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Missing definition of 'object' #584

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@hadmut

Hi,

w3c's protocol description of Activity Pub lacks a definition of what an 'object' is.

I describes 'objects' in chapter 3 with statements like

  • Objects are the core concept around which both [ActivityStreams] and ActivityPub are built.
  • Objects are often wrapped in Activities and are contained in streams of Collections, which are themselves subclasses of Objects.
  • all objects distributed by the ActivityPub protocol MUST have unique global identifiers, unless they are intentionally transient
  • The HTTP GET method may be dereferenced against an object's id property to retrieve the activity.

But it does not say, what an 'object' actually is. You can read it and still don't know what this chapter is about and what the term means in context of activitypub.

That's a problem, because the term 'object' is so generic and universal, used almost everywhere, and always with a different meaning, not linked to any particular meaning, that it renders the document unreadable.

Protocol definitions (and other technical descriptions) should always – and first – define the terms used in the document precisely. And thus, clarify which terms are actually part of the protocol definition and not just common language.

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