At the risk of splitting hairs ...

@julian
> Mastodon is all just everybody talking in the same room ... This isn't the case on the threadiverse, where discussions are segregated/categorized by community

Forum apps offer one set of tools for navigating to the conversations we want to take part in. Microposting apps offer a different set. But the underlying data layer reality is one big room. Whatever is posted in the threadiverse is also a drop in the microposting ocean.

@strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz is that true, though? Mastodon doesn't segregate topics by interest group or community because that's a UX decision by Mastodon. It's a wilful ignorance of explicit categorization by design.

Now, I want to be very explicit here that I'm not saying this is a bad thing. Mastodon doesn't have any major incentive to implement groups, much less implement them like the threadiverse does.

But it is by design that it's all lumped together into a singular feed.

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@julian
> ActivityPub.Space follows and auto categorizes [the #FediDevs tag]

Awesome, another potential benefit of standardised tag I didn't even think of. There may be more.

@silverpill

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Would it be inappropriate to draft an FEP for this? One that addresses;

* #FediDevs (or whatever) as the standard tag for fediverse dev meta

* Filtering out posts with the tag by default for new accounts, unless they opt-in to receiving them

* Auto-adding the tag to all posts output by developer forums like SocialHub and ActivityPub.Space

* Methods like the ones @julian describes above, for ingesting and making use of posts with the tag

* ?

#fediverse #ActivityPub #onboarding #FEP

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Me:
> the underlying data layer reality is one big room.

@julian
> is that true, though?

Yes. The threadiverse UX tools that ...

> segregate topics by interest group or community

... sit on top of an ocean of AP Activity droplets, which have none of this structure inherently.

This is a feature of the AP design, not a bug. It allows different apps to group and visualise Activities in different ways (micropost threads, blog+comments, threadiverse communities).

@strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz I disagree, I view the content not as a function of its lowest common denominator (the singular note adrift in a sea of other notes), but as a part of a larger entity, the thread, or a category/community.

That microblogs are incapable of realizing that is a design decision on their part

@strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz I don't think the functionality rises to the level of needing an FEP.

Hashtags are ephemeral and user generated by nature, and that flexibility is its greatest strength.

Attempting to reserve a hashtag is probably not going to go over well. Additionally, tying a hashtag to a community doesn't necessarily mean all use cases are valid. In forums topics get moved in and out of categories all the time.

@julian
> I view the content not as a .... singular note adrift in a sea of other notes ... but as a part of a larger entity, the thread, or a category/community

This imposes interface layer assumptions on the data layer. Your app visualises Activity data this way, sure. Microposting apps visualise it other ways (feeds, tags, Lists, etc). But the Activity data doesn't care. Interface-level assumptions do not travel with them across the wire.

Can we agree on that?

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@julian
> I don't think the functionality rises to the level of needing an FEP

It requires an action from all AP software to achieve its goals. Isn't this what FEPs are for?

> Hashtags are ephemeral and user generated

Sure. I'm not trying to standardise hastags, just use this particular one for a particular purpose.

> Attempting to reserve a hashtag is probably not going to go over well

Can you suggest another mechanism that could realise the same potential benefits?

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@julian
> tying a hashtag to a community doesn't necessarily mean all use cases are valid. In forums topics get moved in and out of categories all the time

Not sure what you're getting at there or how it relates to the proposal. Care to clarify?