FEP-4772: Representing bookmarks

Standards Fediverse Enhancement Proposals
1

Tracking issue: #877 - [TRACKING] FEP-4772: Representing bookmarks - fediverse/fep - Codeberg.org

PR: #876 - FEP-4772: Representing bookmarks - fediverse/fep - Codeberg.org

Hello!

This FEP describes how to represent bookmarks in federated bookmark managers. It describes several aspects of them.

Betula was the first one to represent bookmarks like this. Recently I contributed patches to Ties, Omnom and Postmarks so that they federate bookmarks in the same format. Ties and Omnom have it merged, Postmarks not yet.

Quote bookmarks are partially implemented in Betula, with full implementation ongoing.

Folders and document copies are not properly implemented anywhere, and these are mostly thoughts for the future. Should they maybe be collections, linked in a field of the Note?

To get an intuition of how a federated bookmark manager works, see my instance https://links.bouncepaw.com and perhaps interact with @bouncepaw@links.bouncepaw.com.

Would be grateful for feedback!

1 Like
2

A bookmark is represented with a Note object

To determine if a Note object is a bookmark Note, the following must be true:

  • name is not empty.
  • There is exactly one Link in attachment.

Shouldn’t it be a custom type? E.g. Bookmark?

You can state that Note may be used instead of the custom type if compatibility with Mastodon is required.

A Quote Post, as defined by [FEP-dd4b]

Why FEP-dd4b? It has no implementations.

Quote mechanisms that are actually used in Fediverse:

3

I don’t think there’s a single federated bookmark manager that doesn’t want Mastodon compatibility. Bookmark managers would almost always be second accounts on Fediverse, and they are usually followed from microblogging instances (judging by my followers).

Moreover, supporting the Note form would be a must either way; there are older instances of Betula online who haven’t been updating for a year or two already. Would it make sense for Bookmark to exist then if every bookmark manager supported Note? I don’t think so

Perhaps this is some form of Mastodon-fatalism on my side though.

I picked the wrong link. I meant FEP-044f.

Thanks for the feedback, here and on Codeberg.

1 Like