And as such I have to admit I was initially baffled where federation(activity pub) enters into the equation. as forums don't really need federation.
But was stuck in the mental model of the web forum, I think what is going on is that this is more like usenet, the ur forum, which is pretty cool.
So activity pub is the common language of a federated system sort of like smtp is the common language of a federated system. or html is the common language of a federated system(html is strange however as it's transport model is inverted compared to the others, it moves the user to the message rather than the message to the user)
The reason federated systems work is the same reason capitalism works, and not incidentally the reason federated systems don't work is the reason capitalism does not work. my conclusion is that capitalism is a federated system of doing business.
I suspect the main reason federated systems work as well as they do is that there is individual ownership over the pieces, each person caring for their own piece. Some will win some will lose. It is not nearly as efficient as a centrally controlled system, but is far better at dynamically adapting to changes.
On the whole I think federated systems end up bringing the greatest good to the most people, but they can go very wrong, mainly this happens when one player gets too big and stops playing by the rules.
On the subject of reddit specifically. on one layer reddit is just a wep page, it provides the forum discussion pattern to people. The web is a federated system, there are many forum discussion patterns available on the web. when reddit fails to provide your forum needs you move somewhere else.
On another layer, reddits success was in no small part in that it provided a sort of ownership over each forum, and each owner was responsible for their own forums success, and when reddit starts infringing on this ownership it feels like something is being stolen from you.(At least I think this is what is going on, I have to admit I am only an incidental user of reddit and the whole situation confuses me) Where if the system were more federated from the start it would be more like actual ownership and less like feudalism.
Guys...it's not that hard to do. Stop thinking so hard. Stop thinking you know a better way. CLONE REDDIT, just without the idiot running the place. It was working great until he screwed everything up.
The network effect is hell of a drug. Most contributers are/were there, because it seemed like the most relevant place to put their information, and that was because of the other people on the platform, not because the system was particularily sophisticated or well designed.
Now the reddit design has the advantage that people already know it, but on the other hand if you change communities anyways why not try a new thing?
Worried that you'll lack a way to differentiate yourself from all the other clones? Well, don't be, because it's the same situation as with Android—every handset vendor seemed to think they couldn't possibly just take this free gift and ship it stock as-it-comes, since their competitors would come around eat their lunch! In reality, nobody else was doing that, so being unadulterated was a differentiator. This didn't seem to stop anyone, though, who all went on and poured enormous resources into the pursuit of an elusive value-add that in reality was more like value-addn't.
So, I agree: JUST CLONE THE THING.
(Still not convinced? Fine, try this instead: start working on a stealth clone right now, and then in 6 to 18 months when you've reached your goal and the real thing changes which makes everyone hate it, well then hey, look at you! You've got exactly what everyone wants. Alternatively, if you chance upon something that gets shuttered, go ahead and help yourself to the abandoned trademark, too. Trademark law is not like copyright law, after all; it doesn't last forever—only so long as there's someone willing to enforce it.)
> According to the MTG fandom, “the Azorius Senate mediates and regulates the activities of all of the other guilds and of the plane despite their numerous decrees being ignored. The Azorius Senate are characterized as being aloof, bureaucratic, excessively formalistic, and fastidious, spending hours upon hours with legal documents and ensuring action, if any should occur, stringently adheres to protocol.” However, this is irrelevant, since azorius is unrelated to MTG.