Im doing some education material on a nodebb forum, where want the answer hidden until its clicked. I think its possible in HTML, as saw spolier somewhere before?
So to have something like
Why did the chicken cross the road Answer
When Answer is clicked it changes to
To get to the other side
Hey everyone,
I've recently set up my NodeBB forum and I'm having a really frustrating issue with the email system.
Basically, I've configured NodeBB to send registration emails and updates using my Gmail account (with an "app password" for authentication). I left all the email templates with their default settings thinking they'd work fine out of the box.
The problem is that ALL the emails are going straight to recipients' spam folders! Not ideal when you're trying to get people to verify their accounts or receive notifications.
Here's my current setup:
SMTP Transport: Enabled
Pooled connections: Disabled
Allow self-signed certificates: Enabled
Using Gmail with app password
Default email templates
Has anyone else dealt with this issue? I'd really appreciate any suggestions on how to improve email deliverability so they actually land in inboxes instead of spam.
Are there specific settings I should change? Different email provider I should try? Any tweaks to the email templates that might help?
Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!
Its been the bain of my life!
Ive said it before, Emails is the biggest issue with nodebb
If the menu could be reworked somehow to make it clearer / work better it would massively help nodebbs adoptance. Because people have given up with nodebb because of it.
tl;dr — you can now find remote categories and see your tracked/watched categories in /world.
A new alpha version of NodeBB was tagged today: v4.3.0-alpha.3. The biggest change is to the /world route, which up until now showed a list of topics from outside of the local NodeBB instance.
New to this alpha release:
A quick search widget was added, allowing you to directly search for remote categories. There is no need to navigate to to the search page to discover new categories.
Your list of tracked and watched categories will show at the top of the page.
"Tracking" and "Watching" categories—both local and remote—is how content discovery happens in NodeBB. Tracked categories will have new content show up in the "unread" page, while watched categories take that a step further and notify you when new content is posted.
Tracking and watching a category will tell NodeBB to subscribe to that remote community for updates
At this time we're continuing to look for stability issues with the remote category integration. We'll be working on QoL fixes as we move into the beta phase this/next week.
This looks good.
Just my thoughts on Lemmy, I have various issues with it not federating well to various site at times. I mention this only if you encounter testing issues with Lemmy, more likely the issue is their side.
It has some good features but its frustrating as the instance I use appears to have bugs!
Im getting some errors on my site that Im not getting on here. So I guess the bug is fixed here.
When will these fixes been rolled out to main, so I dont need to download the 'alpha version'? 1000046469.jpg
Today we're releasing NodeBB v4.2.0. Most of the changes pertain to minor updates to our existing ActivityPub integration.
Categories can now follow regular users
v4 launched with the ability for NodeBB to synchronize categories with other "group" type remote accounts. While it was possible to follow regular users, their content did not properly load into the category. This has now been fixed.
Actual handling (not just pretend ✨) of content from Ghost :ghost:
Added button to view original profile of remote users
Better handling of content for remote chat messages (non-public notes)
Forking and moving posts between topics now announced by the category
Separate chat message length cutoff for remote messages
Improved link handling on remote content
Categories now have a handle in the description; added an additional setting for a remote-only addendum for local categories
The "View Original" button for user profiles is located in the sidebar of any remote user profile:
Theres improvement, more in my World now on the tags Im following, but these posts all say by 'Guest'.
When Im looking at the same thing from Lemmy there is more detail?
Are some of the fields not being picked up?
Edit: The problem may be on Lemmy side. I have notifications that dont go well from Lemmy to anywhere else. As mentioned before I have found Lemmy frustrating as it is good for searching and finding things, but so far its been unreliable in federating out to other places.
Another annoyance is I followed myself on Lemmy from here but it only says 'cancel follow request' not 'following'. But I never got an option to accept follow request on Lemmy side.
I really enjoy the federation feature very much, we move a lot of interesting fediverse threads into the forum and also have people from "outside" replying to threads.
Doing this, I've come across a UX issue (well, two) when moving in threads into the forum:
I spot a thread somewhere in fedi that I want in the forum
I paste the URL of a post from the thread into the nodeBB search bar
I click "show results as topics"
I find only that post and anything upthread from it
I move that thread into the forum
To get all the subthreads into the forum, I gather all the URLs of the leaves of the thread, search for them (as topics) and they federate in
Any future replies are not federated, unless they @ a forum user og any forum user follows the person replying (and even then maybe not, Fedi is Mysterious)
I would like:
A fetch-all-replies button to push after point 4) above, to get the whole thread from the original instance.
An automated reply-fetcher polling for new replies in the original thread (w. exponential back-off etc.)
Maybe this already exists or is raised somewhere else? If so, feel free to move my post or just give me a reference.
Thanks for this really excellent piece of software :smile:
@niels This is useful question.
I've joked in the past that 'this Federation is great, when it works!'
Im not being negative at all, it quite complicated to always collate everything. Part of the problem is that although the ActivityPub is a 'standard' the other softwares have their own ways and interpretations.
As a test Im cc'ing another couple of accounts at different places, to see what arrives
@evehiclefan @isurg
@admin
So 3/3 there, messages received and replies worked.
However when I view this thread from Lemmy the posts arent in the correct order, which is odd because they have timestamps on.
So its has posts like; 6minutes ago, 9 minutes ago, 5 minutes ago, 7minutes ago!
So Lemmy time ordering posts not working perfectly!
The upcoming possibility of browsing to remote federated categories/communities has me thinking about interesting use cases for it.
Note that Lemmy, PieFed, mBin, and other "community-centric" software already do support this, so it's nothing new, I'm actually playing catch-up.
One interesting use case centers around NodeBB's /unread route, which tracks new topics since your last visit. Since ever, and even now in v4, this is only for local categories, but if you're able to "subscribe" to a remote category, then we could enable use of this page for that content too.
Think about waking up and seeing a self-curated feed of new content from your subscribed communities! There are some interesting parallels to RSS here, too.
What other forum-centric use cases do you think would be enhanced by the ability to browse remote categories?
If a site has a 'niche' theme and you want to find people with likeminded interests out in the Fediverse, the searching would be useful.
Correct me if I am wrong, but Mastodon doesn't seem to have categories, Ive only seen it on Lemmy.
In a way a category on Lemmy is like a nodebb instance, as most nodebb instances are for a certain area.
So one might argue that posting on a particular nodebb forum is akin to posting on a Lemmy category?
Just to say there are a lot of things NodeBB is getting right, in comparison to other Federated sites.
Mastodon is ok in some respects but when replies to threads come through, the response appears in the feed alone and out of context!
Nodebb shows the whole thread in World, which is far better for following the discussion.
As for Lemmy, not sure if the instance Im on is updated to latest version, but some things dont work well. @Julian I only heard about Lemmy via you .. (Sometimes I wish Id never gone there lol)
It is good for searching, but its been problematic in other areas. Do you know who codes Lemmy and do they visit here, or is it someone in your federation network?
And, as for Threads, I thought that was going to be Fediverse compatible? I turned the Federate setting on but no messages I tried were ever sent or received! ?
I followed [email protected] from my account on this instance, and another nodebb instance.
This one shows Following, the other shows pending!
Follows dont need acceptance do they, why the difference? 1000042774.jpg1000042776.jpg
Also, why a settings icon only on my nodebb instance?!
Thanks, I tried unfollowing and following again, but its always the same.
On this instance it says following and my one it says 'cancel follow request' although the pop up box said 'You are now follwing etc'
Edit: I tried from an non admin account on my instance, that does the normal follow/unfollow, like here.
So wheres the code that makes it different for admins, as that doesnt make any sense to have it different?
Yea, odd, I made a second account on mysite and that follows and unfollows normally.
So its a mystery why my first Admin account is doing it differently.
Maybe one day we will figure out whats altering the behaviour
> #FediverseHouse this feels like an irrelevant echo chamber, I really miss the grassroots #DIY that built this space in the first place. This #maistreaming is too much noise vs signal... currently the grassroots #DIY space is a hollow shell
(two posts combined)
That immediately got me on edge as someone new to ActivityPub in 2024. Does this mean I'm "mainstream", and somehow "bad"?
Mainstream adoption is good and a step in the right direction. I personally think ActivityPub isn't ready for general mainstream consumption, but we as a group are rapidly closing the gap and I'd much rather continue building momentum instead of waiting for the opportune moment.
Here's the hot take that I was going to originally write, but thought came off as too combative:
> It sounds like you feel like ActivityPub development only counts when you're toiling away in obscurity.
As someone who's hacking away on a platform that hasn't been "mainstream" for over a decade (forum/BBS software), I bristle at the notion that what I do doesn't count as grassroots or DIY. You don't have to be the perpetual underdog to do good in the world.
I might be wrong, but it sounds like Hamish feels like big players are coming in and taking the ball away... that big players' clout and presence takes away from the attention that smaller DIY projects receive.
Maybe... but if the fediverse is 100x larger with a big player, and they take 99% of the eyeballs, have they really taken anything away from you?
I know the initial brief was not for nodebb to replace other ActivityPub clients (like Mastodon and Lemmy.)
But theres some things Im not keen on in Mastodon, and Lemmy is annoying. Although good for searching, it is far from ideal in other respects.
So there is a gap in the market for a ActivityPub system based on Node (and not an exotic combination of other languages)
So, theres a good opportunity for Nodebb to fill that gap!
My first experience with Federation was with Calckey, (fork of Miskey.)
I liked some things about it, but there were forks of forks and I never knew in the end which variant of it was best to use :)
We just released version 4.1.0 of NodeBB. Here are the latest features you can now take advantage of!
As an aside, for the first time in a long while, both @baris and I are working on the same codebase again. Up until version 4 was released, I'd been working on the activitypub branch and periodically merging in the latest changes from develop. It's nice to be home! :house_with_garden:
Improved federation of Group actors :left_speech_bubble:
We've improved the activity synchronization for followed group actors. Local updates/likes/etc. are now federated outward by the category in addition to those from remote users. Thanks to
@rimu and @freamon who worked with me on debugging this one.
Mentions and Emoji now federating out in source.content :wave:
Emoji and mentions have been sent out to followers since v4, but that wasn't reflected in the raw markdown content that we also send along. That has been remediated now, and this change improves nodebb-to-nodebb federation.
Video object type now parseable :tv:
NodeBB is now able to ingest Peertube Video objects, and render then in a topic just like other pieces of content.
Very complicated all this Fediverse stuff! Far from the dream of having one account for everything, I seemed to need an account on every service to get the whole picture. I have now Nodebb, Mastodon, Lemmy, PixelFed and Peertube!
I dont know if Im just not using it properly, or if seeing everything from any one of these site is even possible? @julian how far off is the prospect of using my nodebb account for all Federated chat, is that even achievable in long term?
I still cant post into a community on Lemmy from a nodebb instance.
Ive had more tries and looked at other posts from other sites, which are going in. It seems they are directed in there somehow, not just by mentioning the group in the post. @julian did you get any idea on this?
A conversational context is what the ForumWG uses to describe what you might see as a reply tree or comment thread. One of the short-to-medium term goals of the ForumWG is to get conversational backfill working reliably.
What this means — conversational backfill means that when you encounter a post/status/note/etc. (e.g. you're mentioned or boosted/shared something), there is a reliable and comprehensive way to retrieve the entire conversation around it, so you are not interacting with the object on its own, but in its proper context with all its sibling replies.
We plan to achieve this with a combination of a top-down (FEP-driven) and bottom-up (implementor-first) approach. While this sounds incongruent, top-down approaches tend to overcomplicate and bottom-up approaches tend to violate the protocol (unintentionally of course :joy:.)
There are a number of independent top-down efforts to achieve this:
At this time, the ForumWG is only recommending the following:
Publishers SHOULD use context for grouping related objects in a thread (but this is not the only way to use context).
There is general agreement over:
A context SHOULD resolve to a resource.
There are concerns over:
What that resource is (as:OrderedCollection, a new type, something else?)
What is included in that context (plain objects or activities)
State of the Bottom-Up approach
The bottom-up approach is results-oriented, and while certain implementors may follow certain FEPs, the overarching goal is "cross-compatible conversational backfill".
Separately, these implementors are (or have signalled interest in) implementing conversational backfill:
context resolves to an OrderedCollection containing activities
Outgoing conversational backfill is tested and working (against Mitra)
What's Next
This thread will likely contain updates and discussion from related parties about their implementations and what they wish to do next. In the cruelest irony of ironies, because conversational backfill is not ubiquitous yet, you will need to "View Original URL" in order to see all of the replies.
The ForumWG will meet again on 6 March 13h00 EST where all of this will be discussed, as well as planning out the future focus items for the ForumWG.
If you are an implementor, there is no reason you cannot join the fray. Boost this post, reply to it, join the conversation(al context)!!
If you're not an implementor, boost me anyway :stuck_out_tongue:
Previously discussed, it takes a while to follow a set of people who might post on the topic of your forum.
Having done that, and got an interesting World feed, its a shame that isnt available to new users
Suggestion, World category has MyWorld, and World tabs
Where World follows Admins followings, and MyWorld shows post from the users followings
Hence new users get access to a World feed which is already populated.
It would make the most of this feature, that is completely empty for new users, who probably wont have any idea how to start getting posts in there
Hey
@julian I'm currently experimenting with a NodeBB setup that has ActivityPub enabled. I saw that documentation was a little bit sparse, and just wanted to expand my understanding.
I've seen NodeBB interact with different parts of the Fediverse. In my setup, I see that categories can follow existing Actors, such as profiles, blogs, and Lemmy Groups. Are categories themselves capable of being Actors in NodeBB?
We're kind of interested in maybe setting up a user community on We Distribute's infra, and integrating into the Threadiverse with Lemmy, Piefed, Mbin, and everyone else. I'm just trying to understand capabilities and limitations.
Why I think that #NodeBB's latest release can be a game changer for the #Fediverse
For years, before social media came along, forums were the main place to discuss with others on the internet. Communities were built, thrived, a few survived, most were swallowed by Reddit and Facebook groups.
But there are still many websites/organizations/collectives who need an online space to talk with their members! Newspapers, workers unions, anarchist collectives, football fan clubs - all of those might already be running a forum, or would be open to running one. And now we have a great fedi solution for this, which is primarily a forum, but is also a gateway to the rest of fedi! Especially with the recent crap going on on mainstream social media (Zuckerberg's rightwing turn and Musk openly going full on nazi), I believe there is now an opportunity to suggest this to whatever kind of community you are involved in: "With this platform, we can have a forum for us, but also escape corporate social media!". It is a great idea.
I am a little jealous, to be honest, as this was what I've been saying for years now, what I suggested back in #Firefish, and what we wanted to do with #Catodon - but I'm not a dev and the projects I've been involved in haven't managed to do much in this direction.
@julian got there first - well done!
Check out NodeBB, it's very nicely done, and I'm sure it will only get better, since they just released their first version with ActivityPub support. Think of any group/team you're in touch with that might consider hosting a (federated) forum, and suggest it to them! IMO federated communities are far more suitable and make much more sense for the Fediverse, instead of trying to conceptualize it as a kind of Twitter replacement, and they can serve the target of decentralization much better. Let's spread this!
@Rynach said in Why I think that #NodeBB's latest release can be a game changer for the #Fediverse:
> <p><span><a href="/user/panos%40catodon.social">@<span>panos</span></a></span> <span><a href="/user/julian">@<span>julian</span></a></span> I should note that there is already a Fediverse-native forum software called <a href="https://mstdn.io/tags/Lemmy" rel="tag">#<span>Lemmy</span></a> with a frontend that can imitate the look of old-school forums called LemmyBB. <a href="https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmyBB" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer"><span>https://</span><span>github.com/LemmyNet/lemmyBB</span><span></span></a></p>
I was curious to look at this, but Lemmybb code hasnt been updated in 2years and I couldn't find any other running instance.
What happened to the project?
I thought that if I entered a Fediverse address here, like '
@FrankM,' it would follow that user, and their posts would then appear in the corresponding category.
But that's not happening. There's also no meaningful error message. The actor you see in the image probably appears because I entered an incorrect address.
Does this feature need to be enabled on the Fediverse instance 'nrw.social'?
I think some of the words, make ActivityPub more complicated to understand. Like what is an Actor ?
This may be basic to some, but Im still not sure what an Actor is in this context, and why that word was used.
Would be grateful if anyone can explain in one line :)
Excuse my headline, its just one of my favourite phrases, 'if not now when' :blush:
And in all seriousness, weeks ticking on:
I have been waiting with bated breath since Jan 1st for v4 to become main branch. With Julian saying a couple of weeks ago "it would be soon", and "v3.12.1 was last and would be locked for new features." Since there's been v3.12.2 ...
When v4 is main, easier to update than downloading alpha versions :)
I had the opportunity to work with the team at OpenBeta on the re-launching of their community forums. They're one of our earliest v4 testers, since they've agreed to have ActivityPub enabled! ...
As an example as the disconnect between the thread on Nodebb and Discourse, [email protected] 's post is missing from nodebb sites thread. 1000025058.jpg
And conversley some of Ceasars posts are in this thread but not that one.
Isnt the goal to duplicate all posts in all places so they stay in sync?
For a lot of things in ActivityPub, there are almost direct parallels in NodeBB. An as:Note object pairs well with a NodeBB post, an as:Person is a NodeBB user, etc.
One thing that didn't map 1:1 was the Delete activity, which at surface level, seems rather straightforward — just delete the object! However, once you dig in, there are some additional considerations:
in NodeBB, we have two separate states for content removal.
A delete, where the post is still present (but its content unavailable to non-privileged users), and a
A purge, where the post is scrubbed from the database entirely, and all references to it, removed
in ActivityPub, there is a single activity, as:Delete
Implementors may opt to replace the object representation with an as:Tombstone (how quaint!), but they may also just opt to use a 404
So there are some nuances that are left intentionally vague.
This is how NodeBB will interpret the protocol specification, and how we will align it with our own dual-state post deletion mechanic (delete & purge):
When a local post is deleted, we will federate out an Update(Tombstone) referencing the id
Afterwards, if the content is retrieved, an as:Tombstone will be served.
Deleted posts in NodeBB still maintain their place in the topic, so when the context is retrieved, the note will still be present in the collection.
If we receive an Update(Tombstone), we will delete the local representation of the post
When a local post is purged, we will federate out a Delete(Note)
Afterwards, if the content is retrieved, we will serve a 404
The note will no longer exist in the context collection
If we receive a Delete(Note) (or Article, or Question, etc.) we will not delete it immediately. Instead, as kaniini advises, we will attempt to retrieve the object from the origin:
If we see an as:Tombstone, we will delete the post (soft delete)
If we encounter a 404 or 410, we will purge the post (hard delete)
I'm writing this out less as a guideline for myself, but to solicit opinions and to give others a chance to point out if I've interpreted the spec incorrectly.
Just my thought, but the whole Delete then Purge has always irritated me.
Delete should just be Delete.
If a Mod wants to temporarily hide something they could move post, or delete and keep a copy.
The only thing Delete then Purge does is add extra step to removing something!
Slow today
Is there any problem with this site / host? ...
Can Admin 'verify' a user if email not confirmed? ( community.nodebb.org )
I have section on nodebb forum that can only be viewed by verified users. ...
Explaining the fediverse is a hard problem. ( community.nodebb.org )
I had the opportunity to work with the team at OpenBeta on the re-launching of their community forums. They're one of our earliest v4 testers, since they've agreed to have ActivityPub enabled! ...