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1. Jeff Martin (cuchaz@gladtech.social)'s status on Saturday, 15-Apr-2023 00:14:08 JST Jeff Martin

   Looks like BlueSky is up to some interesting stuff. They're building a federated social network where the server you use to access the network can be totally separate from the community you're a part of. Meaning your community, and its rules for moderation, can exist across multiple servers.

   https://blueskyweb.xyz/blog/4-13-2023-moderation

   Mastodon could benefit a lot from something like this.

   Servers and communities shouldn't really be the same thing. The two take totally different skills to build and manage. But it's simpler to build a system where they're the same, so here we are. But we can imagine better.

   • Jeff Martin (cuchaz@gladtech.social)'s status on Saturday, 15-Apr-2023 00:14:06 JST Jeff Martin

     in reply to

     • Sebastian Lasse

     @sl007 I'm aware of that.

     In my opinion, user experience is more important than the protocol. Yes there are many other softwares that speak AP, but Mastodon is by far the most interesting one at the moment because that's where most of the interesting people are. So when I say Mastodon, I don't mean the Fediverse. I mean just Mastodon.

     Now, having said that, having an open protocol means other softwares could become popular too. I look forward to that day because we'll have a lot more interesting software choices then. However, AP has a lot of limitations, so I'm totally ok with softwares using some other open protocol instead of AP. As long as the protocol is open and people can build on it, that's what enables the good UX. The fact that the current popular protocol is AP right now may just be a temporary implementation detail.

   • silverpill (silverpill@mitra.social)'s status on Saturday, 15-Apr-2023 00:14:06 JST silverpill

     in reply to

     • Sebastian Lasse

     @cuchaz @sl007 Have you tried anything other than Mastodon? Feature-wise, it's literally the most un-interesting software in Fediverse.

     Also, the system that Bluesky claim to invent can be easily built on ActivityPub. It's like following, but specifically for moderation actions. Not really a new idea.

   • Sebastian Lasse (sl007@digitalcourage.social)'s status on Saturday, 15-Apr-2023 00:14:07 JST Sebastian Lasse

     in reply to

     @cuchaz

     You probably do not know that we are in ActivityPub where mastodon is just 1 of 40+ softwares?

     Anyway: You should know that the bluesky people told us via W3C meeting they will support it.
     Then twitter appeared in all their “waiting list” forms.
     (Disclaimer: I will NOT respect W3C policy at this point cause I do not tolerate lies against democracy)

   • silverpill (silverpill@mitra.social)'s status on Saturday, 15-Apr-2023 04:44:19 JST silverpill

     in reply to

     • Sebastian Lasse

     @cuchaz @sl007 Misskey, Pixelfed and Pleroma with Soapbox frontend all have decent UI, and are compatible with Mastodon. I didn't notice any UX mismatches while using them. Among interesting projects, I'd recommend checking https://codeberg.org/streams/streams, which is a very mature Fediverse server (though relatively unknown), with many unique features. Non-microblogging services like Lemmy, PeerTube, Mobilizon and Funkwhale demonstrate protocol's flexibility, and there are more projects I don't know much about - @sl007 just provided a bunch of interesting examples in another comment. Finally, I'm building ActivityPub server Mitra where I work on portable identities, among other things.

     >Also, if separation between communities and servers can be easily built, then I look forward to that feature popping up in popular community-run (ie, not BlueSky) Fediverse software soon.

     Popular services are often set in their ways. Innovations are more likely to happen in small projects

   • Jeff Martin (cuchaz@gladtech.social)'s status on Saturday, 15-Apr-2023 04:44:20 JST Jeff Martin

     in reply to

     • Sebastian Lasse
     • silverpill

     @silverpill @sl007 Using non-Mastodon tools is risky because, despite the official standards, Mastodon is a de facto standard due to its popularity. Using something else would risk UX mismatches between you and the people on Mastodon you'd want to talk to.

     To the extent that seamless compatibility with Mastodon is possible, I think it's fine to experiment with other features and approaches to UX. Are you suggesting any software in particular?

     Also, if separation between communities and servers can be easily built, then I look forward to that feature popping up in popular community-run (ie, not BlueSky) Fediverse software soon.

   • Jeff Martin (cuchaz@gladtech.social)'s status on Saturday, 15-Apr-2023 07:52:44 JST Jeff Martin

     in reply to

     • Sebastian Lasse
     • silverpill

     @silverpill @sl007 Awesome, thanks! That's a lot of stuff to look into. Most of them are new to me, though I've heard of some of them before.

     Tragically, social networking is very much not a meritocracy. Network effects have Huuuuge influence.

     Btw, I knew about Mitra before. It looks really interesting technically, but I stop reading anything that mentions blockchains or cryptocurrencies. It's not for me.

     But best of luck to you on it though! I hope all the cool tech that the web3 crowd is making can be put to use for things other than currency speculation someday.

   • silverpill (silverpill@mitra.social)'s status on Saturday, 15-Apr-2023 07:52:44 JST silverpill

     in reply to

     • Sebastian Lasse

     @cuchaz @sl007 Thanks! Cryptocurrency stuff is optional in Mitra, and it is not required for portable identities, but I understand that it might put people off. Some of my ideas are documented in FEP-8b32 and FEP-c390. No blockchains, just signed JSON objects and decentralized identifiers, same tech Bluesky is using.