Hi! I am also having federation issues on a fresh install of 4.0.3. For example, I can not see the content of all the posts here including the original post. I think I see the content of around half of the posts. I tried to reply on another post on community.nodebb.org, but after ten minutes it is still not visible at community.nodebb.org.

Ironically, I am not sure this reply will reach community.nodebb.org either.

@reynir OK great! This one went through. However, I still only see about half of the posts.

(Finally, sorry for barging in on your topic - perhaps we can fork the topic somehow)

@reynir@forum.fedi.dk the post content being blank issue might be an unrelated bug. I'm still trying to figure out that one.

@julian@community.nodebb.org thanks for the reply! Is there a tracking issue I can subscribe to?

(I am having a lot of fun with our new NodeBB instance btw!)

@reynir@forum.fedi.dk there wasn't, so I added one:

Reports of blank posts · Issue #13172 · NodeBB/NodeBB

There are reports of blank posts appearing on NodeBB. They are related to remote posts who have markdown defined. At some point in the logic the post is parsed with the empty content and cached as empty. A NodeBB restart usually temporar...

GitHub (github.com)

@julian That and upgrading to 4.0.4 helped a little – at least direct messages are coming through, but following still not working in either direction. Following seems to be set up correctly and confirmed on both the forum and other AP instances. Testing with Friendica and Mastodon. Only the messages are stopped somewhere.

@julian I am now unable to import threads using the search area. It worked a few days ago (before 4.0.4) and maybe before changing http to https in config.json. Now I can only follow users without actually following their content (no following is operational). While importing threads worked, it was still useless, because I couldn't join in on conversations.
Yesterday I experimented with different proxy_pass values in my nginx proxy.conf file:

• proxy_pass http://forum_n66_pl; – original configuration
• proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:4567; – no effect on AP behaviour, nodebb's admin privileges affected
• proxy_pass https://forum_n66_pl; – resulted in a "Bad Gateway" error.
  I attach the recent log file: https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZun2L5Zy2PaNwGjuh72kxKbh6Wl9jEb4FmX

Please tell me you know how to fix it.

@Jakub-Urbanowicz http://forum_n66_pl this suggests there's an upstream block.

Can you paste your entire nginx config?

@julian just a moment; it's a bit complex, because configuration is divided into several files.

@julian Please find attached a summary of my nginx settings.
The back-end installation of NodeBB was done manually in a home directory, while the reverse proxy is part of on automated server solution called Webinoly. It is typically used for self-hosting WordPress, but not only. It worked pretty well before the advent of Federation capabilities, so I wasn't bothered. I just uncommented some proxy headers in /etc/nginx/apps.d/forum.n66.pl-proxy.conf and added "X-NginX-Proxy true" as per documentation. Mongodb (7.0) is provided from a deb repository as is nodejs.
I'm not sure why the web root directory as mentioned in /etc/nginx/sites-available/forum.n66.pl does not exist (root /var/www/forum.n66.pl/htdocs). I don't even have /var/www/forum.n66.pl/.
Thank you for helping me.

@Jakub-Urbanowicz whatever your nginx config, if it was working before, it should not require any changes to support federation.

I would revert back to a working config if you're seeing issues with regular usage of NodeBB. Otherwise if the site is loading fine then tweaking nginx (probably) won't fix anything and the problem likely lies elsewhere.

I will look into your configs tomorrow.

@wall_e@ioc.exchange This is done now, consecutive shares are merged.

@julian Updated to nodejs 22.x and nodebb 4.0.5. Still no joy with Federation. Did you manage to have a look at my Nginx settings? I have quite a few people subscribed, but not a piece of new ever showed from them. Otherwise the forum is working fine.

@Jakub-Urbanowicz can you please:

1. create a test account on ActivityPub.academy
2. Run your NodeBB in dev mode (./nodebb dev)
3. mention your account on your forum?
4. Have your forum account reply back.

See if there are any errors logged. ActivityPub errors are only logged to console in dev mode.

Hi from Lemmy

@julian So... I wonder if NodeBB is/can be a Fediverse instance now basically? Meaning, can registered users interact with other Fediverse instances?

I'm considering building a special interest community with NodeBB as a base. But some might want to create and/or embed media content and I'm thinking of using own PeerTube, Pixelfed instances for example for this purpose. Would a NodeBB user be able to interact with them? And can I gate areas from being public? Because of NSFW content.

@willi@social.tchncs.de yes to all, NodeBB is a fediverse instance now

@julian That's great! Any tips starting this as cheap as possible and with least amount of caring work? I've read so far you need VPS which is not only costly(?) but also backup etc would be in my hands, right? Would like to avoid that tbh.

@willi@social.tchncs.de a VPS can be had from DigitalOcean or Vultr quite economically (although I know that isn't always the case in some countries)

You can also use our referral link for an account credit too!