this post was submitted on 06 Feb 2024
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Pretty much in the title. Maybe you wouldn't even use it, but would like to simply see it exist for the sake of having a federated alternative.

For me, it'd be the following:

  • LinkedIn
  • Meetup
  • Tiktok

I am on the first two, but would prefer a federated alternative. I'm not on Tiktok, but would like to see a federated alternative.

I'll admit these might not be a good idea. But as a thought experiment, I'd be curious about the community weigh in on what you all think this might look like.

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[โ€“] danhakimi@kbin.social 18 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I don't think the fediverse needs more platform alternatives.

What I really think we need is a way for people to use one fediverse account to log into different interfaces, so people can try out a new app / interface without starting a new account. Many apps can do this, but web apps generally cannot, they're generally tied to an instance.

[โ€“] makeasnek@lemmy.ml 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

This requires having an identity that is separate from an instance. This is what nostr does and why I prefer it over mastodon. It also means if your mastodon or lemmy instance closes up shop, you don't lose your post history, DMs, followers, etc.

[โ€“] danhakimi@kbin.social 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

couldn't your instance just serve your identity to other instances?

[โ€“] makeasnek@lemmy.ml 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

If you are talking about something like openauth (where you sign into some random website using your Google account) yes, but your base identity is still tied to Google. So if Google goes down, you lose your google account, and you also lose your account at every other website you logged in to using your google account.

If you are meaning transfer your account from google to say office365, this is possible but there's a few problems:

  • If your instance shuts down without doing this, you lose everything
  • How does your instance choose which instance to transfer it to? What if users don't like that choice?
  • Transferring means sharing your login credentials with the new instance.
  • Your "username" that you share and post online for people to follow you has changed. It's no longer user@instance but user@newinstance. Some kind of a redirect could be setup I suppose.

Some of these problems are solvable with some changes to the AP code. Some of them are not, at least not without a rewrite of the entire AP structure. Nostr sidesteps all these issues by simply not having your username tied to an instance in the first place.

[โ€“] danhakimi@kbin.social 2 points 9 months ago

If you are talking about something like openauth (where you sign into some random website using your Google account) yes, but your base identity is still tied to Google. So if Google goes down, you lose your google account, and you also lose your account at every other website you logged in to using your google account.

Yeah, essentially that. The back-up plan in case your instance goes down is a separate issue, my main plan is just that users shouldn't need a new account for each fediverse application they want to try, considering one account is already able to make any kind of post.

[โ€“] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

That's not technically possible.

You could have one instance offer more than one platform, though, and you can already use multiple frontends with whatever instance you're on. Kbin, which you're on, actually tries to do the Swiss army knife thing IIRC.

[โ€“] masterspace@lemmy.ca 0 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

It's entirely technically possible. Apps already use third party identity providers all the time, you just need federated apps to support OAuth both for signing in on the client and as a backend identity provider, and standardize how federated apps return user info that would be common to any federated app (usernames, saved / liked posts, subscribed feeds, stuff common to the ActivityPub spec).

[โ€“] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

You could use the same credentials to open a new account on another instance, sure, I guess. You still have to create another user on the new platform with their own ActivityPub inbox and so on.

I guess to a non-technical user that might seem like the same thing, but then again so would your home instance allowing you to view other platforms. The second one would be way cleaner and easier on instance maintainers.