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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

## 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

for metadata:

- no name?

for content:

- no headings?
- no formatting?