Ken-ichiFeb 20
I know I've been pretty quiet for the last month and I should probably post about what *I've* been working on, but first, check out these other cool projects I learned about recently! https://www.patreon.com/posts/other-stuff-150352203
Show threadsoaprootFeb 21

@kueda Is https://observ.ing/ federating yet? And if it was, what would that mean? Would it be possible to see new observations (or, perhaps, other changes) in an app like Bluesky (like the way I can see Bookwyrm activity in Mastodon)? Or are they using different lexicons and never the twain shall meet?

(Yes I read the disclaimer about the observ.ing database being subject to being deleted with no warning)

Observ.ing

Show threadKen-ichi
@soaproot right now it's using a totally separate lexicon so you would not be able to see all the observations on bluesky... and believe me, you wouldn't want to. We tried that on iNat and twitter way back in the day and it pollutes your social media feed with a lot of generally uninteresting stuff. Bookwyrm reviews happen at a low enough frequency that they fit into mastodon nicely, but I can say from experience that natural history observations probably would not. More analogous to scrobbling than book reviews, imo.
Feb 23 at 4:09amWeb
Show threadsoaprootFeb 23

@kueda I think my iNat feed (what shows up on my iNat home page) is much more manageable to read than what I assume yours must be. And it isn't super hard for me to imagine that the social features in iNat (the ability to follow people, especially), would fit well into federated naturalist feeds.

Having said that, I don't know for sure how/whether I'd use this if it did exist. But I do read my iNat feed much like the I way I read my Mastodon feed, in case that is a useful data point.

Show threadsoaprootFeb 23
@kueda Oh, and I forgot to say what might be the most important part - super exciting to see what is coming of your Patreon infused existence only one month in (even if most of what you are doing with observ.ing is just kicking the tires and other people are doing most of the work - that's useful and it is not the only thing you've been up to). (To others reading this: support @kueda 's Patreon if you want to support "next gen iNaturalist" or whatever the best moniker is).
Show threadKen-ichiFeb 23
@soaproot yeah, usability of that kind of feature would vary a lot, I think. IMO separate lexicons (vs extending existing ones) is still the right approach, though, to maintain the possibility of user preference. Distributed protocols make it easier to make apps that blend content, so maybe people who do want a blend of microblogging and organism observations could use a client that combines them, and spare the rest of the world from wading through every single tiny gray moth at the moth sheet.
Show threadsoaprootFeb 23
@kueda Yeah, I guess the ATproto way (insofar as I understand it) is to assemble events into feeds very much at the AppView (or even app itself) end, and have publishers (PDS/relay) less concerned with how the data will be likely to be consumed. I can see a lot of uncertainty (both about the incentives/feasibility at the AppView/app end and about how niche this is), but not necessarily more than with alternate approaches.