new from me: FR#156 - Share Where?
on @Mastodon 's new Share button, the Mastodon API and protocol ownership
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@fediversereport @Mastodon The share button does not use the Mastodon API and has nothing to do with whether 3rd party apps or different platforms choose to implement the Mastodon API or not.
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@Gargron @fediversereport @Mastodon Can the share button also link to other platforms, or only to a Mastodon instance?
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@hiker @Mastodon @fediversereport If it has a /share page, it works. The tool doesn't care.
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@Gargron
But why is it called Mastodon Share Button and not Fediverse Share Button? @Mastodon @fediversereport
But why is it called Mastodon Share Button and not Fediverse Share Button? @Mastodon @fediversereport
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@hiker @Mastodon @fediversereport My impression is that a lot of people would be upset with us if we published something claiming to be a "fediverse" tool, as if we own the fediverse. Of course, there's also not nearly the same amount of brand recognition for the fediverse as a concept. There are at least 3 unofficial symbol proposals and most people outside the fediverse aren't familiar with any of them.
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@hiker @Mastodon @fediversereport Probably the body best suited to publish something like a fediverse share tool is the @swf. Regardless, I think we're well within our rights to publish a tool our users asked for, catered to our own platform. Not everything has to be for everyone. PeerTube has a PeerTube app and Sepia Search, nobody is upset (nor should they be) that those don't work with Mastodon.
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@fediversereport @Mastodon it's interesting to mention email protocols like IMAP or SMTP as the example of what should be since neither of those (and indeed POP) started out as a standard either, they lived for a long time as same kind of defacto standards as the Mastodon API but after many versions eventually became actual ones.
@fediversereport Good overview as usual.
One point I would have added is that, while Mastodon announced this Share button a while back, a “pure” ActivityPub-based way to expose share URLs and similar features exists in FEP-3b86 (https://fediverse.codeberg.page/fep/fep/3b86/) and has also been gaining prominence recently (c.f. the list of implementations).
For example, ActivityPub for WordPress published its v8.0.0 today, which includes new “Like” and “Share” buttons that use this proposal.
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@julian a thats a good addition, thanks!
@fediversereport@mastodon.social I'd say a protocol handler would be one small step in making this better handled.
The friction with a global "share to the fediverse" button is the instance chooser. Not knowing what your home instance is is a major sticking point.
A protocol handler could allow you to skip this step, assuming you have an app that has registered against it.
Otherwise, yes, the same fallback would need to continue to exist (enter your home server! blah blah)
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@julian @fediversereport this was tried and then rolled back at some point, for reasons, though I forget what those were
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@halcy@icosahedron.website I'd love to learn more about prior attempts at utilising the protocol handler. Was it Mastodon who tried?
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@julian @fediversereport https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/pull/4511 Mastodon, and quite early. I think the removal (or at least depriorization) was because the browser UI for them was very poor and very flaky, though I don't recall details.
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@halcy@icosahedron.website thanks for sharing! I'll have a look through and see what happened