This is what ActivityPub client-to-server API was designed for.
Most servers don't implement it, but some do:
https://codeberg.org/fediverse/delightful-fediverse-apps/issues/130
Clients are even harder to find, and none of them are good, AFAIK
this post was submitted on 04 May 2025
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~~No, that's the complete opposite of what the fediverse is trying to do. Centralization and corporate ownership are the reason so many other platforms are enshittifying and failing. Having many servers ensures resiliency against that fundamental weakness.~~
I may have misunderstood what you meant.
Quite the opposite...
Usenet was decentralized. Email is decentralized.
That said, I foresee that all of those that now host a shinny mastodon or lemmy instance would not be as many - plain command line, no visuals, boring server stuff is a lot less sexy. But those could just link their instances to a server (they could host themselves as well, of course).
Maybe this is already happening and I fail to recognize it?... How do you host a lemmy instance, for instance? Aren't there "services" supporting your instance?... I honestly don't know.
What? Do you mean like how ATProto works?
Maybe, I don't know. I'm not familiar with how ATProto works. But the ATProto is not very "decentralized", is it? Or is it just a case of not many people caring to link their instances to ATProto servers?
Maybe the problem I described earlier?
In practice, a random individual probably won't be able to self host an ATProto instance. Read this: https://dustycloud.org/blog/how-decentralized-is-bluesky/
O saw that post fly by in the distance some time ago (it's from Fri, 22 November 2024), but only skimmed through it because it was to long for that moment. It still is, so I've added it to my "read it later when you dare" app.
On one hand, maybe Christine Lemmer-Webber agrees with me in the sense that ATProto might end up being somewhat decentralized. The DID problem could perhaps be circumvented. On the other hand, here's a quote from the text that I did like:
When you build architecture that in theory anyone can participate in, but the barrier to entry is so high so that only those with the highest number of resources can participate, then you've still built a walled garden. -- Morgan Lemmer-Webber, (summarizing things succinctly in our household over breakfast)
The quote might argue against my assumption that just having the possibility of owning a (fediverse) server might entice enough people to participate in the ecosystem... just like email, I guess.
Again: didn't read the full article. Only tldred it and presumed the rest.
I agree that would make sense. I think it'll come with time.
To others, I'm pretty sure what OP is suggesting is just a generic activity pub server that all the various front ends could use.
I'm pretty sure this is what the original (?) authors of the AP spec intended and that's why they specified a client-server protocol. My understanding is that (almost?) no one uses that API though, they all just specify their own.
That's certainly how NOSTR clients work.
NOSTR clients?
Hum!...
What? So you want to make the fediverse centralized?
See above (sorry, should have replied to your post, had I not get confused with the fact that later posts appear above earlier ones).