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Discussion Tumblr to create interoperability between Mastodon, PixelFed, and other instances of Fediverse by adding ActivityPub support

SunnyDays

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Tumblr will add support for ActivityPub, the open, decentralized social networking protocol that’s today powering social networking software like Twitter alternative Mastodon, the Instagram-like Pixelfed, video streaming service PeerTube, and others. The news was revealed in a response to a Twitter user’s complaint about Mastodon’s complexities. Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg — whose company acquired Tumblr from Verizon in 2019 — suggested the user “come to Tumblr” as the site would soon “add activitypub for interconnect.”

The ActivityPub protocol, its website explains, provides a client-to-server API for creating, updating, and deleting content as well as a federal server-to-server API for delivering notifications and subscribing to content. In practice, this means that Mastodon users can interact and follow users on other instances (independently run nodes), as well as with users on other social apps (like PeerTube), which also support the implementation of ActivityPub. It makes for a web of social networks where users can find and follow each other without having to set up new accounts on each new service.

This is the opposite approach to today’s “walled garden” social networks, where a post on one platform can’t be viewed by those on others, unless you re-upload or repost the content directly or share a link to the other site where the content can be found.

If Tumblr were to add ActivityPub support, it means users on Mastodon could follow Tumblr users’ posts from their own Mastodon instance — without having to use the Tumblr app. It could also provide Tumblr users with an entry point into the so-called “fediverse” without having to face some of the complexities that are involved with signing up for Mastodon for the first time.

Having recently joined the Fediverse myself, and really finding the Tumblr UX to not be to my liking, this is exciting, creating other gateways into Tumblr, and creating a more familiar gateway into the Fediverse for Tumblr users.
 
This would honestly be, like, the only way for me to use Mastodon. I think the service is great in theory, but in practice, I find the idea of joining a specific server very limiting. It's like I'm pigeonholing myself into one specific interest or industry, and if I were to change things later or want to explore a different interest, then I feel stuck in that server.

Having tumblr, a platform I've used for over a decade now, be the easy way to get onto the platform, makes me worry a lot less about it.
 
This would honestly be, like, the only way for me to use Mastodon. I think the service is great in theory, but in practice, I find the idea of joining a specific server very limiting. It's like I'm pigeonholing myself into one specific interest or industry, and if I were to change things later or want to explore a different interest, then I feel stuck in that server.

Having tumblr, a platform I've used for over a decade now, be the easy way to get onto the platform, makes me worry a lot less about it.

I don't even use the server timeline tbh, it's too noisy. I only see it as like an email provider, as you can interact with anyone from any server. Imo the most important thing is that the server you are on defines who handles your data and stuff like server banlists and keeping the software up to date

As of now I'm in one of the big servers handled by the official Mastodon team (there's https://mastodon.online and https://mastodon.social ) as they're probably as trustworthy as it gets, although some admins in smaller servers seem to be cool

My timeline is almost entirely made of people from other servers. A cool one is https://mastodon.gamedev.place which I saw some indie devs registering there, but I just followed them instead of moving my account there :p

But yeah it's a kinda weird user experience, maybe it's due to the nature of this thing, as it's actually multiple mini-sites connected to each other. Tumblr now will be like just another server, although a very big one 😅

But they could have accounted for user-friendliness 🤔 maybe having some kind of an universal account (but I guess the idea was to not concentrate user data in a single place 🤔 dunno how that would work)
 
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Gotta give it to Tumblr right now, they’re certainly trying to make a good push to engagement/relevance with Twitter falling apart at the seams. I don’t think anyone has really thought of them in a few years when the new ownership cracked down on the content.
 
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Quite a bit of gamedevs I know are moving over from Twitter to Hives. No idea if that'll stick - I keep hearing Mastodon works for folks, even if it's a little clunky - but I find Hives to be quite nice and the first of the new contenders that feels like it's got a good chance of becoming the mainstream alternative.

On-topic: A bunch of these networks connecting seems like an interesting proposition for sure - it's a bit of a bummer to always lose contacts when moving to a new platform (I also still miss NintendoEra folk over here, for instance).
 
This would honestly be, like, the only way for me to use Mastodon. I think the service is great in theory, but in practice, I find the idea of joining a specific server very limiting. It's like I'm pigeonholing myself into one specific interest or industry, and if I were to change things later or want to explore a different interest, then I feel stuck in that server.

Having tumblr, a platform I've used for over a decade now, be the easy way to get onto the platform, makes me worry a lot less about it.
No. The whole idea behind Mastodon and the Fediverse is that you can interact between several instances and services. You can read, "retweet" and reply towards people on other instances.

Quite a bit of gamedevs I know are moving over from Twitter to Hives. No idea if that'll stick - I keep hearing Mastodon works for folks, even if it's a little clunky - but I find Hives to be quite nice and the first of the new contenders that feels like it's got a good chance of becoming the mainstream alternative.

On-topic: A bunch of these networks connecting seems like an interesting proposition for sure - it's a bit of a bummer to always lose contacts when moving to a new platform (I also still miss NintendoEra folk over here, for instance).
For the love of god don't go to Hive. It is shady as hell.
 
I might not stay on Hive very long if verification process doesn’t come anytime soon or if they don’t even update anything this month.

Looking for Post. and BlueSky Social (kinda bummed that BlueSky will be another Mastodon clone, really not a fan -at all-).

If anyone here is following Sully McGuire on Twitter, it’s me.
I’ll nuke my Twitter account as soon as other services gets safe and feature complete enough for me to leave Twitter, once and for all.

My mental health is at stake. Seeing Etron Musc (translate Etron from french to english) liking tweets from bigots, openly alt-right terrorists supporters like lef*ists tiktok, brought back massively problematic people with a big smile…

You know, he reminds me one of the bosses in Persona 5, especially since it involves his daughter he doesn’t care at all. IIRC, one of Etron’s daughter is a trans woman who was so disgusted by his father that she changed her name and cut all relations to him. And that didn’t stopped him for supporting transphobes and giving them a platform (or worse, unbanning them).
 
I’ll nuke my Twitter account as soon as other services gets safe and feature complete enough for me to leave Twitter, once and for all.

My mental health is at stake. Seeing Etron Musc (translate Etron from french to english) liking tweets from bigots, openly alt-right terrorists supporters like lef*ists tiktok, brought back massively problematic people with a big smile…
I don't have much of a Twitter presence, but yeah, I'm pretty much in the same boat. The Club Q shooting feels like a turning point for the ascendancy of the right on Twitter. Seeing right wing trolls and stochastic terrorists gleefully run rampant in the wake of the shooting, knowing Elon has their back, is turning my stomach.

There comes a certain point where the sheer uncontained hatred takes a toll, and much as I like to stay informed, I'm contemplating just nuking it now and waiting it out.
 
No. The whole idea behind Mastodon and the Fediverse is that you can interact between several instances and services. You can read, "retweet" and reply towards people on other instances.


For the love of god don't go to Hive. It is shady as hell.
Wait, what's wrong with Hive? Is that an al-right haven like Parler or something?
 
Wait, what's wrong with Hive? Is that an al-right haven like Parler or something?
It's not alt right but the whole thing is shady.

  • How people (that said the R-word) they seemingly fired 2 years go still talked about Hive as if they were part of the company, were still listed on LinkedIn and how Kassandra Pop, the CEO who tries to hide her name intercated with him just 4 month ago.
  • How they have an angel investor that isn't named.
  • How they wiped their entire LinkedIn Feed and there is no other worker left on their LinkedIn, when they had just a few days ago the fired Lead Designer and a Social Media Manager from Brazil.
  • That they even changed the infotext on LinkedIn just a day ago and wiped that Lead Designer off the records.
  • That they don't have a masthead on their website nor even a proper contact form and name and location of the company.
  • How their privacy terms lists a different company name on their website
  • How 1-2 person can even moderate a million people, when Google/Apple demand proper moderation to even list your social media app.
  • How between Dez 21 and Nov 22 no Updates were made for their iOS app
  • How they are straight up lying on the Play Store about Data safety
  • Why they worked with con artists in eraly 2021 and paid Influencers and then said that they didn't pay for them all in the timespan of a day

All that stuff is just red flag after red flag for me.
I wouldn't be surprised that there are completely different people behind this, or that they are willing to sell it to the next best offer or worse:
If it is a honeypot. Nontheless, why should I go to the next central, privately owned platform, made with influencers in mind, that can easily taken over by the next right-wing asshole?

I gathered those infos and screenshots here. But my commentary is in German https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1595473644406378496.html
 


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