I heard often about activityPub being challenging to implement.

Now I know part of this is because, if you are building on activityPub, you want interop with existing platforms such as mastodon, and they do their own thing.

But ignoring that aspect, what is so hard about activityPub? What could have been done better?

I am a software developer, so feel free to use software dev concepts and terms when explaining. Thanks!

  • RobotToasterEnglish
    10·
    13 days ago

    the protocol doesn’t define how to ensure activities propagate to every server.

    Outboxes are kinda that, but as I understand it mastodon’s implementation is deliberately defective.

    • Skull giver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nlEnglish
      9·
      13 days ago

      They do describe well how “I post something on your timeline” works, but details on “someone else boosted a like on my timeline and I want to inform your server” isn’t as clear.

      Lemmy posting boosts of every single activity to every following server is one way to get every server synchronised, but it feels a little like abusing side effects rather than using the protocol as designed.