Comment on NodeBB v4.14.0 — Federation regression fixes, security fixes, and more!
cagatay@community.nodebb.org 2 weeks ago
Hi @julian and @baris
As someone who has been following NodeBB for years, contributing feedback, and running my own forum on NodeBB for a long time, I wanted to ask something as a genuine self-reflection rather than criticism.
Do you really think ActivityPub has proven to be useful and widely adopted by NodeBB users?
The reason I'm asking is that you've invested an enormous amount of time and effort into it, and honestly, I feel a bit disappointed because I personally can't make practical use of it on my own forum. There are still areas that need improvement, such as language support, and to be honest, I'm not even sure what I would use it for. I also wonder whether the average NodeBB administrator actually knows how to use it or finds it valuable.
I can absolutely see why it makes sense for this forum (the NodeBB community forum), where federation and reaching users across the Fediverse can be beneficial. But does the same really apply to most other forums? Are you seeing real-world adoption and engagement from the broader NodeBB community, or is it still a niche feature?
I'm genuinely curious about your perspective because I'd like to understand whether the investment has paid off in practice.
Hey @cagatay, that's a good question, and one well worth asking.
Right off the bat I'll say that if the majority of this work were not sponsored (by the NLNet foundation; @nlnet@social.nlnet.nl), then it wouldn't have happened, or happened as quickly. They were instrumental in accelerating the development of the AP integration.
To me the question isn't directly one of value for money, results over spend, etc. Its a more existential question of whether forums are able to persist in this world of fast-paced social media, hot takes, sound bites, and memes. Forums have always been closer to the kind of "slower" web, a more deliberate web, and the "network" part of forums only extended as far as the site itself.
A lot of forum admins think that's perfectly fine, and we support that world view. I wanted to explore what it meant if a forum could interconnect, not only with users on its own platform, not only with other NodeBBs, but to a worldwide fediverse of social networks. That's the potential that has been realized, but I'm still trying to figure out forums' place in this network.
It seems very much so that forums don't tend to be generalist "anything goes" networks — usually there's an overarching topic. That makes it a less than ideal fit for the fediverse, there's a lot of noise, and finding the signal is key.
So that's where I've been spending my time these past few months.
I personally think the AP integration was well worth it, but I am very strict in my stance that AP is a choice, and full federation isn't always the right fit for every community.
@cagatay lastly if there are spots that you find NodeBB lacking, please do continue to discuss them here or open issues. We're receptive to improvements to NodeBB, and if they're not too niche of an improvement we'll usually be happy to put it into core.
Otherwise plugins are where things should go 🙂