Replies from the Fediverse not visible in Discourse: "Perhaps this topic was closed or deleted while you were looking at it?"

Product Support

AI-generated summary

In a Discourse forum using the ActivityPub plugin, replies from Fediverse platforms like Mastodon were not appearing in Discourse. kuba-orlik reported the issue, noting that while replies were visible externally (e.g., on Mastodon), they failed to appear in the Discourse interface, accompanied by an error: “Perhaps this topic was closed or deleted while you were looking at it?” The error log pointed to a failure in post creation. angus identified the root cause: posting permissions in the category were restricted, and since ActivityPub users have the same permissions as regular users, they were blocked from posting. kuba-orlik acknowledged the oversight and thanked angus for the solution. This highlights that ActivityPub interactions are subject to standard Discourse permission settings.

1

When someone replies from Mastodon (or any other fediverse app) to a post published from Discourse using the ActivityPub plugin, the reply does not show up in Discourse.

You can see an example post here: https://forum.internet-czas-dzialac.pl/t/nowy-test-fedi/2718

And a reply to from Mastodon here: Kuba Orlik: "@kuba@forum.internet-czas-dzialac.pl test odpowie…" - Mastodon

The reply does not show up in the Discourse interface. I’m using the latest version of the ActivityPub plugin (4db5006) and a self-hosted Discourse on a VPS.

The errors that appears immediately after posting a response on Mastodon says:

[Discourse Activity Pub] Failed to create post for https://toot.kuba-orlik.name/users/kuba/statuses/114257917739481269: 
Something has gone wrong. Perhaps this topic was closed or deleted while you were looking at it?

activesupport-7.2.2.1/lib/active_support/broadcast_logger.rb:134:in `block in error'
activesupport-7.2.2.1/lib/active_support/broadcast_logger.rb:231:in `block in dispatch'
activesupport-7.2.2.1/lib/active_support/broadcast_logger.rb:231:in `each'
activesupport-7.2.2.1/lib/active_support/broadcast_logger.rb:231:in `dispatch'
activesupport-7.2.2.1/lib/active_support/broadcast_logger.rb:134:in `error'
/var/www/discourse/plugins/discourse-activity-pub/lib/discourse_activity_pub/logger.rb:26:in `log'
/var/www/discourse/plugins/discourse-activity-pub/lib/discourse_activity_pub/logger.rb:59:in `error'
/var/www/discourse/plugins/discourse-activity-pub/lib/discourse_activity_pub/post_handler.rb:75:in `rescue in block in create'
/var/www/discourse/plugins/discourse-activity-pub/lib/discourse_activity_pub/post_handler.rb:68:in `block in create'
activerecord-7.2.2.1/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/transaction.rb:616:in `block in within_new_transaction'
activesupport-7.2.2.1/lib/active_support/concurrency/null_lock.rb:9:in `synchronize'
activerecord-7.2.2.1/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/transaction.rb:613:in `within_new_transaction'
activerecord-7.2.2.1/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/database_statements.rb:361:in `transaction'
activerecord-7.2.2.1/lib/active_record/transactions.rb:234:in `block in transaction'
activerecord-7.2.2.1/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:415:in `with_connection'
activerecord-7.2.2.1/lib/active_record/connection_handling.rb:296:in `with_connection'
activerecord-7.2.2.1/lib/active_record/transactions.rb:233:in `transaction'
/var/www/discourse/plugins/discourse-activity-pub/lib/discourse_activity_pub/post_handler.rb:67:in `create'
/var/www/discourse/plugins/discourse-activity-pub/lib/discourse_activity_pub/post_handler.rb:122:in `create'
/var/www/discourse/plugins/discourse-activity-pub/plugin.rb:941:in `block (2 levels) in activate!'
/var/www/discourse/plugins/discourse-activity-pub/lib/discourse_activity_pub/ap/handlers.rb:76:in `block in apply_handlers'
/var/www/discourse/plugins/discourse-activity-pub/lib/discourse_activity_pub/ap/handlers.rb:74:in `all?'
/var/www/discourse/plugins/discourse-activity-pub/lib/discourse_activity_pub/ap/handlers.rb:74:in `apply_handlers'
/var/www/discourse/plugins/discourse-activity-pub/lib/discourse_activity_pub/ap/handlers.rb:24:in `apply_handlers'
/var/www/discourse/plugins/discourse-activity-pub/lib/discourse_activity_pub/ap/activity.rb:64:in `perform_activity'
/var/www/discourse/plugins/discourse-activity-pub/lib/discourse_activity_pub/ap/activity.rb:38:in `block in perform_transactions'
activerecord-7.2.2.1/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/transaction.rb:616:in `block in within_new_transaction'
activesupport-7.2.2.1/lib/active_support/concurrency/null_lock.rb:9:in `synchronize'
activerecord-7.2.2.1/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/transaction.rb:613:in `within_new_transaction'
activerecord-7.2.2.1/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/database_statements.rb:361:in `transaction'
activerecord-7.2.2.1/lib/active_record/transactions.rb:234:in `block in transaction'
activerecord-7.2.2.1/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:421:in `with_connection'
activerecord-7.2.2.1/lib/active_record/connection_handling.rb:296:in `with_connection'
activerecord-7.2.2.1/lib/active_record/transactions.rb:233:in `transaction'
/var/www/discourse/plugins/discourse-activity-pub/lib/discourse_activity_pub/ap/activity.rb:34:in `perform_transactions'
/var/www/discourse/plugins/discourse-activity-pub/lib/discourse_activity_pub/ap/activity.rb:26:in `process'
/var/www/discourse/plugins/discourse-activity-pub/app/jobs/discourse_activity_pub_process.rb:14:in `block in execute'
/var/www/discourse/lib/distributed_mutex.rb:53:in `block in synchronize'
/var/www/discourse/lib/distributed_mutex.rb:49:in `synchronize'
/var/www/discourse/lib/distributed_mutex.rb:49:in `synchronize'
/var/www/discourse/lib/distributed_mutex.rb:34:in `synchronize'
/var/www/discourse/plugins/discourse-activity-pub/app/jobs/discourse_activity_pub_process.rb:8:in `execute'
/var/www/discourse/app/jobs/base.rb:316:in `block (2 levels) in perform'
rails_multisite-6.1.0/lib/rails_multisite/connection_management/null_instance.rb:49:in `with_connection'
ails_multisite-6.1.0/lib/rails_multisite/connection_management.rb:21:in `with_connection'
var/www/discourse/app/jobs/base.rb:303:in `block in perform'
/var/www/discourse/app/jobs/base.rb:299:in `each'
/var/www/discourse/app/jobs/base.rb:299:in `perform'
sidekiq-7.3.9/lib/sidekiq/processor.rb:220:in `execute_job'
sidekiq-7.3.9/lib/sidekiq/processor.rb:185:in `block (4 levels) in process'
sidekiq-7.3.9/lib/sidekiq/middleware/chain.rb:180:in `traverse'
(...)

Followed by:

[Discourse Activity Pub] Failed to create post for https://toot.kuba-orlik.name/users/kuba/statuses/114257917739481269

activesupport-7.2.2.1/lib/active_support/broadcast_logger.rb:134:in `block in error'
activesupport-7.2.2.1/lib/active_support/broadcast_logger.rb:231:in `block in dispatch'
activesupport-7.2.2.1/lib/active_support/broadcast_logger.rb:231:in `each'
activesupport-7.2.2.1/lib/active_support/broadcast_logger.rb:231:in `dispatch'
activesupport-7.2.2.1/lib/active_support/broadcast_logger.rb:134:in `error'
/var/www/discourse/plugins/discourse-activity-pub/lib/discourse_activity_pub/logger.rb:26:in `log'
/var/www/discourse/plugins/discourse-activity-pub/lib/discourse_activity_pub/logger.rb:59:in `error'
/var/www/discourse/plugins/discourse-activity-pub/lib/discourse_activity_pub/ap/activity.rb:46:in `rescue in block in perform_transactions'
/var/www/discourse/plugins/discourse-activity-pub/lib/discourse_activity_pub/ap/activity.rb:35:in `block in perform_transactions'
activerecord-7.2.2.1/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/transaction.rb:616:in `block in within_new_transaction'
activesupport-7.2.2.1/lib/active_support/concurrency/null_lock.rb:9:in `synchronize'
activerecord-7.2.2.1/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/transaction.rb:613:in `within_new_transaction'
activerecord-7.2.2.1/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/database_statements.rb:361:in `transaction'
activerecord-7.2.2.1/lib/active_record/transactions.rb:234:in `block in transaction'
activerecord-7.2.2.1/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:421:in `with_connection'
activerecord-7.2.2.1/lib/active_record/connection_handling.rb:296:in `with_connection'
activerecord-7.2.2.1/lib/active_record/transactions.rb:233:in `transaction'
3

The issue is that you’ve restricted who can post in the category.

Screenshot at Mar 31 21-26-36
Screenshot at Mar 31 21-26-362216×550 115 KB

ActivityPub users do not have more permissions than regular users.

4

Ah - a big facepalm on my side. Thanks!