<![CDATA[One thing I find challenging with the #ActivityPub spec is that the terminology is very loose.]]>One thing I find challenging with the spec is that the terminology is very loose. Some examples are the way (API) "endpoint", "collection", and "stream" are used. Posting to an inbox endpoint is not the same as adding an activity to an (optional) inbox collection. A reverse-chronological collection of events is a history of an event stream, not the stream itself. I think conflating these concepts leads to much confusion. See the AP "streams" property, for example.

]]>https://citiverse.it/topic/c714038a-b8df-4bce-8277-0c1eefb49788/one-thing-i-find-challenging-with-the-activitypub-spec-is-that-the-terminology-is-very-loose.RSS for NodeWed, 28 Oct 2026 19:09:57 GMTMon, 19 Oct 2026 05:41:46 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to One thing I find challenging with the #ActivityPub spec is that the terminology is very loose. on Mon, 19 Oct 2026 11:21:14 GMT]]>@nik Yes, that's why I think it's confusing that the AP spec loosely communicates them as if they are the same.

]]>https://citiverse.it/post/https://mastodon.social/ap/users/117032591268870234/statuses/117467307988313410https://citiverse.it/post/https://mastodon.social/ap/users/117032591268870234/statuses/117467307988313410Mon, 19 Oct 2026 11:21:14 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to One thing I find challenging with the #ActivityPub spec is that the terminology is very loose. on Mon, 19 Oct 2026 08:08:49 GMT]]>@smallcircles Yes, that 2018 issue is a great example of what appears to be conceptual confusion between collections and streams. Calling a collection of contacts (the use case described in the issue) a "stream" is strange. The problem is that streams can't be specified well until we decide what they are. I see this issue recurring in the AP C2S discussions. https://github.com/swicg/activitypub-api/issues/37

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List Collections · Issue #37 · swicg/activitypub-api

"As an ActivityPub API client developer, I would like to know which collections a user has beyond those listed on and Actor object. For example, Bookmarks, blocked domains, etc"

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]]>https://citiverse.it/post/https://mastodon.social/ap/users/117032591268870234/statuses/117466551369841255https://citiverse.it/post/https://mastodon.social/ap/users/117032591268870234/statuses/117466551369841255Mon, 19 Oct 2026 08:08:49 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to One thing I find challenging with the #ActivityPub spec is that the terminology is very loose. on Mon, 19 Oct 2026 08:02:03 GMT]]>@Steve_Bate

What? Inserting into a database table isn't the same as POSTing to an API endpoint that does this anywhere else either.

]]>https://citiverse.it/post/https://toot.teckids.org/users/nik/statuses/117466524792293953https://citiverse.it/post/https://toot.teckids.org/users/nik/statuses/117466524792293953Mon, 19 Oct 2026 08:02:03 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to One thing I find challenging with the #ActivityPub spec is that the terminology is very loose. on Mon, 19 Oct 2026 07:53:52 GMT]]>@Steve_Bate

There's a long-standing issue and recognition that streams is underspecified..

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streams · Issue #299 · w3c/activitypub

Users in pump.io can use lists to organize their contacts. They can post a note or image to a list, and only members of that list will receive the note or image. Is this what streams is for? If not, what's it for? And is it a collection,...

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]]>https://citiverse.it/post/https://social.coop/users/smallcircles/statuses/117466492604972951https://citiverse.it/post/https://social.coop/users/smallcircles/statuses/117466492604972951Mon, 19 Oct 2026 07:53:52 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to One thing I find challenging with the #ActivityPub spec is that the terminology is very loose. on Mon, 19 Oct 2026 06:48:23 GMT]]>I think an interesting statement from Chapter 3 of the spec is "Objects are often wrapped in Activities and are contained in streams of Collections" (different than the collection/stream conflation). However, the meaning of "streams of Collections" is defined nowhere. It's also interesting to me that "stream" has no normative definition in the Activity Streams 2.0 spec although it's in the name! The pre-W3C 1.0 version did define an Activity Stream as a collection, so ... 🤷‍♂️

]]>https://citiverse.it/post/https://mastodon.social/ap/users/117032591268870234/statuses/117466235078243636https://citiverse.it/post/https://mastodon.social/ap/users/117032591268870234/statuses/117466235078243636Mon, 19 Oct 2026 06:48:23 GMT