Why Micro.blog is supporting Bluesky now

Mastodon to Blog Archive script

@rmdes As the name of my instance shows, am a giant #Indieweb fan, and yes #POSSE for the win.

@anildash @maegul

The #indieweb developer in me loves that. I am not sure why we would need much of the other BlueSky complexity to adapt that feature to ActivityPub based systems…

@mookie @spreadmastodon @davidslifka

Thanks Steve: it is a start and much more in May!

Appreciate the encouragement! Hope to bring the most broad set of #indieweb, #openweb, snd #fediverse advocates possible to #TakeBackSocial ….and can use your help!

@spreadmastodon@mastodon.social it is one of the more amazing examples of emergent distributed alignment that I have seen. There is so much overlap across efforts, principles¹, and goals that it makes sense that we are finding ways of making things seamlessly work together at the edges.

I also see a common desire for enabling more user-owned use of and creating for the web, independent of big corporate ownership (or control), and without any reliance or need for surveillance capitalism.

#Fediverse #IndieWeb #Mastodon #OpenWeb #SpreadMastodon projects do not depend on tracking & profiling users for targeted advertising.

A better web is possible.

¹ https://indieweb.org/principles
#Fediverse #IndieWeb #Mastodon #OpenWeb #SpreadMastodon
@maegul@hachyderm.io @torb@octodon.social #BlueSky is a fascinating experiment to watch, and if there’s one thing we’ve learned from all the work on decentralized/federated social web systems over the past 13+ years (certainly since the first Federated Social Web Summit¹), there’s LOTS of room for and benefits to many folks working on solving many hard problems in parallel, even if with totally different approaches, which can learn from each other.

We learned this lesson in the #W3C Social Web Working Group².

Also a key reason the #IndieWeb community adopted a core principle of Plurality³.

I have a lot of sympathy for "so many non-techies bounce off Mastodon because it’s just too technically difficult for them", it’s one of the reasons I send most folks directly to https://micro.blog/ — it supports following / #federating with #Mastodon, and it supports core IndieWeb W3C standards like Webmention and Micropub.

Regarding what portability requires, I for one disagree that account or post portability needs "signed data repositories and DIDs". I believe that cooperative server-to-server portability can be achieved without it, and frankly, if you‘re wanting to design for uncooperative servers, what expectation can you have that they’ll support any standards or interop whatsoever?

Beyond Mastodon-to-Mastodon account migration, we already have Mastodon-to-BridgyFed (IndieWeb) and Mastodon - to - Micro.blog, and I expect we’ll see that grow to include all directions of all combinations thereof.

I am also optimistic that the “fediverse” will continue evolving various solutions that put users first in different ways, because there are users with different needs.

There’s certainly a current #fediverse hierarchy that puts a lot of power (and burden of responsibility) in the hands of ”server/instance” admins — “feudalverse” was a running joke for a while, reflecting a #federation of instance admin feudal lords and their user serfs.

Ironically, the more that account+posts migration/portability is supported, the more incentive there will be for harmonious and respectful relationships between instance admins and users, so I only see this situation improving in the future.

Long reply summarized: I think the folks innovating at BlueSky are charting interesting waters, the Mastodon development community continues show through improvements that they prioritize users and their identity & data ownership, and the IndieWeb community continues to support & play with those and many other solutions, building bridges between them to interconnect all the things.

Glossary

BridgyFed
 https://fed.brid.gy/
Micropub
 https://indieweb.org/Micropub
Webmention
 https://indieweb.org/Webmention

References

¹ https://indieweb.org/Federated_Social_Web_Summit#Portland_2010
² https://tantek.com/2023/051/t1/five-years-ago-w3c-social-web
³ https://indieweb.org/plurality
https://brid.gy/
https://fed.brid.gy/
https://github.com/snarfed/bridgy-fed/issues/381
#BlueSky #W3C #IndieWeb #federating #Mastodon #fediverse #federation
@spreadmastodon@mastodon.social it is one of the more amazing examples of emergent distributed alignment that I have seen. There is so much overlap across efforts, principles¹, and goals that it makes sense that we are finding ways of making things seamlessly work together at the edges.

I also see a common desire for enabling more user-owned use of and creating for the web, independent of big corporate ownership (or control), and without any reliance or need for surveillance capitalism.

#Fediverse #IndieWeb #Mastodon #OpenWeb #SpreadMastodon projects do not depend on tracking & profiling users for targeted advertising.

A better web is possible.

¹ https://indieweb.org/principles
@maegul@hachyderm.io @torb@octodon.social #BlueSky is a fascinating experiment to watch, and if there’s one thing we’ve learned from all the work on decentralized/federated social web systems over the past 13+ years (certainly since the first Federated Social Web Summit¹), there’s LOTS of room for and benefits to many folks working on solving many hard problems in parallel, even if with totally different approaches, which can learn from each other.

We learned this lesson in the #W3C Social Web Working Group².

Also a key reason the #IndieWeb community adopted a core principle of Plurality³.

I have a lot of sympathy for "so many non-techies bounce off Mastodon because it’s just too technically difficult for them", it’s one of the reasons I send most folks directly to https://micro.blog/ — it supports following / #federating with #Mastodon, and it supports core IndieWeb W3C standards like Webmention and Micropub.

Regarding what portability requires, I for one disagree that account or post portability needs "signed data repositories and DIDs". I believe that cooperative server-to-server portability can be achieved without it, and frankly, if you‘re wanting to design for uncooperative servers, what expectation can you have that they’ll support any standards or interop whatsoever?

Beyond Mastodon-to-Mastodon account migration, we already have Mastodon-to-BridgyFed (IndieWeb) and Mastodon - to - Micro.blog, and I expect we’ll see that grow to include all directions of all combinations thereof.

I am also optimistic that the “fediverse” will continue evolving various solutions that put users first in different ways, because there are users with different needs.

There’s certainly a current #fediverse hierarchy that puts a lot of power (and burden of responsibility) in the hands of ”server/instance” admins — “feudalverse” was a running joke for a while, reflecting a #federation of instance admin feudal lords and their user serfs.

Ironically, the more that account+posts migration/portability is supported, the more incentive there will be for harmonious and respectful relationships between instance admins and users, so I only see this situation improving in the future.

Long reply summarized: I think the folks innovating at BlueSky are charting interesting waters, the Mastodon development community continues show through improvements that they prioritize users and their identity & data ownership, and the IndieWeb community continues to support & play with those and many other solutions, building bridges⁴ between⁵ them⁶ to interconnect all the things.

Glossary

BridgyFed
 https://fed.brid.gy/
Micropub
 https://indieweb.org/Micropub
Webmention
 https://indieweb.org/Webmention

References

¹ https://indieweb.org/Federated_Social_Web_Summit#Portland_2010
² https://tantek.com/2023/051/t1/five-years-ago-w3c-social-web
³ https://indieweb.org/plurality
https://brid.gy/
https://fed.brid.gy/
https://github.com/snarfed/bridgy-fed/issues/381

@tantek.com The #Indieweb, #Openweb and #SpreadMastodon and the #Fediverse efforts are all very clearly cousins in one big movement!

So, I use Netlify’s webmention integration to send webmentions. It took ages to get just right, but it looks like it pings WordPress websites’ xmlrpc.php rather than a webmention endpoint. Makes sense, as xmlrpc.php will always exist, except there’s less chance your webmention will actually appear 🤷‍♂️



🏷 #indieweb,netlify,webmention
https://www.thisdaysportion.com/notes/more-webmention-woes

One of the pretty neat innovations from #Mastodon has been actual, functional, and fairly reliable (from all accounts I’ve seen) distributed system account migration, with the notable exception of post migration, which has additional challenges worth exploring.

To be clear, as far as I know, no other blogging (or chat) software, system, or even protocol comes close to achieving the level of functionality described in Mastodon’s documentation:

https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/moving/#migration

In short, moving:
* all your profile information
* moving all your followers & followings, transparently
* redirecting your old account to your new one

More at that link. From the docs, it’s clear that quite a bit of thought & consideration went into the design & implementation.

Once I had setup #BridgyFed to #federate posts from my own site¹, I myself made use of the this Mastodon feature to migrate from my try-it-out @t@xoxo.zone account to my #IndieWeb @tantek.com (move destination handled by BridgyFed).

For me the migration experience was 100%, because I had not posted anything @t@xoxo.zone.

The challenge of post migration is not unique to Mastodon, though I believe it goes beyond “simple” export & import support, which is still a good place to start.

Mastodon has two forms of posts “export” currently:
* RSS feeds, which will get you some number of recent posts, by adding ".rss" to the end of any Mastodon profile URL, e.g. https://indieweb.social/@tchambers.rss
* Activity Streams 2.0 JSON, per https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/moving/#export (note: it currently says “ActivityPub JSON format”, but there is no such thing, #ActivityPub uses the #ActivityStreams 2.0 JSON format and I’ve filed a PR² to fix this in the docs)

Lots of software & services import RSS, e.g. #WordPress.

As far as I know, nothing (not even Mastodon itself) actually supports importing Activity Streams 2.0.

There is a more complete format (with specification!) for exporting & importing blog content:

Blog Archive Format (.bar), first specified here with example file:
* https://www.manton.org/2017/11/24/blog-archive-format.html
More details and another example file:
* https://www.manton.org/2021/12/27/importing-blog-archive.html

Blog Archive Format has the very nice features of:
* portable HTML feed (h-feed) and JSON Feed
* photos and other media
* locally browsable post archive

Naturally, https://micro.blog/ supports both exporting & importing Blog Archive Format.

There’s an interesting opportunity here for an open source converter
* from Activity Streams 2.0
* to Blog Archive Format

Such a library would make an excellent drop-in addition to any #ActivityPub implementation, allowing both export of posts, and also a browsable archive format, so you could visually double check when importing to another service that these were the old posts you were looking for.

This would be a good first step, using an open standard, towards Mastodon itself supporting post migration³.

Ideally, similar to account migration, the old posts server should also at least:
* redirect old permalinks to the new permalinks
* redirect any replies being delivered by ActivityPub to the new location
* provide #Webmention discovery forwarding from the old URLs to the new URLs (e.g. using HTTP LINK headers)
for some amount of time.

Want to add support for Blog Archive Format or got questions or feedback?

Join in the development conversations: https://chat.indieweb.org/dev


This is day 39 of #100DaysOfIndieWeb. #100Days

← Day 38: https://tantek.com/2023/110/t2/beyond-mastodon-indieweb-own-domain
→ 🔮


Glossary

account migration
 https://indieweb.org/account_migration
blog archive format
 https://indieweb.org/blog_archive_format
h-feed
 https://microformats.org/wiki/h-feed
JSON Feed
 https://www.jsonfeed.org/
post migration
 https://indieweb.org/post_migration
Webmention
 https://indieweb.org/Webmention

References

¹ https://tantek.com/2022/301/t1/twittermigration-bridgyfed-mastodon-indieweb
² https://github.com/mastodon/documentation/pull/1202
³ https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/12423
#Mastodon #BridgyFed #federate #IndieWeb #ActivityPub #ActivityStreams #WordPress #Webmention #100DaysOfIndieWeb #100Days
Thanks @Frankc1450@union.place!

In short: using my own #IndieWeb blog and blogging software, which has no length limit.

A bit longer:

I make my posts by writing them in @barebones.com’s excellent BBEdit (@bbedit@mastodon.social) text editor, scp them to my blog, which does all sorts of automatic linking (including #hashtags), embedding, generating of archives, streams, feeds, sequential navigation, etc.

I use #BridgyFed to #federate my posts to #fediverse followers on #Mastodon and other #ActivityPub supporting services. More details on that here: https://tantek.com/2022/301/t1/twittermigration-bridgyfed-mastodon-indieweb
#IndieWeb #hashtags #BridgyFed #federate #fediverse #Mastodon #ActivityPub
Thanks @Frankc1450@union.place!

In short: using my own #IndieWeb blog and blogging software, which has no length limit.

A bit longer:

I make my posts by writing them in @barebones.com’s excellent BBEdit (@bbedit@mastodon.social) text editor, scp them to my blog, which does all sorts of automatic linking (including #hashtags), embedding, generating of archives, streams, feeds, sequential navigation, etc.

I use #BridgyFed to #federate my posts to #fediverse followers on #Mastodon and other #ActivityPub supporting services. More details on that here: https://tantek.com/2022/301/t1/twittermigration-bridgyfed-mastodon-indieweb
One of the pretty neat innovations from #Mastodon has been actual, functional, and fairly reliable (from all accounts I’ve seen) distributed system account migration, with the notable exception of post migration, which has additional challenges worth exploring.

To be clear, as far as I know, no other blogging (or chat) software, system, or even protocol comes close to achieving the level of functionality described in Mastodon’s documentation:

https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/moving/#migration

In short, moving:
* all your profile information
* moving all your followers & followings, transparently
* redirecting your old account to your new one

More at that link. From the docs, it’s clear that quite a bit of thought & consideration went into the design & implementation.

Once I had setup #BridgyFed to #federate posts from my own site¹, I myself made use of the this Mastodon feature to migrate from my try-it-out @t@xoxo.zone account to my #IndieWeb @tantek.com (move destination handled by BridgyFed).

For me the migration experience was 100%, because I had not posted anything @t@xoxo.zone.

The challenge of post migration is not unique to Mastodon, though I believe it goes beyond “simple” export & import support, which is still a good place to start.

Mastodon has two forms of posts “export” currently:
* RSS feeds, which will get you some number of recent posts, by adding ".rss" to the end of any Mastodon profile URL, e.g. https://indieweb.social/@tchambers.rss
* Activity Streams 2.0 JSON, per https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/moving/#export (note: it currently says “ActivityPub JSON format”, but there is no such thing, #ActivityPub uses the #ActivityStreams 2.0 JSON format and I’ve filed a PR² to fix this in the docs)

Lots of software & services import RSS, e.g. #WordPress.

As far as I know, nothing (not even Mastodon itself) actually supports importing Activity Streams 2.0.

There is a more complete format (with specification!) for exporting & importing blog content:

Blog Archive Format (.bar), first specified here with example file:
* https://www.manton.org/2017/11/24/blog-archive-format.html
More details and another example file:
* https://www.manton.org/2021/12/27/importing-blog-archive.html

Blog Archive Format has the very nice features of:
* portable HTML feed (h-feed) and JSON Feed
* photos and other media
* locally browsable post archive

Naturally, https://micro.blog/ supports both exporting & importing Blog Archive Format.

There’s an interesting opportunity here for an open source converter
* from Activity Streams 2.0
* to Blog Archive Format

Such a library would make an excellent drop-in addition to any #ActivityPub implementation, allowing both export of posts, and also a browsable archive format, so you could visually double check when importing to another service that these were the old posts you were looking for.

This would be a good first step, using an open standard, towards Mastodon itself supporting post migration³.

Ideally, similar to account migration, the old posts server should also at least:
* redirect old permalinks to the new permalinks
* redirect any replies being delivered by ActivityPub to the new location
* provide #Webmention discovery forwarding from the old URLs to the new URLs (e.g. using HTTP LINK headers)
for some amount of time.

Want to add support for Blog Archive Format or got questions or feedback?

Join in the development conversations: https://chat.indieweb.org/dev


This is day 39 of #100DaysOfIndieWeb. #100Days

← Day 38: https://tantek.com/2023/110/t2/beyond-mastodon-indieweb-own-domain
→ 🔮


Glossary

account migration
 https://indieweb.org/account_migration
blog archive format
 https://indieweb.org/blog_archive_format
h-feed
 https://microformats.org/wiki/h-feed
JSON Feed
 https://www.jsonfeed.org/
post migration
 https://indieweb.org/post_migration
Webmention
 https://indieweb.org/Webmention

References

¹ https://tantek.com/2022/301/t1/twittermigration-bridgyfed-mastodon-indieweb
² https://github.com/mastodon/documentation/pull/1202
³ https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/12423

A #feditip to those trying other #fediverse software: Treat your new account as you would signing-up in a new #SNS.

A more detailed
#feditips:
1. Let each of your account grow separately.

It is fine to follow certain groups and users. These are your ‘core’ interaction. But for the rest, keep them separate and let it grow organically.

2. Define a certain theme or topic or purpose for your new account.

Since we are in an interconnected network, you will end up having a major overlap between your first account and your succeeding accounts. Which might confuse you later (as well as your followers).

For example, I still post my new articles through my
@youronlyone@c.im account, for two major reasons: Follower Badge, and #Indieweb support via #Bridgy.

3. Use this opportunity to learn how discovery, growth, and reach, works in the #MycelialNetwork (or #SocialWeb)

By letting your new account grow organically, and keeping the overlap with your first account at a minimum, you will be able to observe how discovery, growth, and reach, works in the network.

I have an account for
#Calckey at @youronlyone@calckey.social

I also have an account for
#Misskey at @youronlyone@hashi.icu

The Misskey and Calckey accounts are organically growing. I also discover new people, new content, that I haven't seen in my
#Mastodon account (@youronlyone@c.im). And I asked myself, why? As I find answers to that question, I slowly adjust my interactions, and this in turn helped me discover more and reach wider.

The
Mycelial Network (as I now prefer to call the Fediverse), is huge. When it started in 2008, it was small, and we all know each other. Today, I've probably only discovered and reached 0.5% of the network. It grew that fast.

#YourOnlyOne

Unblocking your blogging, Twitter login troubles, and planning IndieWebCamp Nuremburg. It’s your < 10min update on the #IndieWeb community!

This Week in the IndieWeb audio edition for April 15th - 21st, 2023.

https://martymcgui.re/2023/04/22/this-week-in-the-indieweb-audio-edition--april-15th---21st-2023/

Matt Baer blogs about the future of Write.as and WriteFreely — taking features that are currently separate products and integrating them into more of a suite:

At this point, I don’t think it makes sense for our self-hosted product to be chopped up into multiple components like our hosted tools are. Instead, I want to bring all those tools into a single application in WriteFreely.

Remark.as will also get fediverse replies. Sounds like a good direction.

Unblocking your blogging, Twitter login troubles, and planning IndieWebCamp Nuremburg. It’s your < 10min update on the #IndieWeb community!


This Week in the IndieWeb audio edition for April 15th - 21st, 2023.


https://martymcgui.re/2023/04/22/this-week-in-the-indieweb-audio-edition--april-15th---21st-2023/

This Week in the IndieWeb Audio Edition • April 15th - 21st, 2023

#podcast #IndieWeb #this-week-indieweb-podcast