How it works
Federation & the bridge
How a like from Mastodon reaches a diaspora* pod, and why private stays private.
Two languages, natively
Disbigle is not a relay or a gateway bot. It is a full ActivityPub server and a full diaspora* pod at the same time.
- WebFinger, host-meta and NodeInfo for both
- ActivityPub actors, inbox and outbox via Fedify
- diaspora* hCard, magic envelopes, public and private
- HTTP Signatures and RSA-SHA256 envelope signatures
The bridge
When a Mastodon user comments on a post that diaspora* users follow, Disbigle passes it on.
Bridge identities
Each remote author gets a stand-in on the other protocol, with its own keys: jun_at_mastodon.social.
Relayables
Comments, likes and votes are relayed by the thread owner, as diaspora* expects.
Inbox forwarding
Replies and deletions are forwarded to the followers of the thread author.
Private stays private
A limited post is bridged only among the people in its audience. A diaspora* comment is accepted only if the author can see the post, or if the thread owner relays it.
Aspect names never leave the server: people do not know which aspect they are in.
Mapping
diaspora*
- StatusMessage
- Comment
- Like
- Reshare
- Conversation + Message
- Retraction
- AccountMigration
ActivityPub
- Create + Note
- Note + inReplyTo
- Like
- Announce
- Note to direct recipients
- Delete / Undo
- Move
Tested live
- Comments, likes and deletions between diaspora-fr.org, diaspo.it, Hubzilla and mastodon.uno
- Private threads between diaspora* and Mastodon, invisible to everyone else
- New followers receive the latest public posts
- Search finds people on servers we already know
Known gap: Hubzilla does not apply comment deletions yet. We are investigating.