Evan Prodromou
@BeAware Sure. Here's the rough idea: every object in ActivityPub world has a `replies` collection. This is a list of the replies to the object. It's usually (but not strictly necessarily!) managed by the same server as the original object.
https://www.w3.org/TR/activitystreams-vocabulary/#dfn-replies
BeAware :fediverse:
@amerika my website is not your free speech platform. You have your own website for that. I should be able to choose what's on my website.
≠
BeAware :fediverse:
@wjmaggos yes! AND I should be able to remove them. My post is originated from MY website after all, I should have that control.
william.maggos
replies should be ranked. treat hashtags like a subreddit and let us sort them. we don't need anything else from lemmy etc.
Chris Trottier
BeAware :fediverse:
@kirby yes there is...ActivityPub.
Matter of fact, I think I remember @evan saying they were looking into such things a few months back. Please correct me if I'm wrong, Evan, or maybe even update us on if that's changed?🤔
kirby
BeAware :fediverse:
kirby
BeAware :fediverse:
@kirby @evan that if ActivityPub implements it, then every software can support it.
kirby
BeAware :fediverse:
@evan thanks for the reply!
I very much look forward to when this would be implemented somewhere.
Evan Prodromou
@BeAware When someone replies to an object (note, image, video, whatever), they do that by attaching an `inReplyTo` property to the reply. The reply object (usually) gets delivered to the creator of the original object, and their server (usually) adds the reply object to the `replies` property of the original object.
Evan Prodromou
@BeAware So, at least in principal, a server could give the original author read-write access to the `replies` collection, and when the original author blocks someone, or chooses "hide this comment", or whatever, the bad reply gets removed from the collection.
BeAware :fediverse:
@evan sounds like a great idea! 😁
Evan Prodromou
@BeAware There are two problems with this solution.
First, our servers don't allow that right now. It would be nice if they did, but I don't think there are any that do.
Evan Prodromou
Second, many servers don't even use the `replies` collection to show replies. Instead, they use a search of the local database on the server to see if there are any objects with an `inReplyTo` property that matches the original object. So, even if the original author removed the object from the `replies` collection, it would still be visible to others.
Evan Prodromou
@BeAware There's a third problem, which is that if the original author is *definitely* not going to add the reply to the `replies` collection, it would be nice for others to know, so they don't keep sending the same reply over and over.
The easy way to do this is to have a property that defines who is allowed to reply, like `repliesWelcomeFrom` or something. We don't have that right now, even though it's pretty widely requested.
BeAware :fediverse:
@evan Right.
I would hope there will be a software that does this at some point.
It makes me hesitant to speak my mind sometimes cause I know I'm going to get rude replies.😔
Nature of the internet, I guess.
Evan Prodromou
@BeAware If I were going to give some next steps, I'd suggest the following:
- Clients start using the `replies` property instead of searching for `inReplyTo`.
- Servers allow the author to edit the `replies` collection.
- Servers allow the author to automatically prevent adding to the `replies` collection (e.g. followers only, mutuals only, tagged people only, etc.)
- A way to tag objects to say who replies are welcome from
- Clients disable (maybe with an override...?) replies if that's set
BeAware :fediverse:
@evan that would be a decent idea too. My hope is that there would be a "repliesWelcomeFrom: Followers" type.
Maybe that would be the thing to hope for, because it does seem widely requested.
Evan Prodromou
@BeAware My typical workaround is that if I get a reply I don't like and don't want to host, I block the author, and then delete my original post and repost. It's a hassle if there's already a conversation around it, but at least I'm not hosting a hostile reply that I can't see and that it looks like I don't have a response to.
BeAware :fediverse:
@evan oh, that's probably a good idea. Thanks for that idea. Might use that in the future.🫡
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