I (like many people) have been paying more and more attention to distributed social networks over the past several weeks. For the uninitiated, these networks (hereafter referred to as “the Fediverse”) are individual instances running software which communicate with each other over standard protocols (mostly ActivityPub). A user on one instance can follow and interact with users on other instances in a mostly-transparent way, somewhat similarly to e-mail. The general philosophy, I think, seems sound: by decentralizing things, you reduce the influence — and potential damage — of any one entity.

I’m new to fediverse. For a long time I assumed it would be possible to have a single identity separate from the ActivityPub instance I’m using and tried to figure out what am I missing. Recently, I figured out that it was not the case. People generally have multiple accounts for interacting with different aspects of fediverse. It still bothers me a bit. So I did a search and found this note from 2018 that summarizes my thoughts very well.

I’m wondering if there are others thinking about this, or having multiple accounts has been accepted as the “correct” way of interacting with fediverse?

I think separating identity from the instances would really be a step forward, but as I said, I’m new to this and maybe there are things I don’t understand?

  • Resolved3874@lemdro.idEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Yeah that’s true. Just feels different when it’s a company and not potentially some random person in their basement.

    • shrugal@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      That’s why picking the right instances is important, to make sure it’s not some random person in their basement. Read the about pages of the instances, see what they publish about their operations. The people behind the .world instances regularly blog about what they are doing, spending and earning for example. Some are even run by non-profits. I personally feel much better with those kinds of people running a service I rely on, instead of a company that talks to me only through their marketing department and first and foremost wants to maximize profits.

      But that’s also exactly my point. You should be able to transfer your account to another instance, so you’re not stuck if the one you picked turns out to be bad or has to be shut down.