I just realized there is something weird happening with following.
If a fediverse username is xyz@micro.blog it can be followed via Sharkey.
However, is Fediverse username is custom (dan@danielmrose.com for instance) it cannot be followed.
I’m not technically inclined, but it’s a weird bug and I’m not sure if it’s on Sharkey’s end or if there’s something wonky on our end.
Thanks for catching this. I suspect that it’s an issue with Sharkey, but I don’t know for sure. The reason this might be a problem is that some servers have sort of different rules for how strict they are about domain names matching between the various URLs that ActivityPub uses internally. In other words, for a custom username like @dan@danielmrose.com, internally Micro.blog still uses micro.blog URLs in some cases, and that might be tripping up Sharkey. Or it could be an issue with Sharkey following redirects between a custom domain name.
I’ll try to test this, but it might be a good thing to report to Sharkey too because they will be in a better position to troubleshoot.
Thanks @manton! I will definitely pass this along. I’m guessing you’re right because I had a similar issue with write.as. So it likely is something on Sharkey end.
According to a reply from Sharkey’s maintainer, it seems to be an issue in terms of security model in which Micro.blog and Sharkey/Misskey do not align.
(Note: I relayed the communication here only to update the situation, with no attempt to urge anyone to hold the ball - I’m not in a position to do it as I was just attempting to follow other’s micro.blog instance rather than using the micro.blog service.)