Manage Actor Account Identity

Overview

Manage the actor account identity so remote readers immediately understand who is publishing and what kind of account it is. This makes authors, organizations, channels, and automated feeds easier to recognize and trust.

This solves two common problems. First, remote followers need a clear idea of who is posting, especially when a Joomla site publishes on behalf of a newsroom, association, foundation, or automated feed. Second, the default outbound object type should match the kind of content the actor usually publishes, so new posts are typed consistently.

Use this procedure when a local actor already exists and you want to refine how that actor is presented and serialized for Fediverse discovery. After you save the changes, the actor editor keeps the new account identity for future requests, and new public actor documents use the updated profile metadata.

Before you begin

Steps

  1. Open Components -> Fediverse -> Actors.
  2. Select the local actor you want to change and click Edit.
  3. In Account Identity, choose Account Type.
    • Personal profile – Use this for a normal author or individual account. It is published as an ActivityPub Person.
    • Service / Bot – Use this for an automated publisher, integration, or machine-managed feed. It is published as an ActivityPub Service.
    • Organization account (Pro) – Use this when the actor represents an institution, foundation, association, company, or newsroom rather than a person. It is published as an ActivityPub Organization.
    • Channel account (Pro) – Use this when the actor represents a shared publishing channel, topic stream, or brand feed. It is published as an ActivityPub Group.
  4. Fill in the profile fields for the identity you want remote servers to read.
    • Display Name – The public label shown in the actor document, such as Example Foundation or Town Hall News. Use the name readers should recognize immediately.
    • Summary – A short description of what the actor publishes or represents. This is useful when the handle alone does not explain the account.
    • Website URL – An optional absolute URL for the site, profile page, or landing page that explains the account in more detail. If the linked page points back to this actor profile with rel="me", Joomla Fediverse marks the link as verified after you save.
    • Profile Image URL – An optional absolute image URL for the actor avatar. Use a stable public image URL that remote servers can fetch.
    • Header Image URL – An optional absolute image URL for a wider profile banner. Use a stable public image URL that remote servers can fetch.
    • Featured Introduction Content – An optional published Joomla article by the same actor. Use this when one post should act as the actor’s canonical introduction or profile post.
    • Profile Facts – Optional labeled facts shown as public profile metadata. Use short labels such as Region, Language, or Role, and keep the values concise and readable.
  5. In Publishing Defaults, choose the default Object Type for new outbound content.
    • Note (status update) – Best for short-form posts and status-style updates.
    • Article – Best for standard Joomla article federation and most editorial publishing.
    • Image – Best when the actor mainly publishes image-first updates.
    • Video – Best when the actor mainly publishes video-first updates.
  6. Click Save to return to the Actors list, or click Apply to stay on the same editor page after saving.

Check your result

Troubleshooting

Organization or channel options are disabled

The actor saves, but remote servers still show the old identity

New posts still look wrong after changing the object type

Saving fails with a plan or validation error