Emelia

Said something interesting to a friend today when they asked about different open social web protocols. It might be a little bit controversial, but:

I think that ActivityPub is decentralized in principle, whereas AT Protocol is decentralized in practice. 🧵

Oh dear lord, I knew it was bad, but didn't know it was this bad: hackers.pub/@fedify/2026...

(I've mostly just contributed to activitypub projects that already existed, so didn't usually need to experience these specific pains)

Why implementing ActivityPub is hard, and why it doesn't have to be

Implementing the ActivityPub protocol from scratch introduces massive technical hurdles, including fragmented signature standards, unpredictable JSON-LD document variations, complex distributed system...

I actually made it!

Boris @bmann.ca

A selection of the meetup crew tonight in Berlin, with some travellers passing through.

W Social, never short on amusing failures: blog.elenarossini.com/w-social-a-b...

W Social: a Broken Ghost Town?

W Social has been experiencing major technical problems for over a week: it is effectively a ghost town, filled with thousands of new accounts that cannot use the platform.

I'm pretty sure LinkedIn is just lying at this point, unless there's something I don't know?

It's kinda nice to see all my AT Protocol friends signing up on a server on the fediverse that I did a significant amount of work on (I used to be on the Hachyderm Infrastructure team)

It was really interesting playing with a beta of this over the weekend, and for research & information gathering on ATP it's a game changer

Jay 🦋 @jay.bsky.team

This week, we’re introducing Quests, an interactive research and exploration tool for the Atmosphere. You can ask Attie to pull information about trending topics, identify influential accounts in a particular field, or create a personalized daily briefing.

Introducing Quests

We're introducing Quests in Attie, an interactive research and exploration tool for the Atmosphere, as well as a redesign.

I think what I really want on articles from @standard.site on @bsky.app is a "add to reading list" with an app that emails me once a week with what I've saved to read. I don't want subscriptions. Maybe an integration with like standard reader? Or similar?

Reply to @thisismissem.social

Whereas AT Protocol is decentralized in practice because your data is stored on your PDS, and you can always move your data, even without the PDS's cooperation, because the data is all signed by an identity that the PDS does not control or at least, can have alternative control.

Reply to @thisismissem.social

In today's Fediverse, there are multiple servers running the exact same sort of software, and they share messages between each other. Which is great, but the problem is that your account and all your data is anchored to a specific server.

Reply

Min reviewers should probably also include agentic reviewers, but often code review is not just about code structure & style in just that code but how it relates to other code & projects and product roadmaps

Going to start trying to share little tech things I learn from time to time with this blog, so no long form, just short little snippets.

This "leaf computing" talk is super interesting! www.jeremiahlee.com/posts/leaf-c...

by @jeremiahlee.bsky.social (I think)

Introducing Leaf Computing

The leaf software architecture keeps users in control with local execution and data storage, autonomous functionality, and federated interoperability.

Reply to @thisismissem.social

I just thought this was kind of interesting as a comparison between the two protocols. It is maybe a spicy take.

Personally, I would rather my data be portable and that I can use whatever apps I want, compared to having my account tied to a specific server.

In which Emelia continues to be a power tool lesbian (that's a thing right??)

Mark Zuckerberg once again being the leader in creepy non-consensual shit.

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app

“As part of this update, public Instagram profiles are now automatically opted into being fodder for generative AI remixes. All someone has to do is tag your account’s profile in a prompt—if it’s public—and they can use Meta AI to generate an image using your likeness.”

Meta Now Lets Anyone Use Your Instagram Photos in AI Images—Unless You Opt Out

As part of Meta’s Muse Image model rollout, Instagram users with public accounts need to opt out to block AI generations of their content.

This doesn't make sense until you look at tokens as a financial instrument and open router as essentially an exchange or stock market for AI essentially (maybe more like a brokerage firm), in which case it fits with Stripe trying the same thing with crypto without explicitly becoming a C2C exchange

We should be tackling the harms instead of restricting people's access and freedom. Many teens are able to use social media today to find community where they otherwise couldn't, and that's important.

Depriving the next generation of social participation until they're adults isn't the way to go.

The Good Lobby @thegoodlobby.wsocial.eu

📲How old should you be to open a social media account? Depends which EU country you live in. 🧒Child safety online shouldn't be a lottery of geography. It's time for a coordinated EU approach. 📄 Source: Report of the Special Panel on Child Safety Online (July 2026)

Reply to @thisismissem.social

As far as applications go, for AT Protocol, we can of course host multiple copies of the applications, but we don't necessarily need to, it's a choice to. Applications can interact directly with the PDS, or they can work through a relay or some other shared infrastructure.

Wrote a little something about timelines and expectations. It's definitely a rambling this one.

On the need for speed

Today's society tends to expect everything on their own timeline, ignorant of what other's timelines may look like.

I've just seen for the first time what @bad-example.com looks like in person, and somehow they look exactly like what I would expect from their work.

Reply to @thisismissem.social

The thing about operating within a federated network is that you've gotta communicate with others, not just pretend you've been doing so.

(As Elena notes: this sort of rate limiting issue isn't unique to AT Protocol, but can be present on all federated networks)

Had something rare happen the other day: I showed someone a package I'd previously written and said it needed some updating to work with the latest framework version, and like two hours later they sent me a pull request & it's looking good

Reply to @thisismissem.social

Addendum 2: "but what about did:plc??", well, firstly, it's a Swiss Association with multiple members (and everything's being moved there), secondly, there's did:web and it's fully supported (though lacks some of the identity proof features — hopefully we start supporting did:webvh in the future)