> 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
## 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 is expected to be syndicated (think HTML `<article>`) since it is a self-contained piece of content. whereas a Note might not be
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
in other words a Note may be ephemeral while an Article is longer-lived
## 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 will 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
## 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
