Scott M. Stolz

And you also have to consider how other platforms treat upvotes and downvotes.

On many platforms, your upvotes and downvotes are not only visible, but sometimes result in a notification alert (i.e. someone commented on your post, someone liked your post, someone downvoted your post, etc.). It is not anonymous at all.

They still have control over their data. If implemented properly, it just changes where there post is created since the post is synced back to their own server to their own account. Regardless of where it was created, it would still be visible on that server since it is a reply to that post.

Federated logins make sense for forums and websites where you have access to content such as PeerTube.

For forums, logging into the forum with your fediverse account would actually be ideal since you can use a forum-style interface to navigate the topics, which would be easier than trying to navigate the same topics on Mastodon. Same thing with PeerTube. You may want to watch videos on PeerTube and comment right on their website without creating a PeerTube account. With federated single sign on, you can post with your existing fediverse account.

We have that on Hubzilla and it is called OpenWebAuth. We can log into other instances and comment directly on their instance as ourselves after logging in.

People are unlikely to switch based solely on “it’s decentralized.” Most people don’t care.

But if a platform has features people want, they may consider signing up. But the real draw is having an awesome community and awesome content.