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What is ActivityPub, and how will it change the internet?

jeremydormitzer.com

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Re: What is ActivityPub, and how will it change the internet?

#101

Post by Vinnl »

drb91 wrote: post #96
Vinnl wrote: post #95

> No more walled gardens I somewhat doubt this, though. Already, Mastodon instances can block other instances from showing up on theirs. Likewise, a major instance could simply block all other instances from showing up on theirs, or the other way around. Walled gardens can arise when single players become as large as Twitter is, and that isn't prevented (though perhaps somewhat obstructed) by federation.

I always interpreted a “walled garden” as a wall you don’t want, not a carte blanche critique of walls. What’s the appeal of a single massive instance over a federated set of them for end users?

The appeal could be that everyone's on there, and you can't read their posts elsewhere. It needn't start out like that, but it could become that - much like Twitter has been limiting third-party access more and more.

Re: What is ActivityPub, and how will it change the internet?

#102

Post by buovjaga »

amelius wrote: post #13

They list a whole bunch of services built on top of AP, except for events. Please give me decentralized events (including the rsvp option), and I might be able to leave Facebook.

It is being worked on for Get Together: https://github.com/GetTogetherComm/GetTogether/issues/60

There is also Eventos: https://framagit.org/tcit/eventos "a decentralized and federated Meetup-like using ActivityPub"

Eventos video demo: https://videos.tcit.fr/videos/watch/6202aec4-5385-46f7-8cfd-...

Re: What is ActivityPub, and how will it change the internet?

#103

Post by pferde »

westpfelia wrote: post #90
hello_marmalade wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well more specifically, what I was trying to say is, if you wanted to be part of, say - the cross-stitching community, and you made a post about how over-under stitching sucks, and so the owner of that server banned you, and then let every other cross-stitching based mastodon know about your terrible stitching beliefs, then while you can still "join" another mastodon instance, you are effectively removed completely f…

Well in that case couldnt said person create their own community? Assuming there are those in Mastodon that don't agree with the (possibly repeated) actions of the server admin people will start to leave. So no matter what there is still an option. Unlike Facebook/Twitter. I mean technically even InfoWars and Alex Jones could start their own community and by the rules of Mastodon not get kicked off. Please no one tel…

No, someone please do tell Alex Jones about Mastodon. The sooner a problem is encountered, the sooner a solution is found.

The alternative is to bump into that problem farther down the line, where solving it will be much costlier.

And if Mastodon will crumble because of Alex Jones, it would have crumbled eventually because of someone else like that.

Re: What is ActivityPub, and how will it change the internet?

#104

Post by zaarn »

mikedilger wrote: post #17

What could help Mastodon grow significantly is if the moderation on a large number of instances was toned down a bit. What happened to Wil Wheaton was a bit nuts. And conservative opinions are often banned due to being agressively labelled as hate or racist when they are usually not technically so. Most people don't want to be part of a social justice warrior authoritarian "fall in line or we will ban you" community.…

Building up federation connections isn't hard. After about 2 months or so of operating a small instance (~10 users at the time, now about 80) I was federated with most big instances and a lot of smaller ones.

The instances that don't want to talk to your instance are generally not the kind of people you'd want to talk to either, if you're conservative you can generally talk to conservative instances and if you're liberal you can talk to liberal instances and if you're centrists/dontcare like my instance you talk to both (though my instance is heavily leaning on liberal we do have a few conservative instances in the mix).

Re: What is ActivityPub, and how will it change the internet?

#105

Post by d33 »

dielan wrote: post #73

If you're one of those people reading this and thinking "oh here comes another alternative social media" just stop reading and steer clear. Mastodon is compatible with OStatus used by GNU social servers and Pleroma is basically the spiritual successor to GNU Social and is fully activitypub compliant (moreso than Mastodon is). This network has existed for a very long time and will still be there when you're ready to t…

You might have a point, but the way you phrased it sounded arrogant. People might have various reasons to avoid social networks or consider them irrelevant and might not need to "get ready for it". While potentially useful, it's not really a must.

Re: What is ActivityPub, and how will it change the internet?

#106

Post by bjoli »

canhascodez wrote: post #20
stephengillie wrote: post #5

The site is currently inaccessible, possibly due to being "hugged to death". Would ActivityPub be able to solve this issue?

That's probably a better term, but I kinda miss when that was known as "slashdotting" or the "Slashdot Effect".

I will never call it anything else. Now will you and any Anonymous Coward reading this get off my lawn. Or maybe install NetBSD on it.

Re: What is ActivityPub, and how will it change the internet?

#107

Post by bjoli »

tomcooks wrote: post #99
latexr wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A thought exercise: Let’s say a popular HN user with a large following (let’s call them “Dex”) starts a campaign on HN to harass you. They start posting lies all over the site, claiming you hit puppies, spit in the coffee of blond people, and talk at the theatre. Dex has rabid fans that take his word over their own research, and those users start to hate you. You start getting hate messages, and they eventually dox y…

Easy solution: don't be a celebrity. Incredible, I know.

Well... Didn't the followers of Alex Jones harrass the parents of children that died in the Tony Hook school shooting?

Not being a celebrity didn't work for them.

Re: What is ActivityPub, and how will it change the internet?

#108

Post by bjoli »

zaarn wrote: post #104
mikedilger wrote: post #17

What could help Mastodon grow significantly is if the moderation on a large number of instances was toned down a bit. What happened to Wil Wheaton was a bit nuts. And conservative opinions are often banned due to being agressively labelled as hate or racist when they are usually not technically so. Most people don't want to be part of a social justice warrior authoritarian "fall in line or we will ban you" community.…

Building up federation connections isn't hard. After about 2 months or so of operating a small instance (~10 users at the time, now about 80) I was federated with most big instances and a lot of smaller ones. The instances that don't want to talk to your instance are generally not the kind of people you'd want to talk to either, if you're conservative you can generally talk to conservative instances and if you're lib…

That seems divisive if you ask me. Not that it is anyone's fault.

I have just always disagreed with the statement that social media is good for democracy because of the widening effect it has in the public discussion.

In reality there seems to be no such discussion. There seems to be a lot of clumping of people that agree on most things and little to no exchange in between.

Re: What is ActivityPub, and how will it change the internet?

#109

Post by stcredzero »

tptacek wrote: post #79
stcredzero wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Again, that depends on how you do it. Are you going to block them through argument, or positive example? Or are you going to block them through violence and suppression? Which side is the morally better and truly better side? I think historians will be judging us by our words and actions. My argument was never that blocking X was being X. My argument is always that acting as X is being X. If Antifa wants to argue tha…

Obviously I'm going to block them by filtering them mechanically, because nobody has a right to demand an argument or a "positive example" from me. With that answer in hand, can you refine your answer to my question?

Obviously I'm going to block them by filtering them mechanically, because nobody has a right to demand an argument or a "positive example" from me.

Obviously. However, historically it's a good way to go. Please demonstrate the necessity of your using "demand" in your sentence? You seem to have a pointed bias in how you read my comments.

I do demand, however, that people do not use political violence in the US. I also note who does and does not call out political violence.

Re: What is ActivityPub, and how will it change the internet?

#110

Post by stcredzero »

tptacek wrote: post #77
stcredzero wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does not therefore make sense to reason from "indecent exposure is illegal in a grocery store" to "here is a set of claims I can make on a grocery store as a public space". Then how is it that it's illegal for a grocery store to exclude people because of their race? There is clearly some reason that people can't be excluded from a such a space, while there also exist exclusive private clubs.

I don't understand why this is hard to answer. The reason you can't do that is because the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 forbids that explicitly, and includes its own definition of what institutions the law applies to. I'm also a bit confused by your "then how do you..." framing, as if you might be able to find a first-principles argument to refute my argument, which is a pretty straightforward fact you can just l…

The reason you can't do that is because the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 forbids that explicitly, and includes its own definition of what institutions the law applies to.

And what is the basis of that definition?

as if you might be able to find a first-principles argument to refute my argument

There is something there. It does have to do with whether or not people can move and function in the public sphere.

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