4 ms·

You say "the url works" as if there is a clearly defined url for every Fediverse user. But the way I read the specs, that is not the case. Some servers link yo

by mg 3y ago

You say "the url works" as if there is a clearly defined url for every Fediverse user. But the way I read the specs, that is not the case. Some servers link you to hostname/users/username, some use hostname/@username, some use hostname/username when you look up a user via webfinger. And the way I read the specs, those don't have to be permanent. A server could change their scheme from hostname/users/username to hostname/u/username and would not violate the protocol. Because the way to identify the user is via a webfinger lookup. Maybe the only way to say who you are on the Fediverse is "I am <username> on <hostname>. Look me up through Webfinger"? That might be the equivalent of saying "I am https://masto.ai/.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct%3Amg%40masto.ai https://masto.ai/.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct%3Amg%40..."

vidarh 3y ago
> You say "the url works" as if there is a clearly defined url for every Fediverse user. But the way I read the specs, that is not the case. There is a clearly defined URL for every Fediverse user, but not in the sense you mean (there isn't a static or predictable mapping from user@host to URL). The Fediverse is a graph of Person actor urls, not @user@host ids. The Webfinger lookup functionality is used because it makes things more flexible for users and because webfinger allows for a single identity to refer to multiple different types of services and resources, but my followers servers and the servers of those I'm following knows me as https://m.galaxybound.com/users/vidar https://m.galaxybound.com/users/vidar even though @vidar@galaxybound.com is what I use. > And the way I read the specs, those don't have to be permanent. A server could change their scheme from hostname/users/username to hostname/u/username and would not violate the protocol. Because the way to identify the user is via a webfinger lookup. See my other comment. A user is identified via a webfinger lookup when trying to determine which Person Actor @mg@masto.ai refers to. But in almost every other context the only thing that is stored is the URI of the Person actor. If that changes without using the (not in ActivityPub; new) move functionality, you're effectively creating a new identity, and quite a few servers do not yet support the move functionality, so while you can change @mg@masto.ai at a whim and nothing will break, changing the URL is what you need to be careful about (too careful, as I've noted elsewhere; the better support for migrating your data is pretty much the only thing I like about Bluesky)

by mg 3y ago

vidarh 3y ago

> You say "the url works" as if there is a clearly defined url for every Fediverse user. But the way I read the specs, that is not the case. There is a clearly defined URL for every Fediverse user, but not in the sense you mean (there isn't a static or predictable mapping from user@host to URL). The Fediverse is a graph of Person actor urls, not @user@host ids. The Webfinger lookup functionality is used because it makes things more flexible for users and because webfinger allows for a single identity to refer to multiple different types of services and resources, but my followers servers and the servers of those I'm following knows me as https://m.galaxybound.com/users/vidar https://m.galaxybound.com/users/vidar even though @vidar@galaxybound.com is what I use. > And the way I read the specs, those don't have to be permanent. A server could change their scheme from hostname/users/username to hostname/u/username and would not violate the protocol. Because the way to identify the user is via a webfinger lookup. See my other comment. A user is identified via a webfinger lookup when trying to determine which Person Actor @mg@masto.ai refers to. But in almost every other context the only thing that is stored is the URI of the Person actor. If that changes without using the (not in ActivityPub; new) move functionality, you're effectively creating a new identity, and quite a few servers do not yet support the move functionality, so while you can change @mg@masto.ai at a whim and nothing will break, changing the URL is what you need to be careful about (too careful, as I've noted elsewhere; the better support for migrating your data is pretty much the only thing I like about Bluesky)