Webmention tweak: removing interactions from social sites

I see where Kevin is ripping out his Fediverse support from his blog comments based on a post by Manu, and I was moved to follow suit.

Like every blogger in the history of the world probably, I post on my social media accounts when I post a new blog post: that's POSSE. I was using my own version of Bridgy to check those social media posts and then bring back any interactions to my own site. So, if you liked or commented on something I posted from my site to Mastodon, for example, the like would show up on my site with your little avatar saying you liked it with a link to your Mastodon account. Similarly, if you commented on my Mastodon post, I synced that post and showed it on my site in the comments section of the post.

It always did feel a little icky. Someone replying to a post on Mastodon did not agree to, or really intend for, their comment and their avatar to show up in the comments section on my site, so it felt like I was doing something without people's consent.

I feel there is a similar problem with the entire idea of the Fediverse. Did someone posting on Mastodon explicitly agree to have their interaction show up in BookWyrm via ActivityPub? I digress.

The best argument for me to make this change was realizing that what Bridgy and services like it are doing isn't part of the Webmention spec. It's just something some person decided to do, but people lump it in with nearly every Webmention implementation and discussion that I see.

Another argument against bringing back social interactions to my site is that it also always felt a bit artificial. It's making it seem like there is more interactions than there actually is on my site. Still, seeing all the interactions and feedback in one place on my post does feel good. It's a dopamine hit!

And to be clear, I do understand the argument for bringing back the interactions from social media sites. People are posting on the open web, in public, and bringing those interactions back doesn't seem much different from federating from Mastodon to other platforms via ActivityPub.

Anywho, my site now only shows the numbers of interactions per social network and then links to the social media post. I no longer bring back avatars or comments. Comments and likes that show on my site now come either directly on my site, by someone clicking buttons and typing into my site, or via webmentions from their site.