As someone has been thinking about it for 14 years, which protocol is best? ;)

Gosh, I wrote that a long-ass time ago. I'm not sure I still agree with my assertion back then that unified identity is desirable or that cross-communication between networks that represent disparate facets of identity would be useful (do I want LinkedIn people to see my Bluesky posts? I do not.)

Both Mastodon and AT provide the bones of independently-hosted purely "social" (as opposed to professional or romantic) networks. Mastodon's hostility to unified search makes me prefer AT.

Yeah, I think it's complicated, the world has changed a bunch since 2011 and I really enjoyed finding this post plus trolling you with it :D