4 ms·

But I don't want Mastodon. I want Web Annotations built in to the browser, including the ability to share them with other browser users using [insert distributi

But I don't want Mastodon. I want Web Annotations built in to the browser, including the ability to share them with other browser users using [insert distribution and authentication mechanisms]. Like, I read Ars Technica. I have friends who read Ars Technica. Why can't we leave annotations for each other on Ars Technica without Ars Technica having any control over or knowledge of what we say? Why can't we do that to Facebook and Twitter and reddit and Hacker News and Mastodon and Medium? Sidechannels for everything. End-to-end encryption eventually. Self-hosted, you bet. All the most important features of social, with none of the advertising opportunity.

ssss11 3y ago
You’ve hit the nail on the head. Everyone with a vested interest to build it has an advertising opportunity in their mind. We need just a few people who think like you do to actually build a future regular people want.
random78965 3y ago
My intuition is that browser plugins based on some federated system (e.g. Mastodon, Matrix) could enable this. Why complicate browsers even more? (No expertise here, so I'm probably missing the big picture)
- JellyBeanThief 3y ago
  > Why complicate browsers even more? To simplify it for normal people. My family all use browser extensions to block ads/tracking and shore up security because I set it all up for them. My non-technical friends don't. They understand video game mods because adding mods is fun. But the idea of modding other kinds of programs makes no sense to them, because those are for getting work done, not for tinkering with. So in order for it take off, it needs to be presented as just a native feature of the web. In people's heads, the logic should go like: "My email software lets me forward emails. My calendar software lets me invite people to calendar events. My contact software lets me merge duplicate contacts. My web browser lets me annotate web pages with other people. What a strange world it would be if things didn't work like that?"
mvdwoord 3y ago
Didn't this exist some years ago in the form of either a browser plugin, or built into some Firefox clone? My Google-fu is failing me atm.
- ttepasse 3y ago
  Annotea was an W3C experiment for Web Annotations. Had an RDF/XML data model and used XPointer for locating the annotated part of the resource. You could also have self hosted servers for your annotations. Only really implemented in Amaya, the W3C’s own browser/editor, and like the rest of the browser a little bit clunky.

ssss11 3y ago

You’ve hit the nail on the head. Everyone with a vested interest to build it has an advertising opportunity in their mind. We need just a few people who think like you do to actually build a future regular people want.

random78965 3y ago

My intuition is that browser plugins based on some federated system (e.g. Mastodon, Matrix) could enable this. Why complicate browsers even more? (No expertise here, so I'm probably missing the big picture)

JellyBeanThief 3y ago
> Why complicate browsers even more? To simplify it for normal people. My family all use browser extensions to block ads/tracking and shore up security because I set it all up for them. My non-technical friends don't. They understand video game mods because adding mods is fun. But the idea of modding other kinds of programs makes no sense to them, because those are for getting work done, not for tinkering with. So in order for it take off, it needs to be presented as just a native feature of the web. In people's heads, the logic should go like: "My email software lets me forward emails. My calendar software lets me invite people to calendar events. My contact software lets me merge duplicate contacts. My web browser lets me annotate web pages with other people. What a strange world it would be if things didn't work like that?"

mvdwoord 3y ago

Didn't this exist some years ago in the form of either a browser plugin, or built into some Firefox clone? My Google-fu is failing me atm.

ttepasse 3y ago
Annotea was an W3C experiment for Web Annotations. Had an RDF/XML data model and used XPointer for locating the annotated part of the resource. You could also have self hosted servers for your annotations. Only really implemented in Amaya, the W3C’s own browser/editor, and like the rest of the browser a little bit clunky.