tobiaseigen proposes making ActivityPub handles (e.g., @user@instance.social) automatically clickable in Discourse posts. Currently, these appear as plain text, forcing users to copy/paste the handle into a client to view profiles. The requester argues this conversion is technically simple since the handle contains all necessary URL data.
Jagster raises concerns that converting handles to HTML links might break compatibility when content is federated to the wider Fediverse via ActivityPub. tobiaseigen acknowledges federation formatting issues but suggests the ActivityPub plugin should handle these transformations appropriately. Jagster counters that while non-federated sites could safely use links, changing how handles appear in federated categories is “bad policy” [(/t/-/414351/7)].
To illustrate the current friction, tobiaseigen cites a Nextcloud support topic where users resorted to manually pasting URLs to make their federated identities accessible, highlighting the need for a smoother experience to encourage interlinking. The discussion also touches on broader ActivityPub plugin issues. Jagster notes that previous functionality allowing direct handle linking to Discourse users has disappeared and questions whether the plugin is being actively maintained, observing a lack of reactions from CDCK to ActivityPub-related inquiries [(/t/-/414351/7)]. Jagster expresses skepticism about the plugin’s long-term viability within Discourse, suggesting WordPress as a bridge might be more effective, though it lacks a return connection to Discourse.
Despite these deeper architectural concerns, the core request remains: enhancing the visibility and usability of ActivityPub handles for local users, potentially through a theme component or improved plugin logic that distinguishes between local rendering and federated output.
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
Just came across a topic Where to meet Nextcloud users at Mastodon? - 🎉 Events & meetups - Nextcloud community with a great example of how messed up this is currently in discourse. Would love love love for this to get some love, to facilitate more interlinkages between people in the fediverse and the discourse communities they are part of.
The last two posts in the topic are classic examples, see screenshot below. @irdi is an internal link to the discourse user themselves. @rskikuli would be an internal link too but there is no user with that username. That user was clever enough to paste the URL to their federated account, but that feels like too much friction/effort to really get the sharing of federated handles to catch on.
Note I see people on the mastodon support forum, also discourse, are asking for some better integration with mastodon.
Slightly off topic here, but might be nice if the team can throw some support their way, helping to create a more seamless experience. Maybe a theme component at least to allow users to share their mastodon handles on their user profiles that are clickable links, and the ability to login using mastodon accounts.
If I don’t remember wrong we could connect and link our handles with Discourse user back in early days of the plugin. It disappeared at some point, or changed its functionality.
But nowadays we have to make an ordinary link to show an account in web-style. And yet changing handles to <a href> links in federated categories is bad policy AFAIK.
If I stay in meta things we have some issues with how ActivityPub of Discourse is working (Mastodon only, the way how topics are shared via category/tag, error is the log etc.) but I don’t bother ask any more. Basically any ActivityPub related questions won’t get reactions from CDCK direction. Perhaps it is because of ActivityPub isn’t part of Discourse main functionality, perhaps it is too rarely used or perhaps it is too difficult and expensive task to solve out without building a forum beeing a thoroughbred (mastodon) instance.
What ever but the situation is I can’t rationale on Mastodon side why any Discourse forum shoul use the ActivityPub plugin. Using WordPress as a bridge between Discourse and federated world is a better solution, but then connection to Discourse direction vanishes.
My point is question if a handle can be a proper link as used in the web is not the most important question, but is ActivityPub plugin totally abandonded.
