NodeBB-ActivityPub Bridge Test Instance

@miscosicas I've been a victim of identity theft, and this "cloning" be it without or within the Fediverse, is not even close to the real deal. And I've been a victim as well of people talking about me without knowing it, because they took a screenshot of what I said, _privately_ at that, and posted it elsewhere I didn't know until someone told me.

My only options were (a) ignore it (a.k.a. don't feed the trolls); (b) sue them; and/or (c) make a statement.

Evil people, and people who hates us for some reason only them knows, will always find ways to make our lives miserable. Been there, a lot of times. But here I am, still using social networks and believes in #BringDownTheWalls and #BuildBridgesNotWalls since 2008 when the Fediverse first went online.

Right now, there's no one solution that won't affect the innocents just because of some undesirables. Personally, the innocents far outweighs those undesirables.

@BeAware

@miscosicas It doesn't matter if it is without or within the Fediverse network, the process is the same, you have a "cloned" profile.

Also, not every Fediverse account shows up on the NOSTRich network. Like how it is in the Fediverse network, you won't show up unless someone follows your account. It doesn't even work 100% of the time, there are accounts that just won't work.

Besides, again, anything you post publicly is public. Yes, it is true and understandable that there will be conversations that you won't be able to track. But that is happening even here in the Fediverse network!

Anyone can just take a screenshot of your public post (or a private post if you have a follower who hates you for some reason), and post it somewhere on the Internet and say all sorts of things about you. That's just how it is. An evil person will find ways to make your life and mine miserable.

So, blaming the technology because of some undesirables, is no different from blowing up the bridge connecting Canada and the USA because some undesirables are using that bridge to cross over. Innocents will be affected. There will be uncounted collateral damages.

Right now, the best is to just block the undesirables as they come, not the entire tool.

But if your instance chooses to block the entire tool, then good for you. (But bad for others in your instance if they want to use it.)

Don't hate the technology.

Besides, people complained about Bridgy and Threads. The minority yet loud voices forced Bridgy to implement opt-in, while a similar minority and loud voices "fediblock" Threads. Why not do the same for Mostr, Eclipse, Momostr, and every Nostr bridge out there? What's the standard for such different approaches?

@BeAware

If you're in the #Fediverse social network your profile is "cloned" in every instance that has seen your content at least once.

If someone is following your account on a specific instance, every single post from that first follower are also "cloned" (sometimes it fails too).

If someone searches for your old post—those you made before someone followed you on that instance—it will also be "cloned".

Even the Mastodon software itself works that way.

Some Fediverse software also have a public Atom/RSS feed for the entire instance and for each account where PUBLIC content are, well, viewable publicly.

By having an account on the Fediverse social network, you actually gave permission to be "cloned" because that's how it actually works.

You don't like how it works? You have the following options:
a. Go back to any walled networks like Twitter and Facebook.
b. Move to Threads but do not turn-on Federation (it's an opt-in feature).
c. Build your own social network software and platform.
d. Fork whichever Fediverse software you like and delete the ActivityPub features.
e. Live with it.
f. Try to suggest an opt-in feature for your favourite Fediverse software, like how Threads is doing it. (Or, just move to Threads, see option B above)
g. Instead of opt-in, suggest an opt-out feature and ensure it is available during the on-boarding process.
h. An allowlist feature where an account can select which instances they want to federate. (Which will probably make it less taxing on instances, too?)

I think options G and H are the best.

The default is 100% federation. Accounts can choose to opt-out entirely from federation (option G), or create their own allowlist (option H).

Yeah, both options G and H is win-win-win. But that's up to the software your instance is using if they want to implement it.

(I think there were a few forks before with option G? Not sure what happened to them, it's a rarely talked feature because it defeats the purpose of an Open #SocialWeb.)

@miscosicas By using any ActivityPub powered instance, you granted explicit permission for your account to be "cloned".

@BeAware

@miscosicas Umm, that's how ActivityPub itself works! It creates a "cloned" profile! If that's your reasoning, then it means every single instance that follows ActivityPub should be defederated.

Your profile, right now, has been "cloned" by every ActivityPub server, containing posts that they've seen since you appeared on their server.

@BeAware

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