this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2025
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The Fediverse has been around for over 15 years now. In order for one app/server to talk to another, they need to support the same protocol. Mastodon and Lemmy (and Pixelfed and many others) use a protocol called ActivityPub. Since they both use it, you can actually reply to Lemmy comments using Mastodon.
Not all of the Fediverse uses ActivityPub though. For example, the original Fediverse apps like Identica and StatusNet used Activity Streams or OStatus instead. ActivityPub didn't exist yet.
AT Protocol is another protocol, created specifically for Bluesky, although there's no reason other apps couldn't use it, once Bluesky actually enable decentralization.
It does have some useful features that ActivityPub doesn't have, like identity portability - you can move a profile from one server to another without having to change username or refollow everyone. AT Protocol lets you use your own domain name as your username, even if you don't host your own instance. With Mastodon and Lemmy, your identity is tightly coupled to the instance you use (i.e. an account on
Lemmy.worldis always going to have@lemmy.worldat the end), which makes it a pain to move to a different one.It's worth pointing out that while ActivityPub doesn't currently support account migration (although there are proposals in the works for how to do this), Mastodon does have a weak form of support right now.
You can create a new account on another mastodon instance, then you're able to point your old account to your new account.
Interesting, I hadn't heard of that. Does everyone who's following the old account automatically refollow you when you do that?
IMO it'd still be useful to be able to use an identity you control, like a domain name. I'll have to find those proposals you mentioned.
It doesn't port over any old comments/posts, but I'm pretty sure that when anyone @'s you, it's forwarded to the new account.
Mastodon already does this
That's only for showing a domain on your profile. What I meant is using a domain as your username, so if you own
example.comand used that as your username people would mention you by writing@example.com. A DNS record delegates the domain to the right server.Thanks, this is the first time I've seen this explained!