this post was submitted on 21 Dec 2023
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Fediverse

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I used to think that there would be 1, main 'Fediverse' with all of the 'big instances' connected to each other. The recent Threads debacle has shown me otherwise.

The point of the Fediverse is that there is no one single entity, or group of entities, dominating it all.

Right now it feels like whatever the big instances do, we kind of have to go along with to be a part of anything. As the Fediverse grows, there will be more options to suit different types of users.

I think it's fine if big instances federate with Threads and it's fine if they don't. People can just join instances that align with what they want. It's not like defederating means being cut out of the Fediverse, that's not possible.

Great design. I'm eager to see how it plays out.

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[–] mateomaui@reddthat.com 83 points 9 months ago (6 children)

The most reasonable solution I’ve seen so far, from the pixelfed and pixelfed.social creator

https://mastodon.social/@dansup/111617703110836835

[–] breakfastmtn@lemmy.ca 36 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Not the solution I was hoping for but it's an extremely reasonable compromise. I've never heard of selective authorized fetch. Pretty sure he just invented it.

[–] mateomaui@reddthat.com 21 points 9 months ago

FOSS ingenuity at work. All it needs is adaptation and adoption.

[–] Flaky@iusearchlinux.fyi 5 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Authorised fetch has been a thing on Mastodon and I believe Akkoma too. I don't know if Pleroma, Soapbox or Misskey have it though.

[–] russjr08@bitforged.space 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Authorized Fetch has been a thing for a bit on Mastodon at least - but as far as I can see it's a global toggle rather than saying "If you present as a domain on the blocklist then you must be authorized to fetch this resource" (the selective authorized fetch I assume they're talking about).

Never used Akkoma though, so I can't speak for it.

[–] Flaky@iusearchlinux.fyi 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Yeah the selective part I think is new. I believe Akkoma's authorised fetch is similar to Mastodon, though I've also heard it came at the cost of breaking MRFs (essentially policies to handle incoming messages, that can be custom-written if needed)

[–] breakfastmtn@lemmy.ca 5 points 9 months ago

Unless I'm wrong, the unique thing here is that auth fetch is always off for the server. It's on only at the user level and it's only on at that level if a user has an active domain block.

That could actually solve a lot of problems for people. Admins are reluctant to enable it server-wide because it causes a bunch of problems. The biggest being that it breaks federation with servers running older software (Mastodon v <3.0 I think) and with other services (Pleroma, maybe others). It also uses more server resources. But there are always people who think it's worth it.

[–] Alsephina@lemmy.ml 22 points 9 months ago

For the lazy:

After some careful consideration, I have decided to block threads.net on pixelfed.social and .art by default

However, users will have the ability to unblock the domain

Soon we will be selectively enforcing authorized fetch for accounts with domain blocks so as to provide the best of both worlds.

(I'm also shipping a command for :pixelfed: admins to easily add user domain blocks for all local users)

I'm eager to hear your feedback!

PR: https://github.com/pixelfed/pixelfed/pull/4834

[–] Fizz@lemmy.nz 14 points 9 months ago

That's a good solution. Keeps the all feed clear of threads content while allowing users to opt in

[–] DharmaCurious@startrek.website 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Did Dan ever get the messaging service Sup going? Tried to look it up, but his name being Dansup is throwing a wrench in my Googlefu.

[–] breakfastmtn@lemmy.ca 9 points 9 months ago (2 children)

@supapp@pixelfed.social

Releasing in beta soon!

[–] sab@kbin.social 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Also searching for #sup in Mastodon has been a good way to find information about developments. Not so necessary now that there's an official account I guess. :)

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[–] DharmaCurious@startrek.website 2 points 9 months ago

I am unreasonably excited about this. Where I live, there's no decent options for Internet or cell signal. Which means normal calling/texting doesn't work, and regular Wi-Fi calling/texting is choppy at the best of times. My whole family uses WhatsApp for everything. I'm hoping I can get them to switch to something like this once it's stable.

[–] PropaGandalf@lemmy.world 28 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Yeah. And now that we have account migration we can switch more easily.

[–] deweydecibel@lemmy.world 7 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Unless you want content and more people to interact with.

Like, people keep saying "oh yeah you can jump instances" as if that wasn't possible on Reddit. You could go to different subs or make your own. But what good were most of them? As long as there's a "default", a main "hub", people will go there, and that's where everything will be happening. The alternatives and smaller instances will be starved out.

Centralization is not about the software, it's about the people. Users centralize where others are. So when the big hubs are allowing threads to poison the well, it's poisoning the thing most people want to drink from, and the thing new visitors will be most likely to drink from.

Threads represents something that a lot of people came to the fetiverse to escape. If threads wants to join, fine, but I believe it is in the best interest of all of us if there is a large alternative "cluster" that is separate from it rather than being tied up with it.

A separate galaxy in the fediverse, that says in big red neon lights, "Get your corporate bullshit away from us. This is our space, for people, not for you to make money." And if we let them in immediately, it becomes increasingly difficult for that galaxy to retain that identity.

And I'll just gently point out that once Threads joins, separating from it will not be easy because you will have Threads users here actively pushing back on the separation.

[–] PropaGandalf@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

I see you really care about the fate of "the others". I don't know. Maybe that's the right reaction but if the people who came here bacause of threads or from threads will disappear again I think I won't bother much. I liked it here with even less people around so I don't really care how many thousand users we have. Fact is the decentralized internet and ActivityPub are the future and there will always be a way.

[–] laverabe@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago

Well not technically yet. LW is still on 0.18.5

[–] GONADS125@lemmy.world 18 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (9 children)

Edit: Since so many people are misinformed: No, blocking Threads on an individual basis is not a solution. This only blocks posts from Threads showing up in your feed. It does not block Threads users' comments from spreading hate and extremism throughout federated instances, and lemmy users will still be subject to potential harassment from Threads users.

Anybody have recommendations on a decent instance that won't be federating with Threads? Maybe one that allows community creation but isn't full of tankies?

I'm jumping ship from .world if they go through with federating with Threads. Such a shame to see the effort put into building this great instance come undone.

This place decided to disregard what the majority of their users want and turn the neighborhood to shit way faster than reddit. I thought we'd at least have a couple years before instance admins started selling out to such a shitty company that's going to make the fediverse a less safe place for their users.

Meta will also do anything they can to EEE and I'm not convinced the fediverse is as invulnerable to such exploitation as some users seem to be.

[–] Kierunkowy74@kbin.social 8 points 9 months ago

I was looking for recommendations for alternative instances… I’d appreciate anyone actually responding to my comment.

OK.

Largest Lemmy instances blocking Instagram Threads are (according to fedipact.veganism.social) lemmy.ml, lemm.ee, lemmy.ca, Hexbear, feddit.de, Beehaw, Lemmygrad, lemmy.dbzer0.com, lemmy.blahaj.zone, discuss.tchncs.de, sopuli.xyz, aussie.zone, feddit.nl, lemmy.zip, midwest.social, feddit.uk, mander.xyz, ...

[–] Link@rentadrunk.org 7 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Can’t you block threads yourself once .world updates to 0.19.0?

[–] GONADS125@lemmy.world 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

That's such a misinformative false 'solution' people keep peddling..

No, blocking Threads on the individual user level does not stop comments made by Threads users from showing up on federated instances, even for users who block Threads.

That means users who block Threads will still see hate/extremism and are still subject to potential harassment by toxic Threads users.

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[–] TORFdot0@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago

Just because Lemmy.world doesn’t agree with about defederating with meta doesn’t make them sell outs. Like you said, you are jumping ship; just like the fediverse intended.

For better or worse, Lemmy.world is intended to be a catch all instance for normies so it makes sense why they would not defederate from meta.

[–] dameoutlaw@lemmy.ml 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

In a Mastodon level this is not true. Blocking Threads.net prevents you from sharing your content with them and for their content to show up. Pixelfed has also enabled user level Authorised fetch which will prevent Threads.net from attempting to fetch that users content

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[–] Dirk@lemmy.ml 18 points 9 months ago (3 children)

there is no one single entity, or group of entities, dominating it all.

This is what Zuck wants to change with Threads.

[–] sab@kbin.social 19 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It's not. He wants to create a social media that exploits its users without being accused of monopolistic behaviour.

[–] SeedyOne@lemm.ee 15 points 9 months ago (1 children)

All the tasty data collection and surveillance with none of the calories.

[–] helenslunch@feddit.nl 8 points 9 months ago (2 children)

What kind of "tasty data collection and surveillance" will Meta have access to that they didn't before federating?

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[–] tourist@lemmy.world 16 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I'm out of the loop

Last thing I vaguely remember about a defederation incident was honeybear or something like that upsetting everyone

[–] Flaky@iusearchlinux.fyi 23 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Essentially, Facebook's Twitter competitor Threads is gearing up to join the fediverse by integrating ActivityPub into their platform. Don't take my word too much on this but I believe this is due to the European Commission's Digital Markets Act which requires interoperability (similar to how iOS now requires sideloading in the EU). This is essentially their cheap way of complying.

The fediverse has a strong hatred of Facebook, for various reasons (from petty things like "embrace, extend, extinguish" to much more serious things like Facebook's compliance in the Myanmar genocide) and a "pact" was enacted of fediverse instances that are simply outright blocking Threads. Part of it is the fear that Facebook will federate its moderation problem and cause a headache (which, in my opinion, would be better dealt with by limiting Threads to followers only - Mastodon and Pleroma allow this).

Opponents of the Fedipact are optimistic this will help a more mainstream audience warm up to the fediverse. The fediverse has a reputation of being unwieldy and complicated to newcomers, and having a major platform like Threads integrating ActivityPub might help bring them in and see what it's like. Toxicity is cited as a reason for defederating Threads, but IMO I see more toxicity towards newcomers and outsiders coming from the people already on the fediverse, so I've been quite apathetic to the Threads thing.

[–] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 8 points 9 months ago (5 children)

Yeah I'm in a wait and see with my instance. People act like it's one and done. When they start they'll be just another server to me. If they start becoming hostile and everything coming from them it's terrible then I'll defederate. Same as any other server.

People are worried about data being misused but, I'm sorry, that's what happens when we publish to an open protocol. Anyone can use it however they want, and yeah, they're are scum usage for it

[–] Flaky@iusearchlinux.fyi 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Agreed. I think Lemmy is more public than Mastodon and co. which do have some privacy settings for posts and account follows, but ActivityPub is inherently a public protocol. Appreciate everything you've done for Poptalk btw!

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[–] DarkThoughts@kbin.social 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)
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[–] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 7 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Same. So what if someone doesn't want to federate/defederate, but I don't think people should be hassling admins to defederate

[–] DaCrazyJamez@sh.itjust.works 10 points 9 months ago

You can always, as a client, block individual instances in your settings

[–] 1984@lemmy.today 3 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I agree, the original idea of the fediverse is awesome. However, I believe the big players will decide almost everything about it in the end, simply due to influence on decisions being made.

[–] voidMainVoid@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I'm kind of happy as long as big tech is not running it

Wait for it. It's coming. That's why Meta is doing this. We're in the "embrace" phase of "embrace, extend, extinguish".

I don't see how to avoid it, unless the courts step in. The only reason why we're using the World Wide Web instead of the Microsoft Wide Web is because the US sued Microsoft and won.

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