Josh Pigford Dec 19, 2022
Scott Hanselman 👸🏽🐝🌮
A reminder, if you own your own domain you can quickly setup webfinger like this https://www.hanselman.com/.well-known/webfinger (can just be a static file, or dynamic) so that if someone searches mastodon (use me as an example) for @shanselman then it will call out to my domain, find me, and tell you my aliases, which is my account at hachyderm.io. Cool eh? Should take you just a few min to implement!
Dec 19, 2022 at 1:56amWeb
Show threadPhil EatonDec 19, 2022

@shanselman if they just search for your mastodon username how do they know to check that domain?

If you said if someone searched mastodon for hanselman.com then @shanselman would turn up that would make more sense to me.

Show threadPhil EatonDec 19, 2022
@shanselman or maybe I'm misunderstanding the point of aliases (or what they are in the first place 😅 )
Show threadScott Hanselman 👸🏽🐝🌮Dec 19, 2022
@eatonphil anything @hanselman.com shows up
Show threadPhil EatonDec 19, 2022
@shanselman errr to clarify I mean once you have the web finger file set up, is the idea that they should only need to know your username or that they should only need to know your domain to find you?
Show threadScott Hanselman 👸🏽🐝🌮Dec 19, 2022
@eatonphil meaning my friends know my email so they can easily find me AND I don't have to host mastodon at my domain. My email is also my mastodon
Show threadPhil EatonDec 19, 2022
@shanselman gotcha, cool! Thanks for clarifying!
Show threadScott Hanselman 👸🏽🐝🌮Dec 19, 2022
@eatonphil more details https://guide.toot.as/guide/use-your-own-domain/#1-getting-started
Using your own domain - Masto Guide

The MastoGuide goal is to help everyone learn about Mastodon

Show threadJim VernonDec 20, 2022
@shanselman @eatonphil
Show threadPeter SterneDec 19, 2022

@eatonphil @shanselman I think the idea is that you give out the alias instead of your "real" Mastodon username to people, the same way you give out your email alias instead of the gmail account that it forwards to.

So you'd tell people "find me on Mastodon at [email protected]" and then they'd search Mastodon for that and it would trigger the redirect, showing "[email protected]"

Show threadMidtown Masochist 🐻 (RB-050) 🐷Dec 19, 2022
@petersterne @eatonphil @shanselman
I definitely need to investigate this.
I'm imagining a page where I actually tie together all my disparate kink accounts, including this one.
Show threadDan WalkerDec 19, 2022
@shanselman awesome. I wanted to set up my domain but it feels like way too much work to run a whole instance just for me. This is a nice compromise
Show threadDavid Collantes Dec 19, 2022
@rowdypixel @shanselman I don’t run Mastodon, yet here I am. I use GoToSocial, which is a single Golang binary using a sqlite database (it can use Postgres too). It is easy to setup, and runs coolishly on a $5/month VPS, which also run many other things.
Comparing superseriousbusiness:main...VyrCossont:v0.20-XL · superseriousbusiness/gotosocial

Fast, fun, small ActivityPub server. READ ONLY MIRROR! Now on Codeberg instead: https://codeberg.org/superseriousbusiness/gotosocial - Comparing superseriousbusiness:main...VyrCossont:v0.20-XL · su...

GitHub
Show threadTravis Newton 👨‍💻Dec 19, 2022
@rowdypixel @shanselman There is a “single user mode” but yeah. Running a server for one user is a bit much. But just know the option is always in the table.
Show threadJippi 🇩🇰Dec 19, 2022
@shanselman it's such a huge quality of life to do that. I've tried to compile a list of most hosting platforms on https://guide.toot.as/guide/use-your-own-domain/ where it Wil generate the code for you 🎉 it's not perfect, but it's a start (and open source)
Using your own domain - Masto Guide

The MastoGuide goal is to help everyone learn about Mastodon

Show threadPete HodgsonDec 19, 2022
@jippi @shanselman these docs are so helpful! Thanks so much for laying it out so clearly. 🙌 🙇
Show threadJippi 🇩🇰Dec 19, 2022
@ph1 @shanselman you're welcome. A lot of them are made via helping other people on board mastodon in the danish community. Made them open source in the hope others could use them as well 🎉
Show threadBritt GreshamDec 19, 2022
@shanselman also great for things like having a consistent username to share without having to change it everywhere when you switch instances later on
Show threadLes OrchardDec 19, 2022

@demophoon @shanselman

Yes, but FYI: webfinger is mostly used as a lookup and initial locator for your profile

When you change instances later and you update your webfinger resources, anyone who has already followed you will continue to follow you at the old instance. You’ll need to set a redirect on that old account to the new one (at least, on a Mastodon server. Your mileage may vary on others)

Show threadAllisonDec 19, 2022
@shanselman This is awesome! I had no idea. 🖤
Show threadRolandOfGileadDec 19, 2022
@shanselman I think it's a big deal that MSNBC started actively using their mastodon account today. That plus CNN and BBC is 90% of what I used Twitter for, and people like me could well be 30% or more of the Twitter base.
Show threadDaniel DeptfordDec 19, 2022
@shanselman thanks for the tip Scott!
Show threadLuke KaniesDec 19, 2022
@shanselman I had no idea this spec existed. Thanks!
Show threadAnant Shrivastava aka anantshriDec 19, 2022
@shanselman just remember this will act like a catchall. so @shanselman or @[email protected] or @[email protected] all will point to your hachyderm.io id if you keep it static.
Show threadScott Hanselman 👸🏽🐝🌮Dec 19, 2022
@anant yep, i call that out in my blog post
Show threadStefan Dec 19, 2022
@shanselman @mike
Would be cool if just a change in this file would be needed for switching instances to keep your account ID, followers. So the instance is basically backend.
Show threadStefan Dec 19, 2022
@shanselman @mike the more I think of it, it makes sense being just like email.
Some providers like Fastmail also have bring your own domain. I guess that would be cool.
Show threadMistial DeveloperDec 19, 2022

@shanselman while you are at it, if you use PGP/GPG, you can set up automatic key discovery.

https://teknikaldomain.me/post/pgp-key-discovery-mechanisms-explained/

Basically, a PGP key goes in .well-known/openpgpkey/hu/[hash].

PGP Key Discovery Mechanisms Explained

A major part of PGP is that your public keys are, well, public. Here, we'll describe a few well-known ways of making them public in a manner than PGP programs are capable of fetching.

Tek's Domain
Show threadAdiPolakDec 19, 2022
@shanselman thanks fir sharing. how did you add emojis to your name?
Show threadScott Hanselman 👸🏽🐝🌮Dec 19, 2022
@adipolak they are just regular emoji from the emoji keyboard
Show threadAdiPolakDec 19, 2022
@shanselman oh. Awesome. Thanks!
Show threadD. CreemerDec 19, 2022
@shanselman nice! I have done this too — I appreciate the tip.
Show threadAmadeus MaximilianDec 19, 2022
@shanselman will that also take care of rel=me link verification? Because then I'd not have to remember to update my site when I switch instances. 🤔
Show threadDilski Dec 19, 2022

@shanselman this is really cool. I hope that as we unwind from the centralised social medias, more folk use and take part in these open protocols.

That sentence sounds very blockchain-bro-ish. I mean this in a "I love RSS and web forums" kinda way

Show threadSick.CodesDec 19, 2022
@shanselman Thanks dude, adding now
Show threadChristian GambardellaDec 19, 2022
@shanselman Hey just added it! Thanks for the tip!
Show threadStefan StrangerDec 19, 2022
@shanselman I just did it for my Github pages blog site.
Show threadThomas LevesqueDec 19, 2022
@shanselman I did it using Cloudflare Workers. This way I can easily apply it to all my domains!
Show threadDennis Faucher  Dec 19, 2022
@shanselman Oh, that's interesting. I'll try this today with my domain. Thanks.
Show threadDani — MLT(ASCP)Dec 19, 2022

@shanselman
God, stop making me feel guilty for not seeing up my domain. /sarcasm obvs

This is really awesome. I just need to... Set up my domain.

Show threadJayDec 19, 2022
@shanselman This is great. Thanks!
Show threadEirliani A RahmanDec 19, 2022
@shanselman Super 😎 cool. Thank you, Scott!
Show threadLinkeDec 19, 2022
@shanselman I’ve never heard of this. Thanks. Will poke at it later today.
Show threadErik Nygren Dec 19, 2022

@shanselman Blog posts on how to set up WebFinger forwarding with Apache and ngnix:

https://erik.nygren.org/mastodon-aliases.html

https://gist.github.com/haykinson/e3b7004d8e7436bf4486964b89af4ca1

Creating Mastodon account identity aliases with Apache

Update 2022-11-30: added a RewriteMap to unescape URI-encoding, per @[email protected]'s comment and added a pointer to webfinger.net. Update 2022-12-16: fixed a syntax error for host-meta XML and added in the proper content-type I've long operated email forwarding (eg, of the form "[email protected]") which forwards on …

Field Reports from Erik's Laboratory
Show threadChristopher Dec 19, 2022
@nygren @shanselman That was easy... appreciate the info. https://schulte.org/.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:[email protected]
Show threadDaniel LidströmDec 19, 2022
@nygren @shanselman I could stay on hanselman.com for hours. It is like Wikipedia for .net developers.
Show threadjuno suárezDec 19, 2022
@shanselman gist on how to set up Mastodon custom domain forwarding with GitHub Pages https://gist.github.com/junosuarez/012755df0243ad17d942ddf26eb707a7
how to setup mastodon forwarding from your custom domain using webfinger and github pages

how to setup mastodon forwarding from your custom domain using webfinger and github pages - setup.md

Gist
Show threadDaveDec 19, 2022
This is exactly what I came looking for 🙏🏻
Show threadjuno suárezDec 19, 2022
@shanselman @dave awesome, let me know if you have any feedback when yoy get it set up!
Show threadDaveDec 19, 2022
Foremost: I love:
> the internet is based on 18 layers of pedantry
🤣

For step 2 I hit this URL ⬇️ but it's XML not JSON:
https://nado.social/.well-known/[email protected]

nado.social is running on https://pleroma.social/, not Mastodon, so I'm not sure if that makes a difference? 😬
Show threadjuno suárezDec 19, 2022
@dave it should work for any ActivityPub implementation, not just Mastodon, but some of the url patterns may be different than in the example. If you copy it from the Pleorma donain's webfinger, then it should work!
Show threadDaveDec 20, 2022
Hmm. That's what I thought.
I copied it here: https://davetapley.com/.well-known/webfinger
Does that look correct to you? Again is XML not JSON 🤔
Show threadMike CraveyDec 19, 2022
@shanselman I had no idea. Thank you.
Show threadBenjamin CarlssonDec 20, 2022
@shanselman @SwiftOnSecurity How does it know to call out to hanselman.com when @shanselman is entered?
Show threadScott Hanselman 👸🏽🐝🌮Dec 20, 2022
@ben @SwiftOnSecurity it doesn’t. It’s the domain that causes the call out.
Show threadBenjamin CarlssonDec 22, 2022
@shanselman @SwiftOnSecurity I'm confused then. Did maybe your original toot have the text of "shanselman @ hanselman.com" but it was replaced by the text "@shanselman"? I don't follow how searching for a domainless username would know to reach out to a domain.
Show threadScott Hanselman 👸🏽🐝🌮Dec 22, 2022
@ben @SwiftOnSecurity lol you’re right! Looks like it swapped it out for my actual name here sorry
Show threadRobDec 20, 2022

@shanselman Thanks!

Found your post after setting up my own Pleroma instance, but I’m not sure how long that experiment will last.

Can I reuse my “handle” ([email protected]) using this technique if/when I shut down my own instance?

(Which is now serving the webfinger data for that handle)

Show threadBenDec 22, 2022
@shanselman sweet! Going to setup mine. Thanks man!