@juergen_hubert yeah, I think you're getting this exactly backwards.
#Mastodon/#ActivityPub makes it way too hard to move instances. It's unfortunately a core problem with this platform, but we shouldn't pretend it's not.
Other platforms like #BlueSky make it much easier, but #Fediverse is behind on this one.
We need to recognize that as a rough edge, a legit reason users might choose another platform.
@BeAware @volkris @juergen_hubert Everything doesn't go through the relay, its up to app developers if they would like to do it via the big relay.
@ekana @volkris @juergen_hubert https://social.growyourown.services/@FediTips/113896029909649321 this thread has much evidence saying that this is currently not the case.
@BeAware The code is publicly available on a git repository so you can run it yourself regardless of what some thread is saying.
Don't believe it? Well, try it!
@BeAware @volkris @juergen_hubert
Unfortunately that post is full of misinformation about atproto. For example whtwnd.com, a popular atproto blogging platform, doesn't even use the relay.
@ekana @volkris @juergen_hubert this picture, taken from the whtwnd.com website, says otherwise.
To clarify, if it were decentralized, there would be no bottleneck at the top, which is the relay that BlueSky is the only owner of, currently.
@BeAware again, that's a cute picture, I'm sure someone enjoyed some retro time with Ms paint to make it, but you are welcome to download the code yourself and debunk it.
@BeAware @volkris @juergen_hubert this photo is talking about atproto in general. Whitewind as I understand just pulls directly from the PDS. Also there's already numerous non-archival relays that are cheap to run. For example Jetstream.
@ekana @volkris @juergen_hubert but it says whtwnd data goes through the relay, right there on the image.
@BeAware @volkris @juergen_hubert yes because all records get pulled into the relay no matter what. The client still pulls from the PDS directly.
@ekana @volkris @juergen_hubert right, it's the client, to the pds, to the relay. That's the issue, nobody can avoid the relay as it seems.
@BeAware @volkris @juergen_hubert the relay is just an indexer. I'm not understanding your issue with it crawling the network. It's a utility to lower the cost of hosting a PDS. And make global search far easier.
@ekana @volkris @juergen_hubert personally, I don't, that's why I'm bridged. However, lots of people here don't want their data connected to VC backed companies cause they're known for using that data for nefarious purposes.
Also that means that if they don't like a certain person/group or whatever that hosts their own pds, they can just cut them off since they own the relay.
@BeAware @volkris @juergen_hubert
They don't have your data, your data is in the PDS that you control. And if you wanted to block the indexer you can.
Be aware (ha) that if you post on here your data is just as available to those evil smelly VCs.
@BeAware I mean I don't know what they're doing, nor do I really care honestly, they can make whatever picture they want and I can make whatever picture I want, but at the end of the day you can download the program and use it however you want.
@BeAware Well that's not true.
BlueSky is a whole platform, and you can host your own relay if you want, and your content doesn't even have to go through a relay at all. That's just not how the system is set up.
@BeAware Well that's not true.
BlueSky is a whole platform, and you can host your own relay if you want, and your content doesn't even have to go through a relay at all. That's just not how the system is set up.
@volkris Speaking as someone who has moved Mastodon instances twice, I am curious: In what way do you find the process difficult?
For one thing, there is the issue of moving to non-mastodon instances on this platform.
For another thing, a lot of people complain about not having a lot of their stuff moved, weather through buggy instances or one instance not cooperating in the migration or whatever other reason.
@volkris @juergen_hubert
I moved to an other instance in the past and it worked fine. Was easy.
It's unfortunately a core problem with this platform, but we shouldn't pretend it's not.
Mitra has at least got support for nomadic identity via ActivityPub in a development version.
(streams), a Hubzilla descendant by Hubzilla's and Friendica's creator, has had support for nomadic identity via ActivityPub in its stable release for months. It doesn't rely on it, though, because it uses Nomad for that.
Forte, a (streams) fork by the same developer, is the first Fediverse server application to actually rely on ActivityPub for nomadic identity. It's still experimental and a "closed alpha", though.
The building blocks of nomadic identity as implemented in Hubzilla, (streams) and Forte are being cast into ActivityPub FEPs such as FEP-ef61 "Portable Objects".
@volkris @juergen_hubert BlueSky isn't decentralized so moving platforms isn't even possible. Everything eventually goes through relays which only BlueSky hosts.
It's actually not hard at all. Especially if you're moving from Mastodon to Mastodon instances.