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Note vs Article
Discussion: https://socialhub.activitypub.rocks/t/resolving-the-note-vs-article-distinction/258
in summary:
Note: Represents a short written work typically less than a single paragraph in length.
Article: represents any kind of multi-paragraph written work.
but this is contradicted by as2/ap examples
the practical difference
a Note will be displayed inline in Mastodon, but an Article will be converted to name/summary + url/id
further recommendations for microblog compatibility:
- a Note SHOULD still work with a plaintext fallback, as most html could be stripped
- a Note SHOULD NOT have a name/title, as this will be ignored
if you don't care about Mastodon or similar microblogging impls then do whatever. some guidelines/thoughts below...
failed ideas for distinction
a "paragraph"
perhaps a note could have no line breaks or only a single <p> tag, while an article does? well there's an example that directly contradicts this! ActivityPub example 4 uses two <p> tags inside a Note's content
titles
some say a Note has no title but an Article does -- this is not strictly true in all cases, a Note can have a name (and AS2-Vocab example 43 does so)
formatting
some say a Note has no formatting but an Article does -- this is not true at all, as Note can be HTML and is in fact assumed to be HTML by default (per AS2-Vocab definition of mediaType)
length
perhaps a Note has some character limit and an Article doesn't -- but what is the limit? completely arbitrary. not worth making this distinction
what's left for distinction?
syndication
an Article might be expected to be syndicated (think HTML <article>) since it is a self-contained piece of content. whereas a Note might not be
https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/sections.html#the-article-element
The article element represents a complete, or self-contained, composition in a document, page, application, or site and that is, in principle, independently distributable or reusable, e.g. in syndication. This could be a forum post, a magazine or newspaper article, a blog entry, a user-submitted comment, an interactive widget or gadget, or any other independent item of content.
Note: When used specifically with content to be redistributed in syndication, the article element is similar in purpose to the entry element in Atom.
however this may imply that microblog posts should be sent out as Article? requires further thought
formality
an Article is "published" in a formal context whereas a Note is presented in an informal context
definitions for "article often stress that it is an independent unit of writing, and is often published.
dictionary.com:
a written composition [...] forming an independent part of a [...] publication
merriam-webster:
a distinct section of writing [...] often numbered
[a] composition [...] usually forming an independent part of a publication
in other words a Note may be viewed in passing, while an Article is more persistent
indieweb perspective
indieweb seems to take this view https://indieweb.org/Semantics_Of_Article-Note_Distinction
post name/title [though discounted above]
non-trivial structure [akin to formality -- headings?]
plain text vs markup [basically the p-content vs e-content argument]
takeaway thoughts
i would tend to assume everything is an article by default, with certain characteristics making it tend toward being a note instead
for content:
- no headings?
- no formatting?
for metadata:
- no
name? - no
id(transient or anonymous objects)?
but it's really that last one that seems most salient to me. consider an Article to be a top-level text container that can be referred to later since it forms an independent published unit of writing. consider a Note to be an anonymous text container to be embedded in other objects. in practical terms, a Note might be used for actor metadata, in which case it would have a name but still be a Note
type: Note
name: "Pronouns"
content: "they/them"
note that Note might still have an id, though... so really it's just a vague ill-defined "intention". for example, maybe use a Note for a "status update" in a chat/presence sense? like XMPP PEP.