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It's not completely clear to me how various zones of the Fediverse distinguish "scraping" from "non-Mastodon ActivityPub services functioning according to spec in ways I didn't expect."

Given how frequently protocol behaviors act as ethical markers ("if you *can* do it, it's fine") this seems like a fruitful territory to try to map…

(I say this as someone who has myself been surprised more than once by AP implementations that put Fedi posts into unfamiliar-to-me contexts, don't eat me.)

@kissane Given that the entire protocol copies things from server to server on purpose, the periodic freakouts about new services doing exactly that while others are applauded for "implementing the protocol" (which copies things by default) is so mystifying to me.

@fraying @kissane

I think one big difference is that the intrinsic permission in AP is that I want people who follow me to be able to read and react to what I make. That's the bargain I make when I post on an AP-enabled service; it works like a social network.

We all make concessions for bulk redistribution with tools like relays because they help connect people together. They extend sociality.

If that data is bulk extracted without providing value, that's a problem.

@evan @kissane I get that, but the line can be blurry, from the vantage of a user, where it’s hard to tell the difference between an extractor and someone merely participating - especially when these boundaries are more social than technical, and not really written down anywhere.

@fraying @kissane oh, absolutely. I would like us to have just a wee bit more tolerance of even slightly different implementations.

dynamic

@evan @fraying @kissane

I've also been wondering about how cultural norms around RSS interact with support for RSS on various Fedi platforms. Normally RSS is for public blogs, so no big deal, right? But I know I used to use a desktop RSS client to view locked Livejournal posts so where does it leave us if someone takes an RSS feed from a nominally non-federated platform, perhaps with authentication, and views it on a Fedi server?