jonny (good kind)Oct 15

RE: https://neuromatch.social/@jonny/115343246885448739

Rumors that the fediverse can't do mobile identity have been greatly exaggerated: #FEP_1580 is now in draft status - https://codeberg.org/fediverse/fep/src/branch/main/fep/1580/fep-1580.md

This is a proposal for how to migrate all your stuff along with you when you move instances.

The gist:

  • Send a request to move along with a set of stuff you'd like to bring with you. Moderators (optionally) can, approve, send back a change request, or deny. If the changes look ok, start the move, if not, hey you avoided incompatible moderation. Should be possible to layer in any kind of bulk actions you might want: "everything except my DMs," "strip attachments," "only my favorite posts," "nothing," etc.
  • keep a public collection of move events signed by both the source and target for durable, portable proof that you are the same person as the old account
  • the new instance crawls your old account and grabs whatever you specified, and then posts a mapping from old URIs to new URIs.
  • other instances can then immediately remap the URIs so e.g. future interactions get sent to the right place, and then gradually update their local versions over time, spacing out traffic.

Just using existing ActivityPub mechanisms. There are 6 new terms.

Bonus: lays the next steps to migrate to content addressed URIs, decouple accounts from instances, and merge and split accounts.

It being a draft means that there is a 60 day (or longer) public comment period, and feedback/edits/etc. Are very much welcome.
Issue: https://codeberg.org/fediverse/fep/issues/702
Discussion: https://socialhub.activitypub.rocks/t/fep-1580-move-actor-objects-with-a-migration-collection/8111

#FediDev #MoveAllPosts

Show threadBen Pate 🤘🏻Oct 15

@jonny

Very cool. We absolutely need a full-fidelity move that’s supported by as many apps as possible, and you FEP looks very well written.

I’ll catch up on your work and share my thought on codeberg :)

Could you compare/contrast this with the LOLA work going on under the W3C. It’s a solid plan, but it can be hard to decipher in places: https://swicg.github.io/activitypub-data-portability/lola

I think it’s super important for us to define migration well, once. Competing specs could easily derail the whole thing.

LOLA Portability for ActivityPub (0.2)

Show threadBen Pate 🤘🏻Oct 15

☝🏻@lisarue

@jonny

Show threadLisa the RueOct 16
@benpate @jonny
These are very consistent in the stuff that both do - it is clear that ActivityPub is already *almost* able to do content portability just by serving up content the way it does. We have a task force within the SocialWebCG working on account portability - jonny would you join a call if we schedule one soon?
Show threadBen Pate 🤘🏻

@lisarue @jonny

If you get something scheduled, I'll do my best to attend :)

Oct 20 at 8:15pmWeb
Show threadjonny (good kind)Oct 20
@benpate @lisarue thanks for reminding me to respond to that email 🫣
Show threadjulianOct 20

@[email protected] @[email protected] please keep in mind that simplicity is key. I think that's Jonny's FEP's strength.

The more complicated it is, the less buy-in, and you need all the buy-in you can get!

Show threadjonny (good kind)Oct 21
@julian
@lisarue
Thank you for saying so! I tried to keep it as simple as I could and take care to carve out space for low-resource authors to implement gradually, though when all the necessary considerations were on the table it feels more complicated than I would like. Glad it still feels simple to others :)