Conversation

Notices

1. Embed this notice
   Costantine Sad (constantine@sfba.social)'s status on Monday, 02-Sep-2024 01:33:31 JST Costantine Sad

   @evanprodromou the problem with ActivityPub is that it places the owner of the instance at the center of the entire network, making users fully dependent on the owners or moderators

   • Embed this notice
     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Monday, 02-Sep-2024 01:33:30 JST Evan Prodromou

     in reply to

     @constantine @evanprodromou

     That's a feature, not a bug. Literally anyone can own an instance.

     You can install Open Source software like Mastodon or Pleroma on a cloud service like AWS.

     You can get a turnkey server from https://masto.host/

     Or you can join a cooperative like social.coop or cosocial.ca, and have shared ownership with other like-minded people.

   • Embed this notice
     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Monday, 02-Sep-2024 01:35:45 JST Evan Prodromou

     in reply to

     @constantine @evanprodromou or you can use a free ad-supported account from Threads or others.

     Or a free account from a volunteer group or even a generous individual.

     You have so many choices for server governance on the Fediverse, it's not even funny.

     Doughnut Lollipop 【記録係】:blobfoxgooglymlem: likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Monday, 02-Sep-2024 01:36:45 JST Evan Prodromou

     in reply to

     @constantine @evanprodromou I almost forgot getting an account from your employer or university, or from a local or regional government!

   • Embed this notice
     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Monday, 02-Sep-2024 01:57:19 JST Evan Prodromou

     in reply to

     @constantine @evanprodromou you're wrong to say that AP puts the server at the center of the network. The AP spec focuses on user accounts, called actors. Instances don't have an independent identity in AP. They're only there to support actors.

   • Embed this notice
     Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Monday, 02-Sep-2024 06:56:34 JST Evan Prodromou

     in reply to

     @constantine @evanprodromou you know about LOLA, right? Upcoming standard to allow completely moving your account from one server to another, including your content.

     https://swicg.github.io/activitypub-data-portability/lola

   • Embed this notice
     Costantine Sad (constantine@sfba.social)'s status on Monday, 02-Sep-2024 06:56:35 JST Costantine Sad

     in reply to

     • Evan Prodromou

     @evan @evanprodromou

     let's put aside self-hosted solutions—they're only for about 0.05% of the population, the most tech-savvy guys. but even for them, most fediverse software isn't as user-friendly as it should be. e.g. mastodon is overly complicated and difficult to update and manage, even for those with technical skills.

     for everything else, I would agree with you, if most fediverse software supported a decent way for users to own their identity and seamlessly transfer their account, along with all associated data, without needing authorization or cooperation from the current server’s admin. it would be like nostr relay—they’re truly support actors.

     as it stands, casual users are free to choose any instance, but their account is ultimately at the mercy of the server admin.