I’ll elaborate on my thoughts further in my reply below, but I’m keen to hear what everyone thinks of this concept

  • bmaxv@noc.social
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    2 years ago

    @ajsadauskas My impression is that people stay on those platforms because they want to. Moving the entire network from those to fediverse one is something they have to decide.

    It’s something that surprised me when I looked into #linux development, different groups hardly even use the same kind of medium. E.g. mailing lists, forums, custom bug tracker… Those were chosen for individual reasons that haven’t changed.

    The fragmentation goes through the fabric of groups, not just their output.

    • AJ Sadauskas@aus.social
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      2 years ago

      @bmaxv A number of the most popular platforms (Discourse, bbPress, phpBB, etc) are FOSS.

      My thinking is if ActivityPub support were added, at least in theory communities that already use that software could open up discussions on their forums to the Fediverse.

      I’m wondering if any of them are/are open to working on it?

      • Randy Resnick@fosstodon.org
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        2 years ago

        @ajsadauskas @bmaxv as someone who frequented these niche forums extensively, i don’t see any reason to connect or federate them. This is done loosely by someone sharing from one to another, which could be to Mastodon. The spécialisation of sites like saxontheweb or electric heaters is the main attraction. Federating them would result in an unwanted dilution IMO.

        • AJ Sadauskas@aus.social
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          2 years ago

          @randulo @bmaxv True, although I guess if it’s a niche specialist discussion, it would most likely remain a niche specialist discussion on the Fediverse.

          The advantages would be that specialists who might not participate directly in the forum could join in some of the conversations, and it would be interoperable with other Fediverse tools (potentially things like PeerTube videos and such).