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maegul

@mastodonmigration @stuart @vruz @snarfed.org @snarfed

I'm confused ... how does that make the bridge different?

Wouldn't the bridge simply count as "other servers in the network"?

If so, and I'm not missing something, the issue here isn't bsky but that it's such a well known entity that it raises alarms about what are intrinsic privacy/safety issues built into ActivityPub ... ?

AFAICT, the bridge operates exclusively through follows not indexing etc.

8 comments
Sam :verified:

@maegul @mastodonmigration @stuart @vruz @snarfed.org @snarfed It's not different. It's one of the servers in the network. It's just connecting two protocols.

maegul

@sam @mastodonmigration @stuart @vruz @snarfed.org @snarfed

Yea ... with pretty similar social mechanisms too (ie, both are twitter clones)

Greg Hills

@sam @maegul @mastodonmigration @stuart @vruz @snarfed.org @snarfed

> "It's one of the servers in the network."

No, it is not.

Bluesky is not part of the ActivityPub network, any more than are Twitter or Facebook.

cathode.church/fedi-scraper-co

I could actually kinda-sorta-maybe get behind a bridge like this, IF IT WAS OPT IN. This is not opt in. It does not even respect flags that say hoovering up a Mastodon person's or instance's data is OK with that person or that instance.

maegul

@winterknell @sam @mastodonmigration @stuart @vruz @snarfed.org @snarfed

I don’t know.

If it can connect or be bridged then is it not “the network”?

Not sure that there’s anything special about ActivityPub. To the point that it seems dangerous to emphasise a formal/nominative distinction rather than a functional one. Ie, the issue should be more about what the protocol does rather than its name.

If mechanics are effectively the same then bsky is really just a big instance no?

Greg Hills

@maegul @sam @mastodonmigration @stuart @vruz @snarfed.org @snarfed

Ask MySpace about Facebook's bridge.

My objection is not addressed to the protocols, but to the ethics. Public posts on Mastodon and on Bluesky are easily scraped. That does not mean that any arsehole can just go ahead and bot-scrape it and pass it on.

As a Masto instance, indieweb.social is welcome to receive whatever is not blocked from them, but not to pass it on wholesale beyond the edge of the Fediverse.

maegul

@winterknell @sam @mastodonmigration @stuart @vruz @snarfed.org @snarfed

I don't know about that bridge.

But my point is that "scraping" and then "passing on beyond the fediverse" aren't necessarily clear or helpful criteria.

If fediverse="uses ActivityPub" then that allows for a lot of stuff including what is effectively "scraping" (eg, kbin is effectively a search engine for masto content AFAIU). Staying "within fediverse" can be pretty arbitrary then.

Greg Hills

@maegul @sam @mastodonmigration @stuart @vruz @snarfed.org @snarfed

That Bluesky doesn't use ActivityPub is a pretty clear indication that it's "beyond the Fediverse". The fact that I can't block Bluesky but can, and now have blocked, both indieweb and snarfed, is a pretty clear indication of the boundary.

That the guy thinks forcing "opt out" on people is acceptable is the clearest indication of all. I'm not opposed to reach, but I'm opposed to this guy's approach.

My profile's Privacy-and-Reach page, with all the boxes checked allowing my profile and posts to roam.
margrim

@maegul @winterknell @sam @mastodonmigration @stuart @vruz @snarfed.org @snarfed

That bridge is important. Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.

Back in the early aughts, when Facebook expanded to the public, 'everyone' was on MySpace. It is improbable to organically acquire the users of an established social network (particularly one so liked) if you're walled off. So they created a bridge (bot) connecting users to friends still on MySpace while siphoning users.

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