Re: The threads.net -> .com transition as an example for a class of unaddressed requirements

po 28. 4. 2025 v 20:05 odesílatel Johannes Ernst <
johannes.ernst@dazzlelabs.net> napsal:

> As we all know, threads.net has moved to threads.com. My understanding is
> that in their current plan:
>
> * they will keep the Fediverse identifiers stable at threads.net
>
> * so if you want follow user pcottle on website threads.com,
> counter-intuitively, you need to follow them as @pcottle@threads.net
>   (don’t know whether they will redirect / alias or such, but the
> canonical identifier will remain at threads.net)
>
> * on the pro side: identifiers don’t need to change across the ActivityPub
> network
>
> * also block lists don’t need to change across the network
>
> * on the con side: what do you put on the billboard? Follow cocacola on
> threads.com by following @cocacola@threads.net does not fly very well ...
>
> Note this e-mail isn’t supposed to be about Threads, but about the
> underlying requirement : domain names change, get lost, get taken away
> during trademark disputes, change in governments, because somebody changed
> their mind and what have you. IMHO it would be nice — really important?!? —
> to come up with a better solution in future versions of the spec(s).
> There are various ways this could be addressed, obviously, but regardless
> of approach, an site should be able to end up with their new domain, not a
> weird old/new combo like in this case without the administrators of N-1
> instances having to do extra work, such as manually editing their block
> lists, or users suddenly facing broken links.
>

These migration issues always happen. I suggest checking back in 6 months.

Many of us in the federated space had to do this changing http → https —
it's a pain for a while, but then things settle down.

There are many competing solutions to this problem, each with trade-offs,
but my favourite is to give user accounts a history over time, which
software can follow. I like this because it strengthens user agency, which
I think is really important for the long term health of decentralized
systems.


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> Cheers,
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> Johannes.
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> Johannes Ernst
>
> Fediforum <https://fediforum.org/>
> Dazzle Labs <https://dazzlelabs.net/>
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