my main itch with the DMs extensions is that these messages are intended to be private, not public information. That’s why other extensions make sense, but DMs are another kind of feature.
TwiXter, Mastodon, FB and some other services usually hide the DMs in another section, so they are not mixed with the public timeline.

I find the DM topic interesting, I even made an indie experiment for a centralized messaging system here https://github.com/eapl-gemugami/owl.
Although, as I’ve said a few times here, I’m not particularly interested in supporting it on microblogging, as I don’t use it that much. In the rare case I’ve used them, I don’t have to manage public and private keys, and finally none of my acquaintances use encrypted email.
Nothing personal against anyone, and although I like to debate and even fight, it’s not the case here. This proposal is the only one allowing DMs on twtxt, and if the community wants it, I’ll support it, with my personal input, of course.

A good approach I could find with a good compromise between compatibility with current clients and keeping these messages private is ‘hiding’ the DMs in comments. For example:
# 2025-04-13T11:02:12+02:00 !<dm-echo https://dm-echo.andros.dev/twtxt.txt> U2FsdGVkX1+QmwBNmk9Yu9jvazVRFPS2TGJRGle/BDDzFult6zCtxNhJrV0g+sx0EIKbjL2a9QpCT5C0Z2qWvw==

@eapl.me@eapl.me When it is up and running, I promise to add it to the specification. I will also include some corrections.
The nature of twtxt does not allow us to selectively hide clients. It’s a problem not with DM, but with any extension.
@prologic@twtxt.net Yes, it is a security hole. All dm-echo messages are readable. I intend it to be a debugging tool. Maybe I can include a warning message. If many of you see that it is a serious problem, I can remove the links.
@xuu@txt.sour.is It’s already much better than Mastodon :P . Maybe we can remove the sender and receiver references with an intermediary register.

I am pleased to share with you the #twtxt version of my important news alerts: https://n8n.andros.dev/webhook/f0cfd6a6-60c8-4183-a26d-120bbd25a046

Other versions:
Mastodon/Website: https://activity.andros.dev/@important_dev_news
Telegram: https://t.me/important_stories_alert_hacknews

Enjoy!

thanks for sharing @xuu@txt.sour.is!

Checking for example https://watcher.sour.is/api/plain/twt or https://registry.twtxt.org/api/plain/tweets, I don’t know whether this syntax is being used by clients or by people. Is it integrated on Yarn in any way? Genuinely asking to know more about it.

If I might throw a quick thought to those working on the registries, it would be nice to have an endpoint with a valid twtxt output (perhaps cached or dumped to a static file) which a client could point to, helping to discover it’s content in a way which is compatible with the twtxt spec.

Taking the first twt I found in https://watcher.sour.is/api/plain/twt as an example:
reddit_world_news https://feeds.twtxt.net/Reddit_World_News/twtxt.txt 2025-03-28T00:29:25Z **China bans US logs. 3 billion dollar[...])
it would be something like
TIME <@NICK URL> TWT
2025-03-28T00:29:25Z <@reddit_world_news https://feeds.twtxt.net/Reddit_World_News/twtxt.txt> **China bans US logs. 3 billion dollar[...])

That way you could watch the latest twts with your client, something similar to what we find on Mastodon: https://mastodon.online/public/local

Some support from the clients to separate these ‘discovery’ content, from your following timeline might be required. 🤔

Twtxt was made for nerds, by nerds.
I’d like to change that. It’s by nerds/hackers, for nerds/hackers and friends of these. It doesn’t have to be hacky all the time, as you don’t need to be a nerd to have a blog.
But, for that to happen, someone has to build the tools to improve UX.

by design there really is no way to easily discovers others
Yeah, I agree, and although there are directories of email addresses, usually you don’t want that, unless you are a ‘public figure’.
I couldn’t say that a microblogging is a “social network” by default, as a blog is not either. At the same time, people would expect to find new people and conversations, as you’d do in a forum.

I think of two features on top of the current spec:

• Clients showing a few posts of what your following are watching but you don’t, so perhaps you find something interesting to follow next. Or that feature of “Your ‘followings’ are following these accounts/people”. (Hard to explain in english, but I hope you get the idea)
  
• Sharing your .txt into some directory, saying “Hey, I have this twtxt URL, I want to be discovered”. I’m thinking of something like the Federated tab on Mastodon.

@prologic@twtxt.net Gemini has an answer for you:

This is a conversation thread from a twtxt network, detailing a user’s (movq) frustration with the Mastodon “export data” feature and their consideration of self-hosting a fediverse alternative. Here’s a summary:

• movq’s initial issue:
  
  • movq is concerned about the volatility of their data on their current Mastodon instance due to a broken “export data” feature.
    
  • They contacted the admins, but the issue remains unresolved.
    
  • This led them to contemplate self-hosting.
    
• Alternative fediverse software suggestions:
  
  • kat suggests gotosocial as a lightweight alternative to Mastodon.
    
  • movq agrees, and also mentions snac as a potential option.
    
• movq’s change of heart:
  
  • movq ultimately decides that self-hosting any fediverse software, besides twtxt, is too much effort.
    
• Resolution and compromise:
  
  • The Mastodon admins attribute the export failure to the size of movq’s account.
    
  • movq decides to set their Mastodon account to auto-delete posts after approximately 180 days to manage data size.
    
  • Movq also mentions that they use auto-expiring links on twtxt to reduce data storage.

The Mastodon admins say that it’s probably because of the size of my account (~600 MB), so the export process times out. And I understand that. Here on twtxt, I always use auto-expiring links when I post images or videos. It just gets too much data otherwise. I think I’ll just set my Mastodon account to auto-delete posts after ~180 days or something like that. Nobody cares about old posts anyway.

@kat@yarn.girlonthemoon.xyz Oh, yes, it’s probably going to be something like gotosocial or snac. It’s got to be as lightweight as possible. (I call this whole thing “Mastodon”, but you’re right, that’s not quite correct. 😅)

@movq@www.uninformativ.de mastodon is probably the worst fedi software to self host tbh, you might wanna check out gotosocial? not to like pull you in another direction but idk masto is just suuuuper heavy lol

I think I should try self-hosting some Mastodon thingy again.

The “export data” feature on the Mastodon instance I’m using seems to be broken. I’ve contacted the admins but we couldn’t find the issue – yet. I don’t want to bother them too much, it’s a free service after all.

But this means that everything I post over there is very, very volatile. It could all be gone in 5 minutes and I’ll have no way to restore it. Hmm.

pls elaborate on a ‘p2p database’, ‘all story’ and ‘Registries’.

My first thought takes me to something like secure-scuttlebutt which it’s painful to sync data using clients, and too slow compared to downloading a text file.

Also I’d like for twtxt to avoid becoming an ActivityPub. Works well but it’s uses too many resources IMO.
https://kingant.net/2025/02/mastodon-the-cost-of-running-my-own-server/

I’m defending being able to self-host your Web client (like you’d do with a Wordpress, twtxt is a micrologging, at the end), instead of federated instances, so in a first thought I’d say Registries have many disadvantages being the first one that someone has to maintain them active.

If we don’t keep insisting on simplify and “The beauty of twtxt is, you put one file on your server, done. One.”, then people should just use ActivityPub-based software like Mastodon, PixelFed, etc. which are getting a lot of attention and uses migrating to the fediverse from meta/x here in Denmark over the last couple of months.

Thinking about trying tt. If it really usable i will abandon twtxtdon (service to read twtxt feeds from mastodon client), which currently has only authorization implemented

Linear feeds are a dark pattern - A proposal for Mastodon
https://tilde.town/~dzwdz/blog/feeds.html

I’ve polished the CSS style a bit, you can try it here: https://eapl.me/treed/

@andros@twtxt.andros.dev Awesome! I’ve seen the demo earlier on mastodon, things are getting better and better with each update 👌 Good luck!

@prologic@twtxt.net @lyse@lyse.isobeef.org First, please leave me your comments on the repository! Even if it’s just to give your opinion on what shouldn’t be included. The more variety, the better.

Second, I’m going to try to do tests with Elliptic keys and base64. Thanks for the advice @eapl@eapl.me

Finally, I’d like to give my opinion. Secure direct messages are a feature that ActivityPub and Mastodon don’t have, to give an example. By including it as an extension, we’re already taking a significant leap forward from the competition. Does it make sense to include it in a public feed? In fact, we’re already doing that. When we reply to a user, mentioning them at the beginning of the message, it’s already a direct message. The message is within a thread, perhaps breaking the conversation. Direct messages would help isolate conversations between 2 users, as well as keeping a thread cleaner and maintaining privacy. I insist, it’s optional, it doesn’t break compatibility with any client and implementing it isn’t complex. If you don’t like it, you’re free to not use it. If you don’t have a public key, no one can send you direct messages.

En el corto tiempo que llevo usando #Mastodon puedo decir que me ha gustado, ¿por qué no lo hice antes?

Me he unido a Mastodon, ahora me encuentran en https://masto.es/@

Cancelled Mastodon because the time spent on it could have been used for reading books instead and the level of interaction is not enough to keep me interested.

Recived a non-twtxt webmention from https://brid.gy/like/mastodon/@sorenpeter@norrebro.space/113607069233148063/113781123828204387

mentioning http://darch.dk/twtxtalk-piksel

(IP: 34.96.44.107)

Recived a non-twtxt webmention from https://brid.gy/like/mastodon/@sorenpeter@norrebro.space/113607069233148063/108069416637339537

mentioning http://darch.dk/twtxtalk-piksel

(IP: 34.96.47.84)

Recived a non-twtxt webmention from https://brid.gy/repost/mastodon/@sorenpeter@norrebro.space/113607069233148063/108137502923677506

mentioning http://darch.dk/twtxtalk-piksel

(IP: 34.96.46.7)

You were mentioned in: https://brid.gy/repost/mastodon/@sorenpeter@norrebro.space/113607069233148063/112982101849380288

Wow, it seem my #Webmentions implementation works from Mastodon via brid.gy

You were mentioned in: https://darch.dk/twtxt.txt#:~:text=2024-12-08T10:38:15Z

@sorenpeter@darch.dk Wow, it seem my #Webmentions implementation works from Mastodon via brid.gy

You were mentioned in: https://brid.gy/repost/mastodon/@sorenpeter@norrebro.space/113607069233148063/107123408917289422

You were mentioned in: https://brid.gy/repost/mastodon/@sorenpeter@norrebro.space/113607069233148063/110780740502506176

You were mentioned in: https://brid.gy/repost/mastodon/@sorenpeter@norrebro.space/113607069233148063/107190759636629419

You were mentioned in: https://brid.gy/repost/mastodon/@sorenpeter@norrebro.space/113607069233148063/113565253370504052

You were mentioned in: https://brid.gy/like/mastodon/@sorenpeter@norrebro.space/113607069233148063/111091761450077042

You were mentioned in: https://brid.gy/like/mastodon/@sorenpeter@norrebro.space/113607069233148063/107613794298239971

You were mentioned in: https://brid.gy/like/mastodon/@sorenpeter@norrebro.space/113607069233148063/110780740502506176

You were mentioned in: https://brid.gy/like/mastodon/@sorenpeter@norrebro.space/113607069233148063/113565253370504052

You were mentioned in: https://brid.gy/like/mastodon/@sorenpeter@norrebro.space/113607069233148063/113612395362672111

You were mentioned in: https://brid.gy/like/mastodon/@sorenpeter@norrebro.space/113607069233148063/110791802333585182

@bender@twtxt.net Well, so far, I’m using the standard web client. Haven’t found a great client yet. 🫤 Mastodon/Fediverse is also very different from twtxt, there are way more images/videos that I’d like to see – a TUI client like toot wouldn’t work for me.

Dunno, maybe I’ll make some changes in this area after christmas. Try self-hosting again or something like that …

I’ve been using Mastodon too much lately. The constant notifications are becoming too stressful. I really do prefer slow communication, like twtxt. ✌️

If John Mastodon feats are spoken about on Mastodon, Marie Twtxt is our heroine!

its important to see clearly: the rejection of mastodon for bluesky is not a rejection of the desire to be free of our corporate overlords; its a rejection of white bros controlling digital spaces. sit with that

eugen and his interlocutors have had immense power with which to challenge twitter but their racial and cultural and ideological insularity prevented them from using it https://alaskan.social/@seachanger/113500023546622076

@prologic@twtxt.net Same here… Twtxt and Mastodon are more than enough for me. I used to have a BSky account with my own domain name as a handle (which I ended up deleting after a while) and even taught about running my own PDS and the whole nine yards but, it didn’t feel like it was worth the hassle.

@prologic@twtxt.net Nah. twtxt + Mastodon is enough social media for me. 😅

@Codebuzz@www.codebuzz.nl you replied to me, but the reply was just an @, nothing else (the whole handle was missing).

There are no web mentions here, and no notifications. It isn’t Mastodon; if you want to see if someone wrote something new, or replied to you, you need to open your client.

The Fediverse Is Getting Its Own TikTok Competitor Called Loops
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Similar to how Mastodon offers an open source, distributed version of X, the fediverse is getting its own TikTok competitor. This week, an app called Loops began accepting signups on its new platform for sharing short, looping videos. Still in the early stages, Loops is not yet open sourced, nor … ⌘ Read more

(#2024-09-24T12:45:54Z) @prologic@twtxt.net I’m not really buying this one about readability. It’s easy to recognize that this is a URL and a date, so you skim over it like you would we mentions and markdown links and images. If you are not suppose to read the raw file, then we might a well jam everything into JSON like mastodon

(#2024-09-24T12:39:32Z) @prologic@twtxt.net It might be simple for you to run echo -e "\t\t" | sha256sum | base64, but for people who are not comfortable in a terminal and got their dev env set up, then that is magic, compared to the simplicity of just copy/pasting what you see in a textfile into another textfile – Basically what @movq@www.uninformativ.de also said. I’m also on team extreme minimalism, otherwise we could just use mastodon etc. Replacing line-breaks with a tab would also make it easier to handwrite your twtxt. You don’t have to hardwrite it, but at least you should have the option to. Just as i do with all my HTML and CSS.

Aunque me gusta mucho el concepto descentralizado de ‘twtxt’, este año no lo he utilizado tanto. No pude tener a mi círculo cercano, con quienes surgen las conversaciones que me gustan, y por el que se da un efecto de red significativo.

También estoy buscando un minimalismo digital, utilizando servicios que brinden alegría, valor y un uso de tiempo razonable.
Aunque es un tema controversial, ¿por qué no tener una comunidad de personas con las que sintamos que el mundo (digital al menos) es un lugar mejor?

Quizás un poco idealista el punto, aunque la intención es que el tiempo que pasamos en ‘la red’, nos ayude a crecer como personas, a disfrutar el tiempo, y a vivir esta vida digital con sentido.

Por todo esto, el poco tiempo que esté en microblogging, lo buscaré en las dos plataformas que más conversaciones significativas me generan, que por un lado es X, para todo lo profesional, y Mastodon, para lo hipster, indie, idealista, etc.

Si algo de lo que he compartido por twtxt ha sido importante para ti, o quieres que sigamos charlando, me puedes encontrar en alguna de estas otras plataformas:
https://text.eapl.mx/microblogging

@prologic@twtxt.net, there is a parser bug on parent. Specifically on this portion:

"*If twtxt/Yarn was to grow bigger, then this would become a concern again. *But even Mastodon allows editing*, so how
+much of a problem can it really be? 😅*"

@movq@www.uninformativ.de going a little sideways on this, “*If twtxt/Yarn was to grow bigger, then this would become a concern again. But even Mastodon allows editing, so how much of a problem can it really be? 😅*”, wouldn’t it preparing for a potential (even if very, very, veeeeery remote) growth be a good thing? Mastodon signs all messages, keeps a history of edits, and it doesn’t break threads. It isn’t a problem there.😉 It is here.

I think keeping hashes is a must. If anything for that “feels good” feeling.

I’m not advocating in either direction, btw. I haven’t made up my mind yet. 😅 Just braindumping here.

The (replyto:…) proposal is definitely more in the spirit of twtxt, I’d say. It’s much simpler, anyone can use it even with the simplest tools, no need for any client code. That is certainly a great property, if you ask me, and it’s things like that that brought me to twtxt in the first place.

I’d also say that in our tiny little community, message integrity simply doesn’t matter. Signed feeds don’t matter. I signed my feed for a while using GPG, someone else did the same, but in the end, nobody cares. The community is so tiny, there’s enough “implicit trust” or whatever you want to call it.

If twtxt/Yarn was to grow bigger, then this would become a concern again. But even Mastodon allows editing, so how much of a problem can it really be? 😅

I do have to “admit”, though, that hashes feel better. It feels good to know that we can clearly identify a certain twt. It feels more correct and stable.

Hm.

I suspect that the (replyto:…) proposal would work just as well in practice.

@prologic@twtxt.net It’s all I’m using … I have barely touched any other social media since I’ve discovered Twtxt back in April 😂 maybe a little bit of Mastodon and IRC, bluesky even less, but nothing else worth mentioning.