The worker cooperative states:
We’re excited to announce NorthSky Social Cooperative where we are building a new ATproto platform for the benefit of marginalized communities that prioritizes the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. After increasing hostility toward these communities we are taking action to provide a platform built by and for us.
They go on to say:
A shift towards federation has enabled the survival of marginalized communities and @bsky.app which developed the AT Protocol has created a foundation for us to build Northsky Social on top of. As such we will be fully compatible with @bsky.app where users will be able to communicate across the federated ATproto space.
Why?
Because it isn’t decentralized.
There are no third party relays and probably will never exist, and the pm system is only available on the bs servers and you can’t host it yourself.
Thanks for sharing that article. ATproto and ActivityPub are very different indeed. I can understand why someone would be hesitant to join if they preferred the way ActivityPub is structured.