julian

Reduced engagement due to Article type

NodeBB federates out Note or Article depending on the length of the content. While this by-and-large works, the article logic does not encourage as much discussion as expected because a summary is generated so as to provide something for microblog-style software to show (otherwise, it would only show the title (name) and a URL to the forum.)

That summary is limited to a maximum or 500 characters, ending at the last full detected sentence.

When composing a long topic, 500 characters may not be enough to fully introduce the topic and engage users. This lowers click-through rates.

I expressed my frustration about this online to @thisismissem and suggested that I might just revert back to sending the entire post content in summary. This would violate FEP b2b8's recommendation that summary be a maximum of 500 characters:

It should be a maximum of about 500 characters; a few sentences; or a short paragraph.

After consultation with Matt Baer of Writefreely (@[email protected]), he suggested the following changes:[...]

https://activitypub.space/post/1350

Emelia

⁂ ActivityPub.Space
Feb 25 at 4:26pmWeb
Show threadJulian FietkauFeb 25

@[email protected] You could also extend the leeway for Note conversion while keeping the summary length, that feels like a potentially useful option.

By that I mean letting posts with a length of n>500 (700? 1000?) through as a Note, but still cutting the summary at 500 if it's even longer. Avoids the situation where there's like one sentence cut off.

I do like the manual <!-- break --> though, I picked that habit up from some CMS decades ago and still use it on my own blog.

@matt @evan

Show threadjulianFeb 25

@[email protected] yes, that is another adjustment I was going to add. Right now the cut-off is hard-coded to 500, but this could be adjusted by the admin based on preference.

Perhaps this could even be allowed at the user level, but I am loathe to add additional options to the UCP lest it end up looking like an airplane cockpit 

Show threadEvan ProdromouFeb 25

@julian So, there are a few ways to handle this.

First, the b2b8 recommendation on the summary is just a guideline, not a strict requirement (thus the 'about'). A common practice in news-style text is that the first paragraph is a lede that summarizes the article's main points.

Show threadEvan ProdromouFeb 25

@julian

For example, in this article, "Lawrence Summers Will Resign From Harvard After Epstein Revelations" (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/25/us/larry-summers-resignation-harvard-epstein.html), the first paragraph is:

> Lawrence H. Summers, a Harvard University economist and the school’s former president, will resign from teaching at the end of the academic year, according to a Harvard spokesman.

Larry Summers Will Resign From Harvard After Jeffrey Epstein Revelations

Mr. Summers, former president of the school, had stepped back from teaching after documents showed a closer relationship to Jeffrey Epstein than previously known. He will leave at the end of the academic year.

The New York Times
Show threadEvan ProdromouFeb 25

@julian

Some bloggers follow a similar practice, especially since blogging software often uses the first paragraph as the summary in RSS and Atom feeds.

Show threadEvan ProdromouFeb 25

@julian

For generating a summary for long-form text, I'd suggest these techniques in rough order:

- Let the user define a summary manually - either with a marker in the text, or with a separate input element
- Use the whole text if it meets the rough guidelines (~1 paragraph, a few sentences, about 500 chars) in b2b8.
- Use the first paragraph if it meets the rough guidelines (a few sentences, about 500 chars) in b2b8.
- Truncate the first paragraph and include an ellipsis ([...]).

Show threadEvan ProdromouFeb 25
@julian Finally, this seems like a very appropriate place to use LLMs if you're open to it. LLMs do a pretty good job summarizing medium-sized texts, like blog posts, wiki pages, etc.
Show threadKierunkowy74Feb 25

@julian @matt @evan

Majority of Polish Mastodon instances have already switched to post length limit of 2048 characters or more, so a Polish fediverse user would already be accustomed with longer posts than others. An admin of a Polish-speaking forum may want to set both a Note/Article threshold and summary length limit to a higher value.

Show threadevanFeb 26

@julian So, there are a few ways to handle this.

First, the b2b8 recommendation on the summary is just a guideline, not a strict requirement (thus the 'about').

A common practice in news-style text is that the first paragraph is a lede that summarizes the article's main points.

For example, in this article, Lawrence Summers Will Resign From Harvard After Epstein Revelations, the first paragraph is:

Lawrence H. Summers, a Harvard University economist and the school’s former president, will resign from teaching at the end of the academic year, according to a Harvard spokesman.

Some bloggers follow a similar practice, especially since blogging software often uses the first paragraph as the summary in RSS and Atom feeds.

I think if I were generating a summary for long-form text, I'd use these techniques in roughly descending order:

  • Manual override; an optional way for the user to define a summary manually - either with a marker in the text, or with a separate input element (I think WordPress does this).
  • Use the whole text if it meets the rough guidelines (~1 paragraph, a few sentences, about 500 chars) in b2b8.
  • Use the first paragraph if it meets the rough guidelines (a few sentences, about 500 chars) in b2b8.
  • Truncate the first paragraph and include an ellipsis ([...]).

This is also something that LLMs are pretty good at. So, maybe rather than truncating (last option), consider using an LLM to generate a summary that meets the boundary requirements.

Lead paragraph - Wikipedia

Show threadjulianFeb 26

@evan that makes sense. I've just updated NodeBB to allow for the use of a manual override marker. The limit and even the marker is now customizable per-instance, and I do use the ellipsis when truncating text.

Hopefully that resolves the engagement issue while still preserving the intent of b2b8 

As for the use of an LLM to generate a summary, I think I will defer on that, since that might be a source of surprise for those not expecting the invocation of a LLM