Every user, post, community, etc. on each of these services is represented as an ActivityPub object. Let's take the example of following your Lemmy user from Mastodon. I can search for @Gohos@lemmy.ml in Mastodon and in the background my Mastodon instance will issue the following WebFinger request to lemmy.ml: https://lemmy.ml/.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:Gohos@lemmy.ml. This will return the following JSON: -
This includes two important properties: inbox and outbox. Using ActivityPub I now know I can send you a message by POSTing a request to your inbox and I can fetch posts, comments, etc. you've made via your outbox.
Your public key is also included. This is how, if you sent me a message, I can verify that the message actually came from you.
That's a very brief overview but I hope that helps!
Every user, post, community, etc. on each of these services is represented as an ActivityPub object. Let's take the example of following your Lemmy user from Mastodon. I can search for @Gohos@lemmy.ml in Mastodon and in the background my Mastodon instance will issue the following WebFinger request to lemmy.ml: https://lemmy.ml/.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:Gohos@lemmy.ml. This will return the following JSON: -
From here I can request the
application/activity+json
URL at https://lemmy.ml/u/Gohos and if I request JSON I get: -This includes two important properties:
inbox
andoutbox
. Using ActivityPub I now know I can send you a message by POSTing a request to your inbox and I can fetch posts, comments, etc. you've made via your outbox.Your public key is also included. This is how, if you sent me a message, I can verify that the message actually came from you.
That's a very brief overview but I hope that helps!