@esm @Gargron @julian as someone who's also on the outside looking in, I kind of have to concur here. nobody's really having fun. even on socialhub, all I really see is just the same few people people getting really pedantic and argumentative over implementation details and whether rdf is good and where the bike shed for the nuclear reactor should be built. contrast atproto, where people can just be like "I built a toilet social network because it's funny."
I think that activitypub sorely needs more creativity and experimentation and people pushing the protocol in ways that are super unexpected, as well as having developers welcome new people on board and helping them get up to speed (and the casual discussion space that essem mentioned). doing this will probably bring a lot of much needed diversity and progress to the space imo