fediverse

cross-posted from: lemmy.bestiver.se/post/363594

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We’re back with a fresh release, and this one makes following and sharing smoother than ever—plus gives you more control over how your posts can be quoted.

A New Way to Follow (For Now)

Starting today, users on WordPress.com sites and self-hosted sites connected through Jetpack can see the posts of accounts they follow directly in their WordPress.com Reader timeline. The Following UI has been around for a little while, yet hidden, and with this release it will be enabled by default for these sites.

When you follow an account, ActivityPub checks for a discoverable RSS feed. If one exists, it’s automatically added to your Reader timeline so new posts appear alongside everything else you already follow. Unfollowing works the same way—the feed disappears when you remove the account. And if you’d like to view the feed for an account you’ve followed, just hover over it in the list table and click View Feed.

Think of this as a bridge: a simple way to read the posts of accounts you follow today, while we continue building a full, first-class ActivityPub reading experience for tomorrow.

There are a couple of details to keep in mind. Removing a subscription directly in the Reader won’t update your site’s Following list, and interactions are limited to what RSS allows, which means sharing and reposting rather than the full range of ActivityPub features.

Running a self-hosted site without Jetpack? You can still enable the Following UI manually—it just won’t connect with the Reader.

Quote Post Controls

We’ve also added support for Mastodon’s quote post feature—and given you an easy way to control how others can quote your content.

When writing in the Block Editor, you’ll now see a sidebar setting that lets you decide whether everyone can quote your post, only your followers can, or if quoting is reserved for you alone. Once published, Mastodon and other compatible platforms will honor your choice automatically. No extra setup needed—just write, choose, and publish with confidence.

Full Changelog

Added

Added a setting to control who can quote your posts.
Added support for QuoteRequest activities (FEP-044f), enabling proper handling, validation, and policy-based acceptance or rejection of quote requests.
Add upgrade routine to enable ActivityPub feeds in WordPress.com Reader
Add Yoast SEO integration for author archives site health check.
Improved interaction policies with clearer defaults and better Mastodon compatibility.
New site health check warns if active Captcha plugins may block ActivityPub comments.
Sync following meta to enable RSS feed subscriptions for ActivityPub actors in WordPress.com Reader
You can now follow people and see their updates right in the WordPress.com Reader when using Jetpack or WordPress.com.

Changed

Added support for fetching actors by account identifiers and improved reliability of actor retrieval.
Clarify error messages in account modal to specify full profile URL format.
Improved checks to better identify public Activities.
Improved compatibility by making the ‘implements’ field always use multiple entries.
Improved recipient handling for clarity and improved visibility handling of activities.
Remote reply blocks now sync account info across all blocks on the same page
Standardized notification handling with new hooks for better extensibility and consistency.
Updated sync allowlist to add support for Jetpack notifications of likes and reposts.

Fixed

Fixed an issue where post metadata in the block editor was missing or failed to update.
Fix Flag activity object list processing to preserve URL arrays
Fix PHP warning in bulk edit scenario when post_author is missing from $_REQUEST
Posts now only fall back to the blog user when blog mode is enabled and no valid author exists, ensuring content negotiation only runs if an Actor is available.

Downloads

WordPress.org: activitypub.7.5.0.zip
GitHub: tag/7.5.0

Thank you!

Thanks to everyone who contributed code, tested, offered feedback, or lent support along the way. Update to 7.5.0 today and follow, share, and quote to your heart’s content!

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My crawler updates are doing a better job than I expected finding some of the smaller servers, expect some crazy numbers for a few more days as we dig in deeper to the #fediverse and see who is out there!

gitlab.com/diasporg/poduptime/…

Ready for a smoother ride on the Fediverse? ActivityPub for WordPress 7.3.0 is here to make your experience friendlier and more flexible than ever. Whether you’re keeping out unwanted guests, bringing stray conversations home, or just tidying up your digital footprint, this release puts powerful new tools right at your fingertips. Let’s take a look at what’s new!

Personalized & Site-Wide Moderation

With this release, Moderation tools are easier to discover and manage, thanks to a revamped two-tiered system that empowers both site admins and individual users with greater control over their Fediverse experience.

Now, site administrators can set up site-wide blocks—covering domains, keywords, and even specific actors—right from the Settings screen or the new Blocked Actors table. These tools work together to keep out unwanted content and spammy actors for everyone on your site.

But we didn’t stop there! Every user can fine-tune their own experience. Head to your Profile to add personal domain and keyword blocks, or visit the new Blocked Actors submenu under Users to manage who can interact with you. Blocking someone is easier than ever—just paste their profile ID or webfinger, or use the handy new “Block” link right from your Followers list.

Followers List With Block Option
Block Account Confirmation
Followers After Blocking

Whenever new ActivityPub content comes in, the plugin checks it against both global and personal blocks. Domains are matched not just to the sender, but also to the activity and object IDs. Keywords are scanned throughout the content, summaries, and even actor names. Site-wide rules always run first, followed by your personal settings—so you’re protected at every level. (For the blog actor, only site-wide blocks apply.)

For backwards compatibility, the classic comment disallow list is still supported, ensuring your existing moderation rules continue to work seamlessly.

Saying Goodbye, the Right Way

Sometimes, a clean break is necessary. Whether you’re retiring a blog, removing a user, or handling old content, this release makes sure your presence in the Fediverse can be removed gracefully and consistently.

We’ve added a self-destruct feature for sites that want to step away entirely. With a single CLI command (wp activitypub self_destruct), WordPress will send out Delete activities to all followers. Built-in progress tracking and admin notifications let you know when the process has finished, so you can be sure your Fediverse footprint is fully cleared.

User deletion is now handled with the same care. When a user is removed from WordPress, a corresponding Delete activity is sent to their followers, ensuring that connections across the network are properly closed.

Bring the Conversation to You

Sometimes a reply you care about doesn’t make it all the way to your Inbox. Maybe it was posted on a remote server with finicky delivery, or slipped past the usual flow of ActivityPub. With this release, you don’t have to miss out.

Now you can search for any remote URL directly. If the comment is already in your database, you’ll be taken straight to the matching comment thread on your blog post. If not, the plugin will fetch and import the remote reply to that post, so you can fold scattered conversations back into your site seamlessly.

This means you’re no longer limited to what arrives automatically. If you’ve got a link to a discussion happening elsewhere in the Fediverse, you can pull it right into your own comment threads and keep the context intact.

A Persistent Inbox for Better Debugging

Fediverse interactions can get complex, and sometimes you need deeper insight into what’s really happening under the hood. That’s where the new persistent inbox comes in.

When enabled in Advanced Settings, the plugin now logs all incoming Create or Update activities. Instead of vanishing once processed, these entries are collected in a dedicated Inbox Collection—giving you a complete trail to reference when debugging.

Full Changelog

Added

Add actor blocking functionality with list table interface for managing blocked users and site-wide blocks.
Add code coverage reporting to GitHub Actions PHPUnit workflow with dedicated coverage job using Xdebug.
Add comprehensive blocking and moderation system for ActivityPub with user-specific and site-wide controls for actors, domains, and keywords.
Add comprehensive unit tests for Followers and Following table classes with proper ActivityPub icon object handling.
Added link and explanation for the existing Starter Kit importer on the help tab of the Following pages.
Adds a self-destruct feature to remove a blog from the Fediverse by sending Delete activities to followers.
Adds a User Interface to select accounts during Starter Kit import.
Adds support for importing Starter Kits from a link (URL).
Adds support for searching (remote) URLs similar to Mastodon, redirecting to existing replies or importing them if missing.
Adds support for sending Delete activities when a user is removed.
Adds support for Starter Kit collections in the ActivityPub API.
A global Inbox handler and persistence layer to log incoming Create and Update requests for debugging and verifying Activity handling.
Follower lists now include the option to block individual accounts.
Improved handling of deleted content with a new unified system for better tracking and compatibility.
Moderation now checks blocked keywords across all language variants of the content, summary and name fields.
When activated or deactivated network-wide, the plugin now refreshes rewrite rules across all sites.

Changed

Add default avatars for actors without icons in admin tables.
Added support for list of Actor IDs in Starter Kits.
Improve Following class documentation and optimize count methods for better performance.
Refactor actor blocking with unified API for better maintainability.

Fixed

Blocks relying on user selectors no longer error due to a race condition when fetching users.
Fix duplicate HTML IDs and missing form labels in modal blocks.
Fix malformed ActivityPub handles for users with email-based logins (e.g., from Site Kit Google authentication).
Fix PHP 8.4 deprecation warnings by preventing null values from being passed to WordPress core functions.
Improves handling of author URLs by converting them to a proper format.
Improves REST responses by skipping invalid actors in Followers and Following controllers.
More reliable Actor checks during the follow process.
Prevents Application users from being followed.
Proper implementation of FEP 844e.
Switches ActivityPub summaries to plain text for better compatibility.

Downloads

WordPress.org: activitypub.7.3.0.zip
GitHub: tag/7.3.0

Thank you!

Big thanks to everyone who contributed code, shared feedback, tested, or encouraged us along the way! Together, we’re making the fediverse more connected—one release at a time. ❤️

We’ve just rolled out version 7.3.0—try it out and let us know what you think!

ALT