cagatay

@julian I don't think I've ever seen a forum platform that is updated so frequently and continues to improve itself year after year. For that alone, all I can say is: great job, and thank you for the effort you've both put into it.

That said, I sometimes feel that when we focus heavily on certain initiatives, we risk moving away from the core realities and shortcomings of the forum itself.

For example, I enabled ActivityPub on my forum, but none of my users could actually use it. To be honest, even I struggled to understand it. Following people, interacting across different platforms, language differences, and not really knowing what was happening made it difficult to grasp.

Of course, everything isn't about money. I think it's an impressive piece of work from a technical perspective. But it's been around a year since development started maybe even longer and I think it's worth asking how many NodeBB forums are actively using it today. That kind of adoption is also an important measure of success.

That said, I've never doubted that you and Baris always do your best. I'm well aware that both of you have invested a huge amount of your time and energy into this project.

Thank you very much for taking the time to reply.

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.