Chebucto Regional Softball Club

> Just from a cultural homogenization point of view, it's been a negative. You're not wrong, and so I think the future of this is meant to be opt-in rather than opt-out. Realistically what a two-way opt-in looks like would be: 1. A topic is created 1. A cross-post request comes in 1. OP (or mod) approves or rejects 1. Topic is cross-posted. However that in general introduces a significant amount of overhead and mental burden that would disincentivise usage of cross-posting. I'm not sure what the answer is. I used to be very bullish on the idea that cross-posting would solve so many problems via inteconnection, but there are some very significant social concerns that would absolutely taint the very idea. So, we tread carefully.

**tl;dr** — cross-posting is coming to NodeBB in v4.9.0. It will be internal-only for now, as we work through social issues with federated cross-posting. Existing category sync and auto-categorization logic in NodeBB now utilises cross-posts instead of moving or ignoring categorized topics, respectively. ### Some history For the past couple months, I've been mulling over the idea of cross-posting, and how this would work in a federated forum context. Specifically, I had begun to think more critically about how NodeBB presented itself in the threadiverse (**thread**ed fed**iverse**), and whether what we were doing currently was the right approach. Somewhere in the v4.1.x releases, NodeBB began supporting a new feature called "category synchronization". It allowed categories to follow other categories, and would move topics from those other categories into a local category. If done in reverse, the both categories could be considered "synchronized", meaning that users on both instances could see, like, and comment on the same topics. As of v4.3.x, NodeBB gained the ability to actually "see" remote categories. You'd be able to browse to a local representation of something like [@fediverse@piefed.social](https://community.nodebb.org/category/fediverse@piefed.social) or [@comicstrips@lemmy.world](https://community.nodebb.org/category/comicstrips@lemmy.world) and see the posts in those categories as though you were on that site itself. It was a huge jump in how NodeBB treated threadiverse content. After that point, it became a little weird that category sychronization would **move topics** from one category to another, because the topic really didn't _lose_ its existing categorization, we simply stole it! When I introduced auto-categorization rules in v4.5.0, I was cognizant of this discrepancy, and avoided complication by _ignoring_ already-categorized topics. ### What is cross-posting? In a nutshell, cross-posting is the ability for a single topic/reply-tree to **exist in multiple places simultaneously**. Comment trees are shared and accessible from both of those places, and this avoids unnecessary duplication of content across multiple communities. We see manual cross-posting happening often on the fediverse already, and collapsing these identical items into a single entity would be a boost to discussion as it eliminates the artificial fracturing of comments across multiple disparate posts. **Importantly**, v4.9.0 will introduce cross-posting locally only. It means that topics from outside the forum can be cross-posted to an local category, but local topics cannot be cross-posted to remote categories. This is the eventual plan, but we are not there yet! See below ("Why don't cross-posts federate?") for more details. ### Cross-posting essentials Topics will have a new button in the sidebar (or top bar, in the Persona theme) that allows you to cross-post topics to another category. In this dialog, you will be able to choose one or more categories to cross-post the topic to.  Admittedly, there's not a whole lot of utility in cross-posting local topics to another local category, but it really shines when you crosspost remote topics to a local category. When a cross-post appears in a local category, a link back to the original category is shown.  Anyone can cross-post a topic to a local category, but only mods and administrators can remove others' cross-posts. ### What of category synchronization and auto-categorization? The existing features will be updated as follows: * Category synchronization logic **will no longer move topics** from one category to another, they will now be cross-posted and visible in both categories. * Auto-categorization rules now apply to categorized content. When a new topic is discovered matching an existing rule, it will be cross-posted to the target category. ### Why don't cross-posts federate? I want to roll out a first-pass at cross-posting as there are immediate benefits for forums and their local categories. Being able to pull in content from other remote categories while respecting their categorization will allow for more increased cross-community engagement and expose remote communities to people who would have otherwise not discovered them. At the same time, we want to move slowly because there are wide-ranging effects that federated cross-posting could bring about. Namely, if anybody is able to cross-post anything anywhere, then it would enable brigading because different communities with (sometimes _very_) different values would suddenly co-exist in the same space, leading to some very negative interactions. Additional questions exist, such as: * Who gets to moderate the discussion? * How are reports handled in cross-posted topics? * Does a cross-post need to be _approved_? * How do we express these using ActivityStreams vocabulary? I certainly don't have all the answers as to how to best approach it, but it is something we at the [@forum-wg](https://community.nodebb.org/category/31/forums-and-threaded-discussions-task-force) would love to tackle at some point. ### What's next? Other threadiverse software (Lemmy, Piefed, mbin) don't handle cross-posting, and there are no immediate plans to support it. Piefed does have something _similar_ (called "Topics", akin to Reddit multi-reddits) which can contain posts from multiple communities. Both Lemmy and Piefed attempt to automatically collapse comment trees when identical links are discovered. Moving forward we may want to coalesce toward a single desired behaviour, but whether cross-posting is it, is to be determined. Additionally, NodeBB doesn't have the concept of "boosting" (also known as resharing, reblogging, etc.) It does do something similar when topics are moved between categories, and so it would make sense that a cross-post would be the forum equivalent of a reshare. Cross-posting is currently being tested on `activitypub.space`, and should be generally available as of NodeBB v4.9.0.

Test reply

[@kirk@social.coop](https://community.nodebb.org/user/kirk%40social.coop) just wanted to drop a note that your two issues have not been forgotten

Hi [@neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk](https://community.nodebb.org/user/neil%40mastodon.neilzone.co.uk), thanks [@andyprice@mastodon.social](https://community.nodebb.org/user/andyprice%40mastodon.social) for the shout out. I recommend NodeBB as it's one of a few forums that are still maintained and evolving. The latest version brings support for federation, allowing communication between it and any other software that supports ActivityPub (such as Mastodon, Lemmy, etc.) We focus on the lightweight and fast aspects of forum software. Communication should be seamless, and the software should be lightweight.

[@silverpill@mitra.social](https://community.nodebb.org/user/silverpill%40mitra.social) when discussed with Nutomic about this, I made the case that 1b12 is excellent for synchronization. 7888 (and 171b, etc.) are good for backfill, in cases where there is no 1b12 implementation available.

For those who were unable to attend this past weekend's Social Web After Hours event held at HackerSpace Brussels ([@hsbxl@mastodon.online](https://community.nodebb.org/user/hsbxl%40mastodon.online)), I've uploaded a re-recording of my presentation, which you can check out here! Sadly, there was no live recording of the rather lively session, so you'll just have to take my word for it https://spectra.video/w/xwCSYfZh1mJY64zJ9GngbE If you're looking for just the slides, you can get them here as well * [Slides (PDF warning)](https://community.nodebb.org/assets/uploads/files/1738635204524-the-fediverse-is-quiet-let-x27-s-fix-that.pdf) Thank you [@deadsuperhero@social.wedistribute.org](https://community.nodebb.org/user/deadsuperhero%40social.wedistribute.org) for the PeerTube instance!

[@jiejie@mastodon.social](https://community.nodebb.org/user/jiejie%40mastodon.social) good question! The answer ultimately lies in how you want to communicate with your audience. Each option is different and it's hard for you to know which software is the best fit. That's why even when I say NodeBB sits somewhere in between microblogs and blogs, NodeBB might not be the right solution, yeah? What kind of site do _you_ want to build, how in depth do you want to go, etc.?

Lastly, there are so many others in the long-form text space who were not at FOSDEM, but are open and willing to work together! [@rimu@mastodon.nzoss.nz](https://community.nodebb.org/user/rimu%40mastodon.nzoss.nz) (PieFed), [@scott@authorship.studio](https://community.nodebb.org/user/scott%40authorship.studio) (Hubzilla), Mike MacGirvin (whose handle I forget at the moment) and so many more. Just because you weren't here does not mean you were forgotten. Your software was mentioned and discussed too!

[@tommi@pan.rent](https://community.nodebb.org/user/tommi%40pan.rent) let's all just give up and keep pressing this button 

[@esk@hachyderm.io](https://community.nodebb.org/user/esk%40hachyderm.io) obv. yesssss join us

I should also mention that we had great conversations with the Mastodon team (hi [@renchap@oisaur.com](https://community.nodebb.org/user/renchap%40oisaur.com) and [@dave@upp2.com](https://community.nodebb.org/user/dave%40upp2.com)!), and their commitments to working towards better support for long-form text is evident. Good vibes all around.

Among the fediverse there are microblogs (your Mastodons, Misskeys(+forks), etc. Then there are the long form peeps. We managed to all find each other at FOSDEM 2025. Pictured is [@matt@writing.exchange](https://community.nodebb.org/user/matt%40writing.exchange) (Write freely), [@pfefferle@mastodon.social](https://community.nodebb.org/user/pfefferle%40mastodon.social) (WordPress), and yours truly (NodeBB). We also had some good conversations with [@johnonolan@mastodon.xyz](https://community.nodebb.org/user/johnonolan%40mastodon.xyz) (Ghost), but I wasn't quick enough with my camera Let's move the state of long-form text on the open social web, forward! 

[@eeeee](https://community.nodebb.org/user/eeeee) I believe LemmyBB was a proof-of-concept, to show that Lemmy as it existed back then was able to be represented in the front-end as a tradtional forum. But also, nutomic (who _may_ have made LemmyBB? not sure.) is a busy person who has a day job and doesn't work on lemmy full-time

[@Kichae](https://community.nodebb.org/user/kichae) I'm not seeing an issue (although I haven't done exhaustive testing) between my test instance and this site. Can you let me know one of your federating categories, so I can try to set up a sync?

[@arachnibot@nodebb.arachnibot.com](https://community.nodebb.org/user/arachnibot%40nodebb.arachnibot.com) said in [Is ActivityPub too complicated?](/post/https%3A%2F%2Fnodebb.arachnibot.com%2Fpost%2F16): > Mainly wanted to sync remote group actors to a category for organizational purposes. Yeah that's a great use case, and definitely what it ought to be used for. Let me look into nodebb-to-nodebb folllowing, that _definitely_ should be working!

I opened an issue on Lemmy's repo https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy/issues/5354 The thing is, what is the actual end-result you're looking for? It sounds like you want stuff from a remote lemmy community to be sent to your NodeBB. If that's the case, you could just follow the community *as a user*. Search for `technology@lemmy.ml` (for example) in the search bar, and once you follow the community, you will start seeing those posts in your `/world` feed. The category synchronization options are for if you want to see a Lemmy community's posts in a category of your own. Might be that's what you want too. But at present Lemmy doesn't support it

The logic is a little tricky to get right because there's a set sequence of steps that needs to happen in order for the group sync to succeed. For example, between NodeBB and Lemmy: 1. NodeBB admin tries to follow a Lemmy community 1. NodeBB marks the follow as pending 1. Lemmy records NodeBB as a follower 1. Lemmy community tried to send an Accept back 1. NodeBB marks the follow as established. If steps 1-3 succeed but 4-5 fail, then posts might be sent to NodeBB, but NodeBB will silently drop them because they're not addressed to anyone it thinks is following the sender. [@freamon](https://community.nodebb.org/user/freamon) thanks for the heads up about lemmy's accept shenanigans, I'll take that into account... or maybe ask Felix about it. [@arachnibot](https://community.nodebb.org/user/arachnibot) [@FrankM](https://community.nodebb.org/user/frankm)

[@arachnibot](https://community.nodebb.org/user/arachnibot) happy to take a closer look, since the category sync functionality should be working but might have broken in the interim during development. Can you let me know the Lemmy community you're trying to follow from your instance? Edit: same for you [@FrankM](https://community.nodebb.org/user/frankm)

[@baris](/user/baris%40community.nodebb.org) :voodoo: :wave2: