Dee (@deesapoetra@qoto.org)

@freemo thoughts on this account sir ?
@gideon

**🎓 Doc Freemo 🇳🇱** @freemo@qoto.org · Apr 16, 2021, 16:44

**🎓 Doc Freemo 🇳🇱** @freemo@qoto.org · Apr 16, 2021, 16:44

Apr 16, 2021, 16:44

We call those follow bots, their purpose is generally to increase federation.

Is it bothering you in some way?

**Dee** @deesapoetra@qoto.org · Apr 16, 2021, 16:53

**Dee** @deesapoetra@qoto.org · Apr 16, 2021, 16:53

Apr 16, 2021, 16:53

@freemo @gideon well not really Mr. Freemo.
It just reminds me of our conversation ago about "the bot that specifically built for tracking all mastodon users".
Not too long ago.

**🎓 Doc Freemo 🇳🇱** @freemo@qoto.org · Apr 16, 2021, 16:54

**🎓 Doc Freemo 🇳🇱** @freemo@qoto.org · Apr 16, 2021, 16:54

Apr 16, 2021, 16:54

Ahh yea.. sadly as long as you post publicly there isnt much you can do about tracking. Well mannered bots and crawlers will of course obey your no tracking flags but those that wont, well, not much you can do about them short of making your posts private.

**Dee** @deesapoetra@qoto.org · Apr 16, 2021, 17:00

**Dee** @deesapoetra@qoto.org · Apr 16, 2021, 17:00

Apr 16, 2021, 17:00

@freemo @gideon i wonder if this was activitypub specific "issue".
(Well. I won't called "issue" to be quite honest sir. Since social networks are meant to be "social" in the first place.
which you can't if all people is trapped in a bubble by default.)

**🎓 Doc Freemo 🇳🇱** @freemo@qoto.org · Apr 16, 2021, 17:01

**🎓 Doc Freemo 🇳🇱** @freemo@qoto.org · Apr 16, 2021, 17:01

Apr 16, 2021, 17:01

When you say issue do you mean the lack of privacy and ability to be tracked, or do you mean the need for follow bots to increase federation?

**Dee** @deesapoetra@qoto.org · Apr 16, 2021, 17:03

**Dee** @deesapoetra@qoto.org · Apr 16, 2021, 17:03

Apr 16, 2021, 17:03

@freemo
> the need for follow bots to increase federation.

This sir.
@gideon

**🎓 Doc Freemo 🇳🇱** @freemo@qoto.org · Apr 16, 2021, 17:10

**🎓 Doc Freemo 🇳🇱** @freemo@qoto.org · Apr 16, 2021, 17:10

Apr 16, 2021, 17:10

Well I guess its a matter of interpritation, the old bug vs feature argument.

If you federate with the whole universe then the load on every single server would be tremendous, even just in terms of storage space let alone bandwidth. So for some only federating with a subset of the universe makes sense, and activity pub as-is provides that.

On the other hand for servers that do wish to "see the whole world" there are no real good automatic mechnisms for that. We have relays which is close and activitypub allows for that. But the issue with relays is they arent automatically discovered and they only give you access to servers that participate in it. So it still keeps us cutoff from satellite instances that have a smaller federation footprint.

I'm not sure there really is a perfect solution in a decentralized world. Its less the fault of activitypub and more the fault of just the dynamics of decentralization.