Linking from GitHub to Mastodon

Finding people on Mastodon is still difficult. If you have a GitHub account, you can help others find you by linking from it to your Mastodon account.

Options for linking from GitHub to Mastodon  #

• Option 1: Mention your Mastodon profile URL in your GitHub profile bio.

  • To avoid GitHub turning part of the URL (starting with the @) into a clickable link, you can enclose the URL in backticks – e.g., this is what my bio’s text looks like:

    Mastodon: `https://fosstodon.org/@rauschma`
    

  • Downside: The link is not clickable.
  • Downside: Can’t be used for Mastodon’s URL verification because there is no way to add rel="me" to the link.
  • Upside: Easy to discover via a GitHub search (idea by @tchambers@indieweb.social).

• Option 2: Make your Mastodon profile URL your homepage (as described by Jan Wildeboer).

  • Upside: GitHub automatically adds rel="me" to the link which means that URL verification works.
  • Downside: You can’t use that field for your actual homepage anymore. As far as I know, Mastodon re-checks verification every time you save the Mastodon profile.
  • Downside: It‘s not always obvious that the URL refers to a Mastodon profile.

• Option 3: Mention your Mastodon ID in the profile readme (which is displayed in the profile).

  • Downside: GitHub doesn’t let you add rel="me" to links, so verification doesn’t work.
  • Downside: Doesn’t show up in GitHub searches.

Wish: generic fields for GitHub profiles  #

My preferred solution would be GitHub letting us add arbitrary fields to the profile:

• Textual key (I’m not sure icons could be done well generically).
• Textual values, with auto-detection for links and automatic rel="me".
• Such generic fields could also be used for homepages, Twitter, other social media platforms, etc.

Further reading  #

• Discussion on GitHub
• “Getting started with Mastodon” (my brief tutorial)