Currently there’s 4 Fediverse topics on the front page. This suggests there is good interest in these platforms. Currently the Lobsters user profiles have but two proprietary, closed-source, centralized social network platforms: Twitter and GitHub. I think it may be desired by many users to have the option of including one’s Fediverse profile links as well.
I’m not saying the interest is gonna last only one news cycle but let’s wait at least one news cycle.
FWIW decentralised networks like the fediverse have existed for a long time. GNU social, identica etc are just a few, they’ve been around for a long time.
Personally I like how mastodon approaches this: you get four key-value entries, so you can put whatever in there. I find that quite suitable.
And this approach handles a variety of services types. In addition to fediverse and code forges, it could also cover sites like keyoxide.
Out of curiosity, how would this feature bother anyone? It has all the indicators that it would require minimal changes (multiple inputs for the “website” profile entry)
People on lobste.rs have shown interest in the fediverse for quite some time.
It wouldn’t bother me none, especially if fields only present when populated. It’s your profile, if that’s how you want to be reached that’s appropriate info. I just don’t think one busy day represents a trend and the decision shouldn’t be made on that argument specifically.
On the flip side: If you only see twitter, facebook and github on peoples profiles, you’ll obviously not think about the possibility of the fediverse. But the usual candidates are getting free PR.
Add profile field for fediverse username :)
TBH, putting your mastodon profile in the “homepage” field DOES qualify for verification with respect to Lobste.rs
Proof: https://infosec.exchange/@crankylinuxuser (I just did it minutes ago!)
Is the idea just to have these links available on your profile, or is there some kind of special integration that Twitter and Github have already?
I haven’t connected any external accounts, myself, but my intuition is the About Me section is probably a good spot for Fedi links, rather than requiring new custom fields for every service that starts popping up.
I think that having multiple links in the homepage section would do the trick, as they already include
rel="me"attribute that most of the fediverse services use for confirmation.Fediverse-specific, no thanks. But being able to just specify N links independent of platform (or from a big list of popular platforms) would be nice. GitLab comes to mind as a popular service.
Also, why is there an option for GitHub, but not for other software forges?
I think it’s because when that feature was implemented the choice of software development hosting platform was not the socio-cultural shibboleth it is now.
And? People still used other forges.
Maybe it’s that GitHub is a social media platform and the others are just code forges?
That’s some people’s definition I guess, for the rest of us it’s a code forge.
It is something that distinguishes GitHub, as the alternatives provide a simpler and often more performant user experience.
Yup, I’d be glad if it’s added. Some time ago I added my mastodon profile link in the “About” section of my profile (and just recently removed the twitter profile link). Probably a specific sequence of events occurring with greater frequency lately, I’d guess.
BTW, my suggestion would be to call it an “ActivityPub” link, or something, because maybe the federated social platform the user wants to link is PixelFed, PeerTube, Pleroma or something else (not necessarily Mastodon). Just my $0.02.
Doesn’t “Fediverse” include all ActivityPub implementations?
Ideally yes, but most of the suggestions in the above linked GitHub Issue are mostly Mastodon specific.
Kiiiind of but not exactly. ActivityPub is one of four currently-noteworthy federated networks[0], and is the one that’s the most popular (and most likely to warrant linking in one’s profile). You could indeed call the link a “Fediverse” link but that makes it ambiguous as to what actual protocol/network the profile would be for. Saying ActivityPub explicitly would scope it to that specific network, ensuring potential connectivity with certainty (rather than having to click through and not knowing until you see the profile).
Then again, it also depends, you could totally just call it “Fediverse profile”. The only downside being that occasionally someone might be surprised when it’s a Diaspora profile rather than Mastodon, for example. Not a big deal, but for me I prefer to just make it very explicit, reducing uncertainty. /shrug
Thanks for expanding. I see your point.
I believe you’ve missed a reference as you have included a ‘[0]’ footnote reference that’s not pointing to anything.
haha sorry! This is why I usually add the links the moment I make a reference to them! :’D
The link was supposed to be to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fediverse
I’m pretty sure GitHub/Twitter are only really special-cased because they effectively act as verified links. If you could plop down a
rel="me"and get a checkmark out of it, it’d matter a lot less.Some of us host our own servers. Please consider our use case too in case of any such requirements for verification.
I think this is an example of a feature that wouldn’t be heavily disagreed upon if someone added it. It’s a benefit without much downside. that being said I don’t want to be the person who adds it.
So then the question becomes “Why are we having a discussion about the addition of a feature that hasn’t been written yet”. Let’s have that discussion in a PR when someone adds it :D
The time to decide if work should be done is not after the work is done.
Wouldn’t it be enough to add them to About?
Then why not put the Twitter link in the About? Social links should include the
<a rel="me">attribute which is why they should be in a separate section. A different UX might have a social media section<select>or<input type=text>for keys, and<input type=text>for values rather than locking into anything specific. Put a + button and add up to 10 or something and you’d cover most cases.I’d also put Twitter there indeed
The problem there though is that it could be abused for link spam. Even though that might not be the biggest problem on lobste.rs
Seems like a good idea to me because there’s already a Twitter field and a GitHub field.
Yes