[Feature Request 1./1.5] Automatically install ActivityPub app when creating a channel / option for channel suggestions

2025-08-01 11:45:38

adminsforum@hubzilla.org

Der Pepe (Hubzilla) ⁂ ⚝ wrote the following post Fri, 01 Aug 2025 11:45:35 +0200

[Feature Request 1./1.5] Automatically install ActivityPub app when
creating a channel / option for channel suggestions

Newcomers to Hubzilla often don't know that they need to install the ‘ActivityPub’ app (if enabled by the admin Pubcrawl) in order to interact with other Fediverse services. When they then try to add a Mastodon channel as a connection, for example, this is rejected with a message indicating that the protocol is not supported, which may give new users the impression that Hubzilla cannot interact with the Fediverse at all.

My suggestion: The channel creation form should be expanded to include this (and another) option if the Pubcrawl add-on is enabled on the hub. A simple radio button labelled ‘Enable ActivityPub - I want to participate in the entire Fediverse’ should then install the ActivityPub app after channel creation without any further action on the part of the user. (German localisation: ‘ActivityPub aktivieren - Ich möchte am gesamten Fediverse teilnehmen’)

As a further option to lower the barriers to onboarding, there could be a switch that, when activated, redirects the user to the page with the connection suggestions immediately after channel creation. The switch could be labelled ‘Suggest some contacts for me’. (German localisation: ‘Schlage mir einige Kontakte vor’)

2025-08-01 13:15:45

Fedir Ustynov

ufm@twinkle.lol

@Hubzilla Support Forum
Addition - it should be possible for the admin to specify that this add-on must be enabled for new channels by default.

2025-08-01 14:04:58

Mario Vavti

mario@hub.somaton.com

Yes, a framework to define apps to be installed by default for new channels would be a very welcome contribution!

2025-08-01 14:51:10

citc

citc@zotum.net

@Hubzilla Support Forum
Unless mistaken, the module to use hubzilla with 'activitypub' protocol is called 'pubcrawl'; a confusion per se.
This desire to make woolly mammoth people comfortable reminds of the failure of libreoffice in comparison to microsoft office. In microsoft word, to save a file with suffix 'odt', the option is (obviously deliberately) placed at the bottom of options. Libreoffice users always complain about compatibility with microsoft; ask them to complain to microsoft, nothing more happens.

Hubzilla has already lowered standards of consensual communications, claimed to "improve engagement" in big media, vulture-capital language. Automatic installations of optional modules seems to be dubious; either the module is important enough to be 'core', or it is not. If people want 'activitypub' with 'hubzilla' functionality, there is 'forte' elsewhere.

New users of hubzilla should be encouraged to read the documentation before anything else. There is much to learn about profiles, channels, permissions, connections.

Probably the single most important function in hubzilla that must be understood first, is the concept of nomadic identity. It is the "killer feature". It also is not guaranteed to work, so the new user must be informed about the module 'channel export' and the need to use that module frequently, to protect the account. After (s)he has read the excellent documentation (which has been kept accurate because of sensible development plans with the programmers), the new user is best informed to _choose_ the module(s) (s)he wants to use with the hubzilla account.

2025-08-02 00:29:25

Der Pepe (Hubzilla) ⁂ ⚝

pepecyb@hub.hubzilla.hu

@Hubzilla Support Forum

Just to clarify:

I am not suggesting that the ‘Pubcrawl’ add-on (for the ActivityPub protocol) should be installed (activated) automatically, but rather that the “ActivityPub” app should be installed immediately when creating a channel via an option selection (toggle switch or checkbox), provided that the admin has activated ‘Pubcrawl’. For genuine newbies who don't know that this is necessary to join the Fediverse, this should be explained clearly in the option (‘I want to join the Fediverse’) and they should be spared the trouble of first switching to the app management and explicitly installing the app there. This is therefore only a configuration simplification for users who want to use AP anyway without having to know exactly how to achieve this and what it means in concrete terms (installing the ‘ActivityPub’ app)...

For hubs without the ‘Pubcrawl add-on’ activated, the option should not be offered because it simply cannot be selected.