diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 3bde751..b32c6f5 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ tokio = { version = "1.35", features = ["full"] } # TODO slim this down
 sea-orm = { version = "0.12", features = ["macros", "sqlx-sqlite", "runtime-tokio-rustls"] }
 reqwest = { version = "0.12", features = ["json"] }
 axum = "0.7"
+tower-http = { version = "0.5", features = ["cors", "trace"] }
 apb = { path = "apb", features = ["unstructured", "orm"] }
 # nodeinfo = "0.0.2" # the version on crates.io doesn't re-export necessary types to build the struct!!!
 nodeinfo = { git = "https://codeberg.org/thefederationinfo/nodeinfo-rs", rev = "e865094804" }
@@ -40,7 +41,6 @@ sea-orm-migration = { version = "0.12", optional = true }
 # mastodon
 mastodon-async-entities = { version = "1.1.0", optional = true }
 time = { version = "0.3", features = ["serde"], optional = true }
-tower-http = { version = "0.5.2", features = ["cors", "trace"] }
 
 [features]
 default = ["faker", "migrations", "mastodon"]
diff --git a/src/routes/activitypub/mod.rs b/src/routes/activitypub/mod.rs
index 3cd4df2..680660d 100644
--- a/src/routes/activitypub/mod.rs
+++ b/src/routes/activitypub/mod.rs
@@ -39,7 +39,6 @@ impl ActivityPubRouter for Router<crate::server::Context> {
 			.route("/nodeinfo/:version", get(ap::well_known::nodeinfo))
 			// actor routes
 			.route("/users/:id", get(ap::user::view))
-			.route("/users/:server/:id", get(ap::user::remote_view))
 			.route("/users/:id/inbox", post(ap::user::inbox::post))
 			.route("/users/:id/inbox", get(ap::user::inbox::get))
 			.route("/users/:id/inbox/page", get(ap::user::inbox::page))
@@ -56,6 +55,11 @@ impl ActivityPubRouter for Router<crate::server::Context> {
 	}
 }
 
+#[derive(Debug, serde::Deserialize)]
+pub struct RemoteId {
+	pub id: Option<String>,
+}
+
 #[derive(Debug, serde::Deserialize)]
 // TODO i don't really like how pleroma/mastodon do it actually, maybe change this?
 pub struct Pagination {
diff --git a/src/routes/activitypub/user/mod.rs b/src/routes/activitypub/user/mod.rs
index 0ec881f..c6dfbd4 100644
--- a/src/routes/activitypub/user/mod.rs
+++ b/src/routes/activitypub/user/mod.rs
@@ -4,13 +4,13 @@ pub mod outbox;
 
 pub mod following;
 
-use axum::extract::{Path, State};
-use sea_orm::{ColumnTrait, Condition, EntityTrait, QueryFilter};
+use axum::extract::{Path, Query, State};
+use sea_orm::EntityTrait;
 
 use apb::{PublicKeyMut, ActorMut, DocumentMut, DocumentType, ObjectMut, BaseMut, Node};
 use crate::{errors::UpubError, model::{self, user}, server::Context, url};
 
-use super::{jsonld::LD, JsonLD};
+use super::{jsonld::LD, JsonLD, RemoteId};
 
 pub fn ap_user(user: model::user::Model) -> serde_json::Value {
 	serde_json::Value::new_object()
@@ -44,8 +44,22 @@ pub fn ap_user(user: model::user::Model) -> serde_json::Value {
 		.set_endpoints(Node::Empty)
 }
 
-pub async fn view(State(ctx) : State<Context>, Path(id): Path<String>) -> crate::Result<JsonLD<serde_json::Value>> {
-	match user::Entity::find_by_id(ctx.uid(id.clone()))
+pub async fn view(
+	State(ctx) : State<Context>,
+	Path(id): Path<String>,
+	Query(rid): Query<RemoteId>,
+) -> crate::Result<JsonLD<serde_json::Value>> {
+	// TODO can this be made less convoluted???
+	let uid = if id == "+" {
+		if let Some(rid) = rid.id {
+			rid
+		} else {
+			return Err(UpubError::bad_request());
+		}
+	} else {
+		ctx.uid(id.clone())
+	};
+	match user::Entity::find_by_id(uid)
 		.find_also_related(model::config::Entity)
 		.one(ctx.db()).await?
 	{
@@ -66,21 +80,3 @@ pub async fn view(State(ctx) : State<Context>, Path(id): Path<String>) -> crate:
 	}
 }
 
-pub async fn remote_view(
-	State(ctx) : State<Context>,
-	Path((server, id)): Path<(String, String)>,
-) -> crate::Result<JsonLD<serde_json::Value>> {
-	match user::Entity::find()
-		.filter(
-			Condition::all()
-				.add(user::Column::PreferredUsername.eq(id))
-				.add(user::Column::Domain.eq(server))
-		)
-		.one(ctx.db()).await?
-	{
-		// local user
-		Some(user) => Ok(JsonLD(ap_user(user).ld_context())),
-		None => Err(UpubError::not_found()),
-	}
-}
-