here i am

It should be easier, ideally just plugged / built into stuff with a checkbox to enable it

Just 'Unfortunate', I agree

The ActivityPoll #FEP has a very unfortunate name, clashing and overloading with the existing concept of a #Poll on the fediverse. The mechanism it documents is generally called #Polling.

FEP-b06c: ActivityPoll - Fediverse Enhancement Proposals

ActivityPoll is a proper subset of ActivityPub that excludes activity delivery, making it easier to implement for static Web sites or content management systems. It meets an equivalent need to RSS or Atom feeds.

(fediverse.codeberg.page)

#ActivityPub

Back in the day both Dave Winer (no Fediverse handle?) and Sam Ruby ( @samruby) showed ways to do The Simplest Possible Thing with SOAP.

I just finished reading your post (after posting my previous reply) and it confirms my thought that ActivityPub, even a static implementation, has too many moving parts. I'll follow some of the links in your post (later, I've been rate-limited) to see if I can wrap my head around it. I've never been able to wrap my head around anything Ruby, tho.

Yes, but...

I understand the RSS and Atom specs well enough that I've created programs with RSS/Atom feeds. But the ActivityPub spec scares the willies out of me. Too many moving parts.

#ActivityPub #RSS #Atom

But the effort required from admins and devs is a factor in the ease of use of any project; ultimately, if it's to be considered easy, we have to take into account the need to either hire or inspire talent.

To publish RSS (as I understand it), you add an endpoint to your website where your content is presented into a parseable format that readers can present in their context, and you format your content accordingly. That's basically a markup language, unless there's more going on behind the scenes with RSS that I don't comprehend, and anyone can understand a markup language, if they're willing to try.

ActivityPub, on the other hand, has to talk to a lot of other AP things, on an ongoing basis. There is Compute and Network Connectivity and Databases involved. That's hard. You have to point those highly vulnerable things at the public-facing Internet. That's treacherous.

You might, if you can hire or inspire enough talent, and also fund the thing, make it just as easy for the end user, but don't act like that's easy. Or necessarily even good.

edit: read first couple paragraphs of blog. You're basically saying we can use a subset of AP formatting in a one-way manner to replace RSS... which, if someone chooses to boost it on Mastodon, will be automatically transformed back into RSS...

I think we should just use RSS, and remember Aaron. I tell my friends who are not here but who might want to keep track of my ongoing public meltdowns and outrages that the good news is, they can follow me on RSS without any need to join Mastodon. I suppose I'm worried about inceptions beginning to happen, and circular conversions.

#APnative publishing is our killer app.