We all use the same ActivityPub protocol in the fediverse, but we don't all interact in the same way. And that's okay!

The real problem is that there's no easy way to let others know how we expect to interact. This can be confusing. For example, some people treat their posts like it's on a Facebook home page, expecting only friends to comment, but leaving it open so as not to make things difficult for people they know. Others see every post as an open forum thread, inviting anyone to jump in and discuss.

To fix this, we need a way to clearly communicate our interaction preferences. Perhaps we could use metadata, like the way we specify languages. This metadata could indicate our default interaction style, and allow us to change it for individual posts. That way, everyone knows what to expect, and we can avoid misunderstandings.