@benpate@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Sorry Google. It's not me, it's you. Yeah, you've made the go-to web browser for years now, but I'll have to take my chances elsewhere. When you tried to installing a 4GB AI model on my machine without asking me, I had to finally draw the line. So tonight I'm 100% chrome free for the first time in years. Let's see what it does to my laptop battery life :) #enshitification

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Boosted by @tchambers@indieweb.social

I'm so excited for this next year on the #Fediverse. And the more I learn, the more I think #BridgyFed is going to become a foundational part of our network. I just posted my first messages from #Emissary across Bridgy to my account on BlueSky. I still have some things to fix (on my end, not theirs) but it worked. IT WORKED. NGL, I feel a little like Morpheus right now. And just think of what it will mean for every account set up on #Bandwagon...

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate@mastodon.social

· 2mo ago

Boosted by @_elena@mastodon.social

So, what would “Better Safety Tooling” on the Fediverse look like? And, what would meaningfully help the Fediverse to serve more people? — Tagging @laurenshof@indieweb.social because you had some interesting insights I’d LOVE for you to expand on :)

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate@mastodon.social

· 2mo ago

A developer in Korea just built a Fediverse server that runs directly on CloudFlare. /r/fediverse users responded: "this is cancer" "you are a horrible person" ??? Can you please help me with a genuine question: what would make the #Fediverse a more welcoming place? Yes, humans are just grumpy sometimes. But a real solution can't just be more HOA members reading the rules at the door. What do YOU think would make a difference here?

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate@mastodon.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@thisismissem@hachyderm.io Yeah, I'm noticing that more and more. Nothing is able to pass the purity tests. Nobody is good enough. So, doing ANYTHING means we're going to berate you for it. I try to avoid going straight to the conspiracy theories, but it makes a lot of sense. No better way to discredit something than "false flag"

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate@mastodon.social

· 3mo ago

#Emissary is currently undergoing its first colonoscopy - a full QA scan by a third-party QA company..

I've done these in the past with other software. They're always informative, always make the software better, and are always a tremendous pain in the ass to fix.

When the anesthesia wears off, I'm gonna need a cookie.

mastodon.social

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate@mastodon.social

· 3mo ago

Bandwagon in the news!

https://www.kuketz-blog.de/graswurzel-musik-plattformen-spotify-alternativen-teil-4/

kuketz-blog.de

Graswurzel-Musik-Plattformen – Spotify-Alternativen Teil 4

Streamen, Hören und Teilen per Privatkopie: Wir testen Drittanbieter-Tools (vor allem für YouTube) auf Funktionalität und Datenschutz.

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate@mastodon.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

Agreed :) I’m a software developer, not a social scientist. And though my bias is to turn everything into a technical problem, I doubt there’s a way to “change culture” AND give people freedom at the same time. I’m on the hunt for tools that make it easy to behave like a functioning adult who’s gone to therapy, and make it hard to behave like a goblin with a megaphone. @johannab@cosocial.ca @thisismissem@hachyderm.io

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate@mastodon.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@mro@digitalcourage.social On the surface, this makes a lot of sense. But consider: “distributed” doesn’t mean “distributed, but only on small ISPs” I say Fedi everywhere - even on the “bad” platforms. If it gives people the chance to learn about the Fediverse, it’s a win. - More importantly: you’re welcome to disagree, ignore my posts, or even block me if you don’t agree with my choices. But the haters do damage to the Fediverse when they escalate from blocks to attacks and insults.

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Boosted by @tchambers@indieweb.social

I'm looking forward to giving everyone a demo of #E2EE at #FediForum. If I can get enough done, I open up a beta for people who attend. I'm going to call this the @jaz@toot.wales screen:

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate@mastodon.social

· 3mo ago

Boosted by @fedicat@pc.cafe

Hello @HolosSocial@mastodon.social 👋🏻 We are talking about you over in the E2EE group messaging discussion - specifically about your “Follow a Note” proposal for Holos. https://github.com/swicg/activitypub-e2ee/issues/56#issuecomment-4780657551 Your design may solve one of the big issues we are having with the spec for private, encrypted groups, so I am hoping you can take a look at our conversation and weigh in on this idea. And, if everyone likes where this goes, we might publish it as an FEP for everyone to implement 🤘🏻

GitHub

Maintaining ordering in the group conversation · Issue #56 · swicg/activitypub-e2ee

Ordering is very important in MLS. We need to have a way to have an official ordering.

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate@mastodon.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@laurenshof@indieweb.social Not radical, and you're not alone in that view. There's *something else* that defines communities here, and servers are just a coarse approximation.

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate@mastodon.social

· 2mo ago

Boosted by @tchambers@indieweb.social

Replying to

Not comprehensive, but I have some things to say about this at #FOSSY / #fedicon2026 @zzepposs@chaos.social @tchambers@indieweb.social @deadsuperhero@social.wedistribute.org

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

If you haven't already read "The Death of Spotify" check it out -> https://joelgouveia.substack.com/p/the-death-of-spotify-why-streaming

(Jimmy) Iovine put it bluntly: “The streaming services have a bad situation, there’s no margins, they’re not making any money.”

Let's all celebrate with a single tear 💧

joelgouveia.substack.com

The Death of Spotify: Why Streaming is Minutes Away From Being Obsolete

Jimmy Iovine just called the Death of Spotify. He might be right.

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

WeDistribute is back at it with another comprehensive run down of where we are as a technology. Great work as always, guys.

And thanks for the checklist. Now I know what I’m doing this summer.
https://wedistribute.org/2026/04/the-seven-deadly-fediverse-ux-sins-a-redemption-report-card/

We Distribute

The Seven Deadly Fediverse UX Sins: A Redemption Report Card - We Distribute

Six months after an initial analysis, two Fediverse experts come back to examine where user experience has changed. Are we on the path of redemption, or repeating the same old sins?

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate@mastodon.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@laurenshof@indieweb.social I love this line of thought. Thank you! So far, I've naively assumed two boundaries: server (chosen by admins/mods) and user (my own personal blocklists) But that doesn't really follow the way our natural communities cross-cut the Fediverse, does it?

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate@mastodon.social

· 4mo ago

Replying to

Thank you for the reminder! I do want to come to Berlin FediDay. I’ll need to get my travel plans together in June or July :) @sl007@digitalcourage.social @berlinfediday@berlin.social @clemensg@digitalcourage.social

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@dansup@mastodon.social @Mastodon@mastodon.social There is so much exciting stuff happening in the Fediverse right now. You rock, Dan 🤘🏻

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@julian @reiver@mastodon.social I did a bunch of outreach early on… then nothing. Then WordPress, Loops and @webintents@mastodon.social. Omg! Mastodon was a surprise to me, but that’s the biggest win, for sure. It will mean “remote servers” can realistically start using Activity Intents. And I just got this from Friendica: https://github.com/friendica/friendica/pull/15683

GitHub

Issue 14829: FEP-3b86: Activity Intents by annando · Pull Request #15683 · friendica/friendica

Fixes #14829

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate@mastodon.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@golemwire Great points, thank you :) Isolation breeds extremism (in either political direction) and the Fediverse does represent a certain amount of isolation.

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate@mastodon.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

I've been checking out your project. It looks fantastic! I especially like the idea of a "small server for a small group." It's a perfect use case for this tech :) Keep up the good work. And, if you come up with any really great ways to handle the trolls, please share them with the rest of us? @toddsundsted@epiktistes.com @mro@digitalcourage.social

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate@mastodon.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

Yeah, you’re spot on. And identifying as victim/refugees probably helps fuel their behavior. I think we’ve all bumped into them here. And hey, haters get to have opinions, too. I just try to identify them quickly, then mute or block liberally. How do you handle them? Any suggestions? @toddsundsted@epiktistes.com @mro@digitalcourage.social

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@reiver@mastodon.social This is even more reason for us to include actual REST interactions in ActivityStreams objects, where each object told you what kinds of interactions you can do with it. Imagine #SpaceMonkey auto rendering activity buttons, too. I don’t mean “stuff it into JSON and call it REST” that the kids are snorting these days. More like: “OG Roy Fielding” “Hypertext As The Engine Of Application State” REST, that includes a manifest of activities you can perform / buttons you can click.

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

In my quest to make the Fediverse better and get off of corporate social media, I am now… signing up for Tumblr? This is not going the direction I anticipated 😬 @strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz @deutrino@mstdn.io @bengo@mastodon.social @smallcircles@social.coop @EUCommission@ec.social-network.europa.eu @nlnet@social.nlnet.nl

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

My E2EE speed demo is on Tuesday (day 1) so I’ll probably have to do an E2EE session then. But that leaves Wednesday and Thursday for other stuff like geosocial. @johannab @fediforum @julian

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@johannab @fediforum Let's do it! There is so much great stuff happening on the Fediverse right now, it's pretty hard to keep up.

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

I'd like to add that: the initials for "Sales and Marketing" are "S&M" and that can't be a coincidence. I'm happy to NOT relive my days doing sales and marketing. I'm sure you are, too. But onboarding people is more than a technology problem. We can't expect success if the initial hurdles are so damned high (as they are today). If we want to advocate for new people to join this network, we'll need to meet them where they are. @smallcircles@social.coop @EUCommission@ec.social-network.europa.eu @nlnet@social.nlnet.nl

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

We're probably just looking at two loosely related issues. I'm answering @smallcircles@social.coop's statement about Fediverse servers "rescuing" people from other platforms. Yes, you and I are already plugged in to all of the techie tools. But we can't expect regular people to be all in on day one. They may not immediately choose a platform, pick an instance, sign up, install the app, and so on. We need to make a smooth path for people to walk. @bengo@strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz @EUCommission@ec.social-network.europa.eu @nlnet@social.nlnet.nl

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

Very true. That’s a great case for each person controlling their own identity/experiemce/etc. I’m fascinated how different people can look at the same evidence and take away such different conclusions. I usually see apps as a kind of lock in. Someone’s more likely to find you on the open web first, then MAYBE “convert” and upgrade to your app. I totally see your point too (esp regarding security) but there are so many paths up the mountain. @bengo@mastodon.social @smallcircles@social.coop @strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz @EUCommission@ec.social-network.europa.eu @nlnet@social.nlnet.nl

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@bengo@mastodon.social … that maybe showing “like” counts and other “engagement” stats isn’t a good thing. It’s counterintuitive for software designers trained on surfacing as much data as possible, but it’s probably true.

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@movim@piaille.fr This sounds amazing. Well done, you all! And, thank you for putting so much thought and care into building a great open source tool. You’re really making a difference.

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@nuwagaba2@mastodon.social I’m on a Mac, and just default Safari has been all I’ve needed for years. I usually have Firefox and Chrome installed for testing (and lazy websites) I’ve played with a few alternates, but none was ever different enough for me to switch until Zen. I think I’m slowly migrating to that. And I keep hearing good things about Helium, so I’ll have to try that when I get some free time. It’s awesome seeing all this innovation in browsers again. It’s time for a new browser war!

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@wjmaggos@liberal.city Thought you'd want to know: Interledger is echoing this idea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwu8ELIa8B0 A year or two ago, this was a cool idea that lacked the global infrastructure to pull it off. Today, it seems more doable. On a single site, I could see this working easily - Spotify and Medium do this now. Cross site? Figuring out the federation will be key. More to come, for sure...

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@wojtek@social.vivaldi.net For sure. I don't expect to hang out with the guys from Metallica And if we're being thorough, a lot of musicians have said Iovine is a horrible person, so there's that But there's a nugget of truth here. When I went to Tower Records and bought a CD, I felt a connection with that specific band. I looked for them; chose them On a stream, the music comes and goes. There's no attachment ~ except perhaps to Spotify itself. And platforms shouldn't get between artists and their communities

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@tchambers@indieweb.social I had this conversation with some people (IRL!) two days ago. ActivityPub is the tech for me.. for a dozen reasons. But Bridgy makes the distinction moot. Pick the setup that works for you, then bridge to our neighbors across the way.

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

Yeah, the new work on ActivityPub is encouraging. Will this be a version 2.1? Or something bigger like a 3.0? For me, the biggest opportunities might be to pull some of the FEPs into the spec, for instance, blessing some of the Threadiverse work as the official way to handle groups and discussions. Is is possible that some FEPs might make their ways into the specs? @evan@cosocial.ca @strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz @smallcircles@social.coop @deutrino@mstdn.io @bengo@mastodon.social

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

Very cool. It's perfectly reasonable, and what I expected was probably the goal. Thank you :) @evan@cosocial.ca @strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz @smallcircles@social.coop @deutrino@mstdn.io @bengo@mastodon.social

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

Long term, no. It's not the best outcome. But this is the difference between thinking like a "tech person" and thinking like a "sales person" (excuse by rough analogy) Relationships are a journey. They start with a loose commitment, then slowly build trust over time and ratchet up the customer's investment in the product. Super-secure apps may be the end goal, but you won't get there without the initial state: discovery via the open web. @smallcircles@social.coop @strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz @EUCommission@ec.social-network.europa.eu @nlnet@social.nlnet.nl @bengo@mastodon.social

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

Good point Ben. And there’s a delicate balance of giving people something good and unique vs. something they’re familiar with and will use Remember, nobody can force you to use the Fediverse, so our tools have to meet people where they are. It’s like weaning an addict off of cigarettes, or sugar. @bengo@mastodon.social @smallcircles@social.coop @strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz @EUCommission@ec.social-network.europa.eu @nlnet@social.nlnet.nl

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate@mastodon.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@crumbleneedy@aus.social Yep. I completely agree. ✅ No tolerance for intolerance ✅ Loud, forceful exclusion policy for all kinds of bad actors. ❌ Genocides It seems like you might be joining in good faith, so I'll try to engage. But let's be civil - I blocked a bunch of people yesterday who were only interested in speed-running Godwin's Law. Is there a way to do all of the above in a way that doesn't alienate the ignorant masses who aren't so finely tuned to the subtleties of online hate?

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate@mastodon.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

I love this. It’s like, sure interview your customers to see what kinds of stuff they like buying. But the GOLD would be talking to the people who passed by your store and DIDN’T come in. @johannab@cosocial.ca @scottjenson@social.coop @thisismissem@hachyderm.io

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate@mastodon.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@jdp23@neuromatch.social This would be wonderful, but in any large group, relying on norms, training, and education is not enough. Human nature is universal, and bullies (of all backgrounds) are going to use the tools we give them regardless of culture. So saying “people just need to act right” means we’ll be waiting forever. I *do* appreciate your other note, with an actionable list of tools we can make. Because this isn’t a technology problem, but that’s the only place we can actually make change.

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate@mastodon.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

I’m with you all the way, here. Let’s say we DO evolve our tools. What would they look like when we’re done? @johannab@cosocial.ca @scottjenson@social.coop @thisismissem@hachyderm.io

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

No, you can use it any way you want.

But however YOU use it, Mastodon (et al) will still treat it like a "boost".

I'm pretty sure that's why the Threadiverse groups use Add -> Collection semantics instead of Announce. Otherwise, every item in a group would look (to Mastodon) like it had been shared 1000 times.

@strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz @smallcircles@social.coop @evan@cosocial.ca @deutrino@mstdn.io @bengo@mastodon.social

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

Honestly, I'm not super familiar with Tumlbr. Could you point me to an example of this in action? We are limited (to a degree) by some design choices made in ActivityPub long ago. "Likes", "Boosts", and "Replies" are all separate things that are hard (but perhaps not impossible) to combine into a single unit. @deutrino@mstdn.io @bengo@mastodon.social @smallcircles@social.coop @strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz @EUCommission@ec.social-network.europa.eu @nlnet@social.nlnet.nl

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate@mastodon.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@johannab@cosocial.ca @scottjenson@social.coop @thisismissem@hachyderm.io This really gets to the heart of things. When we deal online with anonymous avatars, there’s a danger, and unknown that increases everyone’s anxiety. Compare that to talking to people you’ve met in person even once, or shared a few video conferences with. The nature of this medium pushes people into a stress position.. so every interaction starts off guarded.

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate@mastodon.social

· 1w ago

Replying to

Noted! https://github.com/EmissarySocial/bandwagon/issues/250 @dansup@mastodon.social @deadsuperhero@social.wedistribute.org

GitHub

Download Songs · Issue #250 · EmissarySocial/bandwagon

Per https://mastodon.social/@dansup/117319822559408112 This should probably be a setting on the album -- to allow downloads or now.

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate@mastodon.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to on activitypub.space

@julian This is a fantastic visualization. I haven't detailed it well in the early draft, but this is where I'm heading. You might implicitly endorse your server's account. Servers might endorse each other (after some vetting process). The scenario you described would make me your 3rd-level endorsement (to temporarily use LinkedIn vocabulary). Then after we go out for beers at FOSSY, we might endorse each other as 1st-level contacts. Others could use that as a stronger signal of who to trust.

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Ben Pate 🤘🏻 @benpate@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

Each of those shows up in the Bicabulary specs, but they’re also in a bit of a gray area. “InReplyTo” is a standard field, but Threadiverse conversations have extended this a lot. I think “Boosts” are similar. Semantically an “Announce”, the original docs envision a much wider use, though Mastodon et al use it so much for sharing, that’s it’s de facto behavior now. @strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz @smallcircles@social.coop @evan@cosocial.ca @deutrino@mstdn.io @bengo@mastodon.social

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