jonas - Network

OH "was ist denn eure Lieblingsweiche?" #entropialeaks

OH "was ist denn eure Lieblingsweiche?" #entropialeaks

So I'll almost get to where I want to be, except the train will actually end a stop early, so my itinerary is getting even more chaotic

So I'll almost get to where I want to be, except the train will actually end a stop early, so my itinerary is getting even more chaotic

Everyone is being told to board so it may actually be leaving nowActually it left as I was typing this

Everyone is being told to board so it may actually be leaving now
Actually it left as I was typing this

Aaaaand my original train has miraculously returned, now with 40min delay and a scheduled departure at 10:38. Considering the train that...

Aaaaand my original train has miraculously returned, now with 40min delay and a scheduled departure at 10:38. Considering the train that was occupying that track when I entered the station *still* hasn't moved... We'll see if, when, and where it arrives lol

And now the next train, scheduled for 10:58, gained a delay of 20 minutes on the boards

And now the next train, scheduled for 10:58, gained a delay of 20 minutes on the boards

*my* train didn't even get announced btw, and just silently vanished off the departure board like 20min after it was supposed to show. ...

*my* train didn't even get announced btw, and just silently vanished off the departure board like 20min after it was supposed to show. Guess I'll wait for the next one :D

Wir sind Transdev!(Needless to say, despite the announcement, there is no sign of that train)

Wir sind Transdev!
(Needless to say, despite the announcement, there is no sign of that train)

Announcement just now: "Arrival at platform 2, S1 to [place] with departure at 9:21"Things are going just great today 🙃

Announcement just now: "Arrival at platform 2, S1 to [place] with departure at 9:21"
Things are going just great today 🙃

@foxhkron beep boop. This time, without accidentally causing every single account to be deleted maybe?

@foxhkron beep boop. This time, without accidentally causing every single account to be deleted maybe?

@foxhkron ...or not, I suppose. We're working on it lol

@foxhkron ...or not, I suppose. We're working on it lol

@foxhkron Welcome back to the land of the living, cybre.club!

@foxhkron Welcome back to the land of the living, cybre.club!

Content warning:lyricsYou gotta conquer the monster in your head, and then you'll flyFly, phoenix, fly🎶(I blame @toromino for...

Content warning:lyrics

You gotta conquer the monster in your head, and then you'll fly
Fly, phoenix, fly🎶

(I blame @toromino for earworming me)

Currently experiencing Heisenberg's train delay. Every time I check, it redecides whether it'll be on time or 5min late

Currently experiencing Heisenberg's train delay. Every time I check, it redecides whether it'll be on time or 5min late

Content warning:long, ramble thoughts about federation from someone who hasn't gotten around to actually poking at the details of...

Content warning:long, ramble thoughts about federation from someone who hasn't gotten around to actually poking at the details of ActivityPub too much yet

I was thinking about this, but didn't end up writing about it - @ShadowJonathan I believe wrote a few posts relating to the performance impact of authorised fetch on tech.lgbt lately, which seems somewhat relevant here.

Content warning:long, ramble thoughts about federation from someone who hasn't gotten around to actually poking at the details of...

Content warning:long, ramble thoughts about federation from someone who hasn't gotten around to actually poking at the details of ActivityPub too much yet

So, I've been thinking a bit. In part because of multiple conversations about ActivityPub and issues with it, in part because I was reading along. The way it currently works, as I understand, is this: a post is made, it is federated out, everyone else makes a copy, keeps it indefinitely unless told to delete it, and this is largely the only way one can universally receive the content of a post, which is why the "perspectives" on the fediverse differ so much between instances. there are various proposals and approaches to backfill, but they are largely not standardised, and sometimes depend on secondary public APIs such as that exposed by Mastodon. Also, deleting a post requires another wave of federation, causing load and being somewhat unreliable.

This has made me think: what if this wasn't how it worked? What if we considered copies of posts on other instances just a cache, like we do with e.g. media content? Use federation to notify them there's something new, but not to actually be the way the actual content is spread. Once you receive a post, you create a reference, and you hang on to the actual content for, say, a month. Make it a year, even. After that, if, against all odds, someone still cares and wants to see it, refetch it. If the original poster has chosen to delete it, it's just automatically gone. If they've up and deleted their whole instance, it's gone. No more undeleteable ghosts stuck for all eternity. May cause some server load on smaller instances, but... honestly, how often do old posts actually get touched? I suspect it's negligible.
Now, once you've done this, you've basically given your instance a more important role in keeping track of your own posts, and a substantially less important role in keeping track of everyone else's. I'd argue this is how it should be, but also: why stop at that? Do these two tasks actually need to be connected?
This sorta ties into my half baked idea of having a sort of API gateway to abstract away all the mess that is actually talking to other instances for applications that e.g. follow social graphs, and leaves me with the larger thought of "why does the server that keeps your data also need to be the one that offers you a window into the wider fediverse". Sure, a lot of the time that's simple, but once you've restructured things so there's an agreed upon way to ask an instance for all the actual information, rather than hope it gets hand delivered to you, I suspect it'd be a lot easier to have read-only instances that can do different types of interesting things. I assume not everyone would strictly be a fan of increasing "visibility" across the fediverse, and there's some privacy implications here, but it seems at least worth a thought, in a similar vein as BlueSky's ATProto seems to separate the responsibilities of "keeping your data" and "letting you look at everyone else's".

Now... the reason I'm writing this, really, is I've some vague hope at least some of my followers have involved themselves with the implementation details of ActivityPub more than I have, and will come yell at me about a) how hard this would actually be/how unrealistic it is, and b) what all the negative consequences I haven't considered are. Here's hoping anyone actually reads all 3465 characters of this :D

Content warning:lyricsposting, germanKomm auf die Beine, komm her zu mirEs wird bald hell und wir hab'n nicht ewig ZeitWenn uns jetzt...

Content warning:lyricsposting, german

Komm auf die Beine, komm her zu mir
Es wird bald hell und wir hab'n nicht ewig Zeit
Wenn uns jetzt hier wer erwischt sind wir für immer vereint
In Beton und Seligkeit... 🎶

*eyes a @foxhkron across the North Sea*

*eyes a @foxhkron across the North Sea*

Almost forgot to check in before going to sleep :oThis is no doubt the nicest couchette car I've seen so far, well done SJ (@ D 1 ➜...

Almost forgot to check in before going to sleep :o
This is no doubt the nicest couchette car I've seen so far, well done SJ (@ D 1 ➜ Malmö Central) #NowTräwelling https://traewelling.de/status/1182018

And so I start my return... sorta. #CrossBorderRail (@ X2 644 ➜ Stockholm Central) #NowTräwelling https://traewelling.de/status/1180395

And so I start my return... sorta. #CrossBorderRail (@ X2 644 ➜ Stockholm Central) #NowTräwelling https://traewelling.de/status/1180395

Anyway that is just leadup to this:Google Maps: now turn rightMe: *looks around* go where?Me: *looks up* *notices a foot bridge right above...

Anyway that is just leadup to this:
Google Maps: now turn right
Me: *looks around* go where?
Me: *looks up* *notices a foot bridge right above me* thanks Google, very helpful...