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federation
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::: section I think federation is overrated. Federation lets instances with different rules and moderation interoperate with each other. It's difficult to spam proof and has scaling issues.
A better alternative would be to have oauth2/oidc apis integrated into the browser and standardized apis. There's already rss for anything feed-like, but there should be additional apis for reading and managing items.
I do think federation can have potential with changes. My favorite design idea is being offline-first with servers existing as dumb relays and pointers to names. Alternatively, servers aggregate in a state based protocol (like matrix or bluesky) rather than op based (activitypub), giving more consistency and reliability.
Of course, the protocols themselves aren't the only part of the problem. If you want to be successful, there's also ui/ux, culture, and the network effect. The network effect is hard to overcome, so don't bother designing something for the world; instead, design something you and your friends would like and slowly.
By far the biggest issue I've seen is choosing a server, which interestingly enough isn't a tech problem. People understand how to use email servers, which are chosen for the domain name and stability. On the other hand, activitypub users try to tell people to choose servers based on hobbies or interests, which is confusing since regular people™ have multiple interests or might not want to tie their identity to one specifically. :::