[HN Gopher] Ask HN: Which ActivityPub software to use for a pers...
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Ask HN: Which ActivityPub software to use for a personal server?
So with Elons stupidity ruining Twitter, it seems to be really
happening this time, people, and content creators (Tweeters?) are
moving to Mastodon for real. I am not very optimistic about
Mastodon, particularly for these reasons: - crappy inter-instance
user discovery A user won't show up in search or the federated
timeline unless a local user follows them. It basically makes it
impossible to get discovered when using your own independent
instance. Even if you interact and reply to a user in instance B,
you will still not show in instances B search or federated
timeline. I found this diagram to be helpful in explaining which
users show in the federated timeline: https://imgbox.com/V7rZ6i2q
- no way to see other instances timelines This makes its even
worse to discover accounts when launching your own server. - no
backfill for old toots[1-2] This is just ridiculous. But it seems
to be where everyone technical is going, and since it's a federated
protocol, If I am going to use it, it's going to be on my own
server. So far I have seen three main Recommendations for hosting
Activity Pub - Mastodon (obviously) - Misskey - Pleroma My use
case is a personal server, just for me. I want something reliable,
and easy to maintain, because figuring out how to migrate to
another platform later-on isn't fun. Which one do you recommend?
Misskey looks to be the most interesting one. You can create
lists, follow other instances local timelines, supports reactions,
remove the character limit, etc. but Mobile app support is limited,
PWA is the only option. But I don't want to end up using something
unpopular, where the development is going to be rather sparse. 1.
https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/14017 2.
https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/34
Author : fariszr
Score : 28 points
Date : 2022-11-05 15:40 UTC (7 hours ago)
| the-printer wrote:
| Honk, obviously.
| jaimehrubiks wrote:
| Great discussion, would love to see more information about the
| topic. It's definitely a good time for these three activitypub
| federated platforms to start getting more users.
| fariszr wrote:
| I hope someone more knowledgeable replies. currently its
| looking to be either Pleroma or Mastodon.
|
| Because Pleroma supports Mastodons API, so the app support is
| much better.
|
| But I couldn't find any info about how Pleroma deals with user
| discovery
| somat wrote:
| For personal use, I would recommend Ted Unangst's honk.
|
| https://humungus.tedunangst.com/r/honk
|
| But that is mainly because I value straightforward installation
| and simple administration. So that converges well with honk. If
| you(or your users) value features more you will probably want to
| use something else. but you will suffer when it comes time to
| administer the thing.
| chc4 wrote:
| Use Pleroma. It's much easier to setup and better architectured
| technically. Also all(?) ActivityPub servers support the old
| Twitter API, so some third party Twitter apps have support for it
| - Twidere on Android definitely does, at least.
| fariszr wrote:
| Is it easier to discover people on Pleroma ? Does it fix the
| issues I mentioned?
| zdunn wrote:
| Discoverability is a little better since Pleroma exposes the
| public timelines for non-logged in users (though the admin
| can disable that). I'm not sure about search.
| 0x0000000 wrote:
| Admittedly I don't use social media like most people, but I dont
| understand the "discovery problem", personally. I've never
| wondered "how do I discover user email addresses?" for example.
| Don't you already have friends or folks you're interested in
| following? Can't you ask them what their ActivityPub
| instance/identity is? Once you have even a small network, can't
| you see the folks who interact with those you're already
| following?
|
| I don't mean for this to sound callous or dismissive, I'm just
| wondering if y'all can help me understand where you're coming
| from. Is it FOMO? An issue of optimization? I feel like time and
| attention is already limited and the last thing I need is to find
| more things on which to waste either.
|
| I guess what I'm trying to say is, perhaps consider a more
| organic approach? Even on HN we see threads like "what are your
| favorite youtube channels?" from time to time, despite that one
| major draw to YouTube is the "discoverability" (it's one reason
| why folks post content there instead of on their own site, no?)
| fariszr wrote:
| I personally never used Twitter for friends or any relatives.
|
| And the discoverability problem is more for my account, rather
| than discovering other people,
|
| Its very hard to grow organically on Mastodon.
|
| Still, this applies to discovering other people too.
| 0x0000000 wrote:
| Fair enough, I can understand if you are trying to build an
| audience and be discovered yourself that this is a bigger
| problem than trying to discover others.
| rzazueta wrote:
| I feel like that's part of the point of the Fediverse, though
| - it;s not a centralized social media platform like Twitter,
| Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. - it;s really for creating
| interconnected communities that are mostly self-supporting
| and grow very deliberately.
|
| The benefits of discoverability - gaining a following of
| strangers, reaching new audiences for marketing purposes,
| etc. - are also what breed a lot of the problems associated
| with centralized social media. If Twitter is an international
| airport, then Fediverse apps are like your local regional
| airports - like the ones you pass on the freeway but never
| really notice are there. If you;re looking for a true Twitter
| replacement, Mastodon and the others aren't it - they're
| building smaller, focused, organic communities rather than
| incentivizing engagement to sell eyeballs to advertisers.
| That changes their whole dynamic.
| fariszr wrote:
| But these Discovery problems aren't because of the
| Fediverse. They are Mastodon Problems. Matrix is a
| federated protocol, and it doesn't have the same discovery
| issues.
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