for moderation / content blocking.

No support for federated hashtags.

https://wordpress.org/">WordPress with ActivityPub and Webmention plugins can technically do what Madblog does, but it's a full CMS with a database, a theme engine, a plugin ecosystem, and a much larger attack surface. If all you need is a blog, it's overkill.

https://joinplu.me/">Plume and https://friendi.ca/">Friendica offer blogging with federation, but they're full social platforms, not
lightweight publishing tools.

Madblog sits in a different niche: it's closer to a static-site generator that happens to speak federation protocols. It implements a workflow like "write Markdown, push to server, syndicate everywhere".

##

Getting Started
###

Docker Quickstart
mkdir -p ~/madblog/markdown cat <<EOF > ~/madblog/markdown/hello-world.md # Hello, Fediverse! This is my first post on [Madblog](https://git.fabiomanganiello.com/madblog)! EOF docker run -it \ -p 8000:8000 \ -v "$HOME/madblog:/data" \ quay.io/blacklight/madblog

Open http://localhost:8000. That's it — you have a blog.

The default Docker image (quay.io/blacklight/madblog) is a minimal build (< 100 MB) that includes everything except LaTeX and Mermaid rendering. If you need those, build the full image from source:

git clone https://git.fabiomanganiello.com/madblog cd madblog docker build -f docker/full.Dockerfile -t madblog .

See the [full Docker documentation](https://git.fabiomanganiello.com/madblog/src/branch/main/README.md#running-madblog-in-docker ) for details on mounting config files and ActivityPub keys.

###

Markdown structure
Since there's no database or extra state files involved, the metadata of your articles is also stored in Markdown.

Some things (like title, description) can be inferred from the file name, headers of your files etc., creation date defaults to the creation timestamp of the file and author and language are inherited from your config.yaml.

A full customized header would look like this:

[//]: # (title: Title of the article) [//]: # (description: Short description of the content) [//]: # (image: /img/some-header-image.png) [//]: # (author: Author Name <https://author.me>;) [//]: # (author_photo: ) [//]: # (language: en-US) [//]: # (published: 2022-01-01) ...your Markdown content...

###

Key Configuration
Madblog reads configuration from a config.yaml in your content directory. Every option is also available as an environment variable with a MADBLOG_ prefix — handy for Docker or CI setups.

A minimal config to get started:

title: My Blog description: Thoughts on tech and life link: https://myblog.example.com author: Your Name

Or purely via environment variables:

docker run -it \ -p 8000:8000 \ -e MADBLOG_TITLE="My Blog" \ -e MADBLOG_LINK="https://myblog.example.com" \ -e MADBLOG_AUTHOR="Your Name" \ -v "$HOME/madblog:/data" \ quay.io/blacklight/madblog

See [config.example.yaml](https://git.fabiomanganiello.com/madblog/src/branch/main/config.example.yaml ) for the full reference.

>
> It is advised to keep all of your Markdown content under <data-dir>/markdown> ,
especially if you enable federation, in order to keep the Markdown folder
tidy from all the auxiliary files generated by Madblog.

>

##

Webmentions
[Webmentions](https://indieweb.org/Webmention ) are the IndieWeb's answer to trackbacks and pingbacks — a W3C standard that lets websites notify each other when they link to one another. Madblog supports them natively, both inbound and outbound.

When someone links to one of your articles from a Webmention-capable site, your blog receives a notification and renders the mention as a response on the article page. Going the other way, when you link to an external URL in your Markdown and save the file, Madblog automatically discovers the target's Webmention endpoint and sends a notification — no manual step required. All mentions are stored as Markdown files under your content directory (mentions/incoming/<post-slug>/), so they're version-controllable and easy to inspect.

You can enable pending-mode for moderation (webmentions_default_status: pending), or use the blocklist/allowlist system to filter sources by domain, URL, or regex. Webmentions are enabled by default — if you're running Madblog locally for testing, set enable_webmentions: false to avoid sending real notifications to external sites.

##

ActivityPub Federation
[ActivityPub](https://www.w3.org/TR/activitypub/ ) is the protocol that powers the Fediverse — Mastodon, Pleroma, Misskey, and hundreds of other platforms. Madblog implements it as a first-class feature: enable it, and your blog becomes a Fediverse actor that people can follow, reply to, boost, and quote.

Enable it in your config:

enable_activitypub: true activitypub_username: blog activitypub_private_key_path: /path/to/private_key.pem

Madblog will generate an RSA keypair on first start if you don't provide one. Once enabled, your blog gets a Fediverse handle (@blog@yourdomain.com), a WebFinger endpoint for discovery, and a full ActivityPub actor profile. New and updated articles are automatically delivered to all followers' timelines.

Here's what federation looks like in practice:

Receiving mentions: when someone mentions your blog's Fediverse handle in a public post (not as a reply to a specific article), the mention shows up on your Guestbook page.

Receiving replies, likes, boosts, and quotes: interactions targeting a specific article are rendered below that article — replies as threaded comments, likes/boosts/quotes as counters and cards. All stored as JSON files on disk.

Sending mentions: just write the fully-qualified handle in your Markdown (Alice (npub19tr…plwd)) and save the file. Madblog resolves the actor via WebFinger and delivers a proper ActivityPub Mention tag — the mentioned user gets a notification on their instance.

Federated hashtags: hashtags in your articles (#Python, #Fediverse) are included as ActivityPub Hashtag tags in the published object. Followers who track those hashtags on their instance will see your posts in their filtered feeds.

Custom profile fields: configure additional profile metadata (verified links, donation pages, git repos) that show up on your actor's profile as seen from Mastodon and other Fediverse clients:

yaml
activitypub_profile_fields:
Git repository: <https://git.example.com/myblog>;
Donate: <https://liberapay.com/myprofile>;

The federation layer also exposes a read-only subset of the [Mastodon API](https://docs.joinmastodon.org/methods/ ), so Mastodon-compatible clients and crawlers can discover the instance, look up the actor, list published statuses, and search for content — with no extra configuration.

Madblog also supports advanced ActivityPub features like split-domain setups (e.g. your blog at blog.example.com but your Fediverse handle at @blog@example.com), configurable object types (Note for inline rendering on Mastodon vs. Article for link-card previews), and quote policies ([FEP-044f](https://codeberg.org/fediverse/fep/src/branch/main/fep/044f/fep-044f.md ), so Mastodon users can quote your articles too).

##

LaTeX and Mermaid
Madblog supports server-side rendering of LaTeX equations and Mermaid diagrams directly in your Markdown files — no client-side JavaScript required.

**LaTeX** uses latex + dvipng under the hood. Inline expressions use conventional LaTeX markers:

The Pythagorean theorem states that $c^2 = a^2 + b^2$. $$ E = mc^2 $$

**Mermaid** diagrams use standard fenced code blocks. Both light and dark theme variants are rendered at build time and switch automatically based on the reader's color scheme:

```mermaid graph LR A[Write Markdown] --> B[Madblog renders it] B --> C[Fediverse sees it] ```

Install Mermaid support with pip install "madblog[mermaid]" or use the full Docker image. Rendered output is cached, so only the first render of each block is slow.

##

Tags and Categories
Tag your articles with hashtags — either in the metadata header or directly in the body text:

# My Article This post is about #Python and the #Fediverse.

Madblog builds a tag index at /tags, with per-tag pages at /tags/<tag>. Hashtags from incoming Webmentions are also indexed. Folders in your content directory act as categories — if you organize files into subdirectories, the home page groups articles by folder.

##

Feed Syndication
Madblog generates both RSS and Atom feeds at /feed.rss and /feed.atom. You can control whether feeds include full article content or just descriptions (short_feed: true), and limit the number of entries (max_entries_per_feed: 10). limit and offset parameters are also supported for pagination.

##

Aggregator Mode
Madblog can also pull in external RSS/Atom feeds and render them alongside your own posts on the home page — useful for affiliated blogs, or even as a self-hosted feed reader:

external_feeds: - https://friendsblog.example.com/feed.atom - https://colleaguesblog.example.com/feed.atom

##

Guestbook
The guestbook (/guestbook) is a dedicated page that aggregates public interactions — Webmentions targeting the home page and Fediverse mentions of your blog actor that aren't replies to specific articles. Think of it as a public guest registry, or a lo-fi comment section for your blog as a whole. Visitors can leave a message by mentioning your Fediverse handle or sending a Webmention. It can be disabled via enable_guestbook=0.

##

View Modes
The home page supports three layouts:

cards (default) — a responsive grid of article cards with images

list — a compact list with titles and dates

full — a scrollable, WordPress-like view with full article content inline

Set it in your config (view_mode: cards) or override at runtime with ?view=list.

##

Moderation
Madblog ships with a flexible moderation system that applies to both Webmentions and ActivityPub interactions. You can run in **blocklist mode** (reject specific actors) or **allowlist mode** (accept only specific actors), with pattern matching by domain, URL, ActivityPub handle, or regex:

blocked_actors: - spammer.example.com - "@troll@evil.social" - /spam-ring\.example\..*/

Moderation rules also apply retroactively — interactions already stored are filtered at render time. Blocked ActivityPub followers are excluded from fan-out delivery and hidden from the public follower count, but their records are preserved so they can be automatically reinstated if you change your rules.

##

Email Notifications
Configure SMTP settings and Madblog will notify you by email whenever a new Webmention or ActivityPub interaction arrives — likes, boosts, replies, mentions, and quotes:

author_email: you@example.com smtp_server: smtp.example.com smtp_username: you@example.com smtp_password: your-password

##

Progressive Web App
Madblog is installable as a PWA, with offline access and a native-like experience on supported devices. A service worker handles stale-while-revalidate caching with background sync for retries.

##

Raw Markdown Access
Append .md to any article URL to get the raw Markdown source:

https://myblog.example.com/article/my-post.md

Useful for readers who prefer plain text, or for tools that consume Markdown directly.

##

Reusable Libraries
Two key subsystems of Madblog have been extracted into standalone, reusable Python libraries. If you're building a Python web application and want to add decentralized federation support, you can use them directly — no need to adopt Madblog itself.

###

Webmentions
[Webmentions](https://git.fabiomanganiello.com/webmentions ) is a general-purpose Python library for sending and receiving Webmentions. It comes with framework adapters for FastAPI, Flask, and Tornado, pluggable storage backends (SQLAlchemy or custom), filesystem monitoring for auto-sending mentions when files change, full microformats2 parsing, and built-in HTML rendering for displaying mentions on your pages.

Adding Webmentions to a FastAPI app:

from fastapi import FastAPI from webmentions import WebmentionsHandler from webmentions.storage.adapters.db import init_db_storage from webmentions.server.adapters.fastapi import bind_webmentions app = FastAPI() storage = init_db_storage(engine="sqlite:////tmp/webmentions.db") handler = WebmentionsHandler(storage=storage, base_url="https://example.com") bind_webmentions(app, handler)

That's it — your app now has a /webmentions endpoint for receiving mentions,
a Link header advertising it on every response, and a storage layer for
persisting them. See the
[full documentation](https://git.fabiomanganiello.com/webmentions/src/branch/main/README.md )
for details on sending mentions, custom storage, moderation, and rendering.

###

Pubby
[Pubby](https://git.fabiomanganiello.com/pubby ) is a general-purpose Python library for adding ActivityPub federation to any web application. It handles inbox processing, outbox delivery with concurrent fan-out, HTTP Signatures, WebFinger/NodeInfo discovery, interaction storage, a Mastodon-compatible API, and framework adapters for FastAPI, Flask, and Tornado.

Adding ActivityPub to a FastAPI app:

from fastapi import FastAPI from pubby import ActivityPubHandler, Object from pubby.crypto import generate_rsa_keypair from pubby.storage.adapters.db import init_db_storage from pubby.server.adapters.fastapi import bind_activitypub app = FastAPI() storage = init_db_storage("sqlite:////tmp/pubby.db") private_key, _ = generate_rsa_keypair() handler = ActivityPubHandler( storage=storage, actor_config={ "base_url": "https://example.com", "username": "blog", "name": "My Blog", "summary": "A blog with ActivityPub support", }, private_key=private_key, ) bind_activitypub(app, handler) # Publish a post to all followers handler.publish_object(Object( id="https://example.com/posts/hello", type="Note", content="<p>Hello from the Fediverse!</p>", url="https://example.com/posts/hello", attributed_to="https://example.com/ap/actor", ))

Optionally, you can also expose a Mastodon-compatible API so that Mastodon clients and crawlers can discover your instance and browse statuses:

from pubby.server.adapters.fastapi_mastodon import bind_mastodon_api bind_mastodon_api( app, handler, title="My Blog", description="A blog with ActivityPub support", )

Both libraries follow the same design philosophy: provide the protocol plumbing so you can wire it into your existing application with minimal ceremony. Storage is pluggable (SQLAlchemy, file-based, or bring-your-own), framework binding is a single function call, and the core logic is framework-agnostic. See the full documentation for [Pubby](https://git.fabiomanganiello.com/pubby/src/branch/main/README.md ) and [Webmentions](https://git.fabiomanganiello.com/webmentions/src/branch/main/README.md ).

##

Links

https://git.fabiomanganiello.com/madblog">Madblog (https://github.com/blacklight/madblog">Github mirror)

https://git.fabiomanganiello.com/webmentions">Webmentions (https://github.com/blacklight/webmentions">Github mirror)

https://git.fabiomanganiello.com/pubby">Pubby (https://github.com/blacklight/pubby">Github mirror)

Madblog is open-source under the AGPL-3.0-only license. The source code, issue tracker, and full documentation are available at [git.fabiomanganiello.com/madblog](https://git.fabiomanganiello.com/madblog ).

Unsolicited debugging assistance: It's working on ...

2026-03-04T13:36:49Z

In reply to nevent1q…eew4
_________________________

Unsolicited debugging assistance:

It's working on mastodon.social, presumably because your server got sent the `Accept` directly. Other servers are supposed to validate it by checking the `quoteAuthorization` on the post, which is currently a URI that 404s (https://loops.video/ap/users/205466280291398051/quote_authorizations/255857808111048628), so no one besides m.s can see the quote post right now.

wakest likes your bugs ⁂ (npub1xse…lgk3)

The aftermarket availability of clone cartridge housings for ...

2026-03-02T20:29:42Z

In reply to nevent1q…px7x
_________________________

The aftermarket availability of clone cartridge housings for Gameboy games is very good these days, to my knowledge. If you want to put your game into a replacement cartridge, it's like $4 + shipping + making sure you have the right screwdriver.

https://www.retromodding.com/collections/game-boy/products/game-pak-game-boy-game-cartridge?variant=34814923833500

As experienced client devs, I assume you have the infrastructure ...

2026-02-13T19:58:27Z

In reply to nevent1q…mrjt
_________________________

As experienced client devs, I assume you have the infrastructure for OAuth already in place? I'd rather go to your website and authenticate my Mastodon account there than have a hashtag in my bio... the Tootfinder hashtag kinda annoys me every time I see it. 😐

That aside, I believe Mastodon is going to introduce some kind of profile signal for willingness to appear in starter packs, might be worth additionally keeping an eye on whatever happens there. https://github.com/mastodon/featured_collections

They did that thing where they implemented the interaction ...

2026-02-11T21:03:43Z

In reply to nevent1q…n6lj
_________________________

They did that thing where they implemented the interaction policy, but not the approval process, leaving them with an implementation that declares that it can do Mastodon quote posts, but actually cannot. I think Sharkey had that issue on a minor version for a little bit.

I think @npub14rp…za3l's groups proposal ...

2026-02-04T18:34:30Z

In reply to nevent1q…nsmj
_________________________

I think Bonfire (npub14rp…za3l)'s groups proposal (https://bonfirenetworks.org/posts/why-community-matters-groups-as-the-next-step-for-the-fediverse/) covers the topic pretty thoroughly. Not sure if they've already done any spec work, but if anyone is building something like this I'd recommend coordinating with them.

Speaking for PieFed (less familiar with the others), the private ...

2026-02-04T17:38:12Z

In reply to nevent1q…cjza
_________________________

Speaking for PieFed (less familiar with the others), the private communities it just introduced are limited to members of one server.

What I think wakest likes your bugs ⁂ (npub1xse…lgk3) is getting at is ActivityPub groups that you can join and leave and post "into" from any server, such that any member can see everything in the group, and non-members can see none of the contents.

Can Friendica do that? It wouldn't surprise me, but I haven't tried it.

I've been fantasizing about a snippet library for validating ...

2026-01-31T14:23:29Z

In reply to nevent1q…nmdd
_________________________

I've been fantasizing about a snippet library for validating and canonicalizing a fediverse (AP+WebFinger) handle. Drop in a handle/profile link/AP ID, receive full handle + web link if the input is resolvable.

Target audience would be sites that don't have full fediverse integration, but want to give people a way to link to their fediverse profile. I've seen handle vs. username vs. ID vs. URL cause confusion.

Should be <50 LOC in most languages. And let's make it CC-0.

Having a small world moment recognizing @npub1wlg…r7qn from my ...

2026-01-31T13:57:19Z

In reply to nevent1q…hrrc
_________________________

Having a small world moment recognizing Rafael (npub1wlg…r7qn) from my time in Hamburg, where we had some overlapping years at the university's computer science campus and apparently exchanged a couple of emails. Not sure if we ever met face to face. Cool project! 🙂

Nice, great progress! @npub1kqg…a7t4 Is this on your radar?

2026-01-28T13:23:00Z

In reply to nevent1q…g048
_________________________

Nice, great progress!

Week in Fediverse :fediverse_light: (npub1kqg…a7t4) Is this on your radar?

Yeah, you can access a list of packs containing your account ...

2026-01-15T21:47:22Z

In reply to nevent1q…w84g
_________________________

Yeah, you can access a list of packs containing your account after you log in! 🙂

Stefan Bohacek (npub1kqc…7wgd) [@b_cavello](https://mastodon.publicinterest.town/@b_cavello )

That's the current plan. @npub120s…0fq8 is in alpha testing ...

2025-10-19T12:44:37Z

In reply to nevent1q…a92u
_________________________

That's the current plan. Encyclia (npub120s…0fq8) is in alpha testing and I have a list of issues that need to be fixed, but assuming everything goes well, I'm hoping that you'll be able to follow any ORCID record before the end of the year. See https://encyclia.pub for details. 🙂

Yeah, that's pretty much how I'm trying to approach this. ...

2025-10-16T17:47:30Z

In reply to nevent1q…xlw5
_________________________

Yeah, that's pretty much how I'm trying to approach this. Right now we have two independent implementations here with developers eager to interoperate, we can do posts and links but not yet citations, let's figure out how we add them while reinventing as few wheels as possible.

Moved to @bonfire@bonfire.cafe (npub1lzd…urpr) Mayel (npub18zh…4x0k) 🫧 socialcoding.. (npub12sq…6w0r)

FWIW, Encyclia currently fetches plain JSON from ORCID and ...

2025-10-16T17:35:02Z

In reply to nevent1q…cny7
_________________________

FWIW, Encyclia currently fetches plain JSON from ORCID and re-emits as human-readable ActivityPub Notes. ORCID's own types, which are used in (non-LD) JSON payloads, are listed in the second column here: https://info.orcid.org/ufaqs/what-work-types-does-orcid-support/ Dunno if those map cleanly to schema.org types but the palettes are small enough that we can figure it out.

Mayel (npub18zh…4x0k) jonny (nonvenomous) (npub1ljm…w8tm) 🫧 socialcoding.. (npub12sq…6w0r)

A bit, yeah. I'm sure each one has pros and cons for the ...

2025-10-16T16:51:18Z

In reply to nevent1q…22c5
_________________________

A bit, yeah. I'm sure each one has pros and cons for the purpose, but I'm in favor of picking something that's ready for use with linked data. We might be able to avoid defining a new JSON-LD context that way.

schema.org's CreativeWork is a supertype of ScholarlyArticle. Curious why ORCID doesn't use the subtypes even though they have the type information in their own data. (Their JSON schema is altogether different from their JSON-LD I think.)

Mayel (npub18zh…4x0k) jonny (nonvenomous) (npub1ljm…w8tm) 🫧 socialcoding.. (npub12sq…6w0r)

This is all spitballing, but I think letting people tag academic ...

2025-10-15T20:24:36Z

In reply to nevent1q…az4h
_________________________

This is all spitballing, but I think letting people tag academic publications in posts just like they currently tag accounts could be kinda neat. Shouldn't even need to break compatibility with current software either.

Hey @npub1lzd…urpr @npub18zh…4x0k and crew, if you ever feel ...

2025-10-15T20:21:58Z

Hey Moved to @bonfire@bonfire.cafe (npub1lzd…urpr) Mayel (npub18zh…4x0k) and crew, if you ever feel like putting a spec down to attach academic citations to #ActivityPub objects for your Open Science Network, ping me.

I have ideas for building something out of https://schema.org/ScholarlyArticle, https://schema.org/citation and dashes of https://w3c.github.io/scholarly-html/ for Encyclia (npub120s…0fq8). Could enable e.g. “this post discusses this article”, “find posts related to this publication”, or long-form articles with declarative references.

Maybe jonny (nonvenomous) (npub1ljm…w8tm) has thoughts too?

General Discussion (npub1nk8…u9f7)

If you're wondering how I spent my afternoon: ...

2025-10-09T16:25:33Z

If you're wondering how I spent my afternoon: https://github.com/anze3db/fedidevs/issues/208

It's on how we get Fedidevs (npub1c23…7hg6), an established host of Mastodon starter packs, to work with the new schema just proposed by Mastodon: github.com/mastodon/featured_collections/pull/1

It's going to be a journey 😓, but hopefully the result will be worth it since a lot of the changes are very beneficial.

I had that problem with https://fietkau.media/up_in_the_air and ...

2025-10-06T12:19:43Z

In reply to nevent1q…r0c4
_________________________

I had that problem with https://fietkau.media/up_in_the_air and worked around it by creating the three.js audio object that plays all the game sound & music after the first click on one of the title screen buttons: https://fietkau.software/Up-in-the-Air.git/blob/ffba7c824eaf5dfaa9cebb7fac43eb6f5d85dd5c/main.js?hb=HEAD#l2115

It just means the loading bar and title screens can't have sound. 😇

Vanilla JS audio objects might behave slightly differently from three.js ones, I don't know. But I think the idea that the direct interaction event gives you permission to play sound is the same.

Not a hard confirmation but probably AGPL. It's not a library ...

2025-10-01T11:18:57Z

In reply to nevent1q…slsu
_________________________

Not a hard confirmation but probably AGPL. It's not a library and it doesn't lend itself to direct software integration, so I see mainly downsides in MIT etc. for the project. I'm open to persuasive arguments.

It does not (and conceptually cannot) work with an existing ...

2025-09-27T16:07:59Z

In reply to nevent1q…tgsa
_________________________

It does not (and conceptually cannot) work with an existing Bluesky account. You can give your Bridgy Fed Bluesky account a custom domain, but you can't “merge” it with an existing account.

Alternatively, you could leave the bridge aside and program a little watchdog that monitors your Mastodon account and auto-posts them to your Bluesky account through its API, but I haven't heard of anyone having done that.

Yes. The flow is (1) you declare a canQuote policy, (2) accounts ...

2025-09-27T15:03:01Z

In reply to nevent1q…umkw
_________________________

Yes. The flow is (1) you declare a canQuote policy, (2) accounts who fit that policy get their quote post buttons unlocked, (3) if one of them clicks it, your server gets a QuoteRequest from that actor, (4) you respond with a bespoke QuoteAuthorization, which you need to host indefinitely – its presence allows third parties to verify that that specific quote was permitted by you.

The current spec is here: https://codeberg.org/fediverse/fep/src/branch/main/fep/044f/fep-044f.md#QuoteAuthorization (technically still a draft)

My understanding of (the current version of) FEP-044f is that you ...

2025-09-27T14:56:08Z

In reply to nevent1q…spxw
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My understanding of (the current version of) FEP-044f is that you cannot make something quotable without issuing individual approval stamps upon request. ActivityPub development frameworks may make this easier in the future, but for the time being it's a hassle for bot developers.

I'm advocating for a simple and static way to declare quotability here: https://socialhub.activitypub.rocks/t/pre-fep-quote-posts-quote-policies-and-quote-controls/5031/73 but it'll take platform implementer buy-in and, following that, at least one Mastodon version bump.

I respect it! 🙂 Were you able to get the outline from the ...

2025-09-25T16:02:45Z

In reply to nevent1q…vx0n
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I respect it! 🙂 Were you able to get the outline from the official logo? The one on the website is an SVG, so I hope it was an easy job without any tracing.

Wheee, I was going to submit Encyclia after the start of the ...

2025-09-25T15:13:37Z

In reply to nevent1q…q5uf
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Wheee, I was going to submit Encyclia after the start of the ActivityPub alpha test, but seeing it added early is also cool! 😄

I had some time this week to hack away at the postgres integration, there is still stuff to debug but I'm hoping we'll get to a public alpha test with followable accounts within a month if I don't get too swamped by the day job in October.

Ryan is a bit easier to reach via the issue tracker than here. ...

2025-09-16T15:14:10Z

In reply to nevent1q…eagr
_________________________

Ryan is a bit easier to reach via the issue tracker than here. There is a thread about Pixelfed over there: https://github.com/snarfed/bridgy-fed/issues/39

Pseudo-randomly based on a hash of the tag name: ...

2025-08-22T14:48:49Z

In reply to nevent1q…3lqw
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Pseudo-randomly based on a hash of the tag name: https://fietkau.software/FediRoster.git/blob/d19a67018f984d670d21dcc7febdcd2a5bab8d78/main.py?hb=HEAD#l394 I use the HSL space, which makes it pretty easy to assign ranges that avoid white/black/gray and keep the text contrast readable enough.

Kind of: I show tags as pill buttons in FediRoster (see ...

2025-08-22T14:42:42Z

In reply to nevent1q…gh9q
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Kind of: I show tags as pill buttons in FediRoster (see https://directory.hci.social for an example). I meant to play around with adding profile hashtags there automatically, but worried there'd be too many irrelevant ones.

Am I the only one (jk I know I'm not 🙃) taking Meta's ...

2025-08-12T21:28:08Z

In reply to nevent1q…4a6r
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Am I the only one (jk I know I'm not 🙃) taking Meta's self-reported usage numbers with a boulder of salt? I'd encourage anyone drawing conclusions about platform popularity to remember “pivot to video” and consider how many of those 400 million people are actually reading or posting on Threads vs. accidentally hovered over the “cross-post to Threads” button on Instagram one time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pivot_to_video#Facebook_metrics_controversy

Oops, I should have tagged you about my recent starter pack work ...

2025-08-12T19:52:42Z

In reply to nevent1q…u7r7
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Oops, I should have tagged you about my recent starter pack work with https://fedidevs.com. Fedidevs is I think the biggest repository of starter packs of ActivityPub accounts, and these starter packs are now themselves available in ActivityPub format. They can already be imported by the latest dev versions of the WordPress plugin: https://github.com/Automattic/wordpress-activitypub/pull/2047

I talked to the Mastodon peeps a bit about their plans and we see no obstacles for future compatibility.

I have recently been helping @npub15wd…rte4 with the backend ...

2025-08-11T10:53:39Z

I have recently been helping Anže (npub15wd…rte4) with the backend code for starter packs curated on fedidevs.com, specifically with splash images. In the future, you should be seeing the new splash images in the link preview if you share a starter pack on here. Example: https://fedidevs.com/s/NDYw/ (by wakest likes your bugs ⁂ (npub1xse…lgk3))

This was a side effect of my work on interoperable ActivityPub starter packs. The goal is that https://fedidevs.com starter packs will be compatible with Mastodon's (https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2025/08/trunk-tidbits-july-2025/).

So last year I organized a small fediverse meetup during break ...

2025-08-07T14:20:47Z

So last year I organized a small fediverse meetup during break time at Mensch und Computer (npub1dnm…nnxw) and we ended up with a handful of people exchanging tips, hopes, ideas, and contact details.

Should we try that again this year in #Chemnitz? Who here is going to Mensch und Computer (npub1dnm…nnxw)? 🙂

#MuC2025 #MCI #HCI

I think that would be in scope of ...

2025-08-04T18:05:35Z

In reply to nevent1q…4qgh
_________________________

I think that would be in scope of [@thisismissem](https://hachyderm.io/@thisismissem )'s FIRES project: https://github.com/fedimod/fires But yeah, if you want something that Mastodon can understand and render ~today, a bot reply would probably be the pragmatic option.

Looks pretty identical to me too. It's complete guesswork, ...

2025-08-01T22:00:21Z

In reply to nevent1q…0azw
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Looks pretty identical to me too.

It's complete guesswork, but the reason may not necessarily have anything to do with the HTML code. It could be some infrastructure difference between the sites, like if one is using some proxy (Cloudflare or similar) that the other isn't, or a short-term flood of requests triggered a bot detection somewhere and blocked the crawler's IP. I've had that happen with a site that was unintentionally blocking Googlebot after it hit a firewall heuristic.

A cool #Mastodon 4.4 feature that I have seen zero fanfare about ...

2025-07-26T15:30:16Z

A cool #Mastodon 4.4 feature that I have seen zero fanfare about is the new like/boost count federation. Another jonny (nonvenomous) (npub1ljm…w8tm) win if I remember right.

Maybe most people are on large enough servers that they haven't noticed the difference, but on my single-user server it's neat to see.

I was thinking about letting people pick one color and having the ...

2025-06-05T11:07:25Z

In reply to nevent1q…2r88
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I was thinking about letting people pick one color and having the FEP provide wiggle room and guidance for platforms on what to do with it, like e.g. nudging very light or very dark colors for different backgrounds. I think Twitch does something like that for custom name colors.

It'd be up to the theme creators to decide how to incorporate it while preserving contrasts, or which colors can't work at all.

Gonna keep thinking it over.

Congratulations! I'm still kind of obsessed with the idea of ...

2025-06-05T08:18:52Z

In reply to nevent1q…pqez
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Congratulations!

I'm still kind of obsessed with the idea of turning the profile color into a federatable actor property and creating an FEP to let server platforms (and ultimately clients) display people's profiles with visual accents in their chosen color.

It's not MySpace level of customization, but giving people a sense of ownership of "their" space is nice.

Would that be a waste of time or would any other platform want to buy in? julian (npub1uq5…z8a5) dansup (npub1xsv…q6he) Renaud Chaput (npub1zu5…pytj) Rimu (npub1vwf…95aa)

I'm finally unveiling the #ActivityPub project that has been ...

2025-03-04T20:27:17Z

I'm finally unveiling the #ActivityPub project that has been consuming my weekends: Encyclia, an #ORCID bridge that will make ORCID records followable and interactable on the fediverse. 🙂

It's early-stage and the ORCID following function is not publicly available yet. We're seeking community feedback on functionality and safety aspects. Read more at https://encyclia.pub or follow Encyclia (npub120s…0fq8) for news!

#fediverse #fedidev #scicomm #wisskomm #academicchatter

Cool stuff! 🙂 I made something similar once, where I decided ...

2025-03-03T01:55:01Z

In reply to nevent1q…s8qc
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Cool stuff! 🙂 I made something similar once, where I decided to build a version of tic tac toe as a tiny web game and encoded the full thing as a QR code holding a data URI: https://fietkau.plus/#game_in_qr

Sadly it didn't run via any QR code scanner I tried. But it is small enough to fit!

Discussion here: ...

2025-02-27T20:38:31Z

In reply to nevent1q…l9gk
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Discussion here: https://github.com/pixelfed/starter-kits/issues/1 implementation AFAIK not live anywhere yet.

I'll pick my ideas from there back up some day if no one else does, but I'm super busy with other projects currently.

A cursed #ActivityPub idea. Problem: Remote profiles sometimes ...

2025-02-08T17:46:55Z

A cursed #ActivityPub idea.

Problem: Remote profiles sometimes look empty on Mastodon because only the stickied posts are synchronized on profile update.

Observation: Neither the ActivityPub nor Mastodon specs limit the number of sticky posts on a profile. Nothing says you can't have 100 000 sticky posts.

Solution: an ActivityPub server implementation that auto-stickies every single post you write.

The things I come up with thinking about Fedify: ActivityPub server framework (npub1tlf…wz08) while in the shower.

Same for Letterbook, have you taken a look at it before? ...

2025-02-08T10:02:00Z

In reply to nevent1q…42nc
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Same for Letterbook, have you taken a look at it before? https://letterbook.com There isn't much literally to see yet, but from what I hear it's progressing well.

Oh yeah, and the Iceshrimp team lead is also a woman. Same for the glitch-soc fork of Mastodon.

Tell me if I'm being unreasonably nitpicky about semantics, ...

2025-02-06T00:02:14Z

In reply to nevent1q…q79m
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Tell me if I'm being unreasonably nitpicky about semantics, but no, Mastodon still doesn't display Markdown in posts and has never done so either. It has expanded the set of allowable HTML tags for Mastodon 4.2. The second link in my reply has the full before and after lists.

So the chain is, Akkoma supports Markdown input, renders it to HTML locally and sends that to other servers via ActivityPub. Mastodon then sanitizes the received HTML and provides it to the client. 🙂

Ben would be correct in this case. ActivityPub objects can in ...

2025-02-05T23:48:13Z

In reply to nevent1q…x0aa
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Ben would be correct in this case. ActivityPub objects can in principle contain whatever types of content, but the default as per ActivityStreams is HTML and I've never seen anything else used in practice for the exchange of text content. Spec: https://www.w3.org/TR/activitystreams-vocabulary/#dfn-content

Mastodon simply has a pretty restrictive HTML sanitizer: https://docs.joinmastodon.org/spec/activitypub/#sanitization With the project's effort to improve the display of long-form articles, we'll see if that's going to change.

He'll probably clarify this himself, but just to head it off ...

2025-02-04T01:50:22Z

In reply to nevent1q…89pe
_________________________

He'll probably clarify this himself, but just to head it off a bit: Roni Rolle Laukkarinen (npub1zdf…6u9l) didn't build a search engine or a database, but an ephemeral browser-based display of the public timeline. Bit of a difference in scope (and privacy).

The best help I can offer is to tag a few people who might know. ...

2025-01-16T19:33:33Z

In reply to nevent1q…evt0
_________________________

The best help I can offer is to tag a few people who might know. 😔 Like tomate 🍅 (npub1pty…e8yx) or pascoda (npub1qe8…xfmz). Do you know where someone could be pointed? https://social.wake.st/@liaizon/113838218708110283

Back when that discussion was everywhere, I also got the ...

2025-01-12T23:33:44Z

In reply to nevent1q…4yc2
_________________________

Back when that discussion was everywhere, I also got the impression that there was an underrated cultural component buried in the question of what it means to "encounter a bear".

In the US, they mainly have American black bears that are almost more like badgers than grizzlies. Some American kids are literally taught to scare away bears by yelling at them.

I'm European and nowhere near wild bears, but my conception of wild bear encounters is closer to this: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/olga-moskalyova_n_930464

This is an important point that I would love to see more people ...

2024-12-11T20:42:40Z

In reply to nevent1q…usat
_________________________

This is an important point that I would love to see more people acknowledge: how little overlap there is between AP developers / platform builders and what I have been calling "the peanut gallery" - i.e. people with strong opinions ("the fediverse should have a high barrier to entry", "we don't want companies here", "you're wrong for wanting this feature") but no involvement in anything constructive. I know how vocal they are, but I think their opinions receive outsized attention.

I haven't tried this, but I believe other server software ...

2024-11-22T10:19:24Z

In reply to nevent1q…0as0
_________________________

I haven't tried this, but I believe other server software will for the most part not acknowledge the new account if the cryptographic signing keys are different. If you manage to migrate those as well, and use a server software that lets you reuse not just your handle but also the same ActivityPub ID, you should be able to achieve account continuity.

Ryan just blogged about Bridgy Fed's long-term view ...

2024-11-02T12:55:12Z

In reply to nevent1q…4kj0
_________________________

Ryan just blogged about Bridgy Fed's long-term view yesterday, if that's relevant to your considerations: https://snarfed.org/2024-11-01_53932

I'm generally a fan of the self-hosting landscape, especially if it's as simple as your server implementation. But spiritual successors to botsin.space are also already popping up for those who don't want to touch any server administration.

I am publishing a small #ActivityPub / #fediverse project: ...

2024-10-30T15:12:56Z

I am publishing a small #ActivityPub / #fediverse project: https://fietkau.software/webfinger_canary and WebFinger Split-Domain Canary (npub122f…9tl4) 🙂

It is a tiny bot showcasing a split-domain WebFinger setup, where the handle domain is different from the ActivityPub server domain. This is supported by Mastodon and some other ActivityPub implementations, but not all of them.

So this project, aimed at devs and power users, is part test case, part feature recommendation/advocacy. The bot's website at https://correct.webfinger-canary.fietkau.software/ has all the details.

The little #FediJam browser game I directed and coded, “Up in ...

2024-10-16T22:48:16Z

The little #FediJam browser game I directed and coded, “Up in the Air”, has just been updated to version 1.0. It's playable in these two places:

:fietkau_media: https://fietkau.media/up_in_the_air
🌐 https://jfietkau.itch.io/up-in-the-air

Compared to the game jam version from last month, there have been some UI and convenience updates, there is an optional HUD, and a bunch of little easter eggs and cheat codes are included. 🙂 And I'm ready to consider this project finished. That was fun! 👍

#indiegame #gamedev #indiedev

I'd like to add that @npub1pqr…2sck exists, which I use for ...

2024-10-07T13:59:05Z

In reply to nevent1q…768l
_________________________

I'd like to add that Bridgy Fed for Bluesky (npub1pqr…2sck) exists, which I use for my account and encourage others to use who like to be connected across protocols. I follow a number of Bluesky users from this Mastodon account who have opted in from the other side, https://bsky.app/profile/ap.brid.gy. Availability may vary for people who are on Mastodon servers that moderate bridges aggressively.

With #FediJam nearing its deadline, I've been working on ...

2024-09-25T19:03:09Z

With #FediJam nearing its deadline, I've been working on customization and accessibility options for my game. 🙂

Yes, it's a game jam, and this is one area of many where jam games typically cut quality corners to save dev time. But accessibility has kinda become part of my personal brand, so I don't want to skimp here.

It's a dexterity game, which won't appeal to everyone. But the goal is that anyone can at least try it.

#gamedev #indiedev #indiegames #programming #accessibility #a11y

Things I like about Mastodon: 1. I can take responsibility for my ...

2024-09-19T15:24:13Z

In reply to nevent1q…8z0m
_________________________

Things I like about Mastodon:
1. I can take responsibility for my profile and connections, no billionaire can cut me off.
2. People don't need an account to look at the things I post. So I can send someone a link and they can look at it. It's become surprisingly rare for social platforms. Also Mastodon posts can be cited.
3. People can converge around interests using hashtags, lists, and (in the future) groups.

Unveiling the core gameplay loop of my #FediJam entry. 😀 Think ...

2024-09-15T21:08:43Z

Unveiling the core gameplay loop of my #FediJam entry. 😀 Think you can do better than me? You're probably right! Prove it next month!

Note: still placeholder graphics, have not even started on presentation except basic animation. I wanted to get the movement nailed down early since it's so core to the experience. This feels about right.

(Gonna be marking these as sensitive in case people want to avoid spoilers.)

#gamedev #indiegame #indiedev #gamejam #programming #javascript #threejs

Finally starting on my #FediJam project today. 😀 Because is it ...

2024-09-14T18:07:20Z

Finally starting on my #FediJam project today. 😀 Because is it a real deadline if you don't start on the thing halfway through? 😇

This is after an hour or two of getting warmed up again in #threejs. Hand-fudged physics, no graphics yet, but you can guess at the basic gameplay concept. I'm having fun so far!

If you missed this ongoing game jam up until now: https://itch.io/jam/fedi-jam and [@fedi_jam](https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@fedi_jam ) 👏

#gamedev #indiegame #gamejam #javascript

I pushed a feature update for :fietkau_software: ...

2024-09-12T17:05:10Z

In reply to nevent1q…2uen
_________________________

I pushed a feature update for :fietkau_software: https://fietkau.software/qr today. 🙂

It has two fun new shape styles, a bunch of added logos (👋 pixelfed (npub1gq5…qcul) A propos de PeerTube (npub1tuu…mx44) Codeberg (npub1fh7…ee83) Forgejo (npub12r3…zz58) and more), some advanced options for turbo nerds, and irregularly shaped logos now get better cutouts.

I think this covers most of the feature requests I've received. 😀

#qr #qrcode #webdev #javascript

I finished another #webdev side project and built the QR code ...

2024-08-31T08:46:21Z

I finished another #webdev side project and built the QR code generator of my dreams: :fietkau_software: https://fietkau.software/qr

* It's instant, purely client-side, and has no ads or upsells.
* It has a variety of color, shape, and logo embedding options.
* There's PNG and SVG export.

The included logo selection is, let's say, "opinionated" and features lots of familiar faces if you enjoy federated social platforms. 😄

Here are a few example QR codes that all lead back to my Mastodon profile.

Latest info AFAIK: https://oisaur.com/@renchap/112299860209222424

2024-08-28T18:05:16Z

In reply to nevent1q…ndng
_________________________

Latest info AFAIK: https://oisaur.com/@renchap/112299860209222424

Yeah sorry, I misunderstood what you meant. It's possible to ...

2024-08-18T20:16:57Z

In reply to nevent1q…6n55
_________________________

Yeah sorry, I misunderstood what you meant. It's possible to run ActivityPub on shared hosting, but I'm not aware of any mature projects. Terence Eden (npub1x59…gect) has a barebones demo server that proves the concept: https://gitlab.com/edent/activitypub-single-php-file

GoToSocial has support for environments with limited hardware ...

2024-08-18T11:46:38Z

In reply to nevent1q…49yw
_________________________

GoToSocial has support for environments with limited hardware resources as one of its goals. There's also snac which is another order of magnitude tinier.

Who else will be at Mensch und Computer 2024? #MuC2024 ...

2024-08-07T16:19:46Z

Who else will be at Mensch und Computer 2024? #MuC2024 Mensch und Computer (npub1dnm…nnxw)

I have decided to organize a small meetup for Mastodon (+ adjacent) users on Tuesday, Sep 3rd at 3:30 pm. 😀 Come by and say hi!

Details: https://muc2024meetup.hci-workshop.com

Follow MuC 2024 Social Web Meetup (npub1had…dp7e) if you'd like to join us there. Your account will be listed on the website as a participant. 🙂

#HCI #CSCW #conference #academicChatter

Do they? https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/pull/29748

2024-07-30T21:19:06Z

In reply to nevent1q…w59v
_________________________

Do they? https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/pull/29748

Found some discussion on the Discord, see attached. (I hope this ...

2024-06-10T14:45:49Z

In reply to nevent1q…swl0
_________________________

Found some discussion on the Discord, see attached. (I hope this is okay to share Renaud Chaput (npub1zu5…pytj))

The safe assumption is the bottleneck is engineering capacity. Incidentally Renaud Chaput (npub1zu5…pytj) is probably the right person to talk to if you want to offer your skills, but I worry progress would be limited by available developers more than by UX design.