feralthoughts (@feralthoughts@union.place)
To be clear: the active user base of Hubzilla probably numbers less than 1000, and those of (streams) and Forte far far smaller than that; so their exclusion/inclusion from your plots is not going to be visually discernible to anyone. At present, it will not affect any inferences one may draw from your plots.
But for the sake of completeness, you may want to consider these questions.
#ActivityPub #ATProto #Fediverse #Bluesky #Threads #Hubzilla #(streams) #Forte
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feralthoughts (@feralthoughts@union.place)
Forte certainly qualifies as part of the Fediverse, by any criteria. So you will definitely have to worry about counting each channel of any account on a Forte instance, and about not counting clones of that channel.
#ActivityPub #ATProto #Fediverse #Bluesky #Threads #Hubzilla #(streams) #Forte
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feralthoughts (@feralthoughts@union.place)
The author of Hubzilla and (streams) also developed the ActivityPub-based Forte, which has nomadic identity, with all of the properties described above.
https://fediversity.site/item/b69ce5a0-0c22-4933-8393-dce7100f4584
#ActivityPub #ATProto #Fediverse #Bluesky #Threads #Hubzilla #(streams) #Forte
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feralthoughts (@feralthoughts@union.place)
So if you are including Hubzilla and (streams) users, you will have to worry about counting each channel for an account, but not counting any of the clones of a given channel. Are you doing that?
#ActivityPub #ATProto #Fediverse #Bluesky #Threads #Hubzilla #(streams) #Forte
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feralthoughts (@feralthoughts@union.place)
This also raises another question. Hubzilla and (streams) both have nomadic identity, so a user can have multiple clones of a channel across different instances, and activity on any one of those gets mirrored across all the clones. And an account on an instance can have multiple channels—a channel is what participates in the Fediverse.
#ActivityPub #ATProto #Fediverse #Bluesky #Threads #Hubzilla #(streams) #Forte
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feralthoughts (@feralthoughts@union.place)
Are you counting the user base from instances which run software such as Hubzilla or (streams)—specifically, software that is NOT based on ActivityPub—but which federate with all the instances running ActivityPub-based software such as Mastodon?
If yes/no, why?
For context, the present mandarins of the ActivityPub world do not count Hubzilla or (streams) as parts of the Fediverse.
#ActivityPub #ATProto #Fediverse #Bluesky #Threads #Hubzilla #(streams) #Forte
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feralthoughts (@feralthoughts@union.place)
You mention elsewhere that for your plots quantifying Fediverse decentralization, you (want to) count only those Threads users that federate with other instances running ActivityPub-based software. In contrast, Eugen Rochko seems to count any instance running software that natively speaks ActivityPub as part of the Fediverse.
Hence my curiosity questions below about some other software.
#ActivityPub #ATProto #Fediverse #Bluesky #Threads #Hubzilla #(streams) #Forte
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fedizen (@fedizen@mastodon.social)
»Introducing quote posts« https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2025/09/introducing-quote-posts/?Fedizen.EU #Fedizen #Fediverse #ActivityPub #News
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hongminhee (@hongminhee@hollo.social)
Today I discovered an interesting inconsistency in Activity Streams specs while investigating a Fedify issue.
The question: How should we interpret URLs like "icon": "https://example.com/avatar.png"?
JSON-LD context (https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams): @type: "@id" → “This is an IRI reference, dereference it to fetch an ActivityStreams object.”
Activity Streams Primer: “assume that a bare string is the href of a Link object, not an id” (no dereferencing)
Result: JSON-LD processor-based implementations try to parse PNG files as JSON and fail.
Turns out w3c/activitystreams#595 already discusses the same issue for href properties. I added a note that icon, image, etc. have the same problem.
Once again reminded of how tricky spec work can be…
#ActivityPub #Fedify #ActivityStreams #fedidev #specifications
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thenexusofprivacy (@thenexusofprivacy@infosec.exchange)
This is what solidarity looks like
https://thenexusofprivacy.net/what-solidarity-looks-like/
(Part 2 of “Decentralization” and erasure: Blacksky, Bluesky, and the ATmosphere)
@general @fediverse @fediversenews
#blacksky #bluesky #activitypub
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destroying-autocracy-september-11-2025 (@destroying-autocracy-september-11-2025@battalion.mobileatom.net)
Destroying Autocracy – September 11, 2025
Welcome to this week’s “Destroying Autocracy”.
It’s your source for curated news affecting democracy in the cyber arena with a focus on protecting it. That necessitates an opinionated Butlerian jihad against big tech as well as evangelizing for open-source and the Fediverse. Since big media’s journalism wing is flailing and failing in its core duty to democracy, this is also a collection of alternative reporting on the eternal battle between autocracy and democracy. We also cover the cybersecurity world. You can’t be free without safety and privacy.
DA comes out on Thursday and is updated through the end of day on Friday. Then we start over. So take your time in perusing it and check back in over the weekend.
FYI, my opinions will be in bold. And will often involve cursing. Because humans. Especially tech bros. And fascists. Fuck ’em.
The Programmer’s Fulcrum is the future (and smaller) home for a fusion of Symfony Station and Battalion. Its tagline is Devs Defending Democracy, Developing the OMN.
You can sign up now and for 2025 get an email with links to and featured articles for each week’s Symfony Station Communiqué and Battalion “Destroying Autocracy” post along with their featured articles. And you’ll be set with TPF after the fusing.
Featured Item
Dave Rupert writes and asks:
I think my answer to “Why would anybody start a website (in 2025)?” is the same answer for the content creator in the age of AI problem: I don’t know, but you gotta want to.
Money sweetens the deal when making content or websites, but we’ve shaken the money tree pretty hard over the last couple decades and it’s looking bare.
Increasingly, you’ve got to find other sources of inspiration to make a website – which by the way are still the coolest fucking things ever.
Why would anybody start a website?
To join the Open Media Network for one.
We start and end with good news to make the middle bearable.
The response to Russia’s War Crimes, Techno Feudalism, and other douchebaggery
Speaking of websites, the Columbia Journalism Review has:
Tom Ley Thinks More People Should Experience Worker-Owned Journalism
The Next Web reports:
Reclaiming the stack: Europe’s bid for digital sovereignty
The Register reports:
Big clouds scramble as EU Data Act brings new data transfer rules
Heisse reports:
400 scientists speak out against chat control
Europe is better than anywhere else, but it isn’t perfect.
The Guardian reports:
‘It is a war of drones now’: the ever-evolving tech dominating the frontline in Ukraine
Lawmaker calls for French criminal investigation into TikTok
EU fines Google nearly €3bn for ‘abusing’ dominant position in ad tech
Speaking of, Tech Policy reports:
Empowered Workers Are a Bulwark Against Illegal Monopoly
Ars Technica reports:
Judge: Anthropic’s $1.5B settlement is being shoved “down the throat of authors”
Pay-per-output? AI firms blindsided by beefed up robots.txt instructions.
Ben Werdmuller examines:
This is the type of content we will feature in The Programmer’s Fulcrum in 2026.
Make Use of shares:
I stopped using Gmail for this built-in client and now Gmail feels stuck
Here is a TAM lite tool for you.
Mojeek announces:
Mojeek is Not an Answer Engine
Tuta shares:
Chat Control is back & we’ve got one month to stop the EU CSAM scanning plans.
The Counterforce has a guide:
Signal For Punks (it has Stories now!)
I describe myself as 25% intellectual, 25% bohemian, 25% hillbilly, and 25% punk so this appeals to me. 😉
Neutral
The Observer reports:
Nick Clegg and Tim Berners-Lee: the battle for the soul of the internet
Tech Policy reports:
Washington and Brussels Vie for Control Over Big Tech
The Evil Empire (AKA Autocracy) Strikes Back
404 Media reports:
ICE Spends Millions on Clearview AI Facial Recognition to Find People ‘Assaulting’ Officers
The Kyiv Independent reports:
US steps back from joint efforts to combat misinformation, FT reports
TechDirt reports:
UK Age Verification Data Confirms What Critics Always Predicted: Mass Migration To Sketchier Sites
Pariah States
BleepingComputer reports:
Czech cyber agency warns against Chinese tech in critical infrastructure
The Christian Science Monitor reports:
Why some Israeli journalists only now are turning a lens on Gaza devastation
DarkReading reports:
Chinese Hackers Allegedly Pose as US Lawmaker
Big Media
The Guardian reports:
‘Existential crisis’: how Google’s shift to AI has upended the online news model
TechDirt reports:
Big Tech
Tech Policy reports:
How Big Tech’s ‘Invisible Hand’ Reaches Latin American Regulators
The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:
Age Verification Is A Windfall for Big Tech—And A Death Sentence For Smaller Platforms
The Register reports:
It’s AI all the way down as Google’s AI cites web pages written by AI
The Guardian reports:
How thousands of ‘overworked, underpaid’ humans train Google’s AI to seem smart
Impact of chatbots on mental health is warning over future of AI, expert says
Meta hid harms to children from VR products, whistleblowers allege
The BBC reports:
Meta to stop its AI chatbots from talking to teens about suicide
404 Media reports:
Instagram Account Promotes Holocaust Denial T-Shirts to 400,000 Followers
Ars Technica has:
Former WhatsApp security boss in lawsuit likens Meta’s culture to a “cult”
EchoStar to sell spectrum to SpaceX after FCC threatened to revoke licenses
AI vs. MAGA: Populists alarmed by Trump’s embrace of AI, Big Tech
Even blind fascist squirrels find a nut sometimes.
SAN reports:
Not so secret: X’s new encrypted chat feature puts users at risk, experts say
Cybersecurity/Privacy
Signal announces:
Introducing Signal Secure Backups
La Quadrature reports:
In France, the eternal return of facial recognition
The Register reports:
Drift massive attack traced back to loose Salesloft GitHub account
In crypto bro FAFO news, BleepingComputer reports:
Hackers hijack npm packages with 2 billion weekly downloads in supply chain attack
DDoS defender targeted in 1.5 Bpps denial-of-service attack
Fediverse
Connected Places has:
Fedihost looks at:
PeerTube announces:
Mastodon has an update:
NodeBB shares a:
Progress update for Conversational Contexts
A New Social announces:
Launch: Notifications from Unbridged Users
RSS
Buttondown remembers:
The story of how RSS beat Microsoft
Other Slightly Federated Social Media
Connected Spaces opines:
On discourse and decentralisation
Personally I view Bluesky as only slightly better than Shitter (drastically fewer c^nts) with a 97.4% chance of becoming enshittified. However, Blacksky has given me a little hope for ATProto at least.
I would also like to point out 96.525% of people on the Fediverse don’t give a fuck about Bluesky and 99.912% of people on Bluesky don’t give a fuck about the Fediverse.
TechCrunch reports:
Bluesky adds private bookmarks
Bluesky will comply with age-verification laws in South Dakota and Wyoming after exiting Mississippi
CTAs (aka show us some free love)
- That’s it for this week. Please share this edition of Destroying Autocracy.
- Follow me on the Fediverse. Or this site via the button in the footer. Or via RSS. Or even our future home in 2026, if you want a headstart.
Keep fighting!
Ringleader, Battalion
Reuben Walker
Follow me on the Fediverse
#ActivityPub #AI #ATProto #Autocracy #BigJournalism #BigTech #Bluesky #Democracy #Fascism #Fediverse #Mastodon #NodeBB #Peertube #RSS #Signal #StopChina #StopIsrael #StopRedAmerica #StopRussia #SupportUkraine #TechnoAnarchism #TechnoFeudalism
https://battalion.mobileatom.net/?p=2493
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CWSmith (@CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com)
So I figured it out. In order to make the field mappable I had to actually create a test piece of content. So now I can do what is needed to do the mapping then see how using it works over time.
Not sure I like the functionality, but it may be a Drupal issue and not an ActivityPub module issue.
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