Following a thread is now available in the latest version of #HolosSocial.

[apps@toot.fedilab.app]

Following a thread is now available in the latest version of #HolosSocial. #ActivityPub already lets you follow an object, not only an account, so a Follow can target a post. You then receive new replies, even from accounts you do not follow. A thread is short-lived, so the Follow uses the standard endTime property to expire on its own. It works best when other servers support it, that's why I want to turn it into a #FEP.

For people curious about the idea: https://tom79.dev/posts/follow-a-note/

[silverpill@mitra.social]

@apps I wrote this FEP: https://codeberg.org/fediverse/fep/src/branch/main/fep/f06f/fep-f06f.md

Object observer is an ActivityPub actor that can be followed to receive object updates.

However, I never implemented it. Pulling context and replies is often enough.

[apps@toot.fedilab.app]

@silverpill
Thanks, I read your FEP. The main difference is that the Follow targets the Note directly, with no observer actor in between. It also adds two conditions: the author must be indexable, so consent is explicit, and the Follow uses endTime because a thread is short-lived. On my side, Holos falls back to polling the replies collection when a server ignores the Follow, so it keeps working everywhere.

[silverpill@mitra.social]

@apps ActivityPub's Follow activity is intended to be used on actors: https://www.w3.org/TR/activitypub/#follow-activity-outbox.

This is one of the reasons I proposed that "observer" actor. Another option is to use a custom activity (e.g. Watch).