Trying to wrap my head around webfinger..

my first thoughts about it were that a subject of acct:me@sour.is would have a listing of rel’s for the different accounts that are related to me (ie. yarn, salty, twitter, mastodon, etc…)

but maybe my thinking is at the wrong level.. that each of those accounts would be on a subject level and the rels are describing different aspects of that account. so i would have salty:acct:xuu@sour.is, twitter:acct:xuu, mastodon:acct:xuu@chaos.social, yarn:acct:xuu@ev.sour.is and then i could have a main acct:me@sour.is that links them together as aliases.

I found okta will do something similar with its accounts to show as okta:acct:user@domain so maybe I am on to something?

@xuu So… From a practical perspective, wouldn’t it make sense to have related identifiers that are “related” to the subject? Hence rel? If I were a user, I would expect to lookup only prologic@twtxt.net to find both my Yarn and Salty accounts and ways to follow or message me as such.

@prologic@twtxt.net That was exactly my thought at first too. but what do we put as the rel for salty account? since it is decentralized we dont have a set URL for machines to key off. so for example take the standard response from okta:

# http GET https://example.okta.com/.well-known/webfinger  resource==acct:bob
{
    "links": [
        {
            "href": "https://example.okta.com/sso/idps/OKTA?login_hint=bob#",
            "properties": {
                "okta:idp:type": "OKTA"
            },
            "rel": "http://openid.net/specs/connect/1.0/issuer",
            "titles": {
                "und": "example"
            }
        }
    ],
    "subject": "acct:bob"
}

It gives one link that follows the OpenID login. So the details are specific to the subject acct:bob.

Mastodons response:

{
  "subject": "acct:xuu@chaos.social",
  "aliases": [
    "https://chaos.social/@xuu",
    "https://chaos.social/users/xuu"
  ],
  "links": [
    {
      "rel": "http://webfinger.net/rel/profile-page",
      "type": "text/html",
      "href": "https://chaos.social/@xuu"
    },
    {
      "rel": "self",
      "type": "application/activity+json",
      "href": "https://chaos.social/users/xuu"
    },
    {
      "rel": "http://ostatus.org/schema/1.0/subscribe"
    }
  ]
}

it supplies a profile page and a self which are both specific to that account.

@prologic@twtxt.net That was exactly my thought at first too. but what do we put as the rel for salty account? since it is decentralized we dont have a set URL for machines to key off. so for example take the standard response from okta:

# http GET https://example.okta.com/.well-known/webfinger  resource==acct:bob
{
    "links": [
        {
            "href": "https://example.okta.com/sso/idps/OKTA?login_hint=bob#",
            "properties": {
                "okta:idp:type": "OKTA"
            },
            "rel": "http://openid.net/specs/connect/1.0/issuer",
            "titles": {
                "und": "example"
            }
        }
    ],
    "subject": "acct:bob"
}

It gives one link that follows the OpenID login. So the details are specific to the subject acct:bob.

Mastodons response:

{
  "subject": "acct:xuu@chaos.social",
  "aliases": [
    "https://chaos.social/@xuu",
    "https://chaos.social/users/xuu"
  ],
  "links": [
    {
      "rel": "http://webfinger.net/rel/profile-page",
      "type": "text/html",
      "href": "https://chaos.social/@xuu"
    },
    {
      "rel": "self",
      "type": "application/activity+json",
      "href": "https://chaos.social/users/xuu"
    },
    {
      "rel": "http://ostatus.org/schema/1.0/subscribe"
    }
  ]
}

it supplies a profile page and a self which are both specific to that account.

@xuu Yeah I see where you’re coming from, and if your Salty IM address is on another domain entirely, then yeah… But if for example you have a Yarn and Salty account on the same domain, and both are for example xuu@sour.is – I would fully expect to see them both as aliases with respective rel(s) no?

Moreover, what does the upstream spec have to say about this?

@prologic@twtxt.net Unfortunately the RFC’s are a bit light in this regard. While it makes mention of different kinds of accounts like mailto: or status services.. it never combines them. It does make mention of using redirects to forward a request to other webfingers to provide additional detail.

I am kinda partial to using salty:acct:me@sour.is, yarn:acct:xuu@txt.sour.is, mailto:me@sour.is that could redirect to a specific service. and a parent account acct:me@sour.is that would reference them in some way. either in properties or aliases.

@prologic@twtxt.net Unfortunately the RFC’s are a bit light in this regard. While it makes mention of different kinds of accounts like mailto: or status services.. it never combines them. It does make mention of using redirects to forward a request to other webfingers to provide additional detail.

I am kinda partial to using salty:acct:me@sour.is, yarn:acct:xuu@txt.sour.is, mailto:me@sour.is that could redirect to a specific service. and a parent account acct:me@sour.is that would reference them in some way. either in properties or aliases.

so in effect it would look something like this:

---
subject: acct:me@sour.is
aliases:
  - salty:me@sour.is
  - yarn:xuu@ev.sour.is
  - status:xuu@chaos.social
  - mailto:me@sour.is
---
subject: salty:me@sour.is
aliases:
  - acct:me@sour.is
links:
  - rel:    self
    type:   application/json+salty
    href:   https://ev.sour.is/inbox/01GAEMKXYJ4857JQP1MJGD61Z5
    properties:
        "http://salty.im/ns/nick":    xuu
        "http://salty.im/ns/display": Jon Lundy
        "http://salty.im/ns/pubkey":     kex140fwaena9t0mrgnjeare5zuknmmvl0vc7agqy5yr938vusxfh9ys34vd2p
---
subject: yarn:xuu@ev.sour.is
links:
  - rel: https://txt.sour.is/user/xuu
    properties:
        "https://sour.is/rel/redirect": https://txt.sour.is/.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct%3Axuu%40txt.sour.is
---    
subject: status:xuu@chaos.social
links:
   - rel: http://joinmastodon.org#xuu%40chaos.social
     properties:
        "https://sour.is/rel/redirect": https://chaos.social/.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct%3Axuu%40chaos.social
---
subject: mailto:me@sour.is
...

so in effect it would look something like this:

---
subject: acct:me@sour.is
aliases:
  - salty:me@sour.is
  - yarn:xuu@ev.sour.is
  - status:xuu@chaos.social
  - mailto:me@sour.is
---
subject: salty:me@sour.is
aliases:
  - acct:me@sour.is
links:
  - rel:    self
    type:   application/json+salty
    href:   https://ev.sour.is/inbox/01GAEMKXYJ4857JQP1MJGD61Z5
    properties:
        "http://salty.im/ns/nick":    xuu
        "http://salty.im/ns/display": Jon Lundy
        "http://salty.im/ns/pubkey":     kex140fwaena9t0mrgnjeare5zuknmmvl0vc7agqy5yr938vusxfh9ys34vd2p
---
subject: yarn:xuu@ev.sour.is
links:
  - rel: https://txt.sour.is/user/xuu
    properties:
        "https://sour.is/rel/redirect": https://txt.sour.is/.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct%3Axuu%40txt.sour.is
---    
subject: status:xuu@chaos.social
links:
   - rel: http://joinmastodon.org#xuu%40chaos.social
     properties:
        "https://sour.is/rel/redirect": https://chaos.social/.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct%3Axuu%40chaos.social
---
subject: mailto:me@sour.is
...

@xuu I’m not so convinced of this “prefixing” here… We’re sort of euplidating that extra bit of information anyway in the rel(s) – Maybe @abucci@anthony.buc.ci is right and we stick to the spirit of the spec and an alias is just that, another identifier that is the same as this one. For example in yarnd we could add support in Settings for adding other “identities” that are the same as your, so a webfinger for prologic@twtxt.net could also have prologic@shortcircuit.net.au and james@mills.io as aliases?

@prologic@twtxt.net that worked.. But took crazy long time

@prologic@twtxt.net that worked.. But took crazy long time

@xuu Hmmm