Exploring Federation and Public Communication On Gemini
Re: On Bubble, centralization and federation
I recently read this very nice post by JeanG3nie, and I share their viewpoints and believe that the Gemini community should establish a federation specification. I believe simplicity should be our guiding principle, and attempting to replicate ActivityPub would be both unproductive and unpopular. I've formulated a concept that is basically a public mailing list with some additional elements.
Here's an outline of the idea:
- It's basically a mailing list.
- Use an email-style address system for users: `@user@example.org`.
- When a message or post is created by someone from `example.org`, it receives a unique ID and is publicly served at a standardized path: `gemini://example.org/path/to/id`.
- Include a "recipients" field in each post (optionally auto-populated based on @mentions within the post's text).
- Send the post, by email or possibly via Misfin, to the addresses specified in the "recipients" field.
- Upon receiving a post from `@user@example.org`, `server.com` notifies the tagged users (potentially by delivering the post to Misfin mailboxes).
- `server.com` also makes the received post available publicly at `gemini://server.com/path/to/id`.
- Since this would be interoperable with email/misfin, there should be a tag in the message header identifying the message as public, to prevent the publishing of private messages sent accidentally to public addresses.
- Implement a threading system, most likely by having replies reference the ID of the previous message.
- Individual implementations can decide how to handle threading and whether to fetch and display previous messages.
- To enhance discovery and engagement by topic, we can have receive-only addresses which are either general (`@allposts@example.org`) or specific (`@TUI-Gemini-Clients@example.org`), allowing individuals to address their posts accordingly.
As @skyjake pointed out, misfin is not finalized and at present this couldn't be implemented using misfin - I'm thinking ahead here, and I believe misfin would be more appropriate than email.
Now, let's envision how this system could unfold in practice. Suppose I write a post on my capsule, inviting discussion rather than addressing anyone in particular. I push it to Antenna and fill the "recipients" field with some public, receive-only addresses of a few servers where people frequently check for new posts. Consequently, my post appears on their "All Posts" page.
Let's say people decide to respond. If their server is among the ones I included, then maybe they can click on a "reply" link (while logged in with a client certificate), which generates a pre-populated reply page akin to Bubble's post composer. This page references my post's ID and includes my address in the "recipients" field. For those not on the orginal servers, copying and pasting the post ID and address is easy enough.
This proposal intentionally excludes personalized feeds, likes, and follows to maintain simplicity and focus on public communication as opposed to gamified social media dynamics.
While this concept is very incomplete and not without flaws, it could serve as a starting point. I can't wait to hear your thoughts, whether they build on my ideas or tear them down.
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