Discussion

Re: I love #activitypub but seeing how slow its development is compared to #atproto makes it hard to be excited about it.

@evan@cosocial.ca 100% agreed on the heavy(-ier) lift that is AP development.

However that's how standalone apps have always been developed, and there is a reason why.

When you rely on someone else's tech, then when they sunset the tech or it otherwise becomes unfavourable, you're fucked (pardon my french)

I've seen entire businesses jump head first into building "Facebook apps" after Farmville exploded. None of them are around now and Zynga is currently worth $8 on the NASDAQ.

cc @res260@infosec.exchange

Evan Prodromou

@evan@cosocial.ca replied · 2 weeks ago

@res260 I think part of that is the API.

In our ecosystem, we've normalized that you have to build the whole server side, with data storage and network interoperability and so on, for every single new kind of app.

It'd be great if you could use a standard API to make cool apps, and leave all the plumbing to a general-purpose server.

That's what we're doing in the ActivityPub API task force at w3c.

https://github.com/swicg/activitypub-api/

GitHub

GitHub - swicg/activitypub-api: ActivityPub API Task Force repository.

ActivityPub API Task Force repository. Contribute to swicg/activitypub-api development by creating an account on GitHub.

julian

@julian@activitypub.space replied · 2 weeks ago

Re: I love #activitypub but seeing how slow its development is compared to #atproto makes it hard to be excited about it.

@evan@cosocial.ca 100% agreed on the heavy(-ier) lift that is AP development.

However that's how standalone apps have always been developed, and there is a reason why.

When you rely on someone else's tech, then when they sunset the tech or it otherwise becomes unfavourable, you're fucked (pardon my french)

I've seen entire businesses jump head first into building "Facebook apps" after Farmville exploded. None of them are around now and Zynga is currently worth $8 on the NASDAQ.

cc @res260@infosec.exchange

🫧 socialcoding..

@smallcircles@social.coop replied · 2 weeks ago

@julian @evan @res260

Though there is a risk that the #ActivityPub ecosystem becomes so much of a straggler that #fediverse goes the way of bulletin boards and newsreaders (forever niche), overall the slow organic growth and evolution on the fediverse is a good thing. And #ATProto being the lightning rod for hasty commercial growth-hacking helps keep the ecosystem on that path, able to - in more protected territory - build robust foundations for interoperable standards-based social networking.

The Eye

@eyeinthesky@mastodon.social replied · 2 weeks ago

@smallcircles @julian @evan @res260 Slow organic Fedi growth? According to Fedidb the MAU count has dropped about 30% in the last 12 months.

🫧 socialcoding..

@smallcircles@social.coop replied · 2 weeks ago

@eyeinthesky @julian @evan @res260

Exactly. I would not be too worried about such numbers. There've been influxes of new people over time due to various events on other platforms like twitter, and many of those people have been attracted away again over time, mostly to atproto.

Where I refer to growth I think of maturing applications that are of growing usefulness and diversity, getting gradually intertwined, and while keeping and further the online social culture healthy and vibrant.

Evan Prodromou

@evan@cosocial.ca replied · 2 weeks ago

@julian @res260

"What if I told you" meme.

"What if I told you that nobody could shut down the platform?" — "What if I told you" meme. "What if I told you that nobody could shut down the platform?"

Émilio Gonzalez

@res260@infosec.exchange replied · 2 weeks ago

@julian @evan I think it's a great perk of ATProto. Once you shipped your app and have seen some success, then you can start thinking about making it resilient by removing dependencies. Right now, it looks to me like this model is superior to foster an ecosystem.

julian

@julian@activitypub.space replied · 2 weeks ago

Re: I love #activitypub but seeing how slow its development is compared to #atproto makes it hard to be excited about it.

@res260@infosec.exchange on that we agree. There is lot of momentum in the ATProto space and I can sense that all the way over here (I am not plugged in to that side, at all.)

The apps that are coming out are really interesting and the ease of development does foster that kind of environment.

Émilio Gonzalez

@res260@infosec.exchange replied · 2 weeks ago

@evan That would make sense. For ATProto, not being required to think about the PDS and the relays implementations must help a ton to get projects off the ground quickly. Hope the Social API changes that 🙏

Evan Prodromou

@evan@cosocial.ca replied · 2 weeks ago

@res260 you and me both!

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