The ap-next developer guide was removed from the https://activitypub.rocks website: https://github.com/swicg/activitypub.rocks/issues/63 (by the father of the Fediverse, no less).

The reason:

It's a fork outside the SocialCG.

This is utter nonsense. The guide refers to the original ActivityPub specification and even to SocialCG reports covering Webfinger and HTTP signatures. The other ap-next project is NomadPub - a collection of FEPs that significantly expand the capabilities of the protocol but don't diverge from the original spec.

However, since dissenting opinions about the present and the future of ActivityPub are now openly censored, a fork may indeed be necessary.

@silverpill it does seem weird they would use that justification to remove the link. thought at first they might be consolidating for W3C-only resources, but there are non-W3C guides under the `Documentation` section (which is where I would guess the `ap-next` guide would also fit).

outside of clarifying underspecified pieces of the protocol, and highlighting some useful FEPs, how is the `ap-next` guide a "fork"?

@elle This guide is just a summary of what I have learned while working on my ActivityPub project.

@silverpill @elle Yes, I had a read of the ap-next guide and don't see anything controversial in it!

You've just documented the current ways the AP is being used in the real world.

@rimu @elle I think the real reason is the association with another thing I am working on: nomadic identity. Some people don't like it, although it is not clear why. It is an optional protocol extension, and similar features in ATProto protocol don't cause any controversy.

@silverpill @rimu @elle

I agree that ap-next is not a fork, and might have stayed on that website. That said I don't think there's deeper politics to this removal, just that the links on the site are rather arbitrary and in need of good curation. E.g. fedify is nice to mention, but also just but one such project where there are multiple.

The entire online presence of SWICG/SocialCG including the AP.rocks website are a mess that almost seems designed to discourage ecosystem participants.

It saddens me as 3 years ago, when AP.rocks was still considered to be part of SocialHub, I had a whole initiative prepared to once and for all create a great developer portal at this domain name.

https://socialhub.activitypub.rocks/t/activitypub-rocks-portal-from-standards-movement-to-grassroots-fedi/3577

In particular that top-level aggregator site would need to serve as an entry point to drill down into the entire grassroots ecosystem, help people find their way around..

https://socialhub.activitypub.rocks/t/ideating-organization-structure-for-the-grassroots-fediverse-wiki/3037

The SWICG took over that initiative without consultation, and then let it languish.

@smallcircles @silverpill @rimu @elle I think you're already a member of the CG, so you can easily help out with the Website task force. There's a lot of work to do!

There's a meeting on Tuesday 1 September, so I think you would be really welcome there:

https://github.com/swicg/activitypub.rocks/issues/92