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I prefer the Web over the Fediverse. Blogs +RSS/microformats/Webmention are decentralized, and with much better support and accessibility. ActivityPub seems to

I prefer the Web over the Fediverse. Blogs +RSS/microformats/Webmention are decentralized, and with much better support and accessibility. ActivityPub seems to me an overcomplicated restrictive implementation of blogging.

notahacker 6y ago
I'd argue the web is the Fediverse. You access instances called websites, some of which are controlled exclusively by one person and some of which allow you to post on them. The websites all communicate with each other via a protocol called a hyperlink, but they may choose to use richer content sharing protocols at their discretion, and can also block certain hyperlinks or entire instances deemed unsuitable for their website. Websites' moderation policies vary from only one person having write access to allowing users to write and link to what they want alongside content syndicated from other fully independent websites, and users can visit many websites, and be as selective as they like about following hyperlinks. Turns out people really like the big monolithic websites with the most users though...
lucideer 6y ago
What do you define as the Fediverse? My understanding of the term is that RSS & Webmentions are part of the Fediverse. Email is probably the best-known part of the Fediverse. ActivityPub is just a new/upcoming technology that's as much a part of the Web as RSS. Not everything in the Fediverse is part of the Web: email, mastodon & matrix are examples that exist outside of the Web (though mastodon is mostly Web-based, and there is also webmail, Element webapp, etc.). And obviously, not everything in the Web is part of the Fediverse: mainly Facebook, but also most SaaS out there.
- dgellow 6y ago
  Where do you get that definition from? I've never seen email or RSS feeds to be considered part of the fediverse. In fact I've only seen the term being used for ActivityPub and Diaspora.
  - lucideer 6y ago
    Fediverse is a new term, so it is typically used when trying to explain newer technologies (email & RSS are well-understood and need less exposition). So for that reason, yes, you'll mainly see it used to describe new things. It is a portmanteau of federated universe, and as such encompasses the full universe of technologies old & new that are considered "federated". Federation is a system whereby you sign up to a SaaS, and can then interact with other users of other SaaS due to each of the services synchronising data via a unified protocol. Email is the best-known of these; SMTP is the protocol. RSS is a greyer area. The nature of RSS (heavy on subscription, lighter on publishing) makes it less like other tech in the fediverse which are heavier on the publishing/sending/broadcasting side. Given the prevalence of self-hosting, it could be closer to being classified as properly decentralized except that there is a clear server/client distinction. It's somewhat subjective: either way if RSS (& WebMentions) are considered outside of the Fediverse, that's only because their paradigm isn't compatible with federation (making the original comment about Fediverse competing with things like RSS/WebMentions moot).

notahacker 6y ago

I'd argue the web is the Fediverse. You access instances called websites, some of which are controlled exclusively by one person and some of which allow you to post on them. The websites all communicate with each other via a protocol called a hyperlink, but they may choose to use richer content sharing protocols at their discretion, and can also block certain hyperlinks or entire instances deemed unsuitable for their website. Websites' moderation policies vary from only one person having write access to allowing users to write and link to what they want alongside content syndicated from other fully independent websites, and users can visit many websites, and be as selective as they like about following hyperlinks. Turns out people really like the big monolithic websites with the most users though...

lucideer 6y ago

What do you define as the Fediverse? My understanding of the term is that RSS & Webmentions are part of the Fediverse. Email is probably the best-known part of the Fediverse. ActivityPub is just a new/upcoming technology that's as much a part of the Web as RSS. Not everything in the Fediverse is part of the Web: email, mastodon & matrix are examples that exist outside of the Web (though mastodon is mostly Web-based, and there is also webmail, Element webapp, etc.). And obviously, not everything in the Web is part of the Fediverse: mainly Facebook, but also most SaaS out there.

dgellow 6y ago
Where do you get that definition from? I've never seen email or RSS feeds to be considered part of the fediverse. In fact I've only seen the term being used for ActivityPub and Diaspora.
- lucideer 6y ago
  Fediverse is a new term, so it is typically used when trying to explain newer technologies (email & RSS are well-understood and need less exposition). So for that reason, yes, you'll mainly see it used to describe new things. It is a portmanteau of federated universe, and as such encompasses the full universe of technologies old & new that are considered "federated". Federation is a system whereby you sign up to a SaaS, and can then interact with other users of other SaaS due to each of the services synchronising data via a unified protocol. Email is the best-known of these; SMTP is the protocol. RSS is a greyer area. The nature of RSS (heavy on subscription, lighter on publishing) makes it less like other tech in the fediverse which are heavier on the publishing/sending/broadcasting side. Given the prevalence of self-hosting, it could be closer to being classified as properly decentralized except that there is a clear server/client distinction. It's somewhat subjective: either way if RSS (& WebMentions) are considered outside of the Fediverse, that's only because their paradigm isn't compatible with federation (making the original comment about Fediverse competing with things like RSS/WebMentions moot).