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Reply to @mike@macgirvin.com
silverpill@silverpill@mitra.social (2026-06-06 17:03:41)
@mike I agree that collection of activities is a better representation, because it is more complete, but this is not the subject of this FEP. The FEP is about backfilling, and its purpose is to document the current practices.
Implementers of this FEP are not required to publish any collections. However, they are advised to use a backfilling algorithm that supports all three conversation models (containers, threads and reply trees): https://fediverse.codeberg.page/fep/fep/f228/#reading-collections. The algorithm gives precedence to contextHistory, so collection of activities is used as a primary source when it is present.
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Mike Macgirvin@mike@macgirvin.com (2026-06-07 07:22:29)
When context property is present on a post, it MUST resolve to a collection of posts.
...
When context property is present on an activity, it MUST resolve to a collection of activities.
In one place, we are asked to distinguish what type of thing we are fetching based on the name (context vs. contextHistory), and in another we are asked to distinguish based on the subclass of the element which contains "context".
Which is it? If it's both, how does that work? And since this is a MUST, once again, wtf is a "collection of posts"? I can't implement something if everybody refuses to define it.
And if "contextHistory" is an equal player with "context", every.single.fediverse.project now has to examine every context they copy to their own objects and activities, just to ensure they get the right one in each case. And if both are present, copy both - after checking that "context" is or isn't the one they really want.
And nobody is pushing back on this but me?
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silverpill@silverpill@mitra.social (2026-06-08 01:59:56)
@mike
Which is it? If it's both, how does that work?
Yes, it's both. The backfilling algorithm described in the FEP should be used on a top-level post. When this post has a contextHistory property, it will resolve to a collection of activities. When it has a context property, it will resolve to a collection of posts.
wtf is a "collection of posts"
Alright, I will add a definition to the FEP.
"post" is any kind of attributed object. Usually it's a Note or an Article, but it could be an Event too, or something else entirely. What's important is that "post" is not an activity.
And if "contextHistory" is an equal player with "context", every.single.fediverse.project now has to examine every context they copy to their own objects and activities, just to ensure they get the right one in each case. And if both are present, copy both - after checking that "context" is or isn't the one they really want.
It shouldn't be a problem because with the proposed backfilling algorithm the collection item type is always known beforehand.
If it's a problem, you can use duck typing on collection items. That's what I do when I fetch an object whose class is not known.