ActivityPub
Like email, but for social media: Your account lives on a specific server (like your email has an address)
Nostr
Like a giant public bulletin board: No accounts, just messages tied to digital keys posted on digital billboards with the ability to republish across all other billboards
I tried Mastodon on and off for a year before I gave up. I couldn’t understand why accounts on one server could find and interact with accounts on other ones, or why anyone would choose one over another. It felt fragmented and confusing, and boring.
I can definitely see the boring. If you upset your server admin your whole account can be wiped away. Even if you have a server with a good free speech policy, the fact they can do it will still chill free speech to a degree. Nostr might not be perfect, yet, but it at least gives us the option for free speech which is way more fun than being fed groupthink.
