BaconIsAVeg
But you’re on fediverse. I’m packing to the choir here.
You would like to think so, but one thing that’s become clear to me is a large number of new fediverse users are only interested in escaping what Reddit/Twitter have become in recent months, and have no issues supporting competitors who will abuse them algorithmlically just the same.
There was always a line though between “i’m sharing this personal information with you privately” (i.e. registering with your name and e-mail address), and “I’m sharing this information with the general public”. You also were able to remain somewhat anonymous, by registering with your real name but making sure other users only saw your screen name.
While there was always the threat of someone finding your publicly shared photos or stories and using them for nefarious purposes, the idea of the company you’re giving them to analyzing all of that private and public data, across the entire web thanks to tracking cookies, and using it to manipulate you or packaging it up and selling it was never really a concern. No one had the capabilities to analyze that much data 10-15 years ago, and if they did it wasn’t yet profitable.
The idea that you now have zero control over how your personal and private data is used, or who it’s sold to, is terrifying.
Kid Icarus.
ActivityPub is a communication protocol. There’s nothing stopping anyone from implementing it and then adding their own ‘features’.
Just look at how different companies have implemented the HTML ‘standard’. You end up with websites that require specific browsers to run properly. It’s gotten better over the past few years, but god damn anyone old enough to remember what a pain it was designing websites in the 90’s and working around all of Internet Explorer’s shenanigans will tell you it’s not a good time.