Is there any server actually using this so one can see it in action? They only seem to list Vervis, but the linked https://vervis.peers.community/ is down.
Last obvious activity on the spec/issue tracker is a month ago (fairly recent), blog six months ago, forum a year ago. Sounds alive, but not particularly active.
Forgejo started implementing it but it's very far from being useful in practice yet. A lot of work needs to be done first[1], might take years, I guess.
Okay, so this is actually GitHub's mastodon. I'm down. Honestly, i was just thinking of moving to Gitlab because I have a feeling GitHub might start being terrible soon.
Also see tangled.sh, which is GitHub's BlueSky (built on ATProto). It's much less mature as a forge than the ones that are being adapted for ForgeFed, but the social support is already very useful in a way that no forge that wants to implement ForgeFed is yet.
This is the dream right? Self host all your repos but still have contact with the community. The other alternative forges like forejo are cool but feel like simply turning the clock back on GitHub.
I hope ActivityPub is the right protocol for this.
I have been using Mastodon for a couple of years now and frequently can't access media which is more than a couple days old from other servers, and I see only a subset of the replies, toots and stars...
> Without federation, we end up having to choose between:
> Centralizing into huge profit-oriented websites, where we're powerless
> Hosting our code on a small website where we're in control and freedom but isolated from the community
Yes, yes, yes, yes!!!! This would be a huge boost for everyone. I'm sure I'm not alone in disliking github, but begrudgingly using it quite a lot[0] because realistically, the alternatives create barriers to entry for a lot of people.
I think this will take a long time to catch on, but hopefully in several years time, the point where all the world's open source projects were beholden to a single tech giant will seem like a strange footnote.
[0] I've shifted a lot of projects to codeberg, but still mirror them all to github.
I still believe that it'd be easier to add better tooling to the already existing email integration. Nothing is stopping a desktop app to allow users to easily set up git+email and view/comment/preview/apply patches in a clean and easy-to-use interface.
Activitypub just brings so much complexity. Activitypub works best when you're not using it like a website but rather have a dedicated "activitypub" client. Otherwise you'll visit a repo, try to add a pr/issue/etc, it will ask you to sign in to your instance. You'll be redirected, sign in and then see the same repo but on your instance where you can then do the operations. The whole UX is just really confusing.
Any new forge that wishes to partake in this social network also has a massive task ahead of it, because creating an activitypub integration is a lot of work. It's not easy.
Most importantly, people are already signed up to email, so the account signup part is already done too.
15 comments
[ 4.2 ms ] story [ 34.9 ms ] threadForgeFed - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37362088 - Sept 2023 (63 comments)
Last obvious activity on the spec/issue tracker is a month ago (fairly recent), blog six months ago, forum a year ago. Sounds alive, but not particularly active.
[1] https://codeberg.org/forgejo-contrib/federation/src/branch/m...
> It’s a little rich, pardon the pun, to cash a check for $20 billion and then whine about fintechs freeriding on your IT spend.
[0] https://github.com/git-bug/git-bug
[1] https://github.com/git-bug/git-bug/issues/172
I have been using Mastodon for a couple of years now and frequently can't access media which is more than a couple days old from other servers, and I see only a subset of the replies, toots and stars...
> Centralizing into huge profit-oriented websites, where we're powerless
> Hosting our code on a small website where we're in control and freedom but isolated from the community
Yes, yes, yes, yes!!!! This would be a huge boost for everyone. I'm sure I'm not alone in disliking github, but begrudgingly using it quite a lot[0] because realistically, the alternatives create barriers to entry for a lot of people.
I think this will take a long time to catch on, but hopefully in several years time, the point where all the world's open source projects were beholden to a single tech giant will seem like a strange footnote.
[0] I've shifted a lot of projects to codeberg, but still mirror them all to github.
Activitypub just brings so much complexity. Activitypub works best when you're not using it like a website but rather have a dedicated "activitypub" client. Otherwise you'll visit a repo, try to add a pr/issue/etc, it will ask you to sign in to your instance. You'll be redirected, sign in and then see the same repo but on your instance where you can then do the operations. The whole UX is just really confusing.
Any new forge that wishes to partake in this social network also has a massive task ahead of it, because creating an activitypub integration is a lot of work. It's not easy.
Most importantly, people are already signed up to email, so the account signup part is already done too.