Big improvements to ActivityPub on Micro.blog manton.org

@manton HUGE! 🤌😚

@muhh Thanks!

@manton This is so awesome! I love the interoperability between these platforms, and the ability to consolidate things back into Micro.blog is super handy. Thanks, Manton!

@manton I’ve never looked at this before, but have activated it now. Will have to check on the Mastodon side, if I have to do some alterations there. Some Executive Dysfunction at the moment, so maybe tomorrow…

Also, got your newsletter today, and I was a bit surprised that there was a new “A day in the life of…” happening on the 13.th, ss I’ve missed this somehow. I’ve signed up. 😃👍

@manton I think scheduled posts are showing up in feeds before they should right now. Just flagging!

@lex Thanks, I'll take a look at that and fix it.

@manton hey, question, if I get a second blog (hosted here) on my account, does it also gets a Mastodon-compatible username?

@manton This seems interesting but for those who have no Mastodon presence, this doesn’t change much, right? Or maybe I’m not understanding it correctly

@manton Maybe something’s wrong or I’m misunderstanding, but when I go to my Micro.blog name in the Mastodon app, it shows no posts?

@pimoore When you first set it up, it won’t have any posts but will get new ones. (I might be able to improve this later.)

@pratik It’s actually best if you don’t use Mastodon. It’ll let other Mastodon folks follow your blog.

@pcora It’s set for each Micro.blog account. So multiple blogs on the same account will only get one username. You can create a new account + blog if you want it separate.

@manton Ah! So people not with Micro.blog hosted accounts but with Mastodon accounts can follow me? On Mastodon or on Micro.blog?

@pratik On Mastodon. They don’t need to know anything about Micro.blog. Kind like a specialized feed, except it can be 2-way with replies.

@manton That’s what’s weird, I’ve had that setup for quite some time.

@manton Got it. Don’t know anything about Mastodon. How will they find me on Mastodon? Just plug in my Micro.blog feed in their Mastodon instance? Guess I have to get up to speed on how that works although have no reason to open another front for my blogging. We do seem to have “lost” some people to Mastodon.

@pratik The Mastodon people can follow your blog on micro.blog by entering your fediverse username @pratik in their search. They then have your posts automatically in their feed and can interact with it. You don’t need to do anything.

@yatil So when they reply to me, I can reply back and they’ll see it on Mastodon? How do I follow someone on Mastodon on Micro.blog?

@pratik I think the replies will work and yes, you can follow somebody on Mastodon from microblog. Go to the Discover tab and type in a username that you're interested in following. For example, my user name at mastodon is @dennyhenke. If you search for that, you should come up with my account at social.Coop.

@pratik And a related sidenote that I just learned today from Manton's podcast is that you can actually follow any blog from within Micro.blog even if they don't have an account here by using the same method. Go to the search field in discover tab, and type in the domain of a blog that you're interested in following and it will appear in your timeline if you choose to follow it's kind of magical!

@pimoore I think someone has to be following an account before Mastodon will start pulling posts. Were you following your account?

@manton This a great change.

@Denny Thanks. I’m aware of that feature but it hasn’t worked for me a couple of times I have tried it. I will try again

How do I know if people exist on Mastodon if I am not on Mastodon? Is there a directory of people who were on Micro.blog but now are on Mastodon?

@pratik To my knowledge there's no specific directory like that. However you can go to mastodon.social/web/explo... and search for people who you think you may know. It's not quice the same as being able to log into an instance where you have an account but it's a good substitute. So if there's someone in particular that you have a username for you could search and find them.

@pratik Also this is totally optional, so feel free to ignore it if you don't want to open things up to the Mastodon world. Someone isn't likely to accidentally find your username unless you publicize it or participate in Mastodon conversations.

@pimoore It's possible that the Mastodon server still hasn't cached your recent posts. However, I'll look into improving this... I think we can make the posts history available and it's just not something I've worked on yet.

@manton ... four years? 😲

These are excellent updates. It's great to see separate networks working together.

@manton A good update Manton.But I have similar questions as @pratik, around discovery. If I already have a mastadon acoount, does this act as a secondary one? How do I participate in Mastodon conversations? On Micro.blog? If I reply to a toot on Micro.blog, does it show as a reply on Mastodon instance?

@manton @pratik This is amazing. I'll have to give it a try!

@manton Ah! Good to know. Wouldn’t want to be out there in the Wild West ☺️

@manton @amit @pratik I turned this feature on and was able to follow @kerim via my mastodon account @kerim, but when I sent a toot to my micro address via my mastodon address, it never showed up under micro.blog/mentions? Is something broken?

@amit Pretty much “yes” to all of those. For participating it’s just clicking Reply on any Mastodon posts you might see, and any Mastodon user can be @-mentioned from Micro.blog.

@kerim Can you email help with the post and I'll try to see what happened? That should work.

@kerim I just sent a toot your way from my account at Mastodon to test.

@Denny that works thanks. I sent a reply to that as well.

@amit I THINK the issue is that Micro Blog creates a unique Mastodon name for us all - e.g. mine is @JohnPhilpin which in my case is a replica of my Micro Blog posts.

Meanwhile, my 'real' mastodon name is @fractals - which follows that MicroBlog account. I have created a 'separation' in my mind - so I only engage with @fractals - so not sure - yet - how this is going to help me.

@mcg I wasn’t, but I’ll give that a try and see what happens.

@manton YAY! Thanks thanks!

@manton any advice for what to do if I signed up for micro.blog but I already have a mastodon in another instance? I’m not clear on how to tie these together :( I’m not good at mastodon apparently

@pratik Exactly. To follow someone on mastodon, go to the Discover tab and enter their mastodon username (@username@example.com) as a search phrase. Micro.blog is then making the connection and you can follow them. Posts show up on your timeline like if they are on micro.blog and you can interact normally with them.

@amit did you activate it in micro.blog/account/m... If I understood @manton's post correctly you need to it yourself for your own domain to work.

@manton

If there’s no custom domain, what does the Mastodon-compatible username look like? @username of course! In this way, Micro.blog looks a lot more like another Mastodon instance, but an instance that also has a full suite of blogging features, IndieWeb protocols, and everything else we’ve been building for years.

I abandoned my barely active account on birdsite recently and I was giving the Fosstodon instance a try, but I’ve been cross-posting from my IndieWebsite to M.b for a while now. Micro.blog is offering (including free users like me) a great opportunity to bridge 3 communities together. This is game changer.

@Raineer Really up to you... You could keep Mastodon and Micro.blog separate. You could (mostly) consolidate to using just a Micro.blog username and use the Mastodon one less often. You could cross-post between them. I think most people will need to experiment a little to see what works best for them.

@amit Oops, you aren't missing anything. It is not supposed to create a separate thread. First time I've seen that, so I may have broken something this week. Will get it sorted out.

@kandr3s Thank you!