I suggested that in the #element / #matrix channel and n@ivan@bonfire.cafe immediately created an issue on their Github repo: github.com/bonfire-networks/...
Again, kudos to bonfire admins!
Replies:
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I'll try to write about my experience here, both as a test and as a diary for future reference.
My first contact with #bonfire is that it ressembles a lot with #mastodon, so it feels like at home. My first task was to fill in my profile. It was a very straightforward and familiar process, but two subtlelties (not maybe not too subtle) got my attention: the possibility of linking my orcid and other profiles. That looks interesting!
A thread about federation
very briefly, as I am on my phone now.
I've found the following issues about federation:
- I've followed my bonfire account from a mastodon account. on mastodon I see the request is waiting for approval, but on bonfire I am not notified, nor I can see that request anywhere. that means that nobody from the fediverse can follow me!
- posts look weird on mastodon
Issue created here for #1: github.com/bonfire-networks/...
Now a thread covering my experiencing publishing content / creating posts
Now, about publishing content:
Again, publishing posts is quite straightforward. It has anything you'd expect:
- I can write texts (not sure if there's a character limitation -I couldn't see that anywhere) and I can even use markdown syntax, use emojis, attach files, add content warnings... 🎉
- When I upload images, I can easily write alt text
- I can reply to posts
- I can edit posts
Once I sent to "Post", I get a modal window (it was difficult for me to see, TBH, because it is displayed on the top of the window and not very prominently) confirming that the post has been published.
Once I like some #bonfire specific features here, such as changing how replies are sorted ❤️:
- Replies can be shown as a thread of nested replies, or as a flat list
- Additionally, replies can be sorted chronologically, reverse chronologically, by number of responses, latest reply... (see screenshot).
This is really cool, indeed! Following conversations on mastodon is difficult, and I feel/hope this can make this process easier.
I've noticed that likes are not shown in the post's page
Screenshot of user settings to link an external account (orcid id or other profiles)
⁂ Article
Screenshot of user settings to link an external account (orcid id or other profiles)
Linking ORCID
When I tried to link my orcid, I got an error. After reporting the issue in the matrix room, @mayel@bonfire.cafe and @ivan@bonfire.cafe almost immediately fixed the issue.
Once the issue was sorted, linking my orcid was as straightforward as with any other service using orcid. Not only that, but it populated my profile with very interesting data for #academics: a list of current and former institutions where I work/have worked, my most recent publication, the topics I write about and publication types.
I find this implementation to be very neat and useful for the use case of open science, so kudos to @Bonfire@bonfire.cafe for this great idea. I particularly love how the last publication is displayed, showing if it's open access, and links to the article and to the PDF version. Amazing! 🎉 (probably, I'd prefer to choose the publication I want to show there, but the last one is a good default criteria, so this is me being picky)
Linking other Fediverse accounts
Adding other profiles from the #fediverse was extremely easy: just adding the handle and they are shown along with their avatars in the profile.
I tried with adding #mastodon and #pixelfed accounts and both worked great.
My only concern is that I didn't know what to add on that section of the profile from reading the texts. It was not until I saw @mayel@bonfire.cafe 's profile that I understood that we were expected to add user handles from the fediverse. I'm not sure if any software using #ActivityPub will work here either, so I imagine that a better text, and potentially highlighting ActivityPub icon, would be appreciated. I took the liberty of proposing something in this quite clumpsy screenshot.
I just created an issue suggesting that here: github.com/bonfire-networks/...
My only issue with this is that all this data is pulled from openalex.org/ which is an amazing service, but it does make mistakes in assigning publications to authors. In my case, I have assigned as my own some publications written by someone with a similar, Portuguese name , and as a result, the fields and institutions are not correct.
I have reported this inaccuracies to openalex and I hope they fix them soon, but considering that:
- the methods they use are not 100% accurate (as opposed to ORCID), this is likely to happen to many others
- academics are very sensitive to these issues and will be reaching to #bonfire admins to fix this, even though the problem is not bonfire-related
- ORCID does the job better (mainly because academics manually add records there or they get pulled from other parties because academics gave their Orcids there)
I wonder if it wouldn't be better to get affiliations from orcid's API instead.
I suggested that in the #element / #matrix channel and n@ivan@bonfire.cafe immediately created an issue on their Github repo: github.com/bonfire-networks/...
Again, kudos to bonfire admins!
