As a relative newcomer to the fediverse space, looking in, I would say that the biggest issue is that different people have different visions on what the fediverse should look like. This is a good thing, since it spurs innovation, but it can become a problem when one faction controls the specs and another faction does not.
This is where competition comes in. I am building apps on top of this technology, and I chose to use Zot6 and OpenWebAuth instead of ActivityPub. Why? Because ActivityPub does not have the features I need.
I will still support ActivityPub, and if and when Bluesky releases a finished protocol, I intend on supporting that too. And maybe we will upgrade to the Nomad protocol later. But Zot6 and OpenWebAuth will be the core of all our websites and apps.
And, it is one of those things where once you experience the features of Zot6, Nomad, and OpenWebAuth, you don't want to use ActivityPub because you lose functionality, and other ActivityPub apps handle messages in unexpected or incompatible ways.
For example, some people in this conversation might not see this comment since no one here (using ActivityPub) is following me at this particular fediverse address since ActivityPub does not support nomadic identities. At least I know that in Hubzilla, if I post in a public thread, everyone in the thread can see it, even if I use a clone or change my fediverse address.
Despite all of this, I am a huge supporter of ActivityPub. I want it to succeed. But from a practical standpoint, I am not going to wait for ActivityPub to add the features I need when Zot6 and OpenWebAuth already do what I need and are more seasoned protocols since they have existed longer.
ActivityPub is coming along nicely, and there are some great proposals... it just doesn't do what I need or want it to do.
Now, I am some nobody with a dollar and a dream, and you could safely dismiss me, but this post is not really about me. Although everything I said was accurate.
My point is, you have to provide the functionality that people want, other somebody, maybe me, maybe someone else, is going to come along and implement the desired functionality somewhere else.
https://xkcd.com/927 comes to mind.
I am a huge supporter of ActivityPub. I just wish it had the capabilities I need.
