Kevin PfefferleDec 17, 2022
Derek Prior

I've read many requests to add Mastodon links to GitHub profiles for verification and discovery purposes.

My team is working on allowing you to add a number of social profile links, but given upcoming holiday vacations, it won't ship until the new year. We don't want to rush something out at the potential cost of disrupting what is generally a quiet time for our engineers.

Ordinarily, I wouldn't talk about in progress work on social media, but y'all seem like you can keep a secret.

Dec 16, 2022 at 11:02pmWeb
Show threadMikio Braun 🪼Dec 16, 2022
@derekprior excellent!!
Show threadRichard BrockieDec 16, 2022

@derekprior

Nice!

Show threadcrabcrimewave aka lowqualityintelDec 16, 2022
@derekprior
That would be amazing.
Show threadBen ClarkDec 16, 2022
@derekprior keep your team sane! that's most important
Show threadJP EtcheberDec 16, 2022
@derekprior 46 reblogs says we obviously cannot keep a secret.
Show threadVissDec 16, 2022
@derekprior awesome :D
Show threadMike HuckaDec 16, 2022
@derekprior This is fantastic news – thank you!
Show threadDirk HohndelDec 16, 2022
@derekprior your secret is safe with us
Also: awesome
@nova
Show threadTiakuh SonDec 16, 2022
@derekprior cool!
Show threadTibor MartiniDec 17, 2022
@derekprior I think it's pretty cool to talk about work in progress in general!
Show threadAlan SillDec 17, 2022
@derekprior 👆🏼This is of course the right approach!
Show threadwakest likes your bugs ⁂Dec 17, 2022

@derekprior and they all support rel="me"?

does "Other" grab the favicon so it will look as nice to have a peertube or @pixelfed ? if your gonna build mastodon support you should go all the way and have it so all fediverse links to profiles are treated as first class citizens.

Show threadD SDec 17, 2022
@liaizon @derekprior strong second, making this feature about fedi accounts in general can take it far beyond just mastodon!
Show threadDerek PriorDec 17, 2022
@liaizon @pixelfed yes to the first question. No to the second. A full link will render with a generic link icon, like the website does today.
Show threadwakest likes your bugs ⁂Dec 17, 2022
@derekprior @pixelfed I think this preferential treatment of Mastodon over other fediverse platforms is going to cause quite a good amount of backlash. If you simply labelled the field  Fediverse but only officially supported Mastodon you would get much better reception. Imagine having a field for Gmail and then having any other email provider be called Other. Its just unnecessary preferential treatment of one server software over another.
Show threadwaifuDec 17, 2022
@liaizon @derekprior @pixelfed
The website theme I'm using for my website has a Mastodon icon, but not a fediverse icon. Yes, I could make mine but this tells me they didn't do their research, getting an icon that represents all of us is better and more inclusive than just a Mastodon one, it's irrelevant who made it, this is something that happens all the time, the point is that people SHOULD know that the Fediverse > Mastodon.
Show threadDerek PriorDec 17, 2022
@liaizon @pixelfed Will investigate the use of the more generic Fediverse icon instead of or in addition to Mastodon specifically.
Show threadwakest likes your bugs ⁂Dec 17, 2022
@derekprior @pixelfed thank you for taking the time to hear me out, I think a lot of developers here who are not making mastodon would be very happy to hear
Show threadElias MårtensonDec 17, 2022

@derekprior @liaizon @pixelfed you could have both (but both of them actually doing the same thing). It's a sad state that people use Mastodon when they mean Fediverse, but this trick would satisfy both sides, I think.

Or, the label could simply be "Fediverse (Mastodon, etc)".

Show threadAsbjørn UlsbergDec 19, 2022
@loke @derekprior @liaizon @pixelfed I think having both is the best compromise as of now. Most people know what Mastodon is, but not the Fediverse. Perhaps they’ve heard of it, but I’m not sure they can identify with an abstract concept like the Fediverse the same way they can with the much more concrete Mastodon. This may change over time as more platforms become popular and people realise they interoperate just like email.
Show threadwakest likes your bugs ⁂Dec 19, 2022
@bitbear who do you mean by most people? that seems like a really bad metric to decide what to call a thing.
Show threadAsbjørn UlsbergDec 19, 2022
@liaizon Good point. I only have anecdotal data. But that’s my general impression.
Show threadwakest likes your bugs ⁂Dec 20, 2022
@bitbear if you have only heard a name in passing from reading headlines yes you are probably more likely to have heard of mastodon, but if you have spent even a single hour on here you would have to know that you are actually part of a network called the fediverse
Show threadAsbjørn UlsbergDec 20, 2022
@liaizon You might be right.
Show threadscriptjunkieDec 19, 2022
@liaizon @derekprior @pixelfed Definite second.
Show threadToasterson (Till Wegmüller)Dec 17, 2022
@derekprior Normal links work fine ATM any new benefits from this other than the icon? Which is nice.
Show threadDerek PriorDec 17, 2022
@Toasterson the opportunity to add more links rather than choosing one to feature. More discoverability if that’s what you are after.
Show threadToasterson (Till Wegmüller)Dec 17, 2022
@derekprior Oh, Mooooar links. Tat is even mooooaaaaar awesome then new links :)
Show threadGuySoftDec 17, 2022
@derekprior
Hey, would you consider adding support to other ActivityPub servers? I mean its more of a W3C standard than just Mastodon.
Also using Pleroma here to message you :)
Show threadDerek PriorDec 17, 2022
@guysoft We will support generic links. We could add support for more icons in the future depending on use.
Show threadGuySoftDec 17, 2022
@derekprior
Great! Happy to hear!
BTW, just to point out cool possible future - you could make the github user timeline federate and then people could subscribe to users from mastodon.
Show threadKyle K  Dec 17, 2022
@derekprior awesome preview. Can’t wait for it to ship!
Show threadOblomovDec 17, 2022
@derekprior A recommendation: take into account the fact that the Fediverse is larger than Mastodon now that you're still working on designing the improvement. Mastodon isn't even the only microblogging platform in the Fediverse.
Since you probably cannot add entries for every Fediverse platform, consider the possibility of a more generic approach.
Show threadOblomovDec 17, 2022
@derekprior If the icon is really important, either evaluate the possibility to use the server's favicon, or to keep a generic fediverse one and autodetect some common platforms. And of course allow more than one Fediverse link per user.
Show threadDerek PriorDec 17, 2022
@oblomov I'm not wild about using the favicon there but I can certainly see that a fediverse icon may well be appreciated.
Show threadOblomovDec 17, 2022
@derekprior yeah, the favicon has some dangers associated. Maybe make a pull-down menu with icons for the most common Fediverse platforms, plus the genetic one?
Show threadChris MessinaDec 17, 2022
@derekprior can't wait! And please be sure to allow rel-me tags on all of them! https://til.simonwillison.net/mastodon/verifying-github-on-mastodon
Verifying your GitHub profile on Mastodon

Mastodon has a really neat way of implementing verification, using the [rel=me microformat](https://microformats.org/wiki/rel-me). You can edit your Mastodon profile and add up to four links to it. M

Show threadDerek PriorDec 17, 2022
@chrismessina Already done
Show threadChris MessinaDec 17, 2022
@derekprior 😍
Show threadAn | Anton RöhmDec 17, 2022
@derekprior Nice!! Please add a SpaceHey link option 😉
Show threadGreg Stoll 🌈Dec 17, 2022
@derekprior @zkat awesome, thanks!
Show threadEatonDec 17, 2022
@derekprior nice! Was just thinking about this today as I went through updating various pointers to ~the new place~
Show threadMatt BonneyDec 17, 2022
@derekprior Thank you 🙏
Show threadcybik Dec 17, 2022

@derekprior I swear I won't click on the retoot button.

(clicks on it anyway)

Show thread🅼🅰🆁🅸🅰🅽 Dec 17, 2022
@derekprior you got two more fridays until eoy, perfect time for deploying
Show threadAriadne Conill 🐰Dec 17, 2022
@derekprior @duniel and these links will be rel=me, right?
Show threadDerek PriorDec 17, 2022
@ariadne Of course!
Show threadDaniel MicayDec 17, 2022
@derekprior @ariadne It would be nice if rel="me" was added for the URL in organization profiles too along with these other social links. It makes sense in that context too for an open source project or company referring to their website, etc.
Show threadBritish Tech GuruDec 17, 2022
@derekprior That will be welcome. If only YouTube will do this too.
Show thread⛧TJC⛧Dec 17, 2022
@derekprior I used a GitHub pages site to do mine, thanks!
Show threadGeof Hughes 🖤Dec 17, 2022
@derekprior Shhhh!
Show threadtoo many namesDec 17, 2022

@derekprior This is so great

Bonus points: make "service:name" lookups work on Github search?

(Like: twitter:foo)

Show threadreynoldDec 17, 2022
@derekprior cool! 👍🙂
Show threadCassandrichDec 17, 2022
@derekprior Can you also add rel=me to links from Sponsors profiles? I'd love for my GitHub Sponsors link to show as verified.
Show threadIryna ZiakhorDec 17, 2022
@derekprior great to hear that, I was just wondering if it's possible today
Show threadAirframesDec 17, 2022
@derekprior Awesome. I was just trying to get this to work on our Org account today by replacing the website address (it failed to verify here), so I’m excited this is planned. Happy to wait for it done right. Thank you!
Show threadMichael Spellacy (Spell)Dec 17, 2022
@derekprior w00t!
Show threadTaliDec 17, 2022

@derekprior is this staff shipped? 👀👀

Great work 

Show threadPerrine CramptonDec 17, 2022
@derekprior Oops. 😃
Show threadEllieDec 17, 2022
@derekprior THANK YOU