# I am the Watcher. I am your guide through this vast new twtiverse.
# 
# Usage:
#     https://watcher.sour.is/api/plain/users              View list of users and latest twt date.
#     https://watcher.sour.is/api/plain/twt                View all twts.
#     https://watcher.sour.is/api/plain/mentions?uri=:uri  View all mentions for uri.
#     https://watcher.sour.is/api/plain/conv/:hash         View all twts for a conversation subject.
# 
# Options:
#     uri     Filter to show a specific users twts.
#     offset  Start index for quey.
#     limit   Count of items to return (going back in time).
# 
# twt range = 1 23
# self = https://watcher.sour.is/conv/qxckdca
prologic
twtxt.net
View Thread
This works for any Yarn.social pod as well as the feeds.twtxt.net service. It _can_ also work for any other Twtxt user as well by just simply adding the following to the root/index page of your domain:


<meta name="yarn-uri" context="/path/to/your/twtxt.txt" />

prologic
twtxt.net
View Thread
This works for any Yarn.social pod as well as the feeds.twtxt.net service. It _can_ also work for any other Twtxt user as well by just simply adding the following to the root/index page of your domain:


<meta name="yarn-uri" context="/path/to/your/twtxt.txt" />

~duriny
envs.net
View Thread
@prologic would it be possible to add this on non-root pages? I host my twtxt.txt on envs.net, which is a shared tilde, I don't control root page, and even if I did, that meta tag would only work for my one twtxt file. I wouldn't want to rob my fellow envs.neters of being able to use yarn :/
fastidious
arrakis.netbros.com
View Thread
@~duriny it will work under your tilde, as it is the root of your website (where your twtxt.txt file is). @prologic can correct me if I am wrong.
lyse
lyse.isobeef.org
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@~duriny That's indeed a problem and does not work, since you probably don't have access to anything outside of /~duriny/.
fastidious
arrakis.netbros.com
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@lyse but he can write to ~/duriny/, and keep an index.html there with the meta tags. As I see it, it should work just fine. I shall test it later this afternoon, as I have accounts on a few tildes around.
~duriny
envs.net
View Thread
@lyse No, I'm confined to my little corner of the internet here. @prologic would it be possible to support http headers as well? I think that the Go vanity imports style is clever :), just a little limiting to self-hosters like me :/
lyse
lyse.isobeef.org
View Thread
@fastidious Hm, how would you tell yarnd to HEAD https://envs.net/~duriny/ rather than HEAD https://envs.net/ to look for the HTTP Link header or <link> tag in the body?
~duriny
envs.net
View Thread
@fastidious Please let me know if it does end up working, it would be a really useful feature since I type out all my mentions by hand :D
prologic
twtxt.net
View Thread
@~duriny In the case of multi-user community-based hosting services such as envs.net and tilda.chat and others... Why can't I work with the operators of those services to add support for this? 🤔 Seems like a "people" problem rather than a "technical" one...

In your specific case (_assuming we went with the <meta ...> approach would look something like:


<meta name="twtxt" content="/~:nick/twtxt.txt" />

prologic
twtxt.net
View Thread
@~duriny In the case of multi-user community-based hosting services such as envs.net and tilda.chat and others... Why can't I work with the operators of those services to add support for this? 🤔 Seems like a "people" problem rather than a "technical" one...

In your specific case (_assuming we went with the <meta ...> approach would look something like:


<meta name="twtxt" content="/~:nick/twtxt.txt" />

prologic
twtxt.net
View Thread
In fact envs.sh already has a lookup service we can actually use here. We just need to know about it "somehow" -- But honestly if they're already providing this kind of JSON endpoint, I don't see why they couldn't also provide something more generalised and specific to Twtxt/Yarn in addition.

I wouldn't be surprised to learn that other such similar community-based hosting services offer similar "directories"and "lookup" mechanisms. I would if I offered such a service (_oh wait 🤦‍♂️_)
prologic
twtxt.net
View Thread
In fact envs.sh already has a lookup service we can actually use here. We just need to know about it "somehow" -- But honestly if they're already providing this kind of JSON endpoint, I don't see why they couldn't also provide something more generalised and specific to Twtxt/Yarn in addition.

I wouldn't be surprised to learn that other such similar community-based hosting services offer similar "directories"and "lookup" mechanisms. I would if I offered such a service (_oh wait 🤦‍♂️_)
lyse
lyse.isobeef.org
View Thread
@prologic That forces everybody on envs.net to place their feed at that location. So if Hans decides to rather put his feed at envs.net/~hans/bla/tw.txt, this would not work. My best guess for yarnd it probably this: try to solve this all locally without any remote communication. If the expansion on the follower list does not result in any match, try again with all the feeds known to this yarnd instance. Can't see why this won't work at the moment.
prologic
twtxt.net
View Thread
@lyse I don't really like the approach approach you describe because the only reason that works at all is because my pod happens to have 1,090 feeds cached on it at any given point. 😳 -- I'd like for us to come to a consensus (_if we can_) if we can about how we describe the location of feeds without either a) typing >50 characters or b) having to explain to someone something they have no clue about.

I _believe_ this can be done. Think of it this way, @xuu mentions the use of DNS -- Well DNS is what make the "Web" work really...
prologic
twtxt.net
View Thread
@lyse I don't really like the approach approach you describe because the only reason that works at all is because my pod happens to have 1,090 feeds cached on it at any given point. 😳 -- I'd like for us to come to a consensus (_if we can_) if we can about how we describe the location of feeds without either a) typing >50 characters or b) having to explain to someone something they have no clue about.

I _believe_ this can be done. Think of it this way, @xuu mentions the use of DNS -- Well DNS is what make the "Web" work really...
prologic
twtxt.net
View Thread
Without DNS you'd have to remember IPv4 addresses (_or wose IPv6 address_) and it would be rather tedious rather quickly. Why can't we come up with something convenient and similar? 🤔 If Twtxt/Yarn is to continue to grow, I don't see how we do that with exceedingly long and hard to get-rid/remember URIs.
prologic
twtxt.net
View Thread
Without DNS you'd have to remember IPv4 addresses (_or wose IPv6 address_) and it would be rather tedious rather quickly. Why can't we come up with something convenient and similar? 🤔 If Twtxt/Yarn is to continue to grow, I don't see how we do that with exceedingly long and hard to get-rid/remember URIs.
prologic
twtxt.net
View Thread
And frankly, why can't hosts like envs.net behave more like multi-user pods anyway, even if they don't use the same software? I mean when you think about it, yarnd is nothing more than an implementation of the specs we're documented with a Web UI. Yes it also has some infra-pods features that "distribute" Twts amongst peers and other such distributes feature. -- But if I were an operator of such a "community host" why can't there be hooks and lookups in place and "automation" that "just works"™?
prologic
twtxt.net
View Thread
And frankly, why can't hosts like envs.net behave more like multi-user pods anyway, even if they don't use the same software? I mean when you think about it, yarnd is nothing more than an implementation of the specs we're documented with a Web UI. Yes it also has some infra-pods features that "distribute" Twts amongst peers and other such distributes feature. -- But if I were an operator of such a "community host" why can't there be hooks and lookups in place and "automation" that "just works"™?
lyse
lyse.isobeef.org
View Thread
@prologic If the yarnd you're on doesn't have pulled feed X, you're probably not going to reply and thus to mention that feed X, are you? Unless you've come across feed X somewhere else, I give you that. "Why can't others do this and that what I want them to" is not a helpful argument in my opinion. It just makes people turn away at best. As I pointed out different people on a shared server may just want to use completely different URL schemes. And that's absolutely fine. Just think of feeds for different purposes by one and the same author. So the proposal we're having is not going to work (didn't check my mails yet, so maybe sb. came up with an alternative already).
prologic
twtxt.net
View Thread
@lyse You're right I'm sorry I apologize 🤗 I've been burning too many hours lately and lacking sleep and courtesy 🤦‍♂️

The point I was (very badly) trying to make was about a canonical way of both saying how one can find your feed and resolve it.
prologic
twtxt.net
View Thread
@lyse You're right I'm sorry I apologize 🤗 I've been burning too many hours lately and lacking sleep and courtesy 🤦‍♂️

The point I was (very badly) trying to make was about a canonical way of both saying how one can find your feed and resolve it.