modem_down comments on Is there a fix for, "This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete."

Is there a fix for, "This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete." (media.thebrainbin.org)

submitted 3 months ago by modem_down@thebrainbin.org to c/AskMbin@thebrainbin.org

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I use Mbin because it seems to be the only software that provides subscriptions to Fediverse microblogs (e.g. from Mastodon) as well as subscription to Fediverse forums/communities/magazines (e.g. from Lemmy).

Unfortunately, when viewed from Mbin, Mastodon profiles often have the warning, This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. View on remote instance

Example: https://thebrainbin.org/u/@transitous@en.osm.town

What's the source of this issue? E.g. is it:

Due to a choice by the admin of the Mbin server hosting my account?
Due to a bug in Mbin?
Something else?

[–] modem_down@thebrainbin.org [S] 1 point 3 months ago (4 children)

Thanks for your reply. I should have been clearer!

It's not the banner that bothers me, it's the fact that that microblog's posts (toots) aren't being displayed when viewed from Mbin!

Is there anything I can do in order to get those posts to propagate through to Mbin? Would I have to contact the admin for the Mbin instance hosting my account? Something else?

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[–] BentiGorlich@gehirneimer.de 2 points 3 months ago (3 children)

You could type in the url of the post in the search bar, but if you follow a user their future posts will be sent to your server. We were talking about implementing a backfill option, but there is no eta yet, so no guarantee it will be implemented at all. But since it is an annoying problem, maybe it will

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[–] modem_down@thebrainbin.org [S] 1 point 3 months ago*

if you follow a user their future posts will be sent to your server. We were talking about implementing a backfill option, but there is no eta yet

Thank you for explaining. That must indeed be the reason I couldn't see those toots on Mbin.

so no guarantee it will be implemented at all. But since it is an annoying problem, maybe it will

Backfill would be great! Server capacity concerns notwithstanding.

In the meantime, clearer wording for the info banner would be an easy, helpful UX improvement:

Before subscribing: "This Fediverse profile is hosted on a different server than yours. If you, or another user on your server, were to subscribe to this profile, the profile's subsequent posts would be displayed here. The profile's older posts can be viewed on their server"
After subscribing: "This Fediverse profile is hosted on a different server than yours. Now that you have subscribed, the profile's future posts will be displayed here. The profile's older posts can be viewed on their server"

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[–] Auster@thebrainbin.org 1 point 3 months ago (1 child)

About backfilling, if @modem_down@thebrainbin.org come across any yet unfederated links in the wild, maybe worth mentioning search links are standardized and hard-coded, making even redirect scripts efficient. Like e.g. https://thebrainbin.org/search?search[q]=https://mastodon.social/@artologica@chaos.social/116986639666818550 yielding https://thebrainbin.org/m/random/p/829840 (and using a remote link from a third instance to further make my point hehe).

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[–] Auster@thebrainbin.org 2 points 3 months ago*

Though about the instance itself doing backfilling by an automated worker, it could be pretty taxing on both the requesting and requested instances, so I worry communications may get timed-out or the requesting instance may inflate to the point storage becomes a big concern.

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