- From: Evan Prodromou <evan@prodromou.name>
- Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2025 17:22:39 -0400
- To: public-swicg@w3.org
I forgot to mention the relevant RFC for the acct: URI prefix, which is here: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc7565 Evan On 2025-09-17 5:16 p.m., Evan Prodromou wrote: > So, this is a really interesting topic! > > In terms of the "right" format for ActivityPub accounts, I'd suggest > sticking with bare Webfinger, username@domain.tld. If I were make a UI > for submitting Fediverse account IDs, that's probably the format I'd use. > > From the URI perspective, for Webfinger identifiers, > `acct:username@domain.tld` is the "right" way to do it. > > Having that be clickable means that users can assign apps to "handle" > the URI. For example, a user could assign the Elk.zone Web application > to handle those URIs, and show the profiles page with profile, outbox, > followers, friends, etc. as well as affordances to follow, block, > message, mention, etc. > > There are browser features and operating system features to define a > handler for an URI protocol prefix. For browsers, > registerProtocolHandler() is the way to go. > > https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Navigator/registerProtocolHandler > > > Theoretically, assigning an app to handle the "acct:" prefix would let > you create a link like this in HTML: > > <a href="acct:evan@cosocial.ca">Evan Prodromou</a> > > ...and it would just work. > > There are two problems with this, though. > > 1. Webfinger identifiers are primarily (?) used for ActivityPub > actors, but not exclusively. It seems like a low risk, but some > non-zero percentage of users might want Webfinger addresses to be > handled by... something else? > > 2. HTML5 has an allowlist of URI prefixes that can be registered to be > handled, and "acct:" is not on the list. You *can* use whatever prefix > you want, as long as it start with "web+", so registering the > "web+acct:" prefix would let you write links like this: > > <a href="web+acct:evan@cosocial.ca">Evan Prodromou</a> > > Anywho, long story short: I did a little experimentation with this on > https://acct.swf.pub/ ; you can register that web site to handle > web+acct: URIs, and it should then handle them correctly. > (https://acct.swf.pub/test.html has a test link you can try). I need > to get back to polishing it up, but I think this is an interesting > area to pursue. > > > On 2025-09-16 4:31 p.m., Johannes Ernst wrote: >> During registration for FediForum (which is coming up again, by the >> way!) we are asking people for their social web handles: >> >> Here is a selection of what they give us when they probably mean >> ActivityPub >> >> @foo@bar >> AP: @foo@bar >> https://bar/@foo >> foo@bar >> foo (???) >> acct:foo@bar >> >> Is it time to define a canonical version? >> >> Perhaps there could also be a canonical, clickable HTML version. >> >> Just a thought. >> >> Cheers, >> >> >> >> >> Johannes. >> >> >
Received on Wednesday, 17 September 2025 21:22:43 UTC