Now that for-profit tech companies are beginning to implement #ActivityPub, I think it's important to establish what we want with the #fediverse and whether federation with #Threads, #Flipboard, Tumblr, and the like bring us closer to or further from those goals.
With that in mind, I've come up with a few statements (in no particular order) that describe what I think is an "ideal fediverse" — a fediverse that's not necessarily realistic but that we should aim for:
No actor controls a large portion of visible activity.
Users can move between instances without penalty.
Creating and running an instance requires minimal effort.
People on or entering the fediverse understand the variety of available options.
There is no downside to using free and open-source platforms over proprietary ones.
These definitely aren't comprehensive, and if you have anything you'd add, let's discuss that! They're currently helping me reassess my stance on Threads now that Flipboard is also entering the stage, and I hope they're helpful for others as well.
I'll elaborate on these five statements in the comments.
The whole point of the fediverse in general is that there is no single “we”. There are those ActivityPub servers that one federates with and those ActivityPub servers that one does not federate with. Lack of consensus is built into the technology by design.
but I think it’s still important that everyone at least thinks about what they want the fediverse to grow into
To have wants about the social constructs that sit atop the technology is to misunderstand the technology. The technology enables your enemies/people you don’t like/etc. to communicate and benefit in all the ways you do. By design. You cannot exclude from the fediverse, you can only exclude from your server. If you have wants about excluding then you’ve misunderstood the technology.
@rah Maybe I'm not being clear. When I say that "we" means "the fediverse in general", I don't mean that everyone should gather 'round and come to a consensus on what values they should uphold and who should be excluded. This is obviously something that should occur on an instance or individual level, as (A) there are a large variety of different people and instances on the fediverse with different priorities and (B) as you stated, anyone can implement ActivityPub and tap into the fediverse if they want to, regardless of what anyone else thinks.
What I mean is that people should be thinking about what they think instance owners should aim for and form their opinions on the current situation based on that. My goal with this post is to show what I think an "ideal fediverse" looks like and have others share their thoughts. Having thoughts about what's healthy for people on the fediverse and having wants based on that isn't misunderstanding the technology — it's simply expressing preferences.
"If we do this correctly — if the next phase of how we congregate and communicate online is built for humans and not advertisers — there won’t be a new titanic company to rival Meta or a platform with eye-poppingly huge numbers like Facebook
"What we’ll get instead is something much bigger: an entirely new infrastructure for our online lives that no company or platform controls”
SPays Wikl atly puiiil dLLUUiL i s TREAIVEL S The First 25 to Federate I this first phase we are partnering with 25 publishers and creators to help them federate their Flipboard accounts and gather feedback from people across the Fediverse. This includes a range of publishers covering global news, tech, music, gaming, travel and science as well as a few content creators like Erin Brockovich and Jefferson Graham. We are also federating several non-profits dedicated to advancing non-partisan journalism and combating misinformation. These include The News Literacy Project, The 74 and The Conversation. Finally, we are federating Medium’s account on Flipboard where they regularly feature great stories from their best writers. Here's the full list: BSEE P'STGMPANY SEMAFOR IR s . %% | @8 Medium DIGIDAY scienceatert: ®Polygon Frommers ® MENTAL FLOSS Pitchfork Rerinery2s THEIROOT <
New blog post: Understanding ActivityPub - Part 4: Threads
A first detailed look into how Threads implements ActivityPub. Learn about the data that is shared (or not), an interesting implementation of HTTP signatures, and Threads' take on quote posts in ActivityPub.
@crepels Nice article! In particular, this is the best explanation I've seen yet of the "infinite signature recursion" problem, and the way around it.
I haven't tried to talk to Threads from my own toy implementation yet. I have a suspicion that the "instance actor" requirement is going to give me a headache.
Well this would make #ActivityPub support on #Threads pretty pointless. It’ll mean the vast majority of their users will be defederated by default and have to opt into the #Fediverse. Defeats the point @mosseri.
Uff @linos kann es sein, dass ich noch etwas nicht verstehe? Offensichtlich haben Menschen an meinen letzten #activitypub Post kommentiert und die Kommentare sind auch am WordPress Beitrag https://www.videospielgeschichten.de/welche-konsole-ist-die-schoenste/ gelandet. Leider finde / sehe ich diese aber nicht im Fediverse am Post; was mache ich falsch?
@vsg_DE Was meinst du mit "Fediverse", auf deiner Mastodon-Instanz, während du eingeloggt bist? Es ist so wie immer: du siehst nur jene Kommentare, die auf deiner Instanz landen. Das tun sie nur, wenn jemand auf deiner Instanz den kommentierenden Account bereits folgt.
Just blocked #threadsnet and you should, too! Don't let #facebook do an "embrace, extend, extinguish" on #activitypub and the #fediverse - search for "threads.net", select an account and do this.
A project has started to build a #Fediverse#testsuite, so it becomes possible to systematically test interoperability between applications in the fediverse.
It is going to need some virtualization, to run "substantial" server-side applications for testing. So we'd like to know what development and virtualization platforms #ActivityPub developers develop and test on.
If you are a Fediverse developer, could you spend 5min and answer our survey?
The proliferation of #ActivityPub is exciting. But don't dismiss those that want to defederate with corporate socials. The #fediverse was built by individuals escaping the harassment they faced on those platforms.
If you don't agree with your server admin's decision to federate with a specific domain, you can block it on your own. You have the power!
This seems preferable to an admin making the decision for all users.
@box464 It's unintuitive right now, but you have to first go to that domain's page on kbin.social and click the block 🚫 button in the sidebar. I'm not sure if it blocks users from that domain or just posts with links to that domain though. For example, here's mastodon.social's page, and the block button is in the sidebar.
With yesterday's announcement that Meta is starting to test Threads and ActivityPub integration, I see the #Fediverse is at an all time high again of whining and crying and being butthurt over it all.
I get stating your opinion about not wanting them here or whatever, but come on people, don't sound like a little 2 year old who lost their pacifier. It gets old, quick.
Just mute/block and move on and be done with it all. It's really that damn simple.
At the State of the Word address this week, Matt Mullenweg was asked about support for the plugin, and he commented that less than 5,000 sites had installed it. So he wasn't sure how interested people are in it.
So... if you have a WP site, let's start installing that plugin and making more sites available via ActivityPub! 😀
@warrows He was talking about installations of the plugin in WordPress installs. When you install from the central plugin repository, they gather a count of how many sites have installed a plugin. And that number shows on the plugin page, and can help give people considering a plugin a sense of how actively the plugin is used.