I am periodically upset that ActivityPub does not mandate a closed json-ld context for all objects.
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@trwnh ok, so activitypub accepts extra contexts for the comfort of developers, requiring json-ld compaction on the server. Thank you.
@gugurumbe no, i am saying it doesn't require json-ld *compaction*, but rather *expansion*.
if you didn't want to require json-ld expansion, you could instead require *pre-expansion*, i.e. using the expanded form to be completely unambiguous.
otherwise, you require a central registry.
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@gugurumbe no, i am saying it doesn't require json-ld *compaction*, but rather *expansion*.
if you didn't want to require json-ld expansion, you could instead require *pre-expansion*, i.e. using the expanded form to be completely unambiguous.
otherwise, you require a central registry.
@trwnh the problem with compaction is that of expansion really: you have to query a different server, possibly offline (for you, for others, now, in the past, or in the future), possibly lying (to you, to others, now, in the past, or in the future), or with obfuscated contexts, and run an algorithm that redland considers “too complex to implement”.
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@trwnh the problem with compaction is that of expansion really: you have to query a different server, possibly offline (for you, for others, now, in the past, or in the future), possibly lying (to you, to others, now, in the past, or in the future), or with obfuscated contexts, and run an algorithm that redland considers “too complex to implement”.
@gugurumbe that seems to be several completely separate issues to me. before any communication becomes possible, we have to agree on terms. after we agree on terms, we can make statements. but statements can be unavailable, false, outdated, etc. -- your understanding of the statements remains unaffected.
you can think of contexts as "obfuscation", but they are really just "definitions". the question is, should you expect everyone to provide definitions? and there are two levels of definitions.
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@gugurumbe that seems to be several completely separate issues to me. before any communication becomes possible, we have to agree on terms. after we agree on terms, we can make statements. but statements can be unavailable, false, outdated, etc. -- your understanding of the statements remains unaffected.
you can think of contexts as "obfuscation", but they are really just "definitions". the question is, should you expect everyone to provide definitions? and there are two levels of definitions.
@gugurumbe the first level is mapping a shorthand term to a full identifier. this is what json-ld does, if you care to do it. you can make json-ld optional by requiring everyone to use full identifiers always.
the second level is mapping identifiers to concepts. this is more based on social agreement, but with http(s): identifiers there is an easy "hack" -- just use the authority component (web origin) to determine who gets to define what identifiers mean. whatever they say is whatever goes.
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@gugurumbe the first level is mapping a shorthand term to a full identifier. this is what json-ld does, if you care to do it. you can make json-ld optional by requiring everyone to use full identifiers always.
the second level is mapping identifiers to concepts. this is more based on social agreement, but with http(s): identifiers there is an easy "hack" -- just use the authority component (web origin) to determine who gets to define what identifiers mean. whatever they say is whatever goes.
@gugurumbe fedi devs skip over these levels and go straight from a shorthand term to a concept. the problem with this is that no one "owns" the shorthand terms, so you can't get an authoritative answer on what anything means. you have to defer to some kind of lookup table, and everyone you talk to has to agree to use the same one. just like everything the IANA does with their central registries, but in fedi we do not have any authorities, so shorthand terms are defined by consensus only.
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@gugurumbe that seems to be several completely separate issues to me. before any communication becomes possible, we have to agree on terms. after we agree on terms, we can make statements. but statements can be unavailable, false, outdated, etc. -- your understanding of the statements remains unaffected.
you can think of contexts as "obfuscation", but they are really just "definitions". the question is, should you expect everyone to provide definitions? and there are two levels of definitions.
@trwnh the understanding of the statements in the document may be different between the receiver and the sender, if the context dereferences to different term definitions for both parties.
Obfuscation is a different story, but it can be used to partially prevent human review of the data if something goes wrong. -
@gugurumbe fedi devs skip over these levels and go straight from a shorthand term to a concept. the problem with this is that no one "owns" the shorthand terms, so you can't get an authoritative answer on what anything means. you have to defer to some kind of lookup table, and everyone you talk to has to agree to use the same one. just like everything the IANA does with their central registries, but in fedi we do not have any authorities, so shorthand terms are defined by consensus only.
@gugurumbe so if you see a term "featured", it has effectively been claimed by Mastodon through prior use and most people assume the Mastodon definition. just like people see "actor" and assume it means "who performed this Activity" and not "who performed a character role in a movie", except in the latter case we have an actual definition by the W3C inherent to the media type of application/activity+json, and in the former case we do not have any way to disambiguate.
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@gugurumbe For ActivityPub in a more general sense outside of the fediverse, POSTing to the outbox should transmit the data as-is even if not understood, and POSTing to the inbox should preserve the transmitted data as-is even if not understood. There aren't really constraints on what the outbox and inbox do internally; they can store HTTP payloads, JSON payloads, or RDF payloads (as long as they preserve the context for reserialization).
test refederation
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@gugurumbe so if you see a term "featured", it has effectively been claimed by Mastodon through prior use and most people assume the Mastodon definition. just like people see "actor" and assume it means "who performed this Activity" and not "who performed a character role in a movie", except in the latter case we have an actual definition by the W3C inherent to the media type of application/activity+json, and in the former case we do not have any way to disambiguate.
test refederation
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@trwnh the understanding of the statements in the document may be different between the receiver and the sender, if the context dereferences to different term definitions for both parties.
Obfuscation is a different story, but it can be used to partially prevent human review of the data if something goes wrong.test refederation
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7.6.0 — Command, Sync & Go. #activityPub #wordPress
Posted into THE FEDIVERSE VS. CORPORATE SOCIAL MEDIA @the-fediverse-vs-corporate-social-media-mobileatom
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Testing out sharing from a #Discourse forum. I haven't installed the #ActivityPub plugin yet, was just seeing how the manual way looks first.
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This release puts speed and control right at your fingertips. Whether you’re jumping between settings, syncing followers, or handling quotes in real time, version 7.6.0 makes managing your Fediverse presence faster and more intuitive than ever.
Navigate in a FlashSay hello to the quickest way to move around your ActivityPub settings.
In preparation for WordPress 6.9, which brings the Command Palette (Cmd/Ctrl + K) to the entire wp-admin, the plugin now adds its own commands, giving you instant, keyboard-driven access to your workflows anywhere in WordPress.
Type “ActivityPub” and you’ll see context-aware commands that adapt to your site setup and user role. Whether you’re managing a blog actor or a user actor, you can open followers and following lists, check blocked actors, jump straight to your settings, or even search and edit extra fields — all without ever leaving the Command Palette.
Every command includes the ActivityPub icon for easy recognition. Just press Cmd + K or Ctrl + K, start typing, and go — it’s the smoothest way yet to pilot your Fediverse setup.
Stay in Sync Across the FediverseYour follower lists now stay accurate wherever you connect.
With support for Follower Synchronization (FEP-8fcf), the plugin automatically keeps your followers collection in step with other servers — even when things drift out of sync.If differences appear, background tasks quietly reconcile them, keeping your lists clean and consistent. The result is a smoother, more reliable experience across the entire Fediverse — no manual fixes required.
Speed When It CountsQuoted posts and follow confirmations now move at the speed of conversation.
A new immediate Accept dispatch system sends responses as soon as they’re created, instead of waiting for the next scheduled queue.
That means faster follow confirmations and quicker quote acknowledgments, making interactions feel more natural across the Fediverse. Behind the scenes, those Accept messages go straight to the right inboxes — including mentioned and replied-to users — while a scheduled backup ensures full compatibility with slower servers.
It’s a smart balance between speed and reliability, helping your posts and follows appear almost instantly.
Privacy, Your WayWant to keep your social graph private? You can now hide your followers and following lists from public view while keeping all relationships intact. Your followers still follow — they’re just hidden when you prefer a little more privacy.
Full ChangelogAddedAdd bidirectional transforms between reply and embed blocks for improved user experience.Add Command Palette integration for quick navigation to ActivityPub admin pagesAdded a new ap_object post type and taxonomies for storing and managing incoming ActivityPub objects, with updated handlersAdded a privacy option to hide followers and following lists from profiles while keeping follow relationships intact.Added a scheduled task and setting to automatically purge old inbox items, helping maintain site performance and storage control.Added fallback to trigger create handling when updates fail for missing posts or comments, ensuring objects are properly created.Added immediate dispatch for Accept activities to speed up quoted posts while keeping scheduled processing for compatibility with other instances.Added new configuration options to better manage traffic spikes when federating posts, allowing finer control over retry limits, delays, and batch pauses.Added support for FEP-8fcf follower synchronization, improving data consistency across servers with new sync headers, digest checks, and reconciliation tasks.Add LiteSpeed Cache integration to prevent ActivityPub JSON responses from being cached incorrectly. Includes automatic .htaccess rules and Site Health check to ensure proper configuration.Add quote visibility setting for Classic Editor users.Add unified attachment processor for handling ActivityPub media imports from both remote URLs and local files, with automatic media block generation and Classic Editor support.Integrate Federated Reply block with WP.com Reader’s post share functionality, allowing users to reply to ActivityPub posts directly from the Reader.ChangedAdded support for FEP-3b86 Activity Intents, extending WebFinger and REST interactions with new Create and Follow intent links.Added support for the latest NodeInfo (FEP-0151), with improved federation details, staff info, and software metadata for better ActivityPub compliance.Extended inbox support for undoing Like, Create, and Announce activities, with refactored undo logic and improved activity persistence.Improved Classic Editor integration by adding better media handling and full test coverage for attachments, permissions, and metadata.Improved delivery of public and follower activities by expanding local recipient handling to include all ActivityPub-capable users and follower collections.Improved inbox performance by batching and deduplicating activities, reducing redundant processing and improving handling during high activity periods.Improved REST API responses with smarter context handling.Improved REST collection pagination by using explicit total item counts for more accurate results.Moved default visibility handling from the server to the editor UI, ensuring consistent and flexible ActivityPub visibility settings across both block and classic editors.Prevented self-announcing by ignoring announces from the blog actor, while still processing announces from user and external actors.Refactored activity handling to support multiple recipients per activity, allowing posts and interactions to be linked to several local users at once.Refactored avatar handling into a new system that stores and manages avatars per remote actor, improving reliability and preparing for future caching support.Refactored the inbox system to use a shared inbox, storing activities once with multiple recipients for improved efficiency and reduced duplication.Reorganize integration loader and move Stream integration into dedicated folder structure.Reply posts: do not display post title before @mentions in posts that are replies to somebody elseSimplified configuration by always enabling the shared inbox and removing its separate setting, UI field, and related logic.Simplified inbox storage settings, allowing certain activities (like deletes) to be skipped to reduce unnecessary database use.Simplify follow() API return types to int|WP_Error for better predictability.Updated inbox handling to support multiple users receiving the same activity and improve overall data consistency.Updated mailer hooks to send notifications only when activities are successfully handled, preventing emails for failed events.Update plugin short description to be more user-friendly.FixedReply block now properly validates ActivityPub URLs before setting inReplyTo fieldAdded a safeguard to ensure the plugin works correctly even when no post types are selected.Added a safety check to prevent errors when resolving comment author hostnames without a valid IP address.Fixed activity processing to handle QuoteRequest and other edge cases more reliably.Fixed an issue with post content templates to ensure the correct fallback is always applied.Fixed fatal error when transformer Factory receives WP_Error objects.Fixed HTML entity encoding in extra field names when displayed on ActivityPub platformsFixed typo in example, improve quoting description.Fix Following table error message to display user input instead of empty string when webfinger lookup fails.Fix infinite recursion when storing remote actors with mentions in their biosFix local inbox delivery to use internal REST API instead of HTTP, enabling local follows and proper boost counting.Fix logic errors in Move handler: remove redundant assignment and fix variable name collision.Fix public key retrieval for GoToSocial profiles with path-based key URLs.Improved actor resolution by prioritizing blog actor detection before remote actor checks and refining home page URL handling.Improved handling of empty fields for better compatibility with Pixelfed and more consistent fallback behavior across actor names, URLs, and related data.Improved hashtag encoding for consistent formatting.Improved Jetpack integration by initializing it during the WordPress startup process.Refactored Mastodon import handling to use consistent array-based data, improving reliability and compatibility across all import scenarios.DownloadsWordPress.org: activitypub.7.6.0.zipGitHub: tag/7.6.0Thanks, Crew!Big thanks to everyone who contributed code, feedback, and testing to make this release possible. You keep ActivityPub evolving with every version.
Version 7.6.0 is now live — update today and enjoy lightning-fast navigation, smarter synchronization, and smoother federation! ❤️
