Blocking domains
If you thought slashing tariffs by 115% to ease global tensions around an impending recession was good news, just wait till you hear what we've got in store for you this week when it comes to ActivityPub.
Last week, we shipped the ability to block individual users with ActivityPub, so you can limit interactions from people you would rather not engage with. We also touched on the idea that thoughtful moderation can't be achieved with a single feature, but rather is something that requires a collection of tools.
What's new with ActivityPub?
Building on that collection, this week we shipped support for blocking domains with ActivityPub. Domain blocking is a powerful way to limit entire servers in the fediverse, rather than just a single user.
Now, if you get spam or abuse from @bob@spam.com , @sally@spam.com, and @bot@spam.com, you don't have to go and block each user manually. Instead, you can block the entire @spam.com domain to limit interactions from all users on that server.
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Once a domain is blocked, you'll no longer see posts or notifications from any of those users, and they won't be able to interact with your profile.
In the upcoming week, we'll also add new setting screens to allow you to easily look up all your blocked users and domains and make changes to it if needed.
Notifications improvements
A small but significant design improvement also went out last week, making it much easier to spot when someone sends you a reply using ActivityPub.
While follows, likes, and reposts are useful signals that your content is getting engagement, we wanted to highlight even more clearly when you get a reply or comment on something you've posted – so you never miss out on a conversation.
If you visit the explore section, you'll also see that this week (for the first time since this newsletter started) we are no longer the most popular user of ActivityPub on Ghost!
404Media have overtaken us and moved into the number 1 slot as the largest website sending out all their newsletters with ActivityPub, and they've been getting some great conversations going in the replies on their posts.
If you haven't already followed, they're a great example to take a look at.
By the way, we're tweaking and updating the list of sites featured in the Explore section each week. Our sorting is based on a combination of popularity and activity. People using ActivityPub the most are the most likely to get featured!
Finally, we know there are still some issues with custom usernames and Bluesky sharing. We haven't gotten to the bottom of it just yet, but we're working on it.
404 Media
404 Media is a new independent media company founded by technology journalists Jason Koebler, Emanuel Maiberg, Samantha Cole, and Joseph Cox.404 Media
Blocking users
Welcome back, intergalactic explorers. Pull up a chair and join us on a Monday morning social web detour. Your todo list can wait. You've got the entire week still ahead of you!Last week, we introduced brand new preferences for ActivityPub, the ability to edit your social web profile, and dedicated sharing settings for Threads and Bluesky. Each week, Ghost publications in the fediverse become a little more unique. It's lovely to see!
What's new with ActivityPub?
This week, we shipped our first set of moderation controls: The ability to block users from interacting with you, if you don't want them to.If you've spent any amount of time in the Fediverse over the past 6 months, there's a good chance you've come across Nicole in your mentions.
But you can call her the Fediverse Chick.
Nicole (not her real name) is a not-so-convincing spam bot with hundreds (thousands?) of profiles across different Mastodon servers, and uses the @[url=https://infosec.exchange/users/mention]Hoo Hoo[/url] feature to promote her warez. The same warez. Every time.The good news: Now you can send her out the airlock.
When a user is blocked, they can see your public posts, but they can no longer interact with you. Any requests they make to follow, like, reply, repost, mention, or interact with your profile are automatically rejected.Being able to block users is important because healthy communities grow on the principle of consent. Every participant should be able to decide who can reach them, who can’t, and when the conversation is over.
In an open, federated environment like ActivityPub—where posts can flow in from thousands of independent servers—bad-actors, drive-by harassment or spam aren’t hypothetical edge-cases; they’re statistical certainties.
Robust user-level moderation tools turn that reality from a deal-breaker into a manageable nuisance. They allow you to publish publicly without surrendering your personal boundaries, so you can curate a meaningful experience.
That being said, the astute pugs among you will have noticed a shortcoming in this argument.
Nicole is so famously persistent because the spam doesn't just come from a single user. You can block her, but invariably she'll pop up again a few weeks later with a new username on a new server.
In reality, it doesn't take just one feature to facilitate thoughtful moderation; it requires a collection of tools that can be used together in concert. User blocking is our first step down this road, but there's much more yet to come.
Our long-term goal is simple: Each Ghost publication should be able to define its own social atmosphere. That means putting the dials and levers of moderation directly in the hands of publishers, whether that’s blocking a single nuisance account, muting an entire server, or setting up automated filters.
Your publication, your rules, your community.
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julian
in reply to Building ActivityPub • • •Re: Blocking domains
index@activitypub.ghost.org fam just blocked an entire domain because of the fediverse chick.
johnonolan@mastodon.xyz clearly means business here.
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