| Pronouns | he/him |
Open Letter to Tim Cook: Sabotaging Web Apps is Indefensible
🔨 Apple breaking EU Web Apps in < 7 days
😢 Many companies will be bankrupted / severely hurt
🌎 This does global damage to the web
👉 Sign Now: https://letter.open-web-advocacy.org/
Internationalise The Fediverse
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/02/internationalise-the-fediverse/
We live in the future now. It is OK to use Unicode everywhere.
It seems bizarre to me that modern Internet services sometimes "forget" that there's a world outside the Anglosphere. Some people have the temerity to speak foreign languages! And some of those languages have accents on their letters!! Even worse, some don't use English letters at all!!!
A decade ago, I was miffed that GitHub only supported some ASCII characters in its project names. There's no technical reason why your repo can't be called "ഹലോ വേൾഡ്".
Similarly, I'm frustrated that Mastodon (the largest ActivityPub service) doesn't allow Unicode usernames and has resisted efforts to change.
So I built a small ActivityPub server which publishes content from an Actor called @你好@i18n.viii.fi - it is only a demo account, but it works!
Some ActivityPub clients report that they are able to follow it and receive messages from it. Others - like Mastodon - simply can't see anything from it. Take a look at the replies on Mastodon to see which services work. You can also see some of its posts on the Fediverse.
What Does The Fox Spec Say?
The ActivityPub specification says:
Building an international base of users is important in a federated network.
Internationalization
I can't find anything in the specifications which limits what languages a username can be written in. But there are a few clues scattered about.
The user's @ name is defined by preferredUsername which is:
A short username which may be used to refer to the actor, with no uniqueness guarantees.
4.1 Actor objects
There's nothing in there about what scripts it can contain. However, later on, the spec says:
Properties containing natural language values, such as name, preferredUsername, or summary, make use of natural language support defined in ActivityStreams.
4. Actors
So it is expected that a preferred username could be written in multiple scripts. Which implies that the default need not be limited to A-Z0-9.
The ActivityStreams specification talks about language mapping.
Finally, the ActivityPub specification has some examples on non-Latin text in names.
So, I think that it is acceptable for usernames to be written in a variety of non-Latin scripts.
But What About...?
There are usually a few objections to "Unicode Everywhere" zealots like me. I'd like to forestall any arguments.
What about homograph attacks?
Well, what about them? ASCII has plenty of similar looking characters. I doubt most people would notice when a capital i is replaced by a lower L - and vice-versa. Similarly the kerning issue of an r and n looking like an m is well known. Are mixed language homographs more dangerous? I don't think so.
What if people make names that can't be typed?
Well, what if they do? Maybe not being found by people who can't type your language is a feature, not a bug. But, anyway, clients can let users search for other people, or copy and paste their names.
What about weird "Zalgo" text?
It is up to a client to decide how they want to render text input. The "problems" of strange Unicode combinations are well known. This is not a hard computer-science problem.
What about bi-directional text?
The spec makes clear this is allowed.
Do people even want a username in their own script?
I have no evidence for this. But I bet you'd get pretty frustrated if you had to switch keyboard just to type your own name, wouldn't you? In any case, why can't I have a username of @😉
What's Next?
If you build ActivityPub software, give some thought to the billions of people who don't have names which easily fit into ASCII.
If your software can see @你好@i18n.viii.fi and its posts, please let me know.
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/02/internationalise-the-fediverse/
We live in the future now. It is OK to use Unicode everywhere. It seems bizarre to me that modern Internet services sometimes "forget" that there's a world outside the Anglosphere. Some people have the temerity to speak foreign languages! And some of those languages have accents on their letters!! Even worse, some don't use English letters at all!!! A decade ago, I was miffed that GitHub only…
The #Zionist regime’s imposition of a complete #blackout in the #besieged #GazaStrip for the ninth consecutive day is a strategic maneuver to facilitate a #genocide without media coverage. The #PalestinianTelecommunicationsCompany has announced a total #outage of mobile, landline, and internet communication services in wide areas across Gaza, directly resulting from ongoing #Israeli #Occupation Forces aggression. This marks the seventh and most severe major #telecom #shutdown in Gaza since #October7th. The blackout is directly the outcome of relentless Zionist bombardment and fuel #blockade, an effort to isolate Gaza from the world and continue its massacres against the #Palestinian people.
The Zionist state’s strategic enforcement of a #telecommunications blackout in the besieged #GazaStrip is a deliberate and calculated measure to obscure the ongoing genocide from global scrutiny. This brutal tactic of silencing the truth is emblematic of the Zionist projects broader campaign to isolate and oppress the Palestinian people. The blackout not only serves as a tool for the #IOF to conduct its operations in darkness but also to muffle the voices of journalists and human rights advocates who strive to bring these truths to light. #Journalists and human rights organizations are at the forefront, facing direct targeting by Zionist forces, with a rising #murder toll among Palestinian journalists, and a deliberate attack on freedom of press. The situation in Gaza now includes over 30,000 #martyrs, hundreds of thousands who have endured severe injuries, and catastrophic levels of destruction, #starvation, #dehydration and #disease. The #catastrophe demands more than passive international observation; it calls for a proactive stance against this systemic genocidal violence perpetrated by the #Israel regime.
THE TIME FOR GLOBAL ACTION IS NOW.
DEMAND AN END TO THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS BLACKOUT AND AN IMMEDIATE END TO THE GENOCIDE.
me: sorry but i can't sign this NDA
them: why not?
me: i signed an NDA that prevents me from signing NDAs.
them: wow. with whom?
me: i'm not allowed to say
wake up babe, new metaverse strategy just dropped 
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