if a pixelfed user has a private account and makes a followers-only post, then a mastodon user (who follows them, but isn’t followed back) replies with the same followers-only visibility, the pixelfed user never sees it, even if they’re mentioned.

apparently this is because “followers-only” on mastodon only includes the sender’s own followers, not the post author or mentioned accounts. this makes cross-platform, non-mutual replies silently disappear.

anyone else think this should be addressed at the AP level? or is it something each app should patch separately (like a “followers + mentioned” visibility option)?

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[–] julian@community.nodebb.org 2 points 1 week ago

occultist8128@infosec.pub "followers only" is a concept that is Mastodon specific, and Pixelfed supports it.

There's nothing to change at the protocol level itself.

Sending the reply to OP in your example would be a betrayal of the visibility of followers only... which is kind of silly but technically correct.

Better would be followers + participants, but that's up to the individual implementors to adopt.