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==

@bender@twtxt.net ping! 🏓

@hacker-news@feeds.twtxt.net I like this 👌

@andros@twtxt.andros.dev Nice! 😊

It’s ready 🥳! https://dm-echo.andros.dev/
An example: https://dm-echo.andros.dev/generate/?url=https://twtxt.andros.dev/
#twtxt

@bender@twtxt.net Close enough 🤣

@prologic@twtxt.net earliest I have of you:

@andros@twtxt.andros.dev No worries! 😉

@bender@twtxt.net Sadly my earlier Twt back in ~2020 is now gone from at least this pod’s cache 🤣 – It might still exist in other pods though? 🤔 It does! https://txt.sour.is/twt/o6dsrga

I think I would encourage anyone in this community is to care less about supporting “legacy clients” and focus more on value-add whilst balancing the burden of client authors – which have very precious little “spare time” 🤣

My welcome message, and first recorded mention (that I could find):

I do think integrating things like Salty.im might actually be a good idea. I can also see a future where we integrate other things like todo.txt and calendar.txt. I’d even love to see decentralised forms of “plain text” voting too.

@andros@twtxt.andros.dev I don’t see any “fighting” here. This is just good experimentation. Unfortunately there hasn’t really been enough time or effort by other “client authors” yet, me especially as I’ve been super busy with ya’ know my “day job” that pays the bills and refactoring yarnd to use a new and shiny and much better SqliteCache 🤣 – I certainly don’t think your efforts are wasted at all. I would however like @doesnm.p.psf.lt@doesnm.p.psf.lt encourage you to look at the work we’ve done as a community (which was also driven out of the Yarn.social / Twtxt community years back).

@andros@twtxt.andros.dev how often do you send a private message on the Fediverse? How often do you send PGP/SMIME encrypted emails? Are there other tools that are more suitable for the task? If implementing direct/private messages on twtxt scratches an itch (you know, that hobbyist itch we all get from time to time), then don’t give up so easily. Worse comes to worse, and your feed becomes too noisy, people can simply unfollow/mute.

I really don’t care about direct messages here, but I might be on that bottom 1%!

@andros@twtxt.andros.dev i think salty.im integration would be great but i still don’t know how it possible

@aelaraji@aelaraji.com Congratulations!!! Happy birtwt! 🥳

@prologic@twtxt.net @bender@twtxt.net @eapl.me@eapl.me I think opening another file is a bad idea because it adds complexity to the clients, breaks the single feed and I think keeping legacy clients will be more complex to add new features in the future. A modern approach is important.
I’ll be honest, I’m a bit tired of the fight around the direct message. Perhaps, we can remove it as an extension and use the alternative @prologic@twtxt.net . My suggestion apparently doesn’t like to the community. I have no problem with remove it.

@prologic@twtxt.net I don’t understand. I checked the feed, the twtxt file, and there are no duplicate links. I will follow the next articles 👁️👁️‍. Thank you!

https://salty.im/

@eldersnake@we.loveprivacy.club No worries! 👌

@aelaraji@aelaraji.com tempus fugit when you are having fun! Happy 1st Twtxtversary!

@bender@twtxt.net YES PLEASE!

Happy 1st Twtxt~iversary to me … I guess. It feels like it was 5 years since my first twt 😅

@prologic@twtxt.net good top of the morning to ya! It is still yesterday here. 🤪

I think that having a dm-only.txt, twtxt-dm.txt or any other name for an alternative file is the most sensible approach. The name could be specified in the metadata.

Morning y’all 👋

@andros@twtxt.andros.dev Ahh I see 👌

@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.

@andros@twtxt.andros.dev maybe create a separate, completely distinct feed for DM? That way, clients do not need to do anything, only those wanted to “talk in private” follow themselves, using their very special dm-only.txt feeds. 😂

@bender@twtxt.net … of course … 😂

It’s AI shit, but … it is funny … and an appropriately bizzare response to a bizzare situation. 😂

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJ8qGOe2K0o

@movq@www.uninformativ.de hmmm, pigeon soup… 🤤😂

@movq@www.uninformativ.de For sure, an app for that is very silly. I’ve just seen signs in participating shops in my town. That’s how I know of this concept.

thx ✌️

@lyse@lyse.isobeef.org My goodness, a toilet app. Was es nich’ alles gibt. 🥴

@andros@twtxt.andros.dev your feed is spitting out dupes? 🧐

@andros@twtxt.andros.dev I honestly think IRC is better anyway 🤣

@movq@www.uninformativ.de You just have to dress yourself up in a dog custume to pee on a tree, fence post or house wall. :-P

Depending on the hour, town halls and also graveyards are typically good options for public toilets. But yeah, you have to find them first. And then, there might be the “Nette Toilette”: https://www.die-nette-toilette.de/ (Unfortunately, you can’t see on the website which towns and cities participate in that concept. :-()

I left XMPP because I found no interactions. Long live IRC!

@movq@www.uninformativ.de Nice photo! It is beautiful.

@movq@www.uninformativ.de Heck yeah, that’s an awesome shot!

@prologic@twtxt.net I wouldn’t got that far, but yeah 😂

@klaxzy@klaxzy.net … that’s too much.

@movq@www.uninformativ.de Damn that’s a sexy pidgeon 🤣

Pigeon of the day.

@bender@twtxt.net Haha 😆

@prologic@twtxt.net hurrah! 🥳🥳🥳

@bender@twtxt.net I think mentions are fixed 🤣

Oh hello @yarn_police@twtxt.net 🚨

@doesnm.p.psf.lt@doesnm.p.psf.lt Why would you want that lol 😂

This is nuts. Lemme eat dinner first (pizza on the way!) and I’ll fix this utter nonsense 🤣

@abucci@anthony.buc.ciyarn_police@twtxt.net! Help!

@abucci@anthony.buc.cidoesnm.p.psf.lt@doesnm.p.psf.lt yes, I was aware of that.

We’ve been on a trip to another city this weekend and one thing struck me as really odd:

The lack of “public water” in our cities.

Almost no way of washing your hands or going to the toilet or whatever. You can’t even pee in a bush, because a) that’s illegal and b) there are no bushes!

(It’s always been that way, I just never noticed before. 🥴)

@bender@twtxt.net IRC man 🤣

@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.

@bender@twtxt.net @lyse@lyse.isobeef.org ejabberd has

@bender@twtxt.net author explained why they do this https://girlboss.ceo/~strawberry/conduwuit.txt

@prologic@twtxt.net twtxt DM is not a serious DM protocol.

Fascinating read on the emerging Model Context Protocol — a new standard for integrating LLMs with agents and tools.

@andros@twtxt.andros.dev doesn’t this defeat the point of public cryptography?

not a big deal as I can skip those messages, but again, it’s an extension, so older clients shouldn’t be affected by a new feature.

I’m also thinking that some kind of tag might be needed to automatically hide twts from unknown extensions. For example our client doesn’t support DMs and always shows the !<nick url><encrypted_message> syntax which is meaningless.

well, I suggested that in https://eapl.me/timeline/conv/k2ob6bq

The idea was to help those following the spec in https://twtxt.dev/exts/directmessage.Html, to replicate the steps and validate whether your implementation gives the same result.

BTW, you could add a link to the spec in the echo web.

@bender@twtxt.net Yup, we run an ejabberd.

@lyse@lyse.isobeef.org do you run your own Jabber server, or piggy back on someone else’s?

Conduwit is set to archive on GitHub. It was my favourite Matrix server, which I still self host. I think I am going to get off Matrix altogether now.

Maybe go back to Jabber?

@andros@twtxt.andros.dev yes, I am sure that, if I delete my Maildir, they will no longer show.

@prologic@twtxt.net @bender@twtxt.net 😂

@prologic@twtxt.net I don’t know, maybe it will be useful for someone 😇

@bender@twtxt.net Yes! I deleted those repeated twts because it was poor execution by my client. They are currently not present in my feed.
Maybe it would be interesting to check if any twt has disappeared?

@aelaraji@aelaraji.com touché! LOL.

@bender@twtxt.net Technically, I’m just doing GOD’s work …

@aelaraji@aelaraji.com are you Jesus, or something? 😂 You are resurrecting the dead! 😅🤣

@bender@twtxt.net Haha 🤣

@prologic@twtxt.net whichever works for you. Just about everyone is offering “great” advice these days; “ancient wisdom”. Many trying to inspire others. You know what? You be you, yo do you. 😅

@iiogama@iiogama.0x212.com Let me guess, it has got an AI sticker on it.. right? xD

@iiogama@iiogama.0x212.com HAHA! I love this quote. Funny but the message behind so true 😂

Dam the search here is sooo good now 😅

@bender@twtxt.net Now you have me thinking, which is better? 🤔

I correct in public, and congratulate the same. I expect similarly. I am all heart! ☺️

@bender@twtxt.net I will figure this out soon™ and fix, it’s annoying the fuck out of me 🤣

I personally really like the news minimalist (fuck it mentions are kind of broken atm here in the UI :/) feed myself, really good quality, very high signal 👌

@andros@twtxt.andros.dev It’s good advice 😅 I try to do this myself (please call me out if you ever catch me NOT doing this 🤣)

@andros@twtxt.andros.dev Q: Why would you publish the private key? Hmmm 🧐

Cool. That’s fixed! 🥳 I believe we’re now syncing to 6 peers again now. Hopefully with similar behavior as before 🤞

Oops, I think this pod (twtxt.net) just sync ~1k missing root twts with god only knows which peers 🤦‍♂️ I forgot a couple of important key things:

• Only coverage with a subset of peers
  
• Only converge with trusted peers
  

Fuck me 🤣 Ooops. Sorry!

Nice! 😊

Peering is back 🤞

@andros@twtxt.andros.dev can you see the screenshot on my first twtxt? Here: https://twtxt.net/twt/mrccg4q

@eapl.me@eapl.me You asked me for private keys for testing purposes. I have added it to the bottom of this page: https://dm-echo.andros.dev/
It will soon be running. It won’t be long now.

Good quote: «Corrects in private and congratulates in public».
Or…: «Corrects in direct message and congratulates in twt» 😜

@bender@twtxt.net Can you give some examples? Maybe I can help you

@bender@twtxt.net On average, a good news item usually scores 300 points, outstanding ones reach 400… and only the extraordinary ones exceed 600 points. If you want, you can customise it. The source code: https://0x0.st/8pnq.py

@prologic@twtxt.net I hope it is as useful to you as it is to me 😋

@andros@twtxt.andros.dev what made you pick the 600 points criteria? Just a pick in a whim, or something else? I have found that reaching the front page is merely a good enough range for me.

@andros@twtxt.andros.dev Kind of a cool idea actually! 👌 I’ll follow and see what it’s like, thanks! 🙏

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!

Broadcast Positioning System, as an alternative to GPS. Very cool 😎

@bender@twtxt.net Sweet! 🙌

@prologic@twtxt.net all good now.