FAQ

How is the caret ^ used?

Currently the caret is used by the microblogging app TentStatus to mention people. To mention someone on the same server as you, just write their name: ^daniel. To mention someone on a different server, use their full entity URL: ^https://daniel.tent.is.

At the protocol level, there's nothing magic about carets -- mentions are stored as metadata along with the text of the post. TentStatus just finds carets and turns them into real mention metadata.

As the Tent ecosystem matures, other standards may emerge for mentioning people in Status posts. There has been discussion on the mailing list about this.

It is expected that future apps will let you use your friends' real names when you mention them, and convert these into Tent entities behind the scenes.

When I mention someone, what happens?

No matter what, people who are mentioned in a post will receive a notification with a complete copy of the post.

The privacy settings on that post do not matter for this action to take place. Mentions are a notification feature, not a permission control.

I just followed someone. Why aren't their posts in my timeline?

When you follow someone, you get their new posts from that point on, but you don't get old posts from before you started following. Likewise, if you unfollow someone, their posts from while you followed them stay in your timeline, but you won't get any new ones.

Actually your server stores the entire post, and yes you do have the ability to delete them individually. tent-status doesn't currently support this.

If someone's server goes offline, will I lose their posts forever?

For every post that has ever been in your timeline, your server doesn't just hold a link to it, it also holds the content. If that person's server disappears for whatever reason, you will still see their posts.