I have been following and participating in discussions related to the ActivityPub / AT Protocol bridge (also known as the One-Sided Mastodon vs. Bluesky Grudge Match).
There are some interesting observations:
- Many people don't feel that their fediverse software has the tools they need to prevent harassment or spam.
- Many people feel they need to depend on moderators to protect them, and don't feel empowered or able to protect themselves.
- A lot of people didn't really understand what they signed up for, and become shocked and angry when they find out how federation and the fediverse-in-general actually works. Many people did not even realize that they are connected to other platforms and protocols already.
- Some people don't seem to understand what public means, and that if their post is public, anyone can see it, including people they don't want to see it. They don't seem to realize that privacy by obscurity is not true privacy.
- Some people are willing to stereotype millions of people as being bad just because they are on the wrong platform.
- Some people are willing to collectively punish (i.e. block) millions of people, because they don't like one person involved in the project.
- Some people are extremely hateful and will resort to insults and threats to try to get what they want.
- A large chunk of Mastodon (and other parts of the fediverse) will wall itself off from the rest of the fediverse, for a variety of reasons, some valid, some not-so-valid.
- Some people actually hope they wall themselves off, since there seems to be a lot of hostility towards "outsiders" coming from them.
- There is a huge demand for fediverse software that has better privacy, access control, and moderation tools.
- The existing fediverse software that has these advanced tools are not widely know.
- Bluesky users don't seem to care whether there is a bridge or not, and are amused at the reaction going on over on Mastodon.
