@name@server.sthg versus name@server.sthg

2025-03-08 22:27:07

adminsforum@hubzilla.org

*_jayrope wrote the following post Sat, 08 Mar 2025 22:28:06 +0100

@name@server.sthg versus name@server.sthg

@!Hubzilla Support Forum "Normal" Fediverse handles just like @name@server.sthg don't add automatically in HZ, always need to remove the first @ sign. Wouldn't it be more practical if that worked as it does on the rest of Fediverse?

Should i request that on framagit?

show all 9 comments

2025-03-08 23:00:51

Scott M. Stolz

scott@loves.tech

It would be nice if we could paste either version of the address into the add connections form, with or without the extra @ sign.

The additional @ in @name@example.com is mostly a Mastodon invention, and a lot of projects use name@example.com instead. So it is far from universal or normal.

Supporting both would be a good idea, as far as adding contacts. Adding or removing that extra @ is annoying.

We should always display it without the leading @ though, like we do now, which makes more sense semantically.

2025-03-08 23:28:25

Der Pepe (Hubzilla) ⁂ ⚝

pepecyb@hub.hubzilla.hu

It would not be a big problem to ‘allow’ the leading ‘@’ in Hubzilla (i.e., to make it ‘don't care’). This would only be necessary in the search and in the input field for adding a link. In both cases, the leading ‘@’, if present, would have to be cut off before passing the string to the respective function.

However, I think it is unnecessary to add an ‘@’ to the handles of Hubzilla channels. You don't have to do everything because Mastodon requires it and quite a few services have already bowed to this compulsion.

2025-03-08 23:36:31

Scott M. Stolz

scott@loves.tech

The only places the extra @ really matters in when you add contacts or search for contacts. That is because you often wind up copy and pasting someone's handle, which may or may not have an extra @ sign.

But whenever a channel is displayed, it should stay the way it is now channel@example.com without the extra @ sign.

2025-03-08 23:41:59

Der Pepe (Hubzilla) ⁂ ⚝

pepecyb@hub.hubzilla.hu

@Scott M. Stolz That's what I said. 😉

When entering data into these fields, the underlying function should simply cut off any leading ‘@’... and that's it. This eliminates a source of mistakes - especially for newcomers coming from other services. Nothing more would be necessary.

That shouldn't be a big programming effort.

2025-03-09 01:46:58

*_jayrope

jrp@hub.kliklak.net

@Der Pepe (Hubzilla) ⁂ ⚝ It's not Mastodon, it's the rest of the Fediverse. And cutting off the @ at the beginning of a handle has this big disadvantadge, that the result can be mistaken as an email address, too. @Scott M. Stolz

2025-03-09 10:44:19

Mario Vavti

mario@hub.somaton.com

I do not think we have to implement a stupid fashion that derives from twitter. Removing the leading @ before processing the webfinger address probably makes sense though...

2025-03-09 10:51:01

David Palk

palky@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

That gets my vote

2025-03-10 01:26:47

Scott M. Stolz

scott@loves.tech

@*_jayrope user@example.com has always meant "a user on a computer named example.com." It is most commonly used for email, but it isn't just used for email.

It is similar to how many people say "doctor" when they mean physician. Physicians are not the only type of doctor. You also have Ph.D. and DBA, for example. And nurses, believe it or not, can also get a doctorate, and yet not be a licensed physician (i.e. M.D.).

So using user@example.com is indirectly reeducating people on what user@example.com is actually supposed to mean (i.e. it's not just email). It also means that spammers slurp up addresses that can't be reached by email, which screws up their lists and can be used as nice honey pots.

And, some day, direct messages over ActivityPub may actually replace email since it can potentially protect against spam. There is a trend away from email, with many younger people using messaging services instead of email to communicate. In that case an email style address makes the most sense since fediverse communication may replace email, at least outside of the corporate world.

So there are many reasons to keep user@example.com. The most important is that it is the established way of specifying a user at a domain.

2025-03-10 07:08:02

sk@hub.utsukta.org

@Scott M. Stolz seeing how complicated setting up an email server is compared to an activitypub server, this would be a great improvement.