It's even worse than it appears..
Thursday April 4, 2024; 10:37 AM EDT
Understanding AP and RSS#
  • What does ActivityPub does that RSS doesn't?#
  • Off the top of my head, it's not the ability to syndicate, RSS already does that. I can follow anyone on any server. #
  • I think it's the timeline? And the ability to delete posts. Keeping all that in sync is a lot of work, and presumably a lot of traffic? #
  • Also replies. If I reply to a post when viewing it on another server, the reply should show up under any other view of that post.#
  • What else??#
  • PS: Only thinking about features that are used by Mastodon to federate, not potential future features. If that were the rule, then RSS could do anything AP could do, right -- because you can always add the feature. So, just the features that are in use.#
  • PPS: I posted this on Mastodon and may post it elsewhere, if I do I'll link them in here. #

© copyright 1994-2024 Dave Winer.

Last update: Thursday April 4, 2024; 11:11 PM EDT.

You know those obnoxious sites that pop up dialogs when they think you're about to leave, asking you to subscribe to their email newsletter? Well that won't do for Scripting News readers who are a discerning lot, very loyal, but that wouldn't last long if I did rude stuff like that. So here I am at the bottom of the page quietly encouraging you to sign up for the nightly email. It's got everything from the previous day on Scripting, plus the contents of the linkblog and who knows what else we'll get in there. People really love it. I wish I had done it sooner. And every email has an unsub link so if you want to get out, you can, easily -- no questions asked, and no follow-ups. Go ahead and do it, you won't be sorry! :-)