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solarbirdActivityPub is going to take over the world.
The world of social media, I mean.
To be clear, I don't mean Mastodon in particular. I mean, sure, it's almost ten times the size it was a month ago, and that's pretty spectacular, but that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the interchange protocol underneath it.
Because there's nothing unique about Mastodon as far as ActivityPub is concerned. There're a whole fleet of distributed socials that use it, none of which you've ever heard of.
Like, there's a Flickr-like called PixelFed. It's a terrible name, but that's not important right now. What's important is that it's a Flickr-like. Not a Twitter-like, not a Facebook-like: a Flickr-like.
And I just followed someone's PixelFed feed.
From Mastodon.
I don't have a PixelFed account. Just a Mastodon account on my own local Mastodon server. But that's fine. I don't need one.
This is like following someone's Flickr - or someone's TikTok - from Twitter, without anyone having to set up a relay or a bot or a gateway or second account any other such nonsense.
Click. Followed.
If you've been in networked applications for a while, this might remind you of something. Go ahead, give it a minute.
For those who haven't been - once upon a time, there were a zillion different email systems, all unique, most very proprietary. Microsoft Mail for Macintosh. Courier Network for PC. DaVinci. Usenet mail. SNADS. cc:Mail. BITNET. BBSes, even. Every mainframe had _something_ - a lot of MUSIC/SP installations were running IS/TU, _my_ software.
There were many, many others, and _none_ one of them could talk to each other.
Until SMTP happened.
I was there. I was using the experimental gateway at PSUVM to route my BITNET mail manually to a receiver on EduNet, one of the TCP/IP networks that shortly thereafter (along with BITNET and some others) merged to form this new thing, this Internet. It was a pain in the ass and barely worked - but sometimes, it _did_. And it was kind of amazing.
And then it took over the world.
I just followed someone's PixelFed on Mastodon. Their pictures will show up in my feed now.
I've just followed someone's Tiktok on Facebook. Only, of course, I didn't, because you can't do that here. I need an account on Tiktok and I need a separate window and/or app and to log in and check it separately. And if I want to share something on Facebook I'll have to copy the link and paste it over and if I want to see any replies I'll have to go back to Tiktok and that's all fine it works well enough. Or I could write some sort of gateway bot to copy things over for me, that's a lot of work but not too terrible as long as I have the hardware.
Or I could, you know...
...just check my Mastodon feed and see what's up with my friend on on PixelFed.
Oh that's a neat photo. I think I'll share it.
Click.
ActivityPub is going to take over the goddamn world.
The world of social media, I mean.
To be clear, I don't mean Mastodon in particular. I mean, sure, it's almost ten times the size it was a month ago, and that's pretty spectacular, but that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the interchange protocol underneath it.
Because there's nothing unique about Mastodon as far as ActivityPub is concerned. There're a whole fleet of distributed socials that use it, none of which you've ever heard of.
Like, there's a Flickr-like called PixelFed. It's a terrible name, but that's not important right now. What's important is that it's a Flickr-like. Not a Twitter-like, not a Facebook-like: a Flickr-like.
And I just followed someone's PixelFed feed.
From Mastodon.
I don't have a PixelFed account. Just a Mastodon account on my own local Mastodon server. But that's fine. I don't need one.
This is like following someone's Flickr - or someone's TikTok - from Twitter, without anyone having to set up a relay or a bot or a gateway or second account any other such nonsense.
Click. Followed.
If you've been in networked applications for a while, this might remind you of something. Go ahead, give it a minute.
For those who haven't been - once upon a time, there were a zillion different email systems, all unique, most very proprietary. Microsoft Mail for Macintosh. Courier Network for PC. DaVinci. Usenet mail. SNADS. cc:Mail. BITNET. BBSes, even. Every mainframe had _something_ - a lot of MUSIC/SP installations were running IS/TU, _my_ software.
There were many, many others, and _none_ one of them could talk to each other.
Until SMTP happened.
I was there. I was using the experimental gateway at PSUVM to route my BITNET mail manually to a receiver on EduNet, one of the TCP/IP networks that shortly thereafter (along with BITNET and some others) merged to form this new thing, this Internet. It was a pain in the ass and barely worked - but sometimes, it _did_. And it was kind of amazing.
And then it took over the world.
I just followed someone's PixelFed on Mastodon. Their pictures will show up in my feed now.
I've just followed someone's Tiktok on Facebook. Only, of course, I didn't, because you can't do that here. I need an account on Tiktok and I need a separate window and/or app and to log in and check it separately. And if I want to share something on Facebook I'll have to copy the link and paste it over and if I want to see any replies I'll have to go back to Tiktok and that's all fine it works well enough. Or I could write some sort of gateway bot to copy things over for me, that's a lot of work but not too terrible as long as I have the hardware.
Or I could, you know...
...just check my Mastodon feed and see what's up with my friend on on PixelFed.
Oh that's a neat photo. I think I'll share it.
Click.
ActivityPub is going to take over the goddamn world.
no subject
Date: 2022-12-21 12:17 am (UTC)Turns out there's an ActivityPub plugin for WordPress. Which is, like, 40% of the web.
no subject
Date: 2022-12-21 12:29 am (UTC)But. That's basically an optional gateway. I like gateways fine; I helped ship the best PC/LAN email system SMTP gateway that the old-generation of mail systems ever saw. (SMTP for Microsoft Mail for PC Networks. That's not my opinion, that's summarised commentary from reviewers. They tried as hard as they could to knock it down and couldn't. That damn thing we made was an aircraft carrier and could take about as much load. It is absolutely the Microsoft product I was proud to be a part of.)
But make it core. _Then_ we're off.
no subject
Date: 2022-12-21 04:30 pm (UTC)Did not work, but was worth a try.
no subject
Date: 2022-12-22 07:49 pm (UTC)But RSS is here. ActivityPub is more work, but... not a world of more work.
no subject
Date: 2022-12-22 07:32 pm (UTC)The original SMTP spec dates to 1980. It's interesting that it took a nudge, seemingly from academic and governmental institutions, to make it take off.
no subject
Date: 2022-12-22 07:50 pm (UTC)Certainly everyone you've ever heard of.
no subject
Date: 2023-01-23 09:42 pm (UTC)I think my aha moment was when I set up family member on bookwyrm. Family member does not want to post/blog, or tweet (-equivalent), or share photos. But simple book tracking is absolutely up their alley. And now, hypothetically, they could use their bookwyrm account to follow a friend who shares photos on pixelfed, a family member micro-posting on mastodon, a favourite vlogger on peertube. No need to have a empty account on the kind of service you don’t ever want or plan to use. (Also yes, pixelfed and peeertube as names are…choices.)
no subject
Date: 2023-01-23 10:09 pm (UTC)Bookwyrm isn't a bad name though. Much better than those others. And while it doesn't work, I do like the idea of Bookrastinating but to spell it I have to spell procrastinating, wonder oh shit is it -ing or -or no it's -ing I think, then change "proc" to "book" and that's just not happening ever. xD