The discussion centers on a feature request to make ActivityPub handles clickable within Discourse posts. tobiaseigen argues that current handles, such as @fediforum@mastodon.social, appear as plain text, forcing users to manually copy and paste them to view profiles. They propose automatically converting these into clickable links (e.g., [handle](url)) since all necessary URL components are present in the handle itself.
Jagster raises a technical concern, noting that these handles cannot be clickable links when sent via ActivityPub to the fediverse. tobiaseigen clarifies that the request applies to local Discourse posts, acknowledging that users may reference handles on sites without the ActivityPub plugin installed. They also mention that the plugin currently suffers from various formatting issues with federated posts. Jagster suggests a potential solution where non-federated posts display handles as links while federated posts use standard handle formats, or questions why actual links aren’t used directly given the limitations of mentioning users on Mastodon.
In some communities I am in, I am noticing that people are starting to refer to ActivityPub handles in posts, but unfortunately these appear like this:
@fediforum@mastodon.social
They are not clickable, which means if you are curious and want to see if you want to follow the handle, you have to copy/paste the handle into your ActivityPub site (e.g. mastodon) and click to go to the handle’s profile page.
Would be much nicer if they were automatically formed into clickable links, like this:
I don’t know how important that is or if that has to be related to this feature request at all. You can refer to an activitypub handle on a site without the expectation that the activity plugin is installed.
There are alot of formatting issues with federated posts. Unfortunately, not all Discourse markdown is supported an comes across looking pretty garbled. This I think could be handled by the plugin.
I don’t know how hard is to code a option where non-federated shows a handle as a link and federated ones use handle as a link insode Discourse and at same time federate using normal handles. Or if it plays any roll at all.
But why not use actual links when it is impossible to mention someone in Mastodon side
