Posts do not show on mastodon

[PullingBerlin]

Hi, I might have a similar problem as described here. I’m using WordPress with Strato and activated the ActivityPub plugin. I am able to follow my wp profile on mastodon (I find it when searching for it). However, I do not see any posts. I see the bio description from wp and it also shows the number of already published wp posts on mastodon (this is the number of posts the profile had when I started following it on mastodon, it doesn't change anymore, even when I unfollow and follow again).

my wp page: http://electricmonk.de/
Profile URL: http://electricmonk.de/@allofit
Mastodon: @Benni@det.social

Any ideas anyone? I would really appreciate your help!

[pfefferle]

Hey @PullingBerlin can you please check the WP_Cron queue? Is this processes correctly?

[pfefferle]

It seems to work fine if I copy and paste the URL of a Post into the search field, so I assume that something with the publishing/queuing process is broken.

[PullingBerlin]

Hi @pfefferle, Cron Jobs seem to work:

[PullingBerlin]

Strange, that when pasting the URL the post is shown (and remains).

[lordmatt]

I had an issue similar to this. It turned out my host was using an aggressive anti-DDoS system that saw ActivityPub requests as an attack. I spoke to the tech team and we found a workaround which was just to dial back the protection on the ActivityPub domain. I was going spare trying to figure out what the problem was before then.

[PullingBerlin]

Thanks @lordmatt, maybe it's something like this. I contacted Strato and gave them this hint. I'm not very optimistic that they will do anything. I'm using a WordPress package and do not have admin access to the server itself...

[PullingBerlin]

So of course, Strato answered that external plugins are not their responsibility and I should ask the developer of the plugin...so apparently no way to get the plugin to work in some hosted/packaged WP-scenarios.

[trozman]

Hi @pfefferle, great plugin!
Nevertheless, I have similar issues (not seeing updates in Mastodon):

• installed a fresh WP, subdomain etc (no caching enabled), here:
• installed activitypub plugin (and other recommended plugins by activitypub, e.g. friends)
• I can follow my WP user from Mastodon or Calckey (user: https://blog.rozman.info/author/tomi/ or @tomi@blog.rozman.info)
• I don't see updates (new posts) in Mastodon under WP user after I publish posts
• I see new posts in Mastodon ONLY if I manually search for a post from Mastodon using URL

What I did until now:

• checked mod_evasive module in Apache and whitelisted my reverse proxy (which triggered false DoS attack)
• checked wp_cron queue, result: I can see activitypub cron jobs, which clear without error messages
• enabled WP DEBUG and checked the debug.log file, which show requests to various fediverse servers (followers of my blog). I found some errors in it:

[04-Dec-2023 09:55:02 UTC] **Request to: https://mastodon.social/inbox with response: WP_Error Object**
(
    [errors] => Array
        (
            [401] => Array
                (
                    [0] => Failed HTTP Request
                )

        )

...

Any idea? What else should I do to see updates? Thanks!

[pfefferle]

that should be no problem, I guess... It's more about the keys generated by the plugin to sign the requests to Mastodon et al.

[trozman]

I've just found the solution! It was a misconfigured reverse proxy - I forgot to include certificates to nginx configuration file for the new subdomain :)
Nevertheless, thanks for the direction - without your tip it would take me weeks to find it.
Now it works!

[pfefferle]

nice! it's usually the stupid questions that put you on the right track :)

[pfefferle]

And with "stupid questions" I meant mine, not yours! 😳

[trozman]

Unfortunately, as it seems the luck didn't last long. Sometimes it federates, mostly not (...Failed HTTP Requests [401] in debug.log). I can't find the pattern.