I keep reading that #GoogleSearch changes are killing small sites. They are indeed.
Last year I figured that the only way to keep my blog somewhat relevant was to strengthen the direct commucation with readers. I bet on #RSS and #ActivityPub.
Year over year, Google traffic share went down from 46% to 25% and direct traffic share went up from 37% to 54%. And the total traffic is up!
People on ActivityPub-powered platforms like Mastodon, and Bluesky, which uses the AT Protocol, can now follow each other, see posts, like, reply, and repost them, thanks to the work of @snarfed.org@snarfed.org, creator of Bridgy Fed. @Sarahp interviewed him for Tech Crunch about the future of bridging networks, how to bridge your account from the fediverse to Bluesky, and what to expect when you do.
Think of a publisher, and there's a good chance they'll have a Flipboard account. Now, we're in the process of federating them. Publishers — like just about everyone we know — have a hard time getting their heads around the fediverse and what it means to federate your Flipboard account, so @jejord has written this blogpost. In it, she explains the fediverse, what Flipboard federation looks like, the value of our Magazine feeds, and why we think all this is important. "The fediverse is potentially the One Ecosystem to Rule Them All, and is estimated to grow to 170M users by the end of 2024," writes Jessica.
One idea I've toyed with before that I think is really interesting is the idea of having a persistent inbox but an offline processor
So think of it like this:
You have a queue that sits online with a webserver in front. The queue has some logic (the kind you can configure with RabbitMQ) for deduping and routing, but is still just a queue.
That's the only persistently online piece.
(@jenniferplusplus mentioned this earlier as well, this is not unique nor original to me as a thought)
Maybe we also add an outgoing queue as well (I'm deliberately avoiding the word outbox, more on that momentarily) and some basic logic for sending and receiving.
But the trick is that the system that needs persistence is lightweight and inexpensive. It doesn't store anything. It only hosts a few static files. That's it.
Now if you look at how mastodon works or how even #ActivityPub works, what would work well with this? What would get in your way?
> "In late 2022, I blogged about the work needed to develop a specification for end-to-end encryption for the #fediverse. I sketched out some of the key management components on GitHub, and then the public work abruptly stalled. A few of you have wondered what’s the deal with that. This post covers why this effort stalled, what I’m proposing we do next."
So, I am trying to get the ActivityPub module working on a core Drupal site. I have installed it and I see no real issues. But once I get it setup and enabled on an Account I am supposed to be able to search that account. So far I haven't been....
Not sure if this will reach out to anyone who can answer, but I've been learning a bit about the #Nostr protocol, and it claims to be better against censorship and muuuch simpler that #ActivityPub. However, what are the downsides of Nostr, compared to APub? Less censorship = more bots? Simpler protocol = lacking good built-in defences against unknow threats, or something like that?
Setting up and using ActivityPub module
So, I am trying to get the ActivityPub module working on a core Drupal site. I have installed it and I see no real issues. But once I get it setup and enabled on an Account I am supposed to be able to search that account. So far I haven't been....