And… as a pretend expert :) started wondering: In the big bad messy real world (super serious business), how does one on such a decentralized (social) network thoroughly:

1. Block specific users from viewing
2. Block specific users from following
3. Block specific users from interacting
4. Delete previous local/remote content from specific users following
5. Delete previous local/remote interactions from specific users interacting

ActivityPub is an open/transparent protocol (amazing) but for adoption, the expectation/reality of many users online anywhere (even public networks) is favourable discoverability not discoverability itself… however contradictory/debatable. That’s probably easy/possible centralized but stupid hard/impossible decentralized.

The IndieWeb’s POSSE is a rather sophisticated syndication philosophy. Too bad I’ve got such a disdain for social media that I’d never explore it personally. It’s a good approach for working on other people’s stuff though: think Facebook’s (Meta) instant RSS articles (dies April 2023), podcast feeds, or any other (kinda) bi–directional site syndication mechanism.

The hypothetical outcomes/incentives of POSSE if it was done by everyone is an entertaining thought experiment.

It seems that.. from talking to a few people via email, basic feed discovery with rel alternates are ineffective. Simple redirects work better for organic discovery.

1. /atom -> /path/to/real/{atom,rss}/feed
2. /rss -> /path/to/real/{atom,rss}/feed
3. /feed -> /path/to/real/{atom,rss}/feed

I was reading web.dev recently and couldn’t help but think that in tech circles/articles online it’s easy to get the impression that Firefox is a major competing browser. Firefox actually doesn’t even register. Firefox has an estimated 3% points in global market–share and doesn’t even show up in mobile market–share estimates.

Users implicitly use Safari (Apple) and/or some derivation of Chromium (Google Chrome). When was the last time you saw someone irl using Firefox? Not recently if you’re outside the tech bubble.