@realcaseyrollins Didn't you at one point make a video explaining what gab/the fediverse is? I'm trying to find it but having no luck
@dave @haxonek @realcaseyrollins
> no one knows how it works
The simplest way I'd describe it is glorified RSS feeds.
@alex
Server A has user A.
Server B has 1000 users that follow user A.
User A posts a public status.
Before authorized fetch:
- Server A makes a single POST request to /inbox on server B, making it aware of the public status
After authorized fetch:
- Server B signs a request for status with the private key for the first user to follow user A
- Server B sends the request for the public status
- Server B performs 999 more cryptographic operations and sends 999 more requests for the same fucking status
- Server G still gets the status with someone in Server B boosts it.
@realcaseyrollins @dave @haxonek There are a few different ways servers block, but the main way is to just stop sending posts to your server, and to reject posts that come from your server.
Their posts can technically still be fetched. In theory clients like Pleroma and Mastodon could just fetch remote posts regardless of if they're "blocked", but they don't out of courtesy.
Oh also there's a thing called "authorized fetch" that tries to prevent this, but most servers don't implement it, and it still cannot prevent scraping by other means. Our boy @r000t has nailed this down to a science.