Add Discourse ActivityPub plugin to GMT forum

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1

There has been some interest in bringing GMT into Mastodon or the Fediverse (https://flint.soest.hawaii.edu/t/gmt-and-pygmt-mastodon-migration/4227), but the multi-account management part has been a bit tricky to coordinate. Recently though, Discourse has added a plugin for ActivityPub (the protocol behind the Fediverse), which you can think of as a fancier version of RSS, that would allow forum posts in certain categories to be published to the Fediverse. Users can then subscribe to the GMT forum (much like an RSS feed).

ActivityPub plugin on Discourse
ActivityPub plugin on Discourse1124×816 180 KB

Pros:

  • Anyone who can post to the ‘Announcements’ category can publish to ActivityPub without needing a Mastodon/Fediverse account
  • Publishing a post is done once, and federated to everyone subscribed. No need for cross-posting on different social media accounts

Cons:

  • The ActivityPub handle to follow GMT at might not look nice (e.g. announcements@forum.generic-mapping-tools.org) compared to a native Mastodon account (e.g.@gmt_dev@fosstodon.org)
  • Plugin requires installation, and is somewhat in a beta state (e.g. edits don’t work)

Note that ‘posts’ to Mastodon are currently one-way, so replies from Mastodon won’t show up on the forum posts (could be a pro/con depending on how you see it). But since we’re not super active in terms of social media interaction, that might be ok.

Examples of forums that have this ActivityPub plugin setup:

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This sounds like a good option to me. I think the one-way posting is adequate for a start. At least it provides a way for people to see the announcements. You could include the GMT forum URL in the posts for people who want to interact.

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Cool, so we’ll need an admin to install the plugin (I’m only a moderator :slightly_smiling_face:). Not quite sure who’s managing the current Discourse server though, maybe check with @pwessel?

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I just asked IT to do it, we shall see
Paul

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