This is a core issue with ActivityPub, one that I noticed myself when I started working with it. Unless a server is setup to keep a user’s private marked posts completely off the ActivityPub feed, they’re accessible within it to any script that ignores the opt-out request.

My personal example was setting up wordpress to interact with a Mastodon instance, and suddenly finding private conversations published from Mastodon to my wordpress site that weren’t visible to me at all on Mastodon.

Needless to say, that gave me pause about building anything with the protocol until I really understand the access control behind publishing, because even instance owners don’t seem to fully grasp it themselves.

I say somewhat - it really depends on which server you’re on, because that defines the initial community that will be immediately available to you. There’s also plenty of mods and admins that have very pronounced political views and will exercise their power according to them.

I’ve found that the discussion is better here, although slower, and there are far fewer bots and trolls (although Fediverse trolls tend to be heartier and more persistent than their Reddit cousins).

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It’s an amazing tool if only one person is updating / maintaining the file. The moment collaboration starts, you’re all fucked. I’m currently maintaining one that I inherited that is at least 10 years old and comes with a 50 page instruction manual on how to run it every month… that then gets posted to a shared drive where anyone can edit.

And then the rest of the month is spent explaining to the end users how they fucked it up this time.

On the flip side, I’ve also built sheets that could parse data between Nav, MySQL, and SQL ERP systems with tables of over 5million rows each on a single button refresh that ran flawlessly for years… because I was the only maintainer and the sheets were locked from accepting changes from other users.

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Counterpoint - if you must rely on AI, you have to constantly exercise your critical thinking skills to parse through all its bullshit, or AI will eventually Darwin your ass when it tells you that bleach and ammonia make a lemon cleanser to die for.