FEP-c313: Replies Addressed to Original Author’s Followers

Hello!

This is a discussion thread for the proposed FEP-c313: Replies Addressed to Original Author’s Followers. Please use this thread to discuss the proposed FEP and any potential problems or improvements that can be addressed.

Summary

This proposal introduces an ActivityPub extension to improve reply distribution. It allows a reply (comment) to be addressed directly to the original post author’s followers collection, so that followers of the original author can receive the reply. This behavior aligns with how networks like Diaspora and Friendica distribute comments, and aims to enhance conversation visibility across federated servers.

A new flag in NodeInfo metadata advertises support for this extension. Servers implementing this FEP can thus coordinate reply delivery: if both servers support it, a reply will be forwarded to the original author’s followers automatically; otherwise, the sender can fallback to standard distribution.

Hi Dima, as I understand it, you can put OP's followers collection in the recipients list, and as per protocol the originating server should forward along the replies.

As per section 7.1.2, unless I misread?

Hi @skavish, do you know about FEP-171b: Conversation Containers?

That FEP describes a similar mechanism, where audience is preserved throughout the thread, but Add activity is used instead of inbox forwarding. Conversation containers are used by Hubzilla and Streams (Friendica's successors).

@protocol