## Discussion: Improving Thread Compatibility for ActivityPub

[Jiwoon-Kim]

Hello,

I've been exploring the integration of WordPress comments with the ActivityPub plugin and noticed a limitation regarding thread structures. By default, WordPress uses a BBS-style comment system (flat or 1-2 level tree), which causes the following issues:

1. Limited inReplyTo mapping

   • ActivityPub requires a proper reply-to hierarchy for Notes to maintain conversation threads.
   • Flat WordPress comments make it difficult to represent deep reply chains on federated platforms like Mastodon or Misskey.

2. Notification and Webmention compatibility

   • Without a full thread structure, inbox notifications or webmention responses may not reflect the correct parent/child relationships in the conversation.

3. Thread scalability

   • Current WordPress comment queries are optimized for shallow trees, limiting federated thread depth.

Proposal / Discussion Points:

• Introduce optional thread metadata (e.g., thread_root, depth, order) to map nested comments to ActivityPub Notes accurately.
• Consider extending the plugin to handle deep threads for inReplyTo and reply-to relationships.
• Investigate migration strategies for existing comments to support deeper federated threads.

Would love to hear thoughts from the maintainers and community on the feasibility of supporting deep threaded comments for ActivityPub compatibility.

Thanks!