Thanks for your comment, I'm responding from a different account because the editor is better here. ;-)
I’d just like to see RSS stand alongside ActivityPub, so we can build systems according to the capabilities of each.
I think Mastodon by having native support for RSS 2.0 did the right thing. Very important.
We have RSS 2.0 support in Bluesky thanks to John Spurlock’s work. I worked with him on it and it represents how far I’d go now considering it’s 2023 and we’re in the process of building the open social network we could have built years ago and didn’t because social media lived inside corporate silos.
An example…
https://rss.firesky.tv/?filter=from:scripting.com
I’ve asked Bluesky to build this into the platform, and I’d like Mastodon to add the new features to their implementation.
This could be done in a few weeks and we’d have significant interop now. A basis for a lot of new building, in early 2024, on our timetable, rather than Facebook's. I don't like how much attention they're getting, how the open community is looking to them to ratify the open system. This feels wrong.
I would totally expect work to continue around ActivityPub. These are different things, on a different track.
Independent developers would be empowered to create new open systems in a way we’ve never been able to before.
PS: This was written quickly on my iPad in front of the tv on a Saturday night so please forgive any typos and repetition, and I probably left one or two things out too.
@dave "how the open community is looking to [Facebook] to ratify the open system. This feels wrong." This puts words to my feelings, thank you!
@darius — it’s so wrong. Glad you see it too.
there wasn't much of a context.
i was somehow cc'd because (i think) evan was saying something about RSS, speculating how it could do what ActivityPub was doing and what it's strengths and weaknesses would be.
I wanted to say that wasn't necessary, each protocol has its advantages.
the advantage of RSS is that it's well-understood, there are lots of apps that support it, and it can be implemented in days or weeks.
in fact mastodon has already implemented it.
i'm going to publish a list of all the people i follow in bluesky via their RSS feeds, as a reading list that people can subscribe to in FeedLand, or any other reader that can subscribe to OPML lists (the standard for exchanging addresses in the RSS world).
how did i do this? because we have built RSS support for Bluesky.
we can have a bunch of the benefits of federation right now, and without any need for facebook's support.
we should work with each other, in other words, is what i was saying to evan and others.
i've seen this happen over and over, everyone wants to work with the big company, when history has shown they would have done better to work with each other.
you may hope the big company has good intentions, but they're a big company and they honestly don't have very much respect for us. i've had my nose rubbed in this for my whole career. it was amazing how much better they listened when i had a Harvard business card. ;-)
that's the context.