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#tips

dredmorbius@diaspora.glasswings.com
Doc Morbius

How to Refer to Diaspora* Profiles Using Links

... and Otherwise --- Many Ways, Many Traps

Diaspora* being what it is, there are four principle ways to refer to a specific profile. Three are useful, though each in different ways, the fourth ... usually is not.

With many people switching pods either in the recent past or near future, understanding the differences, and their pros and cons, is helpful. This is also useful in referring to troll, sockpuppet, and spam profiles, for people tracking and sharing those. Unfortunately, there's accumulated software and system cruft,, unexpected behaviours, and resulting confusion over this.

I'm discussing alternatives, pros, cons, results, and methods here.

Three Recommended References

TL;DR: I recommend in generaly using all three of these references for maximum clarity and utility. I'm picking on @Lee Rothstein here as I'm adapting this post from a comment I'd just made on their own migration announcement:

I recommend NOT using the "/people/" form of link as it is almost always useless to viewers.

I explain this below.

Clickable profile reference:

@Lee Rothstein

Pro: Logged-in Diaspora* and Fediverse members can directly click on or hover over the link to add to / edit Aspects. Clicking on the link takes members directly to their Pod's instance of the profile's page.

Con: The profile's Pod is not directly viewable. Especially where people are changing Pods it is difficult to tell which Pod is being referenced. There are also problems with sock-puppet or spoof profiles impersonating others. Non-member / general public viewers are usually directed to a login/registration page. The actual username / handle name may not be apparent.

How to enter

Because Diaspora* interprets and modifies even escaped and code-block versions of profile-link references, I cannot show the actual markup directly, but split it in two parts.

The general form is @name@pod-url. For any extant user, ... that reference even in backticks or a code block will be interpreted and the entered code won't be presented when a post is viewed. The transformation is also present when extracting source markup from a post's JSON link, requiring profile references to be edited when resubmitting / re-editing posts using this method.

Instead I approximate by leaving off the initial @ character, as here. Include the initial @ to create the actual link.

{drldr@diaspora.permutationsofchaos.com}

The intended rendering is achieved by including the above plus an added initial @:

@Lee Rothstein

That can be clicked on directly, a hover-card will appear, and your profile can be followed from there, or your profile's page opened directly.

If I do include the initial @, even within a code block or backtics, Diaspora* expands the user name as well, after submission (so you won't catch this in preview), even in a raw-code block, as here. Again, what was entered was @ followed immediately by `{drldr@diaspora.permutationsofchaos.com}:

Backticks: @Lee Rothstein

Code Block

@Lee Rothstein

Raw full username reference

drldr@diaspora.permutationsofchaos.com

Pro: This shows the username and pod unambiguously. It's possible to tell what Pod is being referenced. The string can be entered into Diaspora*'s Search box to find the associated profile. (Diaspora* seems to really like hiding Pod context...)

Con: The reference isn't a link and cannot be interacted with and won't directly bring up the user's profile.

How to enter

Input the full user-handle reference leaving off the initial @ and surrounding curly braces ({}), inside backticks (`):

Lee Rothstein's raw profile: `drldr@diaspora.permutationsofchaos.com`

Renders:

Lee Rothstein's raw profile: drldr@diaspora.permutationsofchaos.com

User home-pod URL reference:

https://diaspora.permutationsofchaos.com/u/drldr

Pro: Universal access for all Diaspora* AND non-DIapsora* viewers. Provides a clickable link to bring up member's Pod homepage. Will show content even if the user, Pod, or individual posts are locally blocked. Can be viewed by the general public and non-Diaspora* members, or when not logged in to a Diaspora* Pod. Unambiguously shows the Pod the profile belongs to.

Con: The link isn't interactable except to members of the profile's own home Pod. Many members won't be able to use this page to add or remove the profile from Aspects, to Ignore or Unignore the profile, or to interact (Like, Comment, Share) posts and content.

How to enter

As a standard URL. Angle braces (<>) remove ambiguity for referencing a URL, though they are not strictly necessary here.

Lee Rothstein's profile page:  <https://diaspora.permutationsofchaos.com/u/drldr>

Renders as:

Lee Rothstein's profile page: https://diaspora.permutationsofchaos.com/u/drldr

----.

Generally do NOT use the /people/GUID/ reference

I see this used often, and it is the link format generally presented internally on Diaspora* for profile references. In most cases it will redirect the reader to a login/registration page rather than the profile in question. This tends not to be useful or the intended result.

/people/GUID/ reference

https://diaspora.permutationsofchaos.com/people/e85721a07a29013ab1b60242ac120002

I'll note that Lee's profile does seem to appear for me, proving that Diaspora*'s inconsistancies are inconsistently inconsistent. This is not usually the case and is not reliable behavour. An alternate profile shows, at least as of now, the more typical result, a login/registration page on Glasswings:

https://diaspora.glasswings.com/people/3eefd570b6d001395a191eac510f7330

Pro: The URL is easy to find for the submitter. This is the link that's generally shown when referring to a profile within Diaspora* Unfortunately it is useless to virtually everyone in the world.

Con: The link is typically useless to anyone not on the same Pod as you, and especially the general public. Most will be redirected to a login/registration page, which is probably not your intent.

How to enter

This is usually the link given when seeing a profile reference on Diaspora* As noted, Lee's profile seems to work for me, though @tom grzyb's does not, so I'll use tom's to illustrate the more-typical behaviour. I believe the hexadecimal string is the profile's own GUID (globally unique identifier), so I'm calling this the "/people/<GUID/' method.

Selecting the URL from that reference I get:

<https://diaspora.glasswings.com/people/3eefd570b6d001395a191eac510f7330>

Rendered:

https://diaspora.glasswings.com/people/3eefd570b6d001395a191eac510f7330

Opening that link in an incognito browser session, where I'm logged out, I see the Glasswings login/registration page. This is ... not especially useful, and isn't my intended result.

Oddly, in the case of Lee's profile, I do see his profile page. I'm not sure why this is.

The /people/ version is ... highly unreliable and usually does not work in my experience.

Bonus tip: Public Extended Bio visibility

Among information presented on a user's profile page may be an extended biography. This is not visible to the general public by default. In general I recommend you do provide information here, even if pseudonymous (as I have), especially when migrating between Pods. Of course if you have specific reasons not to do this, then don't.

**To make the extended biography information publicly visible, change the setting here: /profile/edit (Diaspora* Pods only, other Fedeiverse software may use different references).

For "Visibility of your extended profile" select "Public" to enable non-logged-in readers to be able to see your extended bio description, then save your profile settings by pressing the "Update Profile" button at the bottom of the page.

And if you've recently moved from another pod and want others to know your previous identity, this is a good place to leave tracks on your NEW profile. If you're planning to move pods in the future, you can also leave a reference here on your OLD profile.

See my own profile bios here as examples:

#Diaspora #Tips #DiasporaDev #Pluspora #Joindiaspora #Bio #Migration

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steelnomad@diasp.org
steelnomad

Pineapple Equivalents and Measures

This list of equivalents can help the next time you are buying fresh or canned pineapple for a recipe. Not every pineapple is the same size. Depending on the variety, they range from two to six pounds each, but most of the fresh pineapples found in your grocery store weigh approximately two pounds.

#kitchen #cooking #tips #pineapple

How to Measure Pineapple for Cooking

Knowing how much pineapple you get from the large fruit is tricky. Convert amounts from cans to fresh to cups to servings for tropical recipes.

dredmorbius@diaspora.glasswings.com
Doc Morbius

Testing Joindiaspora and Federation

New On-Post Interactions Not Possible, Reshares Supported

I'm trying to figure out just how dead Joindiaspora is. The pod is now operating in "limited service mode". That means it's only mostly dead, and there seem to be some possible vestigal services operating. How much life remains in old content is ... unclear.

What it does not appear to support is federation of new comments to posts originating on the Pod. And even locally-added content seems to disappear after a brief period.

Test Case: "Data Storage Fabrication: Chancery Papermaking"

My case in is a 2021-8-2 post from my previous Joindiaspora profile: https://diaspora.glasswings.com/posts/cc9a87c0d62d0139b78f002590d8e506

That was originally posted as https://joindiaspora.com/posts/cc9a87c0d62d0139b78f002590d8e506, which should redirect you to the "limited-service mode" announcement on that pod.

Reshares seem supported

I reshared the post about 20 minutes ago here: https://diaspora.glasswings.com/posts/5a42dd907f27013a5b46448a5b29e257

That reshare was possible, which is unlike what I've seen for other downed pods, deleted users, or deleted posts.

Archive of the original post

There is an archived versions at:

Archive.Today, should show full contents as of the archive snapshot date. This is a post which was not successfully saved to the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine as can be seen.

Testing new comments

A few minutes ago I commented on the Glasswings version of the post, here:

https://diaspora.glasswings.com/posts/cc9a87c0d62d0139b78f002590d8e506#2ae7f9f07f27013a5b46448a5b29e257

(That's ... meant to be a link to the specific comment.)

What I'd added was a brief note about federation testing, and links to a number of different pods all of which had already federated the post.

What you'll find at those links though, or at least what I'm seeing as I post this, is that the newly-added comment is not shown. Rather, the last-visible comment is the "Archive Tag" note I'd made as I was archiving the post itself.

Comment disappears!

And checking back now, I find that my newly-added comment has been removed from the post. I happened to have a tab open showing that comment and so grabbed a few screenshots which I'm including in this post. Visiting the Glasswings version of the post now, that comment has now disappeared.

I've tested with a subsequent comment. That appeared to post, but disappeared immediately on reload, similarly to how interactions on content by a profile which has ignored your own behave. Effectively, Joindiaspora seems to have "ignored" the world.

Conclusion: Joindiaspora posts will not support either federated OR local comments or interactions

New interactions on Joindiaspora may appear to initially apply, but will be at best transient. This should appliy to comments and likes.

Reshares however appear to be possible.

How much of this is a general behaviour of defunct pods and how much is specific to the "limited-service mode" of Joindiaspora ... I'm still not certain.

Interesting behaviour.

#Joindiaspora #Diaspora #Federation #Help #Tips #Podmin

Data Storage Fabrication: Chancery Papermaking

Data Storage Fabrication: Chancery Papermaking By hand, traditional process. Three people. 1,500 sheets per day. How much paper or data do you use or create daily? https://youtube.com/watch?v=e-PmfdV_cZU #Paper #TraditionalCrafts #Manufacturing...

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dredmorbius@diaspora.glasswings.com
Doc Morbius

Can someone #ELI5 Diaspora short vs. GUID post references?

TL;DR: There are two distinct ways to reference a post and then it gets complicated.

GUID vs. Short-Form Post References

That is, what is the difference between:

And

Both refer to the same content. In this case, a reshare of my "Markdown Quick Reference" post from Joindiaspora. Which has its own GUID (ROOT_GUID), but let's not get ahead of ourselves....

In my experience, most Diaspora* users, including those who've been on the platform for ten or more years, or are developers or Podmins get confused, confounded, or tripped up by this. It is a BAD FEATURE and BAD BEHAVIOUR by this objective measure.

The long number is a GUID, referenced as such in profile data exports and when referencing content with a .json extension, but I’m not sure what the short value (978058) is, or how it is derived. Any guidance on this is appreciated. There is no mention in the Diaspora* documentation that I can find.

I know that bb9efd507ee8013a5b42448a5b29e257 is the post GUID, and encodes for my profile (07eeb013a5b40448a5b29e257), leaving 029707b as ... the post-specific bit.

GUID as Universal Identifier

The GUID reference is common regardless of the hostname of a given Diaspora* Pod. So I could link any of the following hosts where if federated the same post content appears:

There is the possibility that the post is not yet federated, as seems to be the case for diasp.de as I write this (Archive). Comments may differ depending both on when federation occured as well as Pod-specific moderation and federation policies. E.g., users or Pods specifically blocked at a Pod level won't be federated to the Pods blocking them.

The short-form reference is specific to a given Pod. The following do not refer to the same content, or even any content at all, despite having the same short identifier:

Results here will be an essentially arbitrary set of posts, or missing (404) content.

Local-Part URLs

The fact that GUID references are, well, global unique identifiers, means that it's possible to construct a "local-part" reference to a particular post and be guaranteed that it will refer to the same post on all instances, though it may or may not resolve unless the post has been previously federated. You'll have to construct a Markdown link to do so. Just the local part by itself, even within angle brackets to force link resolution, will not be interpreted as a hyperlink:

</posts/bb9efd507ee8013a5b42448a5b29e257>

Resolves as:

... which is not in fact a hyperlink.

Here I'm using the local part URL as the link text as well, to achieve the result I'd intended the above example to produce.

The Markdown:

[/posts/bb9efd507ee8013a5b42448a5b29e257](/posts/bb9efd507ee8013a5b42448a5b29e257)

And the rendered content:

/posts/bb9efd507ee8013a5b42448a5b29e257

More usually one might refer to the post by descriptive text, such as, say, "Markdown Quick Reference reshare". Again, that references the same content on any Diaspora* pod to which the post has been federated. A side-effect is that members of such pods can then interact with the post directly: like, re-share, comment, dismiss, or flag.

On any Pod to which the post has already been federated that link will refer to the same content.

This, incidentally, is why I often reference posts in the form of named-local-part-link, brief-context, and host-specific-link, as with:

[Markdown Quick Reference reshare](/posts/bb9efd507ee8013a5b42448a5b29e257)

> I’d like to fix a few of the omissions and a couple of mis-categorisations, such as the role of the description text in images.

<https://diaspora.glasswings.com/posts/bb9efd507ee8013a5b42448a5b29e257>

Which renders as:

Markdown Quick Reference reshare

I’d like to fix a few of the omissions and a couple of mis-categorisations, such as the role of the description text in images.

https://diaspora.glasswings.com/posts/bb9efd507ee8013a5b42448a5b29e257

The first link will work for Diaspora* users. The second will at least point members of pods to which the content hasn't federated OR of other systems to the content in question. They may not be able to find an interactable version, but they can at least read the post. That's been the best solution I've been able to find.

By contrast, a liink to a remote Pod with a short-form reference does not provide content that is accessible to other Diaspora* members not on that pod. Visit, say, https://diasp.org/posts/978058, and try to sort out how to find that post's GUID. The ... most intuitive ... method I can find is to request the post's JSON abstract: https://diasp.org/posts/978058.json, which provides the following highly user-friendly interface:

{"id":978058,"public":true,"guid":"88207916cf429559","created_at":"2012-04-16T03:57:58.000Z","provider_display_name":null,"interacted_at":"2012-04-19T16:30:46.000Z","text":"![image name](/gocamo/9e0f11531bce86f327414ce0b965ad69cd4af3dc/687474703a2f2f64323477366273726862656839642e636c6f756466726f6e742e6e65742f70686f746f2f333832323537375f343630732e6a7067)\r\n#jesus #funny #lustig","post_type":"Reshare","nsfw":false,"author":{"id":79239,"guid":"7103eca9cc32b7ea","name":"St. Martin (der)","diaspora_id":"eiseskaelte@despora.de","avatar":{"small":"/gocamo/1b372f038c8b74131ae147c4f98306c0d4005c96/68747470733a2f2f646573706f72612e64652f75706c6f6164732f696d616765732f7468756d625f736d616c6c5f31653962636565363236363635363463383462312e6a7067","medium":"/gocamo/dcee8773f5984d2465a4be58a2b0e1de194b86b4/68747470733a2f2f646573706f72612e64652f75706c6f6164732f696d616765732f7468756d625f6d656469756d5f31653962636565363236363635363463383462312e6a7067","large":"/gocamo/b3d8ca033f5fa63518f15078e3c95b1c3f5566cd/68747470733a2f2f646573706f72612e64652f75706c6f6164732f696d616765732f7468756d625f6c617267655f31653962636565363236363635363463383462312e6a7067"}},"o_embed_cache":null,"open_graph_cache":null,"mentioned_people":[],"photos":[],"root":{"id":971667,"public":true,"guid":"9809f7ca269e53ce","created_at":"2012-04-13T13:28:05.000Z","provider_display_name":null,"interacted_at":"2012-05-29T21:29:43.000Z","text":"![image name](/gocamo/9e0f11531bce86f327414ce0b965ad69cd4af3dc/687474703a2f2f64323477366273726862656839642e636c6f756466726f6e742e6e65742f70686f746f2f333832323537375f343630732e6a7067)\r\n#jesus #funny #lustig","post_type":"StatusMessage","nsfw":false,"author":{"id":64425,"guid":"70a53686776a814d","name":"Susi Kunterbunt","diaspora_id":"susikunterbunt@joindiaspora.com","avatar":{"small":"/gocamo/ec18e26cf52a80516d8f5eeaab0f4dad2ec89483/68747470733a2f2f6a6f696e64696173706f72612e73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f75706c6f6164732f696d616765732f7468756d625f736d616c6c5f36303565316365626236626537313962636633332e6a7067","medium":"/gocamo/2962f942cd84af4979ac80638bbaee941866ea1e/68747470733a2f2f6a6f696e64696173706f72612e73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f75706c6f6164732f696d616765732f7468756d625f6d656469756d5f36303565316365626236626537313962636633332e6a7067","large":"/gocamo/5a37c0f77aab27117fe1c13b977179dfe013f2a3/68747470733a2f2f6a6f696e64696173706f72612e73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f75706c6f6164732f696d616765732f7468756d625f6c617267655f36303565316365626236626537313962636633332e6a7067"}},"o_embed_cache":null,"open_graph_cache":null,"mentioned_people":[],"photos":[],"root":null,"title":"image name http://d24w6bsrhbeh9d.cloudfront.net/photo/3822577_460s....","location":{"address":null,"lat":null,"lng":null},"poll":null,"poll_participation_answer_id":null,"participation":false,"interactions":{"likes":[],"reshares":[],"comments_count":0,"likes_count":2,"reshares_count":1}},"title":"image name http://d24w6bsrhbeh9d.cloudfront.net/photo/3822577_460s....","location":{"address":null,"lat":null,"lng":null},"poll":null,"poll_participation_answer_id":null,"participation":false,"interactions":{"likes":[],"reshares":[],"comments":[],"participations":[],"comments_count":0,"likes_count":1,"reshares_count":0}}

If my best option is to unholster jq ... there seems to be some kind of failure at hand.

For the record, not even page source seems to help as the GUID isn't referenced within it by either label or value. See [view-source:https://diasp.org/posts/978058](view-source:https://diasp.org/posts/978058). Note that that link only works if your browser supports the view-source: meta-protocol. You may need to use tools such as curl or wget instead to grab raw page source.

I'll also note that for posts archived under their short-reference URL won't suffice to indicate GUID as that information is not available until an independent and additional JSON request is made. That is not possible for a downed Pod or deleted post or user.

Oh, and for the record, the GUID for that diasp.org post is 88207916cf429559.

In posts that are reshares of earlier posts, you'll also find a ROOT_GUID reference, which is the GUID of the original ("root") post reshared.

Diaspora* vs. other Fediverse Services and Federation

I've been careful to specify Diaspora* pods, as non-Diaspora* services (Friendica, Hubzilla, SocialHome, ...) may not use the same local-part reference.

Mind, now we've also got Federation to contend with, and not all content federates to all Pods. Worse, I'm not aware of a way to force federation of content through some pull action which isn't already federated via a Follow, Reshare by some profile followed on a Pod, or a direct mention of some profile on a Pod. Despite a GUID, simply requesting that GUID-identified content on a Pod won't generate a federation event. Though one would think that the encoded profile tag might identify the Pod the profile is on.

In practice, I forced Federation of many of my early Joindiaspora posts to Glasswings by specifically mentioning my Glasswings profile from a profile which could see the post, typically the original authoring profile --- my old Joindiaspora proifle @Doc Edward Morbius (moved to Glasswings). (Generating a huge volume of "ping spam" Notifications alerts for anyone who'd previously subscribed to those posts... Again, my apologies, but I couldn't find any other way.)

Making all of this all the more complicated... Why a Short-Reference default?

... Diaspora* defaults to using short vs. GUID references, most especially in post links and notifications.

To view the GUID reference one must click on either the hidden-by-default link-icon on a post in Stream view, or the date indicator within a post page. (You can view either of these yourselves in stream / post view.)

This means that in most cases, people are using non-portable references to posts. When viewing posts publicly, the GUID is not shown or accessible.

Among reasons why this matters: I've spent two months ensuring that most of my posts from the now-defunct Joindiaspora Pod are archived at the Internet Archive (about 73% success rate) and Archive.Today (approaching 100%). But I'd archived the GUID reference URLs of those posts. The short-URL formats, including the short-URL formats included for other posts referenced within those archives or of archives of Profile pages are not archived. External links to short-URL formats are also not archived.

All of which is something of a mess.

Which leaves us with a few questions

Q: What is the official name of the short-post reference?

Poking at page source suggests data-guid. That also does not exist in the Wiki or Discourse. There are six references presently in the Diaspora* codebase.

Q: Is there any extant documentation or discussion of this at all?

I've found none at the Diaspora* Wiki or the Diaspora* Discourse sites.

Q: Why distinguish "short" and "GUID" references at all?

Q: Is there some cost to GUID references I'm unaware of?

Q: Why are "short" post references the default reference?

Q: Why are "short" post references used at all?

Q: Why are GUID post references not exposed for general-public access to a post?

Q: Why does a local request for GUID-identified posts not trigger a federation event and fetch request for that post?

I could probably extend that list and likely will in comments. But it's a good start.

Shares and boosts appreciated.

#diaspora #eli5 #help #tips #FAQs #GUID #federation #DiasporaDev #Podmins

Markdown Quick Reference

Markdown Quick Reference There are some fun things you can do with Markdown...

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dredmorbius@diaspora.glasswings.com
Doc Morbius

I'm planning an update to my Markdown Quick Reference

I'd like to fix a few of the omissions and a couple of mis-categorisations, such as the role of the description text in images.

Other features & behaviours:

Possibly, #jq tools for recovering source code of posts and comments.

Other suggestions / additions / changes / corrections welcomed.

I'm also posting this as its own post so that the revision itself can be reshared (a quirk of reshares...).

#Markdown #quickGuide #tips #googleplus #newhere #formatting #HOWTOs #Documentation #Diaspora

Markdown Quick Reference

Markdown Quick Reference There are some fun things you can do with Markdown...

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dredmorbius@diaspora.glasswings.com
Doc Morbius

I Was Wrong: Federation, Re-shares, and Defunct pods

TL;DR: I'd posted something both confusing and based on utter misunderstanding and confusion over Diaspora* post IDs (GUIDs) a couple of hours ago.

I suspect my conclusions are actually correct, though the example was simply wrong.

With the shutdown of Joindiaspora as a full-service Diaspora* instance, I'd thought a post made from a profile on a different Pod had originated from Joindiaspora. It hadn't, and several conclusions are wrong.

I'd also messed up the GUID references in the original and federated examples.

If you don't know what this is referring to, ignore the commotion. If you did see the earlier, now-deleted post, or worse, re-shared it (I've commented noting my error to those posts that I could find), my apologies.

I do think that there are some quirks in federation when a pod goes offline. I'll need to find better examples. (I do have numerous of these in my own post archives, so stay tuned.)

I will note that Diaspora* federation is weird and has interesting edge cases.

#Diaspora #Joindiaspora #Pluspora #Federation #Tips #ThatTimeIWasWrong

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dredmorbius@diaspora.glasswings.com
Doc Morbius

What Joindiaspora's "Limited-Service Mode" looks like and offers

The Joindiaspora Pod is back online following maintenance in "limited-service mode". It is NOT a full-fledged Diaspora* instance any longer.

The screenshots I'm including here show the accessible portions of the site other than my direct messages (which appear as they did previously). Front page, Notifications, and Profile menu. Notifications are visible, and I'm curious as to whether or not @Doc Edward Morbius (moved to Glasswings) will see this mention...

Also featured is the delightful magenta colour theme I'd chosen to provide a visual cue to myself that I was on Joindiaspora rather than Glasswings over the past few weeks.

It is not possible to read or create comments on the site.

It is possible to view private communications / direct messages.

The front page now notes:

As such, all features are disabled, including the ability to post new content. However, you still can:

  • Export your data, and initiate the account migration as soon it's done.
  • Send and receive private messages.
  • Delete your account.
  • Manage your profile and account details.

I've tested to see if posts can be retrieved via JSON, and that appears not to be the case. My own first post to the site being:

https://joindiaspora.com/posts/cc046b1e71fb043d.json

Via curl -I I see an HTTP 301 (permanently moved) response.

#Diaspora #Joindiaspora #Pluspora #Federation #Tips

JoinDiaspora*

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dredmorbius@diaspora.glasswings.com
Doc Morbius

Godspeed Joindiaspora

Joindiaspora.com as a fully-functioning Diaspora* pod is no more. It was the first, and possibly largest node on the federated Diaspora* network, both factors of which contributed in part to its demise as detailed by its administrators and the Diaspora* developers team.

It will have some limited continued existence, see below and links for details.

At 20:01 UTC the site started throwing 502 Bad Gateway errors. This means that the planned maintenance has begun. According to previous announcements (see below), the site will return in a "limited-service mode" at some future point, precise time not known. How long the site will remain available in this mode has also not been clear, though suggestions are that it will be at least a month. I would hope longer.

  • On Friday, March 4th, at around 20:00 UTC, JoinDiaspora will go down for a long maintenance break. We cannot yet estimate how long this will take. We will use that time to move JoinDiaspora and its data from infrastructure maintained by Feneas to infrastructure maintained by the diaspora* Core Team. This work will not resolve existing issues with exporting account data. Our work on the export feature will start at a later time, see below.
  • When maintenance is completed, JoinDiaspora will be available again in a limited-service mode. In this mode, you will no longer be able to read or write posts or comments. However, you will be able to manage your account, and you will be able to export your account data.

-- An update on the future of JoinDiaspora.com 2022-2-22

As has been typical of the shutdown, there was no final announcement that I'm aware. The #Joindiaspora hashtag has a few recent posts from members, though none from Podmins, and the announcement posts lacked any hashtags --- the only real searchable Diaspora* mechanism --- at all. Communications could have been much better than they were. I'll be discussing this and other matters in future.

There has been an update at the Joindiaspora Sunset Team profile:

As announced in our announcement, the server migration is currently underway. Given the size of JoinDiaspora's filesystem and database, this might take a couple of hours to complete.

https://pod.diaspora.software/posts/5009540

I strongly recommend monitoring that profile for further announcements:

Profile: @The JoinDiaspora Sunset Team (joindiaspora-sunset@pod.diaspora.software)
URL: https://pod.diaspora.software/u/joindiaspora-sunset

I do want to thank Lukas Matt and others for their time and effort all the same. Joindiaspora, like the Diaspora* project itself, has been a volunteer and amateur effort, in the original sense of that last word, performed for love not lucre.

Status of my Joindiaspora content

I've taken pains to see that my own content from my Joindiaspora profile, @Doc Edward Morbius (moved to Glasswings), remains as generally available as possible. Specifically:

  • I've requested several data exports, the most recent of which created yesterday. I've engaged minimally on the platform in the past two months, since the shutdown was initially announced.

  • As many posts as possible have been federated to Glasswings, and hopefully other pods, as possible.

  • My earliest remote followers came from the following pods and dates, which should provide the most complete set of federated posts with comments: pod.orkz (25 December 2013), pod.geraspora.de (18 January 2014), diasp.eu (31 March, 2014), diasp.de (6 May, 2014), diaspora-fr.org (22 July, 2014), spyurk.am (11 August, 2014).

  • Glasswings (diaspora.glasswings.com), my new home, seems to have begun federating between mid-April and mid-May, 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic ramped up and I posted on that topic. Earlier posts may be present (mostly by recent federation triggered by me) but the comments date from the first federation event. Yes, Diaspora* federation is ... complicated.

  • WIth few exceptions, any still-extant content should be available under at least its joindiaspora.com original URL at Archive.Today, including full comments. This includes both my own original posts and reshares.

  • I've made multiple attempts to save posts to the Internet Archive. This is nominally easier as it may be automated. It does not preserve comments. In practice, I've found over the past several months that automated submissions via the Archive's own supported methods do not succeed consistently. I don't know how successful those efforts have been yet, I do plan on assessing this in future. The Archive is useful in that many people and tools will consult it automatically for links which have expired. Archive.Today does not yet have a similar recognition.

  • I do NOT plan to delete my Joindiaspora profile, as that would have the effect of deleting all my content, including federated content. This has been an issue I've observed from others' deleted profiles as I've attempted my own data salvage operation.

I've also created, and am continuing to refine, tools which work on the downloaded data extract and which provide both local access to that content and can create formats and exports which are useful in referring to older content. In particular, an "Archive Index" generator, which summarizes the content and provides links which should in theory point to extant copies still on line. Again, that's ongoing work, though I've published draft versions. Those tools, incidentally, assisted greatly in manually archiving and federating most of my 2,659 posts and reshares over the past two months. Tedious, but in my case, largely tractable. I'll be posting a curated set of public indices highlighting more significant content in future.

I write much of this in the hopes that it will be useful to others, most especially members of other pods either presently annoucing shutdown plans (#Pluspora most notably) or which do so in future.

See also:

#Joindiaspora #JoindiasporaCom #Diaspora #DiasporaMigration #Migration #Diaspora #Help #Tips #DataArchves #Archives #Plexodus

11 Likes
1 Comments
dredmorbius@joindiaspora.com
Doc Morbius (moved to Glasswings)

Joindiaspora Shutdown is TODAY 4 March 2022

Joindiaspora will cease to be a fully active Diaspora pod on March 4, 2022 at about 20:00 UTC. Following maintenance of unknown duration at that time Joindiaspora will be available for some time afterward in "limited service mode" as described here (Archive), permitting data export and account management but little else.

If you’re waiting for a rescue or sitting on the fence, DO NOT WAIT.

Your options are reduced with any further delay.

What you should do NOW:

  • Create an archive of any data you wish to preserve from your Profile Settings page.
  • Find a new home on another Diaspora* or Fediverse instance NOW
  • Share your new location with your followers.

Do not expect miracles or a continuation, the Joindiaspora pod will be shut down SOON.

See also:

#SIGNALFLARE

I have moved from @Doc Edward Morbius (moved to Glasswings) (dredmorbius@joindiaspora.com) to @Doc Edward Morbius (dredmorbius@diaspora.glasswings.com).

#Joindiaspora #JoindiasporaCom #Diaspora #DiasporaMigration #Migration #Diaspora #Help #Tips #DataArchves #Archives #Plexodus

4 Likes
3 Comments
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dredmorbius@joindiaspora.com
Doc Morbius (moved to Glasswings)

Joindiaspora Shutdown is in ONE (1) Days

Joindiaspora will cease to be a active Diaspora pod on March 4, 2022.

If you’re waiting for a rescue or sitting on the fence, DO NOT WAIT.

Your options are reduced with any further delay.

What you should do NOW:

  • Create an archive of any data you wish to preserve from your Profile Settings page.
  • Find a new home on another Diaspora* or Fediverse instance NOW
  • Share your new location with your followers.

Do not expect miracles or a continuation, the Joindiaspora pod will be shut down SOON.

See also:

#SIGNALFLARE

I have moved from @Doc Edward Morbius (moved to Glasswings) (dredmorbius@joindiaspora.com) to @Doc Edward Morbius (dredmorbius@diaspora.glasswings.com).

#Joindiaspora #JoindiasporaCom #Diaspora #DiasporaMigration #Migration #Diaspora #Help #Tips #DataArchves #Archives #Plexodus

Hello JoinDiaspora

Hello JoinDiaspora there is some unfortunate news to share. Feneas will be dissolved and as Joindiaspora is one of the services. JD will also be shut down on 1 March. This is unless we can find someone who wants to take over the service. If you...

2 Likes
4 Shares
dredmorbius@diaspora.glasswings.com
Doc Morbius

Diaspora* Migration & Data Archival: Finding your First Remote-Pod Followers

A critical question in salvaging content is determining what content was federated, and where. This determines which of your posts were federated and whether all comments can be found at a given pod.

To do this, you can look to see what remote profile(s) and pod(s) followed you earliest. If that pod remains active, there's a good chance your full content and comments are probably fully represented there, after that initial follow date.

In my own case, I created my Joindiaspora profile and first posted in May, 2013.

My first non-Joindiaspora follow was from diasp.org on 15 December 2013. That pod remains active. It is most likely that full dicussions will exist there for posts made after that date.

  • pod.orkz followed on 25 December 2013, but is now defunct.
  • pod.geraspora.de followed on 18 January 2014 and remains active.
  • diasp.eu followed on 31 March, 2014 and remains active.
  • diasp.de followed on 6 May, 2014, and remains active.
  • diaspora-fr.org followed on 22 July, 2014 and remains active
  • spyurk.am followed on 11 August, 2014 and remains active.

To determine what remote pod(s) followed you earliest, go to your EARLIEST Notifications "Started Sharing", and look to see what pod the profile comes from (you'll have to hover over the username / avatar to do so. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the highest page number there for your earliest followers.

Note that broken avatar images almost always indicate dead pods. You can safely skip those.

Confirm that the pod itself is still online by loading its URL directly, e.g., https://diasp.org/ TLS/SSL security errors and non-resolution tend to be A Bad Sign.

It's possible that you were unfollowed by all profiles on a given pod, in which case your posts may not appear in full there. You'll need to verify this individually. The more followers you have on a given pod, the more likely your content is federated there.

I'm going to update my Archive-Index script to generate links for early-federating pods based on this information.

Also note that the following-date-by-pod information seems ... hard to extract if not impossible from your data extract. (I've yet to look into this.)

Another implication of this is that loss of large, long-lived pods has a knock-on effect across the entire Diaspora* network as history is wiped out. Mitigations against this would be very useful.

For more information or questions, see Diaspora Migration Tips and Questions Thread

https://diaspora.glasswings.com/posts/e0b4d980545c013a0103448a5b29e257

#DiasporaMigration #Migration #Diaspora #Help #Tips #JoindiasporaCom #Pluspora #PlusporaCom

diaspora social network

5 Likes
1 Comments
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dredmorbius@joindiaspora.com
Doc Morbius (moved to Glasswings)

Joindiaspora Shutdown is in TWO (2) Days

Joindiaspora will cease to be a active Diaspora pod on March 4, 2022.

If you’re waiting for a rescue or sitting on the fence, DO NOT WAIT.

Your options are reduced with any further delay.

What you should do NOW:

  • Create an archive of any data you wish to preserve from your Profile Settings page.
  • Find a new home on another Diaspora* or Fediverse instance NOW
  • Share your new location with your followers.

Do not expect miracles or a continuation, the Joindiaspora pod will be shut down SOON.

See also:

#SIGNALFLARE

I have moved from @Doc Edward Morbius (moved to Glasswings) (dredmorbius@joindiaspora.com) to @Doc Edward Morbius (dredmorbius@diaspora.glasswings.com).

#Joindiaspora #JoindiasporaCom #Diaspora #DiasporaMigration #Migration #Diaspora #Help #Tips #DataArchves #Archives #Plexodus

Hello JoinDiaspora

Hello JoinDiaspora there is some unfortunate news to share. Feneas will be dissolved and as Joindiaspora is one of the services. JD will also be shut down on 1 March. This is unless we can find someone who wants to take over the service. If you...

4 Likes
1 Shares
dredmorbius@joindiaspora.com
Doc Morbius (moved to Glasswings)

Joindiaspora Shutdown is in THREE (3) Days

Joindiaspora will cease to be a active Diaspora pod on March 4, 2022.

If you’re waiting for a rescue or sitting on the fence, DO NOT WAIT.

Your options are reduced with any further delay.

What you should do NOW:

  • Create an archive of any data you wish to preserve from your Profile Settings page.
  • Find a new home on another Diaspora* or Fediverse instance NOW
  • Share your new location with your followers.

Do not expect miracles or a continuation, the Joindiaspora pod will be shut down SOON.

See also:

#SIGNALFLARE

I have moved from @Doc Edward Morbius (moved to Glasswings) (dredmorbius@joindiaspora.com) to @Doc Edward Morbius (dredmorbius@diaspora.glasswings.com).

#Joindiaspora #JoindiasporaCom #Diaspora #DiasporaMigration #Migration #Diaspora #Help #Tips #DataArchves #Archives #Plexodus

Hello JoinDiaspora

Hello JoinDiaspora there is some unfortunate news to share. Feneas will be dissolved and as Joindiaspora is one of the services. JD will also be shut down on 1 March. This is unless we can find someone who wants to take over the service. If you...

3 Likes
1 Comments
1 Shares
dredmorbius@diaspora.glasswings.com
Doc Morbius

Joindiaspora Shutdown is in FOUR (4) Days

Joindiaspora will cease to be a active Diaspora pod on March 4, 2022.

If you’re waiting for a rescue or sitting on the fence, DO NOT WAIT.

Your options are reduced with any further delay.

What you should do NOW:

  • Create an archive of any data you wish to preserve from your Profile Settings page.
  • Find a new home on another Diaspora* or Fediverse instance NOW
  • Share your new location with your followers.

Do not expect miracles or a continuation, the Joindiaspora pod will be shut down SOON.

See also:

#SIGNALFLARE

I have moved from @Doc Edward Morbius (moved to Glasswings) (dredmorbius@joindiaspora.com) to @Doc Edward Morbius (dredmorbius@diaspora.glasswings.com).

#Joindiaspora #JoindiasporaCom #Diaspora #DiasporaMigration #Migration #Diaspora #Help #Tips #DataArchves #Archives #Plexodus

Hello JoinDiaspora

Hello JoinDiaspora there is some unfortunate news to share. Feneas will be dissolved and as Joindiaspora is one of the services. JD will also be shut down on 1 March. This is unless we can find someone who wants to take over the service. If you...

3 Likes
dredmorbius@diaspora.glasswings.com
Doc Morbius

Joindiaspora Shutdown is in FIVE (5) Days

Joindiaspora will cease to be a active Diaspora pod on March 4, 2022.

If you’re waiting for a rescue or sitting on the fence, DO NOT WAIT.

Your options are reduced with any further delay.

What you should do NOW:

  • Create an archive of any data you wish to preserve from your Profile Settings page.
  • Find a new home on another Diaspora* or Fediverse instance NOW
  • Share your new location with your followers.

Do not expect miracles or a continuation, the Joindiaspora pod will be shut down SOON.

See also:

#SIGNALFLARE

I have moved from @Doc Edward Morbius (moved to Glasswings) (dredmorbius@joindiaspora.com) to @Doc Edward Morbius (dredmorbius@diaspora.glasswings.com).

#Joindiaspora #JoindiasporaCom #Diaspora #DiasporaMigration #Migration #Diaspora #Help #Tips #DataArchves #Archives #Plexodus

Hello JoinDiaspora

Hello JoinDiaspora there is some unfortunate news to share. Feneas will be dissolved and as Joindiaspora is one of the services. JD will also be shut down on 1 March. This is unless we can find someone who wants to take over the service. If you...

6 Likes
1 Comments
2 Shares
dredmorbius@diaspora.glasswings.com
Doc Morbius

Joindiaspora Shutdown is in SIX (6) Days

Joindiaspora will cease to be a active Diaspora pod on March 4, 2022.

If you’re waiting for a rescue or sitting on the fence, DO NOT WAIT.

Your options are reduced with any further delay.

What you should do NOW:

  • Create an archive of any data you wish to preserve from your Profile Settings page.
  • Find a new home on another Diaspora* or Fediverse instance NOW
  • Share your new location with your followers.

Do not expect miracles or a continuation, the Joindiaspora pod will be shut down SOON.

See also:

#SIGNALFLARE

I have moved from @Doc Edward Morbius (moved to Glasswings) (dredmorbius@joindiaspora.com) to @Doc Edward Morbius (dredmorbius@diaspora.glasswings.com).

#Joindiaspora #JoindiasporaCom #Diaspora #DiasporaMigration #Migration #Diaspora #Help #Tips #DataArchves #Archives #Plexodus

Hello JoinDiaspora

Hello JoinDiaspora there is some unfortunate news to share. Feneas will be dissolved and as Joindiaspora is one of the services. JD will also be shut down on 1 March. This is unless we can find someone who wants to take over the service. If you...

3 Likes
2 Comments
2 Shares
dredmorbius@diaspora.glasswings.com
Doc Morbius

Joindiaspora Shutdown is in SEVEN (7) Days

If you’re waiting for a rescue or sitting on the fence, DON’T WAIT.

Your options are reduced with any further delay.

What you should do NOW:

  • Create an archive of any data you wish to preserve from your Profile Settings page.
  • Find a new home on another Diaspora* or Fediverse instance NOW
  • Share your new location with your followers.

Do not expect miracles or a continuation, the Joindiaspora pod will be shut down SOON.

See also:

#Joindiaspora #JoindiasporaCom #Diaspora #DiasporaMigration #Migration #Diaspora #Help #Tips #DataArchves #Archives

Hello JoinDiaspora

Hello JoinDiaspora there is some unfortunate news to share. Feneas will be dissolved and as Joindiaspora is one of the services. JD will also be shut down on 1 March. This is unless we can find someone who wants to take over the service. If you...

5 Likes
2 Shares
dredmorbius@diaspora.glasswings.com
Doc Morbius

Diaspora* Data Migration and Archival Lessons Learned

(So far)

This is a summary of my discoveries and learning over the past two months or so concerning Diaspora* data archives and references as well as JSON and tools for manipulating it, specifically jq.

It is a condensation of conversation mostly at my earlier Data Migration Tips & Questions (2022-1-10) thread, though also scattered elsewhere. I strongly recommend you review that thread and address general questions there.

Discussion here should focus on the specific information provided, any additions or corrections, and questions on how to access/use specific tools. E.g., how to get #jq running on Microsoft Windows, which I don't have specific experience with.

Archival Philosophy

I'm neither a maximalist nor minimalist when it comes to content archival. What I believe is that people should be offered the tools and choices they need to achieve their desired goal. Where preservation is preferred and causes minimal harm, it's often desirable. Not everything needs to be preserved, but too it isn't necessary to burn down every library one encounters as one journeys through life.

In particular, I'm seeking to preserve access for myself and others to previous conversations and discussions, and to content that's been shared and linked elsewhere. Several of my own posts have been submissions to Hacker News and other sites, for example, and archival at, say, the Internet Archive or Archive Today will preserve at least some access.

This viewpoint seems not to be shared by key members of the Diaspora* dev team and some pod administrators. As such, I'll note that their own actions and views reduce choice and agency amongst members of the Diaspora* community. The attitude is particularly incongruous given Diaspora*'s innate reliance on federation and content propagation according to the original specified intent of the content's authors and creators. This is hardly the first time Diaspora* devs have put their own concerns far above those of members of the Diaspora* community.

Information here is provided for those who seek to preserve content from their own profiles on Diaspora* servers likely to go offline, in the interest of maximising options and achieving desired goals. If this isn't your concern or goal, you may safely ignore what follows.

Prerequisites

The discussion here largely addresses working with a downloaded copy of Diaspora* profile data in JSON format.

It presumes you have jq installed on your system, and have a Bash or equivalent command-line / scripting environment. Most modern computers can offer jq though you will have to install it: natively on Linux, any of the BSDs, MacOS (via Homebrew), Windows (via Cygwin or WSL), and Android (via Termux). iOS is the only mass-market exception, and even there you might get lucky using iSH.

Create your archive by visiting your Pod's /user/edit page and requesting EXPORT DATA at the bottom of that page.

If you have issues doing so, please contact your Pod admin or other support contact(s). Known problems for some Joindiaspora members in creating archives are being worked on.

## Diaspora* post URLs can be reconstructed from the post GUID

The Diaspora* data extract does not include a canonical URL, but you can create one easily:

Post URL = /posts/

So for the GUID 64cc4c1076e5013a7342005056264835

We can tack on:

  • protocol: https://
  • host_name: pluspora.com Substitute your intended Pod's hostname here.
  • the string literal /posts/

to arrive at:

https://pluspora.com/posts/64cc4c1076e5013a7342005056264835

... which is the URL for a post by @Rhysy (rhysy@pluspora.com) in which I'd initially witten the comment this post is based on, at that post's Pluspora Pod origin.

Given that Pluspora is slated to go offline a few weeks from now, Future Readers may wish to refer to an archived copy here:
https://archive.ph/Y8mar

Once you have the URL, you can start doing interesting things with it.

Links based on other Pod URLs can be created

Using our previous example, links for the post on, e.g., diasp.org, diaspora.glasswings.com, diasp.eu, etc., can be generated by substituting for host_name:

Simply having a URL on a pod does not ensure that the content will be propagated. A member of that pod must subscribe to the post first. In many cases this occurs through followers, though occasionally it does not.

You can trigger federation by specifically mentioning a user at that instance and having them request the page.

I'm not sure of when specifically federation occurs --- when the notification is generated, when the notification is viewed, or when the post itself is viewed. I've experienced such unfederated posts (404s) often as I've updated, federated, and archived my own earlier content from Joindiaspora to Glasswings. If federation occurs at some time after initial publication and comments the post URL and content should resolve, but comments made prior to that federation will not propagate.

(Pinging a profile you control on another pod is of course an excellent way to federate posts to that pod.)

Once a post is federated to a set of hosts it will be reachable at those hosts. If it has not yet been federated, you'll receive a "404" page, usually stating "These are not the kittens you're looking for. Move along." on Diaspora* instances.

(I'm not aware of other ways to trigger federation, if anyone knows of methods, please advise in comments.)

Note that comments shown on a post will vary by Pod, when and how it was Federated, and any blocks or networking issues between other Pods from which comments have been made. Not all instances necessarily show the same content, inconsistencies do occur.

Links to archival tools can be created by prepending their URLs to the appropriate link

Those will either show existing archives if they exist or provide links to submit the post if they do not.

Note that the Internet Archive does not include comments, though Archive.Today does, see: https://archive.is/almMw vs. https://web.archive.org/web/20220224213824/https://pluspora.com/posts/64cc4c1076e5013a7342005056264835

To include later comments, additional archival requests will have to be submitted.

My Archive-Index script does all of the above

See My current jq project: create a Diaspora post-abstracter.

https://diaspora.glasswings.com/posts/ed03bc1063a0013a2ccc448a5b29e257

That still has a few rough edges, but works to create an archive index which can be edited down to size. There's a fair bit of "scaffolding" in the direct output.

Note that the OLD and NEW hosts in the script specify Joindiaspora and Glasswings specifically. You'll want to adapt these to YOUR OWN old and newPod hostnames.

The script produces output which (after editing out superflous elements) looks like this in raw form:

## 2012

### May


**Hey everyone, I'm #NewHere. I'm interested in #debian and #linux, among other things. Thanks for the invite, Atanas Entchev!**

> Yet another G+ refuge. ...

<https://diaspora.glasswings.com/posts/cc046b1e71fb043d> 
[Original](https://joindiaspora.com/posts/cc046b1e71fb043d) :: [Wayback Machine](https://web.archive.org/*/https://joindiaspora.com/posts/cc046b1e71fb043d) :: [Archive.Today](https://archive.is/https://joindiaspora.com/posts/cc046b1e71fb043d) 

(2012-05-17 20:33)

----


**Does anyone have the #opscodechef wiki book as an ePub?  Only available formats are online/web, or PDF (which sucks).  I'm becoming a rapid fan of the #epub format having found a good reader for Android and others for Debian/Ubuntu.**

> Related:  strategies for syncing libraries across Android and desktop/laptop devices. ...

<https://diaspora.glasswings.com/posts/e76c078ba0544ad9> 
[Original](https://joindiaspora.com/posts/e76c078ba0544ad9) :: [Wayback Machine](https://web.archive.org/*/https://joindiaspora.com/posts/e76c078ba0544ad9) :: [Archive.Today](https://archive.is/https://joindiaspora.com/posts/e76c078ba0544ad9) 

(2012-05-17 21:29)
----

Which renders as:

2012

May

Hey everyone, I'm #NewHere. I'm interested in #debian and #linux, among other things. Thanks for the invite, Atanas Entchev!

Yet another G+ refuge. ...

https://diaspora.glasswings.com/posts/cc046b1e71fb043d
Original :: Wayback Machine :: Archive.Today

(2012-05-17 20:33)

Does anyone have the #opscodechef wiki book as an ePub? Only available formats are online/web, or PDF (which sucks). I'm becoming a rapid fan of the #epub format having found a good reader for Android and others for Debian/Ubuntu.

Related: strategies for syncing libraries across Android and desktop/laptop devices. ...

https://diaspora.glasswings.com/posts/e76c078ba0544ad9
Original :: Wayback Machine :: Archive.Today

(2012-05-17 21:29)

I've been posting those in fragmenents by year as private posts to myself to facilitate both federation and archival of the content. In chunks as Diaspora* has a 2^16^ / 65,536 byte per-post size limit. It's a slow slog but I've only one more year (2021) to manually process at this point, with post counts numbering up to 535 per year.

The Internet Archive Wayback Machine (at Archive.org) accepts scripted archival requests

If you submit a URL in the form of https://web.archive.org/save/<URL>, the Wayback Machine will attempt to archive that URL.

This can be scripted for an unattended backup request if you can generate the set of URLs you want to save.

Using our previous example, the URL would be:

https://web.archive.org/save/https://pluspora.com/posts/64cc4c1076e5013a7342005056264835

Clicking that link will generate an archive request.

(IA limit how frequently such a request will be processed.)

Joindiaspora podmins discourage this practice. Among the more reasonable concerns raised is system load.

I suggest that if you do automate archival requests, as I have done, you set a rate-limit or sleep timer on your script. A request every few seconds should be viable. As a Bash "one-liner" reading from the file DIASPORA_EXTRACT.json.gz (change to match your own archive file), which logs progress to the timestamped file run-log with a YYYYMMDD-hms format, e.g., run-log.20220224-222158:

time zcat DIASPORA_EXTRACT.json.gz |
    jq -r '.user .posts[] | "https://joindiaspora.com/posts/\(.entity_data .guid )"' |
    xargs -P4 -n1 -t -r ~/bin/archive-url |
    tee run-log.$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S)

archive-url is a Bash shell script:

#!/bin/bash

url=${1}

echo -e "Archiving ${url} ... "
lynx -dump -nolist -width=1024 "https://web.archive.org/save/${url}"  |
    sed -ne '/[Ss]aving page now/,/^$/{/./s/^[  ]*//p;}' |
    grep 'Saving page now'

sleep 4

Note that this waits 4 seconds between requests (sleep 4), which limits itself to a maximum of 900 requests per hour. There is NO error detection and you should confirm that posts you think you archived actually are archived. (We can discuss methods for this in comments, I'm still working on how to achieve this.)

The script could be improved to only process public posts, something I need to look into. Submitting private posts won't result in their archival, but it's additional time and load.

There is no automated submission mechanism for Archive.Today of which I'm aware.

Appending .json to the end of a Diaspora* URL provides the raw JSON data for that post:

https://joindiaspora.com/posts/64cc4c1076e5013a7342005056264835.json

That can be further manipulated with tools, e.g., to extract original post or comment Markdown text, or other information. Using jq is useful for this as described in other posts under the #jq hashtag generally.

Notably:

As always: This is my best understanding

There are likely errors and omissions. Much of the behaviour and structure described is inferred. Corrections and additions are welcomed.

#DiasporaMigration #Migration #Diaspora #Help #Tips #JoindiasporaCom #jq #json #DataArchves #Archives

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dredmorbius@diaspora.glasswings.com
Doc Morbius

Useful Diaspora* jq recipes: Extract the last (or other specified) comment(s) on a post

if you want to re-write the most recent comment on a thread, and retrieve the original Markdown, you can fetch the post using its GUID URL with .json appended, then run it through a simple jq recipe:

curl -s '<post_url>.json' |
   jq -r '.interactions.comments[-1].text'

Say, for example, if you realise you'd just muffed your most recent contribution to a thread and wanted to rewrite it, but don't want to have to re-tag all the Markdown from scratch.

I'm using curl as the web transport and piping output to jq on a commandline. This is supported on Linux, the BSDs, MacOS, Windows (using Cygwin or WSL), and via Termux on Android. Sorry, iOS, here's a dime, go buy a real computer.

An example referencing a specific post:

curl -s 'https://diaspora.glasswings.com/posts/ed03bc1063a0013a2ccc448a5b29e257.json' |
    jq -r '.interactions.comments[-1].text'

Note that comments are indexed from either the start (beginning with [0]) or via negative values, the last ([-1] instance), and you can provide another offset if you're trying to access a specific post some number of values from the start or end. The third comment would be [2], the fourth most recent would be [-4].

Leave the iterator unspecified to select all comments:

jq -r '.interactions.comments[].text`

As before, the -r argument outputs raw text without JSON escaping of quotes and other characters. This avoids most post-retrieval processing, e.g., a sed script to remove quoted characters and the like.

And as I've mentioned previously, jq itself is an extraordinarily useful, if occasionally opaque, command-line tool for processing and parsing JSON data. Which happens to be how Diaspora* delivers much of its content.

This post is of course based on a comment I'd made to this earlier jq thread ... as a comment. Edited and adapted, but substantially similar.

https://diaspora.glasswings.com/posts/ed03bc1063a0013a2ccc448a5b29e257

#UsefulJqRecipes #jq #json #diaspora #tips

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