#social 2024-03-01

2024-03-01 UTC
tenma, includeals, someonewithpc, feld659, dshanske, dlehn1, TallTed and tantek joined the channel
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tantek
Good morning all! Reminder, SocialCG meeting (first Fridays now!) in ~10min: https://www.w3.org/events/meetings/6b91f267-6cb4-41ca-9a67-5035cee827dd/20240301T130000/
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tantek
Zakim, start meeting
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Zakim
inviting RRSAgent
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Zakim
RRSAgent, make logs Public
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Zakim
please title this meeting ("meeting: ..."), tantek
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RRSAgent
I have made the request, Zakim
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tantek
Meeting: Social CG
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tantek
present+
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tantek
present+ eprodrom
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tantek
present+ thisismissem
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eprodrom
scribe: eprodrom
dmitriz joined the channel
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ckolderup
present+
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tantek
present+ snarfed
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tantek
Topic: Introductions
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eprodrom
andy piper: self-introduction. Member of multiple Open Source organizations and a member of various teams, working with Mastodon and IFTAS.
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eprodrom
reilly: Reilly Spitzfaden, interested in Fediverse, audio engineer
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eprodrom
tantek: IndyWebCamp Brighton will be March 9-10. Still tickets available. Great for locals. People doing hacking and sessions on all kinds of things.
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tantek
Tickets complimentary
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eprodrom
johannes ernst: fediforum coming up March 19-20. 10 demos. Show-and-tell and unconference.
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eprodrom
Topic: Meetings
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eprodrom
dmitriz: we're on monthly CG meetings
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eprodrom
eprodrom: in calendar, will happen automatically
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tantek
present+ dmitriz
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tantek
Chair: dmitriz
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eprodrom
emelia smith: can we link from the home page?
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eprodrom
dmitriz: yes
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eprodrom
Topic: Issue triage meetings
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eprodrom
dmitriz: issue triage is happening on a regular basis
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eprodrom
eprodrom: is it worthwhile for other task forces to use issue triage time?
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eprodrom
emelia: minutes and agenda?
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eprodrom
eprodrom: yes
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eprodrom
Topic: main specs
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eprodrom
dmitriz: work has started on editor's drafts for AS2 and AP
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eprodrom
dmitriz: route for normative changes
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eprodrom
eprodrom: issues -> errata -> editor's draft
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tantek
scribe+
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tantek
eprodrom: this kind of implementers guide belongs in the ActivityPub primer on the wiki: https://www.w3.org/wiki/ActivityPub/Primer
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tantek
eprodrom: we should link from the spec to the primer
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tantek
eprodrom: all the pages in the primer are available for anyone with a W3C account to edit, will follow-up and confirm
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tantek
scribe-
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eprodrom
dmitriz: good idea to move wiki content into GitHub?
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eprodrom
emelia: GitHub discussions or other issues?
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eprodrom
tantek: questions page? Other way for people to connect?
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eprodrom
johannes: lots of discussions in Matrix group, also
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tantek
s/questions page/Questions page inside the Primer? perhaps eprodrom can create a Questions page inside Primer as a starting point to point people to
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eprodrom
johannes: worthwhile to talk about usability, other flows, etc.
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eprodrom
johannes: need a roadmap
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eprodrom
emelia: iftas is working on DSA guidance for instance operators
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eprodrom
emelia: DSA is digital services act, EU legislation for online services responsibilities
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eprodrom
emelia: most instances fall under small, micro businesses
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eprodrom
Topic: report out from task forces
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eprodrom
ryanbarrett: working on HTTP signatures. Tentative outline, initial text, ~1/3-1/2 of report.
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eprodrom
ryanbarrett: can incorporate other work from FEPs.
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eprodrom
ryanbarrett: please review.
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eprodrom
emelia: note that outline does not include disparity on versions.
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angelo
present+
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eprodrom
emelia: upgrade on roadmap?
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eprodrom
ryanbarrett: some notes on how HTTP signature works now, will consider how others use it.
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eprodrom
aarongrey: would like to see alongside spec, want to see working implementations. Minimal implementations for testing. Example infrastructure that people can build from.
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eprodrom
aarongrey: would give some examples for working with.
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eprodrom
emelia: some implementations working on modular work.
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eprodrom
dmitriz: good idea for an issue!
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eprodrom
emelia: what is the next step to get to the next version?
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eprodrom
ryanb: will open an issue for how to do this
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tantek
scribe+
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tantek
eprodrom: working on A) WebFinger ActivityPub report
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tantek
eprodrom: A has done an amazing amount of work
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tantek
eprodrom: zeroth draft of the document published at: https://swicg.github.io/activitypub-webfinger/
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tantek
eprodrom: great time to be getting feedback on this document
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tantek
eprodrom: if there is anything hard to understand or follow or technically erroneous, it would be very helpful to hear that
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tantek
eprodrom: by the next meeting I would like to take this from zeroth draft to a Draft Report for the CG
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tantek
present+ j12t
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tantek
eprodrom: I am also editing the Extensions Policy report: https://swicg.github.io/extensions-policy/
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tantek
eprodrom: it's an important part of how we make the AP ecosystem a growing expanding ecosystem that covers new ways of social interaction
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tantek
eprodrom: this has been published last week as an official Draft Report of the CG as agreed at the last meeting
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tantek
eprodrom: good time for us to be putting some of this into practice
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tantek
eprodrom: it would be good to step through this process with a widely used extension
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tantek
eprodrom: there are a few popular extensions like the Security Vocabulary that might be good candidates here
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tantek
eprodrom: if you have time, this is also an area to please collect some issues on this draft before we go to something final
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tantek
eprodrom: one part of this policy is about versioning
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tantek
eprodrom: one of the things we have tried to do with ActivityStreams context is have the tip of our version history at the W3C context document
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tantek
eprodrom: but in situations where it is important to maintain an exact version of the document, we also have a version history listing, so you can say this document uses exactly this context
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tantek
eprodrom: we have main links and also version links
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tantek
eprodrom: we have made changes in the context since the last time we published a version
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tantek
eprodrom: the current version we have listed in our version history is 1.10
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tantek
eprodrom: I did a diff, I think it was A who brought it up, we have added the vCard namespace to the main context document and alsoKnownAs term
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tantek
eprodrom: since the 1.10 was published
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tantek
eprodrom: I propose to the group that we publish a v1.11 that is at the current state
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tantek
eprodrom: that would also give us a chance to put in practice the versioning policy
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tantek
eprodrom: PROPOSAL: publish version 1.11 of Activity Streams 2.0 context document based on current state of the context document.
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tantek
dmitriz: let's give a second to talk about it before we vote
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tantek
present+ emelia
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tantek
emelia: my question is about the extensions policy, my question is about backwards compatibility. are future versions required to be backwards compatible?
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tantek
eprodrom: I think that the document as described is additive, append-only structure. It does not describe a mechanism for updating or replacing terms within the existing context.
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tantek
eprodrom: That is an important part, I'm going to open a ticket to note append-only backwards compatibility.
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tantek
dmitriz: let's vote on the proposal
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eprodrom
+1
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ckolderup
+1
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thisismissem
+1
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dmitriz
+1
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snarfed
+1
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thisismissem
plh: abstain
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tantek
dmitriz: seeing a bunch of +1s, no -1s or 0s yet
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thisismissem
bob wyman: +1
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tantek
dmitriz: no objections, proposal passed
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tantek
RESOLVED: publish version 1.11 of Activity Streams 2.0 context document based on current state of the context document.
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tantek
thisismissem: would this be related to the licensing changes?
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tantek
eprodrom: not directly related
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tantek
dmitriz: yes we should do it, not necessary to be at the same time
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tantek
s/emelia:/thisismissem:
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tantek
scribe-
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tantek
back to you eprodrom !
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tantek
scribe+
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tantek
topic: Spam attack
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tantek
eprodrom: spam attack on the fediverse, mostly direct messages directed at individuals
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tantek
eprodrom: looks like some kind of discord between different groups, using the fediverse as a battlefield
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tantek
eprodrom: lot of work going on with dealing with this large issue
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tantek
eprodrom: wanted to make sure we had a discussion here about it
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tantek
thisismissem: it wasn't commercial, it was two hacking groups of kids / teenagers. one from one discord server, another from another discord server
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tantek
thisismissem: the link in the spam was to the target discord to get taken down
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tantek
thisismissem: we have taken away some of the heat from ActivityPub platforms. did an interview with TechCrunch
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tantek
thisismissem: this is not a Mastodon platform, this is a problem with Discord in Japan allowing the kids to do hacking activity
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tantek
thisismissem: a reasonably well organized group of teenagers, potentially with an adult involved
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tantek
thisismissem: it was reported to Discord, specifically to their Child Abuse Department and they went "meh, not our problem because you're not a parent of any of the teenagers involved"
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tantek
thisismissem: this attack leveraged outdated instances, those with open registration, then automated processes to create accounts, and send the spam
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tantek
thisismissem: normally we see one instance attacked. in the case of these Japanese kids, literally 100s of servers at a time sending out the same spam.
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tantek
thisismissem: so our strategy for mitigation was very different than just one instance
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tantek
thisismissem: it was actually a much more sustained spam attack than what we've ever seen before
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tantek
thisismissem: possibly highlights a very fatal flaw in our current open federation model that we have
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tantek
thisismissem: the other thing is that Japanese police are involved. there are criminal prosecutions involved for those involved with the spam wave
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tantek
j12t: if it were an actual commercial attack rather than just teenagers, do we know what the plan is?
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tantek
thisismissem: I linked to a paper that was published that explores a bunch of the more sophisticated threats to the fediverse
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tantek
eprodrom: this is different from our current moderation based on server and account
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tantek
eprodrom: not on content
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tantek
eprodrom: there was no shifting of content or keyword mashing.
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tantek
eprodrom: it would have been tractable with Bayesian approaches
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tantek
eprodrom: we have some technical barriers to using these techniques. we need to be considering how to incorporate these techniques into our systems
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tantek
dmitriz: we are at time, need to pause here, final comment thisismissem?
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tantek
thisismissem: when we blocked hashtags, they adapted the spam and removed the hashtags. when we blocked images, they removed the images and started mentioning a bunch of useres. it did evolve
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tantek
dmitriz: let's continue the conversation offline
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tantek
dmitriz: see you all the first Friday in April, April 5th
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tantek
Zakim, end meeting
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Zakim
As of this point the attendees have been tantek, eprodrom, thisismissem, ckolderup, snarfed, dmitriz, angelo, j12t, emelia
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Zakim
RRSAgent, please draft minutes
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Zakim
I am happy to have been of service, tantek; please remember to excuse RRSAgent. Goodbye
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RRSAgent
I have made the request to generate https://www.w3.org/2024/03/01-social-minutes.html Zakim
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tantek
RRSAgent, please make minutes
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RRSAgent
I have made the request to generate https://www.w3.org/2024/03/01-social-minutes.html tantek
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tantek
thisismissem reload https://www.w3.org/2024/03/01-social-minutes.html and you should see your link at the bottom
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tantek
once again I really appreciate these calls
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tantek
dmitriz++ for chairing
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Loqi
dmitriz has 2 karma over the last year
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thisismissem
on misunderstandings of ActivityPub, this is one of the examples I saw going around: claims that activitypub is *push only*, which is factually incorrect (my response): https://hachyderm.io/@thisismissem/112017863938169538
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tantek
RRSAgent, make minutes
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thisismissem
tl;dr is that I specifically point out that another platform (a billion dollar company) failing to moderate had economic and quality of service impacts for the fediverse, and also that to better solve these problems we need more funding
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RRSAgent
I have made the request to generate https://www.w3.org/2024/03/01-social-minutes.html tantek
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