Move the homepage's Basic concepts to the Documentation
Dear @
Der Pepe (Hubzilla) ⁂ ⚝,
I would like to move the following content from the hubzilla.org website to the documentation, if possible. Do you see a possibility for this? Or is there already something similar?
Basic concepts
Channels (understood as identities vs. as an app)
As a user (i.e. as a private individual or as an association), you can create one or more web
identities. The web presence of an identity is bundled within Hubzilla: A visitor of the web identity gets to see content related to that identity in one place, available through the main menu
apps for that identity.
Internally, within the software, an identity is called "channel". But for a visitor, the word "channel" means
one specific app belonging to the identity, namely the
pinboard where the (possibly) federated posts of the identity are shown in a stream based timeline.
In the following, we understand channels as identities: As a logged in user, you can switch between your channels to edit the content for each channel, i.e. to publish posts or to create one or several channel profiles, websites, wiki pages and more. Per channel you can also manage files in a cloud, tag and name photos and show the photos in a web gallery. Events of the channel can be shown in a calendar.
Decentralized Network: Access over boundaries (Zot/Nomad) vs. delivering over boundaries (Zot/Nomad, ActivityPub and Diaspora)
If allowed to do so, identities on Hubzilla connect with each other across server and administrative boundaries through the communication protocol Zot/Nomad (and if provided by your server, also throught the protocols ActivityPub and Diaspora).
Except for posts / messages, all published content stays local your server. While you can publish content publicly, it is also possible to share local content with only some specified connections. Latter is only possible with connections through Zot/Nomad (thus with identities on Hubzilla and Streams).
Access controlling
Your local content can be "visited" by those Zot/Nomad based connections who got the permission to do so from you. By assigning your connections to connection lists (so-called "privacy groups"), you can also permit access to specific content to all members of that list.
You can send posts / messages (also using the ActivityPub or Disaspora protocols) to one connection, to a privacy group or to the public, using an access controlling list.
It's possible to define a duration for expiring a post / message. This is how to limit access timewise.
Remote authentication
"Do you know me? -- Yes I do, welcome!"
"Visiting" non public content on a remote server should only be possible when you can authenticate yourself to that server. Fediverse software which only use the ActivityPub or the Diaspora protocol can authenticate only accounts from the local server though.
The Zot protocol on the other hand has built in a mechanism called MagicAuth which makes it possible to a server to grant or refuse access to content and actions to identities which are registered on a different (remote) server.
Nomadic identity
The Zot/Nomad protocol allows your channels to be unbound from the hub where you created them. You may port them to a different hub, or you may clone them, in which case the channel's identity and data will exist simultaneously in more than one location. This provides resilience to channels should a hub shut down or become unavailable.
Modular ecosystem through apps
Hubzilla provides for each functionality a separate
app, i.e. the cloud, photo, gallery, chat, wiki, calendar, contacts or the connections app. A server administrator decides which apps should be available for the users of that server. A user then can install or uninstall the available apps.
Collaboration
Following shared private spaces allow to work as teams using Hubzilla:
- As a user you allow selected connections to read and edit your webpages and wiki pages.
- Allow them to read and edit your files, calendar and contacts using the web user interface (the cloud, calendar and contacts apps) or WebDAV, CalDAV and CardDAV.
- Use conversation threads (posts) which are only visible to your collaboration group by setting the access control list accordingly.
Sharing vs. boosting
Hubzilla allows you to (re-)share posts of other Fediverse users. (Re-)Sharing something in Hubzilla is like telling your friends Jennie and Omar what Giaco said. And then they say "Cool, I like it".
Hubzilla also allows boosting. Boosting something is like telling your friends Jennie and Omar what Giaco said, while Giaco and all his friends and family (that you don't know) are listening. Giaco and all his friends and family can talk to you now.
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