Is FediFetcher needed for Akkoma? Are the problems it solves more of a Mastodon thing or is it tied to all platforms of the fediverse?
a simple script that can pull missing posts into Mastodon using the Mastodon API. FediFetcher has no further dependencies, and can be run as either a GitHub Action, as a scheduled cron job, or a pre-packaged container. Here is what FediFetcher can do:
It can pull missing remote replies to posts that are already on your server into your server. Specifically, it can
fetch missing replies to posts that users on your instance have already replied to,
fetch missing replies to the most recent posts in your home timeline,
fetch missing replies to your bookmarks.
fetch missing replies to your favourites.
It can also backfill profiles on your instance. In particular it can
fetch missing posts from users that have recently appeared in your notifications,
fetch missing posts from users that you have recently followed,
fetch missing posts form users that have recently followed you,
fetch missing posts form users that have recently sent you a follow request.
Fedifetch is useful for all Mastodon-API compatible platforms in the Fediverse, especially for single-user instances not subscribed to large relays. Often, you see posts without replies, only to find out there are many replies already. Normally, relays handle backfilling for replies and non-followed users’ posts, but large relays redistribute all posts indiscriminately, straining your system. Fedifetch solves this by manually backfilling posts that matter to you, such as posts from people you follow, their replies, and posts from those who reply, making it easier to discover interesting content.
I use Fedifetch myself in combination with relay from fedibuzz (https://relay.fedi.buzz) where I can filter the posts I get by tags or instances. It surely useful.
While I can’t speak for any AP project, I can give my personal 2c. Having this build-in means a lot of overhead because you have to refetch every thread you have, and decide how long to keep doing this. It can help as a stop-gap but it really shows a deeper underlying problem.
According to the specification, posts should be send to OP and then OP (or OP’s instance) should forward them. That way you don’t have the “broken threads” like we have now with followers-only, people have more control on whose replies they allow, and this problem would also be solved.
This approach seems much better to me, but the problem is that it was never clear how exactly to do this forwarding. I assume that’s the reason why replies are done the way they are. Afaik Stream found a way to do it properly, but I don’t know the details and it may change behaviour in a way that is unexpected, but idk.
