View source for Bridgy Fed

[[File:octopus attacks ship bridgy fed.jpg|thumb|right|alt=In the old Age of Sail style. A Lovecraftian giant octopus attacks three large sailing ships. The ships' sails have the Twitter, Reddit, and Threads logos. The octopos's tentacles have the webmention, ActivityPub, fediverse, ATProto, and Nostr logos. The octopus's head is a router with the Bridgy (Fed) logo.]]

'''<dfn>[https://fed.brid.gy Bridgy Fed]</dfn>''' connects IndieWeb sites with the [[fediverse]] (eg [[Mastodon]]) and [[Bluesky]], allowing users on those networks to follow your IndieWeb site, including receiving notifications, reading, and replying to your posts.

Bridgy Fed is like a [[POSSE]] and [[backfeed]] service for those servers, except that it [[federation|federates]] instead of [[syndication|syndicating]]. Under the covers, it translates [[h-entry]]+[[Webmention]]s to/from [[ActivityPub]] and [[AT Protocol]].

A developers-centric summary of Bridgy Fed:
* Bridgy Fed converts your existing site’s h-card profile, h-entry post permalinks, and Webmentions to ActivityPub and AT Protocol, and vice versa.

== How it works ==
One key difference between Bridgy Fed and POSSE/PESOS is that Bridgy Fed [[federates]] instead of [[syndication|syndicating]]. Fediverse implementations like Mastodon understand that your profile and posts live on your site, not as copies under a separate Mastodon user, so they link to your site properly.
__TOC__
== Why ==
You want to federate your web site with the fediverse for the same reasons you [[POSSE]], [[PESOS]], or [[backfeed]] to any other silo: you want to own your data, but you also want to interact with people inside that silo.

== How to ==
See https://fed.brid.gy/docs for general information on how to setup Bridgy Fed.

=== How to add a follow form ===
Your Bridgy Fed dashboard page has a form for others put their fediverse profile URL or @-@ address to follow you.

You can extract this markup and put it on your own site too! 

People that have done this:
* {{aciccarello}} as of 2023-01-19 (See [https://www.ciccarello.me/subscribe/ /subscribe])
* {{tantek}} as of 2023-01-20 on his home page right column: https://tantek.com
* {{gRegor}} as of 2023-01-20 (See [https://gregorlove.com/follow/ /follow])
* {{jamietanna}} as of 2023-02-12 on his [https://www.jvt.me/subscribe/ /subscribe/ page]
* ...

Steps to make this work:
# Copy the form html from your site's profile on Bridgy Fed to somewhere on your site
# Change the URL for the form action to be an absolute URL:
#* <kbd><nowiki>https://fed.brid.gy/remote-follow</nowiki></kbd>
# Adjust classes, labels, and placeholders as desired

Here’s a summary of the HTML form. 
* replace <samp>@tantek.com@tantek.com</samp> with your @-@, and 
* replace <samp>tantek.com</samp> with your domain
<pre>
<form method="post" action="https://fed.brid.gy/remote-follow">
 <label for="follow-address">🐘 Follow 
  <kbd>@tantek.com@tantek.com</kbd>:<br /> 
  enter your @-@ fediverse address:</label>
 <input id="follow-address" name="address" type="text" required="required"
        placeholder="@you@instance.social" alt="fediverse address" value="" />
 <input name="domain" type="hidden" value="tantek.com" />
 <input name="protocol" type="hidden" value="web" />
 <button type="submit">Follow</button>
</form>
</pre>

Sample rendering:

[[Image:2023-01-20-bf-at-at-follow-form.png]]

Entering a Mastodon @-@ address that you’re logged into (in this case <samp>@t@xoxo.zone</samp>) and clicking "Follow" will result in a screen like this:

[[Image:2023-01-20-mastodon-follow-prompt.png|487px]]

Clicking "FOLLOW" on that screen completes the follow action, and should show a success message like this:

[[Image:2023-01-20-mastodon-follow-success.png|487px]]

== Stats ==
See: https://fed.brid.gy/stats

== IndieWeb Examples ==

=== Ryan Barrett ===

Started using Bridgy Fed to federate with Mastodon and Hubzilla at the beginning of September 2017.


==== Federating a reply ====

Here's [https://snarfed.org/reply5.html an example reply to a post on Mastodon]:

[[File:bridgy_fed_indieweb_reply.jpg]]

And [https://mastodon.technology/@snarfed/3194674 here's how it shows up inside Mastodon]. Note that the permalink links back to snarfed.org, not inside Mastodon.

[[File:bridgy_fed_mastodon_post.jpg]]

==== Backfeed ====

Here's [https://mastodon.technology/@snarfed/3909696 another reply from inside Mastodon]:

[[File:bridgy_fed_mastodon_reply.png]]

And [https://snarfed.org/2017-10-01_mastodon-for-tech-folks#li-comment-2609551 here it is backfed to the original post on my site]:

[[File:bridgy_fed_indieweb_backfeed.jpg]]


=== Tantek ===
{{t}} setup Bridgy Fed on his site tantek.com [https://tantek.com/2022/301/t1/twittermigration-bridgyfed-mastodon-indieweb on 2022-10-28].

Discoverability via search in Mastodon:

[[Image:2022-10-28-mastodon-follow-tantekcom.png]]
Screenshot of a Mastodon search results page showing "Tantek Çelik" with address <code>@tantek.com@tantek.com</code> and profile image in a "People" tab, and icon button to the right of the result to add/follow.


What a profile looks like in Mastodon after supporting Bridgy Fed:

[[Image:2022-10-28-mastodon-tantekcom-profile.png]]
Screenshot of a Mastodon view of a profile from Bridgy Fed, showing 0 posts, in stark contrast to how [[feed reader]]s immediately show all recent posts from a feed when you subscribe to a feed.


=== Alex Kearney ===
{{kongaloosh}} setup Bridgy Fed on their site kongaloosh.com [https://kongaloosh.com/e/2022/11/4/for-those- on 2022-11-04]:
* @kongaloosh.com@kongaloosh.com

=== gRegor Morrill ===
{{gRegor}} set up Bridgy Fed via gregorlove.com 2022-11-15. I've successfully received a couple [[follow]] requests and sent several myself, which now appear on the following / followers pages linked from https://fed.brid.gy/user/gregorlove.com

==== gRegor photo post ====
Screenshot of my [https://gregorlove.com/2022/11/moulin-rouge-is-one-of-my/ original photo post] appearing in Mastodon with links and [[person tag]]s (though not to Mastodon URLs)

[[File:gregorlove-bridgy-fed-post-2022-11-20.png]]

----

==== gRegor article post ====
Screenshot of how an [[article]] post appears. Only the title and link is shown. The fed.brid.gy link under the title is a Mastodon oddity (see [https://github.com/snarfed/bridgy-fed/issues/391 GitHub issue]), but that URL redirects to the original post:
* https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://gregorlove.com/2023/01/farewell-fail-whale/

The link preview under that fed.brid.gy link is a direct link to the original post:
* https://gregorlove.com/2023/01/farewell-fail-whale/

[[File:gregorlove-bridgy-fed-article-2023-02-02.png]]

----

==== gRegor verification ====
Screenshot of how verification appears. The [[representative h-card]] on my homepage has links to gregorlove.com and gregorlove.com/about/ with [[u-url]] properties. My homepage also has an invisible <code><link rel="me" href="https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://gregorlove.com/"></code>. It appears that since fed.brid.gy is the delegated domain for my ActivityPub interactions, Mastodon is using that domain for [[rel-me]] verification. 

This screenshot is from indieweb.social viewed as the public, found by searching "gregorlove.com". The verification checkmark does not appear on every instance for some reason -- perhaps caching?

[[File:indieweb-social-gregorlove-verified-2023-08-18.png]]

----

==== gRegor article with tags ====
Screenshot of my [https://gregorlove.com/2023/09/weekly-roundup/ original article] appearing in Mastodon hashtag search, with hashtags shown under the post. This appears to be new as of Mastodon v4.2.0 based on comparing hashtag search on a couple instances running earlier versions. These screenshots were taken on https://indieweb.social/tags/weeklyroundup (search) and on the post permalink, not signed in to Mastodon.

The hashtag search results page:
[[File:bridgy-fed-article-hashtags-search-2023-09-24.png]]

The permalink for my federated post:
[[File:bridgy-fed-article-hashtags-permalink-2023-09-24.png]]

=== Jamie Tanna ===

{{jamietanna}} set up Bridgy Fed on 2022-11-05 and has both been receiving and sending follows, visible on [https://fed.brid.gy/user/www.jvt.me his user page] 

=== Anthony Ciccarello ===
{{aciccarello}} set up Bridgy Fed on 2022-11-10 and adjusted his user name to be [https://fed.brid.gy/user/ciccarello.me @anthony@ciccarello.me]. Mastodon users can follow using a form from his [https://www.ciccarello.me/subscribe/ subscribe/] page.

=== Add yourself! ===
{{addyourself}}

== Testimonials ==
* Testimonial: https://mastodon.cloud/@torresburriel/109729558877224488
** "Leo a @tantek.com comentar un recurso muy útil para conectar un sitio web con el #fediverso. https://tantek.com/2023/020/t2/bridgy-fed-follow-form" [https://mastodon.cloud/@torresburriel @torresburriel] January 21, 2023

== Troubleshooting ==
These are troubleshooting steps for IndieWeb users of Bridgy Fed, in particular for federating out from a personal site to ActivityPub instances.

You might want to first review the Bridgy Docs about error handling in case something there applies to the problem you are having:
* https://fed.brid.gy/docs#error-handling

=== Activity not showing up in dashboard ===
If you publish a new post on your personal site, and send a Webmention to https://fed.brid.gy/ to federate that post out, you should see an entry in your dashboard. You can access your dashboard by entering your domain on the form on the https://fed.brid.gy/. E.g. {{t}}’s domain leads to:
* https://fed.brid.gy/web/tantek.com (example dashboard)

If you don't see an activity at the top of the list corresponding to your new post, there are several things you should check.

==== Verify link to Bridgy Fed ====

First, verify that your post has a link to Bridgy Fed.

View source on your original post and make sure that it has a valid link to Bridgy Fed, as documented in https://fed.brid.gy/docs#web-how-post, like:
<pre><a href="https://fed.brid.gy/" hidden="from-humans"></a></pre>

If you can’t find such a link, then Bridgy Fed won’t federate your post.
* Solution: add such a link to your post, republish, and resend a Webmention to https://fed.brid.gy/

If you have such a link somewhere inside the source of your post permalink, then the next step is to verify that your Webmention is being properly received by https://fed.brid.gy/ and processed.

==== Verify Webmention is received by Bridgy Fed ====

Next, verify that when you send a Webmention from your post to Bridgy Fed, that the server receives it and processes it.

For verifying that your Webmention was received, if you are using a [[Webmention#Publisher_Services|Webmention publishing service]] such as: 
* [[mention.tech]]
* [[Telegraph]]
* [[webmention.app]]
* ...
to send a webmention from your post to https://fed.brid.gy/, then be sure that:
* fed.brid.gy is actually listed among the links that will be sent Webmentions
** e.g. in the https://telegraph.p3k.io/dashboard you have to enter a URL first, and it displays a list of which URLs it will send webmentions to, but sometimes it misses some links, e.g. https://telegraph.p3k.io/dashboard/send?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftantek.com%2F2024%2F023%2Ft1%2Fshould-public-posts-flow-across-sites&account=993 does not list https://fed.brid.gy/ when that post was published and did have a link in its source
*** Issue to be filed.
** e.g. https://webmention.app/ when you enter a URL in the input to "Check a URL for webmentions" and click "Start", it only displays 10 links. also it seems to only find links inside post content, rather than all links inside a post (such as links in a [[reply-context]]). so it might also not list https://fed.brid.gy/ depending on where you put the link to it in your post.
* ...

Then send the Webmention using the tool or service or your choice, and make sure that:
* There are no error messages, e.g. mention.tech may display a red ❌ indicating that something went wrong


If you have confirmed that Bridgy Fed received the webmention, e.g. by a confirmation display or HTTP return code like 200, 201, 202, then reload you Bridgy Fed dashboard. Within seconds you should see your new post as an activity at the top of the list there.


If it has been a minute since you confirmed that the webmention was received, and nothing new has shown up at the top of your dashboard activities list, then you may need to troubleshoot further with help from the community:
* Join the [[discuss#dev|#indieweb dev chat channel]]
* Ask for help with Bridgy Fed, note the problem you’re having, and what steps you took (e.g. from above) with which tools or services.

=== Activity in dashboard without delivery status ===
If you publish a new post on your personal site and webmention Bridgy Fed, you should see your post as an activity in your dashboard within seconds.

Sometimes you may see your activity, but nothing in the far right column for the delivery status of your post.

It can sometimes take up to a few minutes for Bridgy Fed to start delivering your post to other servers, wait at least 3-5 minutes and reload your dashboard.

You should eventually see at least something like:
* ↔️ 357 ("Remaining to be delivered")
where the icon may be separate arrows pointing left and right, and the number of servers that Bridgy Fed has queued up to deliver to.

If you don't see this after five minutes since your Webmention was accepted by Bridgy Fed (see prior troubleshooting for that), then ask for help with Bridgy Fed in the [[discuss#dev|#indieweb dev chat channel]], note your post URL and how long it’s been since Bridgy Fed accepted your Webmention.

Once Bridgy Fed has started delivering to other servers, you may see up to three icons and numbers like:
* ✅ 67 ("Delivered successfully")
* ↔️ 273 ("Remaining to be delivered")
* ⚠️ 17 ("Failed delivery")
where the icons may be different shapes (e.g. circles instead of squares/triangles for the checkmark and warning) and the numbers next to them indicate how many servers Bridgy Fed has delivered your post successfully, still remaining to deliver to, or failed to deliver.

Once Bridgy Fed has finished its delivery attempts you should see only two icons and numbers like:
* ✅ 290 ("Delivered successfully")
* ⚠️ 66 ("Failed delivery")

If you don't see this after ~30 more minutes (perhaps longer if Bridgy Fed is delivering to a lot of servers) since your Webmention was accepted by Bridgy Fed (see prior troubleshooting for that), then ask for help with Bridgy Fed in the [[discuss#dev|#indieweb dev chat channel]], note your post URL and how long it’s been since Bridgy Fed accepted your Webmention.

== History ==

{{snarfed}} had been thinking about the idea for Bridgy Fed for years, and then...

* 2017-06-24: {{snarfed}}, {{strugee}}, {{j12t}}, and [[User:Sebastian.kip.pe]] discuss the idea at [[2017/ostatusbridge]].
* 2017-08-07: {{snarfed}} writes up design docs [https://snarfed.org/indieweb-activitypub-bridge for ActivityPub] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OStatus and OStatus].
* 2017-08-13: {{snarfed}} [https://github.com/snarfed/bridgy-fed/commit/d5fb25c2afcf31ddea478cd2b27b438c372ae84f starts coding Bridgy Fed.]
* 2017-09-04: {{snarfed}} federates [https://snarfed.org/reply5.html the first (ugly) IndieWeb post] [https://web.archive.org/web/20221113202429/https://mastodon.technology/@snarfed/3194674 to Mastodon] (archive link) and to Hubzilla (instance down as of 2017-11 ish).
** original <nowiki>mastodon.technology/@snarfed/3194674</nowiki> copy offline sometime around 2022-11-14 or later
** original Hubzilla <nowiki>https://lastauth.com/channel/snarfed/?mid=7cfa12e54cf97aaed3b0bb185651ae37a1e24027fbf3e845fab261e108392707@lastauth.com</nowiki> unarchived
* 2017-10-22: {{snarfed}} [https://snarfed.org/2017-10-22_bridgy-fed launches Bridgy Fed publicly].

== See Also ==
* [[Bridgy]]
* [[federation]]
* to-do: Consider adding Bridgy Fed as an implementation in this table https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fediverse#Software
* 2024-06-05 TechCrunch: [https://techcrunch.com/2024/06/05/bluesky-and-mastodon-users-can-now-talk-to-each-other-with-bridgy-fed/ Bluesky and Mastodon users can now talk to each other with Bridgy Fed]


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