- From: Evan Prodromou <evan@prodromou.name>
- Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2025 12:49:54 -0400
- To: "public-swicg@w3.org" <public-swicg@w3.org>
- Message-ID: <70bf8e41-e308-4c50-8836-d0c32b2ede1f@prodromou.name>
ActivityPub issue #289 <https://github.com/w3c/activitypub/issues/289> describes a lack of parallelism between the definitions of "inbox" and "outbox" properties, giving rise to misunderstandings about the allowed values of those properties. The definitions are: inbox/: *A reference*/*to an [ActivityStreams] OrderedCollection* comprised of all the messages received by the actor; see 5.2 Inbox. outbox/: *An [ActivityStreams] OrderedCollection*/comprised of all the messages produced by the actor; see 5.1 Outbox. I proposed an erratum on this list previously; Ben Goering noted correctly that it did not include a description of the actual error, which is preferred for W3C documents. Based on his input, I updated theproposed erratum <https://www.w3.org/wiki/ActivityPub_errata/Proposed>to this text: In section 4.1 "Actor objects", the definition of "inbox" uses the imprecise term "reference" and is different from the definition of "outbox", giving the false impression that the range of the "inbox" property is different than that of "outbox". A possible correction is to make the definition of inbox parallel with that of outbox: "An OrderedCollection comprised of all the messages received by the actor; see 5.2 Inbox." This is a call for consensus on adding this text to the errata for ActivityPub -- and then to the current editor's draft. Please comment here or on issue #289 if you object to this wording for the erratum. Absent objections in the next 14 calendar days (by end of day on 8 Aug in any timezone), I will add this text to the errata and the editor's draft. Evan
Received on Friday, 25 July 2025 16:49:59 UTC