Another way to be part of the fediverse/ActivityPub

I’ve been thinking of ActivityPub more as an extra layer for existing websites to become “social,” eliminating the middleman (like Twitter, for example), rather than a direct replacement for social networks like Twitter. Instead of posting on a blog and then writing a tweet (to follow the example) announcing the blog post, the blog post itself is published directly to the timelines of those who follow you on Twitter. This is impossible on Twitter/X, but perfectly feasible with ActivityPub.

The idea of larger instances than just a handful of people who know each other, where you adhere to the admins’ decisions (and emotions), tends to lead to drama. Just look at the Fosstodon case, or the various conflicts led by Mastodon.art (tell me about a troublemaking crowd!) or among Brazilian instances since… forever?

What would such an alternative approach look like, where ActivityPub is “sprinkled” over an existing site instead of being a destination in itself?

You don’t have to look far for an example, because you’re in one. With the awesome WordPress plugin, this Manual do Usuário has become its own instance, findable in the fediverse at @feed@manualdousuario.net. Posts and podcasts are propagated through the fediverse, and comments made there appear here. And perhaps most importantly: zero #fedidrama.

And it goes further. It’s possible to create user profiles within WordPress using the ActivityPub plugin. This feature is still experimental and relies on additional plugins, but it already works — and there are people using it. Support for migrating profiles from Mastodon started to be implemented in version 5.3.0. In the future, who knows, I might migrate my personal profile over here…?