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  3. I have deeply mixed feelings about #ActivityPub's adoption of JSON-LD, as someone who's spent way too long dealing with it while building #Fedify.

I have deeply mixed feelings about #ActivityPub's adoption of JSON-LD, as someone who's spent way too long dealing with it while building #Fedify.

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  • kopper@not-brain.d.on-t.workK kopper@not-brain.d.on-t.work
    @hongminhee @sl007 @julian attempting to support this kind of "data contortion" (i made this up and prolly isnt the right way to describe this) would rapidly balloon the scope of every fedi software ever. i don't believe anyone would want to develop for such ecosystem

    a similar example i saw was someone attempting to explain how you can partially inline an as:object you as:Like'd in order to specify you only liked that past version of it and if it changed your like shouldn't count. without describing this exact scenario i don't believe any software, json-ld capable or not, would interpret that Like as such. same thing with the long-form text FEP which attempts to support non-activitypub authors
    sl007@digitalcourage.socialS This user is from outside of this forum
    sl007@digitalcourage.socialS This user is from outside of this forum
    sl007@digitalcourage.social
    wrote last edited by
    #23

    @kopper @hongminhee @julian

    it is just damned simple, your as: Client can do so much by asking wikidata, OSM, federated geocoding and not our system. When you use a property for the first time, the client can cache its names in the languages of the user etc.

    kopper@not-brain.d.on-t.workK 1 Reply Last reply
    0
    • sl007@digitalcourage.socialS sl007@digitalcourage.social

      @kopper @hongminhee @julian

      it is just damned simple, your as: Client can do so much by asking wikidata, OSM, federated geocoding and not our system. When you use a property for the first time, the client can cache its names in the languages of the user etc.

      kopper@not-brain.d.on-t.workK This user is from outside of this forum
      kopper@not-brain.d.on-t.workK This user is from outside of this forum
      kopper@not-brain.d.on-t.work
      wrote last edited by
      #24
      @sl007 @hongminhee @julian i genuinely can't see where json-ld is relevant here. if your client wants to support wikidata and OSM then it can do that with or without json-ld being involved. you are going to have to document how this integration works anyhow if you want anyone else to do so
      sl007@digitalcourage.socialS 1 Reply Last reply
      0
      • kopper@not-brain.d.on-t.workK kopper@not-brain.d.on-t.work
        @hongminhee @sl007 @julian attempting to support this kind of "data contortion" (i made this up and prolly isnt the right way to describe this) would rapidly balloon the scope of every fedi software ever. i don't believe anyone would want to develop for such ecosystem

        a similar example i saw was someone attempting to explain how you can partially inline an as:object you as:Like'd in order to specify you only liked that past version of it and if it changed your like shouldn't count. without describing this exact scenario i don't believe any software, json-ld capable or not, would interpret that Like as such. same thing with the long-form text FEP which attempts to support non-activitypub authors
        sl007@digitalcourage.socialS This user is from outside of this forum
        sl007@digitalcourage.socialS This user is from outside of this forum
        sl007@digitalcourage.social
        wrote last edited by
        #25

        @kopper @hongminhee @julian

        just btw, we had many W3C Social CG meetings about the importance and how to use the as:context property - not the JSON-LD @context and we all agreed.
        About 30-40 devs attended.
        Between 2016 and 2024 I attended basically any meeting. I felt that using wikidata urls in as:context was nice for anyone.

        julian@activitypub.spaceJ 1 Reply Last reply
        0
        • kopper@not-brain.d.on-t.workK kopper@not-brain.d.on-t.work
          @sl007 @hongminhee @julian i genuinely can't see where json-ld is relevant here. if your client wants to support wikidata and OSM then it can do that with or without json-ld being involved. you are going to have to document how this integration works anyhow if you want anyone else to do so
          sl007@digitalcourage.socialS This user is from outside of this forum
          sl007@digitalcourage.socialS This user is from outside of this forum
          sl007@digitalcourage.social
          wrote last edited by
          #26

          @kopper @hongminhee @julian

          if I see wd: in lets say 3 of 12 AP software, I know tha I can give the user wikibase support.

          sl007@digitalcourage.socialS 1 Reply Last reply
          0
          • sl007@digitalcourage.socialS sl007@digitalcourage.social

            @kopper @hongminhee @julian

            if I see wd: in lets say 3 of 12 AP software, I know tha I can give the user wikibase support.

            sl007@digitalcourage.socialS This user is from outside of this forum
            sl007@digitalcourage.socialS This user is from outside of this forum
            sl007@digitalcourage.social
            wrote last edited by
            #27

            @kopper @hongminhee @julian

            anyway, if you like RDF and `content` is html how about RDFa ?
            For us it would work similar. If we have any "convention" before we stop writing it might save time of rewriting 🙂

            1 Reply Last reply
            0
            • sl007@digitalcourage.socialS sl007@digitalcourage.social

              @kopper @hongminhee @julian

              just btw, we had many W3C Social CG meetings about the importance and how to use the as:context property - not the JSON-LD @context and we all agreed.
              About 30-40 devs attended.
              Between 2016 and 2024 I attended basically any meeting. I felt that using wikidata urls in as:context was nice for anyone.

              julian@activitypub.spaceJ This user is from outside of this forum
              julian@activitypub.spaceJ This user is from outside of this forum
              julian@activitypub.space
              wrote last edited by
              #28

              @sl007@digitalcourage.social eh? You use context?

              ForumWG decided to use context to represent threads in threadiverse software (and Mastodon too, now).

              Just FYI.

              sl007@digitalcourage.socialS 2 Replies Last reply
              0
              • julian@activitypub.spaceJ julian@activitypub.space

                @sl007@digitalcourage.social eh? You use context?

                ForumWG decided to use context to represent threads in threadiverse software (and Mastodon too, now).

                Just FYI.

                sl007@digitalcourage.socialS This user is from outside of this forum
                sl007@digitalcourage.socialS This user is from outside of this forum
                sl007@digitalcourage.social
                wrote last edited by
                #29

                @julian

                hm, strange. I would really not ignore all the official ActivityPub meetings between 2016 and 2014 🙂 Maybe it would be worth to read the W3C minutes of SocialCG 2019 ff
                Think, it _should_ have been 2019 or 2021 cause 2021 it wasn't on the "waitlist" anymore :https://socialhub.activitypub.rocks/t/2021-01-09-socialcg-meeting-fep/1246

                But:
                It dates back to 2020 https://socialhub.activitypub.rocks/t/context-vs-conversation/578 and after mastodon and pleroma agreed to the us , the 2 Social CG meetings are linked by me in the thread.
                Then we had the 2020 brilliant Conf.

                So, well, we use it for ActivityPub spec says and what was decided there by all …

                mastodon is _not_ able to introduce breaking changes to a W3C standard
                Just FYI.

                sl007@digitalcourage.socialS 1 Reply Last reply
                0
                • sl007@digitalcourage.socialS sl007@digitalcourage.social

                  @julian

                  hm, strange. I would really not ignore all the official ActivityPub meetings between 2016 and 2014 🙂 Maybe it would be worth to read the W3C minutes of SocialCG 2019 ff
                  Think, it _should_ have been 2019 or 2021 cause 2021 it wasn't on the "waitlist" anymore :https://socialhub.activitypub.rocks/t/2021-01-09-socialcg-meeting-fep/1246

                  But:
                  It dates back to 2020 https://socialhub.activitypub.rocks/t/context-vs-conversation/578 and after mastodon and pleroma agreed to the us , the 2 Social CG meetings are linked by me in the thread.
                  Then we had the 2020 brilliant Conf.

                  So, well, we use it for ActivityPub spec says and what was decided there by all …

                  mastodon is _not_ able to introduce breaking changes to a W3C standard
                  Just FYI.

                  sl007@digitalcourage.socialS This user is from outside of this forum
                  sl007@digitalcourage.socialS This user is from outside of this forum
                  sl007@digitalcourage.social
                  wrote last edited by
                  #30

                  @julian

                  Can you specify "threadiverse" software cause like all properties which are not marked as "functional" in the ActivityPub Spec, `context` is an Array and I do not see any problem …

                  sl007@digitalcourage.socialS 1 Reply Last reply
                  0
                  • sl007@digitalcourage.socialS sl007@digitalcourage.social

                    @julian

                    Can you specify "threadiverse" software cause like all properties which are not marked as "functional" in the ActivityPub Spec, `context` is an Array and I do not see any problem …

                    sl007@digitalcourage.socialS This user is from outside of this forum
                    sl007@digitalcourage.socialS This user is from outside of this forum
                    sl007@digitalcourage.social
                    wrote last edited by
                    #31

                    @julian

                    ^ what I mean :

                    "context": [
                    "https://threadiversesoftware.example.org/thread/123",
                    "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Special:EntityData/Q64 "
                    ];

                    then says:
                    "Hi machine, I am in the context of thread 123 about Berlin."

                    1 Reply Last reply
                    0
                    • julian@activitypub.spaceJ julian@activitypub.space

                      @sl007@digitalcourage.social eh? You use context?

                      ForumWG decided to use context to represent threads in threadiverse software (and Mastodon too, now).

                      Just FYI.

                      sl007@digitalcourage.socialS This user is from outside of this forum
                      sl007@digitalcourage.socialS This user is from outside of this forum
                      sl007@digitalcourage.social
                      wrote last edited by
                      #32

                      @julian

                      Is there a W3C minutes or kind of a meeting-protocol|spec. about this use of context?

                      julian@activitypub.spaceJ 1 Reply Last reply
                      0
                      • sl007@digitalcourage.socialS sl007@digitalcourage.social

                        @julian

                        Is there a W3C minutes or kind of a meeting-protocol|spec. about this use of context?

                        julian@activitypub.spaceJ This user is from outside of this forum
                        julian@activitypub.spaceJ This user is from outside of this forum
                        julian@activitypub.space
                        wrote last edited by
                        #33

                        @sl007@digitalcourage.social FEPs 7888 and f228 details the use of context and one use case of it, to backfill conversations.

                        sl007@digitalcourage.socialS 1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • julian@activitypub.spaceJ julian@activitypub.space

                          @sl007@digitalcourage.social FEPs 7888 and f228 details the use of context and one use case of it, to backfill conversations.

                          sl007@digitalcourage.socialS This user is from outside of this forum
                          sl007@digitalcourage.socialS This user is from outside of this forum
                          sl007@digitalcourage.social
                          wrote last edited by
                          #34

                          @julian

                          well, but that is _exactly_ the same of the official Social CG meetings !

                          "This context property is the URL of the NodeBB topic."
                          vs.
                          "The context property should be used to identify the context in which the object appears in, form a common topic or group content. This can be a well known JSON-LD vocabulary or any ActivityPub Object useful for the implementation."
                          vs
                          https://www.w3.org/TR/activitystreams-vocabulary/#dfn-context :

                          „Identifies the context within which the object exists or an activity was performed.
                          The notion of "context" used is intentionally vague. The intended function is to serve as a means of grouping objects and activities that share a common originating context or purpose. An example could be all activities relating to a common project or event. “

                          and I am glad cause, as said
                          "context": [
                          "https://threadiversesoftware.example.org/thread/123",
                          "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Special:EntityData/Q64 "
                          ];
                          then says:
                          "Hi machine, I am in the context of thread 123 about Berlin."

                          and then

                          🧵 1/2

                          sl007@digitalcourage.socialS 1 Reply Last reply
                          0
                          • sl007@digitalcourage.socialS sl007@digitalcourage.social

                            @julian

                            well, but that is _exactly_ the same of the official Social CG meetings !

                            "This context property is the URL of the NodeBB topic."
                            vs.
                            "The context property should be used to identify the context in which the object appears in, form a common topic or group content. This can be a well known JSON-LD vocabulary or any ActivityPub Object useful for the implementation."
                            vs
                            https://www.w3.org/TR/activitystreams-vocabulary/#dfn-context :

                            „Identifies the context within which the object exists or an activity was performed.
                            The notion of "context" used is intentionally vague. The intended function is to serve as a means of grouping objects and activities that share a common originating context or purpose. An example could be all activities relating to a common project or event. “

                            and I am glad cause, as said
                            "context": [
                            "https://threadiversesoftware.example.org/thread/123",
                            "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Special:EntityData/Q64 "
                            ];
                            then says:
                            "Hi machine, I am in the context of thread 123 about Berlin."

                            and then

                            🧵 1/2

                            sl007@digitalcourage.socialS This user is from outside of this forum
                            sl007@digitalcourage.socialS This user is from outside of this forum
                            sl007@digitalcourage.social
                            wrote last edited by
                            #35

                            @julian

                            and then
                            1) machine gets thread (cause is JSON-LD by known/allowed `generator`)
                            2) machine fetches or gets cached wikidata entry about Berlin and displays the card (kind of "infobox" then).
                            .. from the named "SpecialEntitiyData" of wikidata which is JSON-LD as well.
                            3) machine is happy

                            apart from our tools, I need to credit Max Lath who is doing inventaire, the federated book library and did a lot of previous work for wiki JSON-LD like the wonderful https://github.com/maxlath/wikibase-sdk

                            sl007@digitalcourage.socialS 1 Reply Last reply
                            0
                            • sl007@digitalcourage.socialS sl007@digitalcourage.social

                              @julian

                              and then
                              1) machine gets thread (cause is JSON-LD by known/allowed `generator`)
                              2) machine fetches or gets cached wikidata entry about Berlin and displays the card (kind of "infobox" then).
                              .. from the named "SpecialEntitiyData" of wikidata which is JSON-LD as well.
                              3) machine is happy

                              apart from our tools, I need to credit Max Lath who is doing inventaire, the federated book library and did a lot of previous work for wiki JSON-LD like the wonderful https://github.com/maxlath/wikibase-sdk

                              sl007@digitalcourage.socialS This user is from outside of this forum
                              sl007@digitalcourage.socialS This user is from outside of this forum
                              sl007@digitalcourage.social
                              wrote last edited by
                              #36

                              @julian

                              PS - just btw;
                              about inventaire I am sharing currently photobooks for free rent in Dortmund, Germany
                              https://inventaire.io/users/sl007
                              they have also nice use for JSON-LD re. books /authors etc. https://data.inventaire.io/ like so many software in fedi.
                              If you ask the redaktor Service Actor for Place (`Question`) to find you a waffle restaurant in Amsterdam serving blue syrup near a train station then we do also use SPARQL like them - without the AI bullshit - just cause millions of friendly humans contributing to wd and OSM …

                              1 Reply Last reply
                              0
                              • cwebber@social.coopC This user is from outside of this forum
                                cwebber@social.coopC This user is from outside of this forum
                                cwebber@social.coop
                                wrote last edited by
                                #37

                                @kopper @hongminhee As the person probably most responsible for making sure json-ld stayed in the spec (two reasons: because it was the only extensibility answer we had, and because we were trying hard to retain interoperability with the linked data people, which ultimately did not matter), I agree with you. I do ultimately regret not having a simpler solution than json-ld, especially because it greatly hurt our ability to sign messages, which has considerable effect on the ecosystem.

                                Mea culpa 😕

                                I do think it's fixable. I'd be interested in joining a conversation about how to fix it.

                                evan@cosocial.caE rigo@mamot.frR 2 Replies Last reply
                                0
                                • cwebber@social.coopC cwebber@social.coop

                                  @kopper @hongminhee As the person probably most responsible for making sure json-ld stayed in the spec (two reasons: because it was the only extensibility answer we had, and because we were trying hard to retain interoperability with the linked data people, which ultimately did not matter), I agree with you. I do ultimately regret not having a simpler solution than json-ld, especially because it greatly hurt our ability to sign messages, which has considerable effect on the ecosystem.

                                  Mea culpa 😕

                                  I do think it's fixable. I'd be interested in joining a conversation about how to fix it.

                                  evan@cosocial.caE This user is from outside of this forum
                                  evan@cosocial.caE This user is from outside of this forum
                                  evan@cosocial.ca
                                  wrote last edited by
                                  #38

                                  @cwebber @kopper @hongminhee

                                  I don't remember it that way.

                                  We started the WG off with AS2 being based on JSON-LD, and I don't think we ever considered removing it.

                                  I don't think it was a decision you made on your own. I'm not sure how you would, since you edited AP and not AS2 Core or Vocabulary.

                                  evan@cosocial.caE 1 Reply Last reply
                                  0
                                  • evan@cosocial.caE evan@cosocial.ca

                                    @cwebber @kopper @hongminhee

                                    I don't remember it that way.

                                    We started the WG off with AS2 being based on JSON-LD, and I don't think we ever considered removing it.

                                    I don't think it was a decision you made on your own. I'm not sure how you would, since you edited AP and not AS2 Core or Vocabulary.

                                    evan@cosocial.caE This user is from outside of this forum
                                    evan@cosocial.caE This user is from outside of this forum
                                    evan@cosocial.ca
                                    wrote last edited by
                                    #39

                                    @cwebber @kopper @hongminhee

                                    I would be strongly opposed to any effort to remove JSON-LD from AS2. We use it for a lot of extensions. Every AP server uses the Security vocabulary for public keys.

                                    evan@cosocial.caE cwebber@social.coopC 2 Replies Last reply
                                    0
                                    • evan@cosocial.caE evan@cosocial.ca

                                      @cwebber @kopper @hongminhee

                                      I would be strongly opposed to any effort to remove JSON-LD from AS2. We use it for a lot of extensions. Every AP server uses the Security vocabulary for public keys.

                                      evan@cosocial.caE This user is from outside of this forum
                                      evan@cosocial.caE This user is from outside of this forum
                                      evan@cosocial.ca
                                      wrote last edited by
                                      #40

                                      @cwebber @kopper @hongminhee It would be a huge backwards-incompatible change for almost zero benefit. People would still make mistakes in their ActivityPub implementations (sorry, Minhee, but that's life on an open network). We'd need to adopt another mechanism for defining extensions, and guess what? People are going to make mistakes with that, too.

                                      evan@cosocial.caE kopper@not-brain.d.on-t.workK ianh@mastodon.socialI 3 Replies Last reply
                                      0
                                      • evan@cosocial.caE evan@cosocial.ca

                                        @cwebber @kopper @hongminhee It would be a huge backwards-incompatible change for almost zero benefit. People would still make mistakes in their ActivityPub implementations (sorry, Minhee, but that's life on an open network). We'd need to adopt another mechanism for defining extensions, and guess what? People are going to make mistakes with that, too.

                                        evan@cosocial.caE This user is from outside of this forum
                                        evan@cosocial.caE This user is from outside of this forum
                                        evan@cosocial.ca
                                        wrote last edited by
                                        #41

                                        @cwebber @kopper @hongminhee The biggest downside to JSON-LD, it seems, is that it lets most developers treat AS2 as if it's plain old JSON. That was by design. People sometimes mess it up, but most JSON-LD parsers are pretty tolerant.

                                        1 Reply Last reply
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                                        • evan@cosocial.caE evan@cosocial.ca

                                          @cwebber @kopper @hongminhee It would be a huge backwards-incompatible change for almost zero benefit. People would still make mistakes in their ActivityPub implementations (sorry, Minhee, but that's life on an open network). We'd need to adopt another mechanism for defining extensions, and guess what? People are going to make mistakes with that, too.

                                          kopper@not-brain.d.on-t.workK This user is from outside of this forum
                                          kopper@not-brain.d.on-t.workK This user is from outside of this forum
                                          kopper@not-brain.d.on-t.work
                                          wrote last edited by
                                          #42
                                          @evan @hongminhee @cwebber my argument is that json-ld is way more prone to mistakes. in iceshrimp.net, for example, we ship and preload several modified contexts in order to correct some mistakes on our end, and even then we encounter a lot of software that do not, for example, include the security context in their actors

                                          if, as per my suggestion, property names were always written in expanded form, the only mistakes you could really do would be typos, and that would fail pretty loudly compared to the current status quo where most software accept it and some software silently fail. how are those developers meant to even be aware that this is a problem?
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