Channel used as source for another channel and view from Mastodon

Thu, 19 Dec 2024 15:00:09 +0100

adminsforum@hubzilla.org

dynamic_hubzilla schrieb den folgenden Beitrag Thu, 19 Dec 2024 15:00:09 +0100

Channel used as source for another channel and view from Mastodon

I recently made a post to my primary Hubzilla channel, (dynamic_hubzilla) here: https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/channel/dynamic?mid=fb041ab1-3463-4b6a-892f-c3b8689d0caa

I wanted it to be accessible to folks on Mastodon, so I kept the character count below 500 characters and added additional content as replies to the conversation, in the style of Mastodon "thread" posts.

I also have a channel dynamic_backups that cross-posts content from my Hubzilla, Mastodon, and Friendica accounts. I guess this might have been a bad idea, but it made sense to me at the time to have a channel where I would have everything in one place.

After making my post this morning, I went over to Mastodon to find the post so that I could boost it, but didn't see it in the channels main feed, so I tried switching to Mastodon's "Posts and Replies tab", where I quickly found my most recent reply to the thread/conversation.

What was bizarre was that in the Mastodon view, the reply by dynamic_hubzilla shows up as replying to dynamic_backups, and I can't figure out how to access the original post from Mastodon at all.
Screenshot taken from Mastodon of a Hubzilla post in reply to another Hubzilla post. The post author is dynamic_hubzilla, but it is listed as in reply to dynamic_backups.

Screenshot taken from Mastodon of a Hubzilla post in reply to another Hubzilla post. The post author is dynamic_hubzilla, but it is listed as in reply to dynamic_backups.

This is definitely not the behavior I want, and I'm not sure how to make sense of it. Can someone help me understand what is going on here and whether there is any way I can prevent this kind of behavior in the future?

My only immediate thought is that it's a mistake to use a Hubzilla channel as a source for another Hubzilla channel.

Help?

show all 5 comments

Thu, 19 Dec 2024 15:49:57 +0100

Jupiter Rowland

jupiter_rowland@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

Maybe there's some misunderstanding in what Channel Sources does.

Channel Sources doesn't repeat (boost) content, i.e. it doesn't forward the originals to contacts. Rather, it reposts/shares content. It puts a dumb copy of incoming content into new posts and sends these new posts.

Thu, 19 Dec 2024 16:31:35 +0100

dynamic_hubzilla

dynamic@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

@Jupiter Rowland, that doesn't really answer my question at all. My expectation is that a "dumb copy" would *not* show up as the parent for my Hubzilla replies, yet somehow (at least from Mastodon's perspective) that seems to have happened.

I did *not* use dynamic_hubzilla to reply to the dynamic_backups reshare, and yet Mastodon is behaving as if I did.

Thu, 19 Dec 2024 16:40:22 +0100

dynamic_hubzilla

dynamic@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

@Jupiter Rowland, what's really distressing here is that I can't seem to access the top level dynamic_hubzilla post from Mastodon at all.

Thu, 19 Dec 2024 18:25:40 +0100

dynamic_hubzilla

dynamic@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

@Jupiter Rowland

The plot thickens:
Two views of the same Mastodon "boost" event, one from my account at social.coop, the other viewed on the instance of the person boosting my post. From my instance, dynamic_backups shows up as the author of the post. From mastodon.social, dynamic_hubzilla shows up as the author of the post.

Two views of the same Mastodon "boost" event, one from my account at social.coop, the other viewed on the instance of the person boosting my post. From my instance, dynamic_backups shows up as the author of the post. From mastodon.social, dynamic_hubzilla shows up as the author of the post.

You can't tell me this isn't weird. This is weird, right?

Context: poking around on social.coop's view of my Hubzilla instance, I noticed that the only "Posts" that have showed up on my profile for the past month have been boosts, and furthermore, the only content on Mastodon's "Posts and replies" were replies I'd written.

Then I went back to my Hubzilla account and went poking through my old posts to see whether there were any signs of engagement from my followers on posts that I hadn't subsequently replied to, and this one had a few boosts, so I went over to see what the view was like from Mastodon, and this is what I saw.

Thu, 19 Dec 2024 18:54:11 +0100

dynamic_hubzilla

dynamic@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

Two of my Mastodon followers have confirmed that they are seeing the correct (dynamic_hubzilla) account as the author of one of my recent posts:
https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/channel/dynamic?mid=9e2f1094-3219-43e3-9c3f-2fd0d4a59757

My working hypothesis at this point is that what I'm seeing from social.coop has something to do with the fact that that account is also set up as a "source" for dynamics_backups. I'm not sure that it's actually *functioning* in that capacity, but that is a separate question.