prologic

twtxt.net

Problems are Solved by Method\" 🇦🇺👨‍💻👨‍🦯🏹♔ 🏓⚯ 👨‍👩‍👧‍👧🛥 -- James Mills (operator of twtxt.net / creator of Yarn.social 🧶)

In-reply-to » @prologic to clarify: i meant the ability to parse feeds using unix command line utilities, as a principal of twtxtv1's design. im not sure how feasible it is to build a simple feed reader out of common scripting utilities when hashing is in play, and;

@zvava@twtxt.net I axtually latest did and I wasn’t the only one 🤣

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Please don’t hate me today; I’m a bit grumpy and have too many reasons to be upset:

  • 2 counts of pushing and trying to get the simplest things done at work (that for some reason are made more difficult than they should be)
  • This whole Chat Control bullshit
  • And some other person things going on that have been ongoing for 72 days and counting 🤬

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In-reply-to » @bender Really? 🤔

And I need to make something absolutely clear as well here. Twtxt was completely and utterly dead back in {Aug 2020](https://yarn.social/about.html) when I came across the spec and its simplicity and realised the lost opportunity. Since then we’ve continued to grow a small but thriving community. The extensions we’ve built over time have stood and lasted the test of time for the past ~5 years. We need not break things too badly, because what we have today and was designed years ago actually works quite well™ (despite some flaws).

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In-reply-to » @bender Really? 🤔

Put another way, what you are proposing/pushing for requires hundreds of lines of code to change across a half dozen or so clients and lots of breaking changes, not to mention unknowns.

What I want us to do is make only a few half dozen or so lines of code changes to our clients and minimize the breaking changes and unknowns.

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In-reply-to » @bender Really? 🤔

@zvava@twtxt.net Going to have to hard disagree here I’m sorry. a) no-one reads the raw/plain twtxt.txt files, the only time you do is to debug something, or have a stick beak at the comments which most clients will strip out and ignore and b) I’m sorry you’ve completely lost me! I’m old enough to pre-date before Linux became popular, so I’m not sure what UNIX principles you think are being broken or violated by having a Twt Subject (Subject) whose contents is a cryptographic content-addressable hash of the “thing”™ you’re replying to and forming a chain of other replies (a thread).

I’m sorry, but the simplest thing to do is to make the smallest number of changes to the Spec as possible and all agree on a “Magic Date” for which our clients use the modified function(s).

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In-reply-to » @bender Really? 🤔

@bender@twtxt.net Well honestly, this is just it. My strong position on this is quite simple:

Do the simplest thing that could work.

It’s one of the age old UNIX philosphies.

Therefore, the simplest thing™ to do here is to just increase the hash length, mark a magic™ date/time as @lyse@lyse.isobeef.org has indicated and call it a day. We’ll then be fine for a few hundred years, at which point there’ll be no-one left alive to give a shit™ anyway 🤣

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Oh man, if the EU actually rolled out this horribd idea called ChatControl that actually threatens the security and privacy of secure e2e encrypted messaging like Signal™, fuck me, I’m out 🤦‍♂️ I’ll just rage quit the IT industry and become a luddite. I’m out.

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In-reply-to » I just created a zs blogging template which I'm going to use for https://prologic.blog and I might starting writing long-form again soon™ 🔜 So far the "blogging" template/engine (if you weill) is quite simple. It comprises essentially of an index.md a prehook and a few utilities:

@bender@twtxt.net Yes I did about a week or so ago. It took me a lot of effort to get the content even rendered in the first place. LOL I had to basically export my blog as HTML (can you believe that?!) – The Hugo export just didn’t work at all 🤣

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I just created a zs blogging template which I’m going to use for https://prologic.blog and I might starting writing long-form again soon™ 🔜 So far the “blogging” template/engine (if you weill) is quite simple. It comprises essentially of an index.md a prehook and a few utilities:

$ git ls-files
.gitignore
.zs/config.yml
.zs/editthispage
.zs/include
.zs/layout.html
.zs/list
.zs/months
.zs/now
.zs/onthispage
.zs/posthook
.zs/postsbymonth
.zs/prehook
.zs/scripts
.zs/styles
.zs/tagcloud
.zs/taglist
.zs/years
archives/.empty
assets/css/site.css
assets/js/main.js
index.md
posts/hello-zs-blog.md
posts/on-tagging.md
posts/second-post.md
tags/.empty

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In-reply-to » TNO Threading (draft):
Each origin feed numbers new threads (tno:N). Replies carry both (tno:N) and (ofeed:<origin-url>). Thread identity = (ofeed, tno).

This is possibly the only other threading model I can come up with for Twtxt that I think I can get behind.

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In-reply-to » TNO Threading (draft):
Each origin feed numbers new threads (tno:N). Replies carry both (tno:N) and (ofeed:<origin-url>). Thread identity = (ofeed, tno).

Example:

Alice starts thread href=”https://txt.sour.is/search?q=%2342:”>#42:**

2025-09-25T12:00:00Z (tno:42) Launching storage design review.

Bob replies:

2025-09-25T12:05:00Z (tno:42) (ofeed:https://alice.example/twtxt.txt
) I think compaction stalls under load.

Carol replies to Bob:

2025-09-25T12:08:00Z (tno:42) (ofeed:https://alice.example/twtxt.txt
) Token bucket sounds good.

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TNO Threading (draft):
Each origin feed numbers new threads (tno:N). Replies carry both (tno:N) and (ofeed:<origin-url>). Thread identity = (ofeed, tno).

  • Roots: (tno:N) (implicit ofeed=self).
  • Replies: (tno:N) (ofeed:<url>).
  • Clients: increment tno locally for new threads, copy tags on reply.
  • Subjects optional, not required.

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In-reply-to » Here is just a small list of things™ that I'm aware will break, some quite badly, others in minor ways:

I would personally rather see something like this:

2025-09-25T22:41:19+10:00	Hello World
2025-09-25T22:41:19+10:00	(#kexv5vq https://example.com/twtxt.html#:~:text=2025-09-25T22:41:19%2B10:00) Hey!

Preserving both content-based addressing as well as location-based addressing and text fragment linking.

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In-reply-to » Here is just a small list of things™ that I'm aware will break, some quite badly, others in minor ways:

I was trying to say (badly):

That’s kind of my position on this. If we are going to make significant changes in the threading model, let’s keep content based addressing, but also improve the user experience. Answering your question, yes I think we can do some combination of both.

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In-reply-to » Here is just a small list of things™ that I'm aware will break, some quite badly, others in minor ways:

@alexonit@twtxt.alessandrocutolo.it Yhays kind of love you!! Stance and position on this. If we are going to make chicken changes in the threading model, let’s keep content based addressing, but also improve the use of experience. So in fact, in order to answer your question, I think yes, we can do some kind of combination of both.

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In-reply-to » Here is just a small list of things™ that I'm aware will break, some quite badly, others in minor ways:

@lyse@lyse.isobeef.org I don’t think there’s any point in continuing the discussion of Location vs. Content based addressing.

I want us to preserve Content based addressing.

Let’s improve the user experience and fix the hash commission problems.

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In-reply-to » @zvava @lyse I also think a location based reference might be better.

Here is just a small list of things™ that I’m aware will break, some quite badly, others in minor ways:

  1. Link rot & migrations: domain changes, path reshuffles, CDN/mirror use, or moving from txt → jsonfeed will orphan replies unless every reader implements perfect 301/410 history, which they won’t.
  2. Duplication & forks: mirrors/relays produce multiple valid locations for the same post; readers see several “parents” and split the thread.
  3. Verification & spam-resistance: content addressing lets you dedupe and verify you’re pointing at exactly the post you meant (hash matches bytes). Location anchors can be replayed or spoofed more easily unless you add signing and canonicalization.
  4. Offline/cached reading: without the original URL being reachable, readers can’t resolve anchors; with hashes they can match against local caches/archives.
  5. Ecosystem churn: all existing clients, archives, and tools that assume content-derived IDs need migrations, mapping layers, and fallback logic. Expect long-lived threads to fracture across implementations.

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In-reply-to » @zvava @lyse I also think a location based reference might be better.

We’ve been discussing the idea of changing the threading model from Content-based Addressing to Location-based addressing for years now. The problem is quite complex, but I feel I have to keep reminding y’all of the potential perils of changing this and the pros/cons of each model:

With content-addressed threading, a reply points at something that’s intrinsically identified (hash of author/feed URI + timestamp + content). That ID never changes as long as the content doesn’t. Switching to location-based anchors makes the reply target extrinsic—it now depends on where the post currently lives. In a pull-based, decentralised network, locations drift. The moment they do, thread identity fragments.

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In-reply-to » @bender @thecanine well now this has me thinking abt the feasibility of making an android twtxt app for pods, the actual apis of pods would have to be standardized (or the fucked up way that activitypub does it, where the "mastodon api" is the defacto client api (does yarn even have an api reference?)) or the client is just simply..a client..but editing feeds via PUT, PATCH, DELETE etc. is standardized!...? (not to mention i dont even know where to begin making an android app lmao)

@zvava@twtxt.net And yes yarnd does have a well documented API and two clients (CLI and unmaintained Flutter App)

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In-reply-to » @bender @thecanine well now this has me thinking abt the feasibility of making an android twtxt app for pods, the actual apis of pods would have to be standardized (or the fucked up way that activitypub does it, where the "mastodon api" is the defacto client api (does yarn even have an api reference?)) or the client is just simply..a client..but editing feeds via PUT, PATCH, DELETE etc. is standardized!...? (not to mention i dont even know where to begin making an android app lmao)

@zvava@twtxt.net We can do that 👌

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In-reply-to » wait....so i'm like nearly done? it just works? and it's fast? this feels like the end of the first all-nighter i pulled where i just got post creation done, unaware of the three weeks that would follow — like looking at the roadmap i'm definitely not done but bbycll is like actually kind of usable now o.o

@zvava@twtxt.net The first version of what is now yarnd was built over a weekend 😀

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In-reply-to » Now that’s interesting. Some of these bots start crawling at URLs like this:

Chances are the database bought wasn’t cheap at all and was aold by some scam company that probably ripped them from six figures or more for a database that’s full of rubbish. 🤣

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In-reply-to » @prologic @movq My metadata only has my HTTPS URL. I didn't consider having multiple. I was talking about my config.yaml. Jenny sounds like a good client, so I might give that a try.

@dce@hashnix.club No worries 😌 It’s all documented in our soecs, it’s not such a common thing that we’ve felt the great need to really solve, we’re aware folks want to sometimes have their feed on several protocols, and that’s totally fine™ 😅

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In-reply-to » It might just be my client, but it seems that I cannot track multiple URLs at once. As such, all three of my twtxt URLs will work for following, but mentions will only reach me at my HTTPS URL (https://hashnix.club/~dce/twtxt.txt). If there is a client that can cope with twtxt mirrors, I would love to know about it.

@movq@www.uninformativ.de Yeah, we’ve seen how this plays out in practice 🤣 @dce@hashnix.club My advice, do what @movq@www.uninformativ.de has hinted at and don’t change the 1st # url = field in your feed. I’m not sure if you had already, but the first url field is kind of important in your feed as it is used as the “Hashing URI” for threading.

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In-reply-to » You know, I think I do actually like it here better than my other social media. It's slower and quieter, but it feels more organic and nobody's trying to sell me anything, promote their podcast, or change the way I think. It's just... nice!

@dce@hashnix.club these are some of the same reasons that I enjoy Yarn.social/Twtxt 🙌

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In-reply-to » RIP Android:

To combat malware and financial scams, Google announced today that only apps from developers that have undergone verification can be installed on certified Android devices starting in 2026.

This requirement applies to “certified Android devices” that have Play Protect and are preloaded with Google apps. The Play Store implemented similar requirements in 2023, but Google is now mandating this for all install methods, including third-party app stores and sideloading where you download an APK file from a third-party source.

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In-reply-to » @prologic Hmm, good question. I haven’t checked the market, I got mine from someone I know. But to be honest, I’d suspect that buying a used one is actually your best shot, because there is virtually no market for these devices anymore, meaning new ones are very, very expensive. 🫤

@movq@www.uninformativ.de Is there like a TL;DR of this standard? I can’t say I remember this tbh 🤔

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In-reply-to » Sooooooooo, things happened, and I now have a dot matrix printer again. 😍😂

@movq@www.uninformativ.de Are you sure?

because there is virtually no market for these devices anymore, meaning new ones are very, very expensive.

I think dot matrix printers are still pretty common in many Point of Sales (POS) registers right? At least here in AU they’re very common. I had a quick look myself today, there seems to be quite a solid market for these types of printers. In fact even EPSON still sell Dot Matrix printers themselves 🤣

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In-reply-to » Sooooooooo, things happened, and I now have a dot matrix printer again. 😍😂

@movq@www.uninformativ.de Kind of curious now… Is there a (to buy new) dot matrix printer you’d recommend if someone wanted to get into this sort of thing (sending plain ‘ol bytes to a printer port)? 🤔 (I remember this back in the ye ‘old days!)

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In-reply-to » After around 3 years, I managed to make my "smallest recognizable canine", even smaller. So here's the all new, smallest recognizable canine 2.0: Media

@thecanine@twtxt.net Haha I thought myself there might ahve been too many pixels on the tail, but I’m no expert in this field 🤣 It’s still a nice canine though! 👌

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In-reply-to » After around 3 years, I managed to make my "smallest recognizable canine", even smaller. So here's the all new, smallest recognizable canine 2.0: Media

@thecanine@twtxt.net My daughter (who is pretty good already at art and only 10 :D) says this looks like a “blob” 🤣 I tried to explain to her that this is pixel art, but I’m not quite sure she has the same appreciation (yet) 😅

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In-reply-to » @itsericwoodward Also just a heads up, GIF(s) aren't supproted as an Avatar type on yarnd (what runs twtxt.net). I'd change this to something that's more supproted like PNG, JPEG, etc.

@eric@itsericwoodward.com Name change is no worries! 😉 Interesting/funnily enough my client yarnd seems to have picked it up automatically which is nice (I’ve historically always had a few bugs to iron out there 🤣)

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@eric@itsericwoodward.com I prefer to call what we’ve built here really an “ecosystem”. A network isn’t really an apt description. Twtxt/Yarn is arguably IMO the purest decentralised non-social social media ecosystem I think in existence today 🤣

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But maybe, just maybe this is why they’re pushing so hard to have this “Age Verification” bullshit. So they can then shut people down like me that routinely “speak up” and “against the status quo”. Bend over backwards? I think not! Assholes 🤣

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I realize I’m a nobody, and no-one will care or listen. But to the various UK, EU and AU politicians pushing for this “Online Safety Act” bullshit…. You’re all fucking utter morons! I can’t wait for the backflash of what will come next. Idiots.

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