
Bringing Blogging to the Fediverse - exolymph
https://write.as/matt/bringing-blogging-to-the-fediverse
======
chriswarbo
I'd really like to see distributed comments across self-hosted sites and
blogs, but I haven't come across a decent way to prevent spam.

I used to embed Disqus in my site, but wasn't really happy with its
centralised nature (plus it was _far_ slower and bloated than anything else I
had; generally a few KB of static HTML with "motherfucking-website"
aesthetics).

~~~
frio
I imagine that the answer to that may well end up being the same as it is for
email. When a comment arrives, check a few centralised reputation systems
(like DNSBL), and then perform a statistical analysis of the comment against
some corpus (like SpamAssassin et all) before allowing it or not. We could
even introduce greylisting too.

~~~
KajMagnus
DNSBL — I'm wondering those solutions are never going to work totally well?
When even Facebook gets rather many spammers, don't they. It'll be a tech race
and the clever spammers can continue spamming?

I'm thinking the only? way to deal with clever spammers, that's really going
to work, is to manually review the first N comments by each new commenter, and
only approve the comments, if they add value to the blog post. Once someone
has been able to add value to the blog post 3? 5? times (e.g. provided more
useful info or thoughts, or asked on-topic questions whose answers = good for
others to know too) — then the likelihood that that person is a spammer is
maybe 0.01%, ok to auto approve his/her comments hereafter. I actually built
such blog commenting software, link in my profile.

~~~
paulryanrogers
That still requires a centralized reputation system to be the clearing house.
Unless people frequently comment on the same blogs. And in that case the
activity would be more centralized again.

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frio
This is neat. The Fediverse is a really exciting development in the re-
decentralization of the web. Is there any intent to also expose published
articles as, say, IPFS blobs or Dat archives? It'd be cool to see some of
these services starting to expand into those realms too.

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edhelas
This is already possible with the XMPP protocol for many years now :) The good
thing is that it simply relies on XMPP Pubsub and the widely deployed Atom
standard.

You only need an XMPP account with a quite recent server (pas few years) and a
client that supports that, such as Movim
([https://movim.eu/](https://movim.eu/)) or Salut à Toi ([https://salut-a-
toi.org/](https://salut-a-toi.org/)).

And here is an example of a Blog handled with XMPP
[https://nl.movim.eu/?blog/edhelas@movim.eu](https://nl.movim.eu/?blog/edhelas@movim.eu).
It is also possible to have feeds handled by several users at the same time
(called Communities on Movim)
[https://nl.movim.eu/?node/pubsub.movim.eu/Movim](https://nl.movim.eu/?node/pubsub.movim.eu/Movim).

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augustocallejas
What advantage does bringing ActivityPub to this blogging platform have over
just subscribing via an RSS reader?

~~~
Boulth
Interaction. Comments (toots) and likes (boosts) are built in the platform.
And you don't need to log in anywhere to comment, you're using your one
ActivityPub identity. While commenting you can add additional people to the
thread, recommending the post to your friends.

~~~
anchpop
I'm new to this landscape, how do I have one activitypub identity? I have a
Mastodon account, but that's about it

~~~
Boulth
I mean you can use that account to comment on any ActivityPub enabled blog, no
need to register there or for any comments system they support.

One identity may refer also to running your own server, then you're safe from
any extinction events :)

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dest
I use Diaspora* as a blog platform

~~~
KajMagnus
Haven't heard about that way of using D*. It'd be interesting to have a look
at your Diaspora blog? If you'd like to post a link?

~~~
dest
Here you are

[https://pod.storel.li/u/alexandre](https://pod.storel.li/u/alexandre)

then, with a script executed periodically, I convert the Diaspora* Atom feed
into a static page:

[https://alexandre.storelli.fr/](https://alexandre.storelli.fr/)

~~~
KajMagnus
Looks aesthetically nice I think with D* as a blog. B.t.w. Taxi Driver is a
great movie :- ) (I recognized the avatar image) & Another World, I played it
too all the way to the end.

I couldn't post a comment about eating vegan food, compared to meat (I'm a
pescetarian b.t.w.), at:
[https://pod.storel.li/p/164706](https://pod.storel.li/p/164706) — I was a bit
confused about this: _" meat requires much more fossil fuel to produce than
vegetables and grains"_. Fossil fuel to produce food got me confused (my first
thought was: _" But humans and cows don't eat oil?"_) ... and apparently
that's for transporting the food and maybe preparing it in food factories or
maybe keeping it cold, etc. (?)

... Apparently one needs a D* account oneself, to post comments (?),
[https://wiki.diasporafoundation.org/FAQ_for_users#Who_can_co...](https://wiki.diasporafoundation.org/FAQ_for_users#Who_can_comment_on.2C_reshare.2C_or_like_my_public_post.3F)

~~~
dest
Thanks for your remarks! Good catch for Taxi Driver!

To add comments, indeed you need a D* account. The network is federated, go
register at one of the pods listed here [0] or start hosting a pod yourself
(which I do).

As for the article about bicycling vs car, it's a comparison of global
contributions. It's not only about fossil fuel burned in motors, it also about
methane from cow's farts for example [1]. The conclusion is that being a vegan
bicyclist is the best option with regards to greenhouse gas emissions.

In the end, if the script to generate the static page is of any interest to
you, tell me and I'll put it somewhere on Github.

[0] [https://the-federation.info/diaspora](https://the-
federation.info/diaspora) [1] [https://thinkprogress.org/methane-emissions-
are-spiking-but-...](https://thinkprogress.org/methane-emissions-are-spiking-
but-it-might-be-more-cow-than-car-791e5233dc2a/)

~~~
KajMagnus
Ok thanks for the reply & details about emissions (e.g. cows & methane).
Actually I have a blog and it's static pages already :- ) (+ blog comments)

~~~
dest
Just curious, would you share the link?

~~~
KajMagnus
[https://www.kajmagnus.blog/new-embedded-
comments](https://www.kajmagnus.blog/new-embedded-comments) (that's the only
blog post this far. I'd like to write about society & people later on in the
future) — and here is the software for the blog comments, in case you're
interested: [https://www.talkyard.io](https://www.talkyard.io) (a tiny one
person startup)

