Webmentions implementation and privacy considerations

Developers are exploring Webmentions as an alternative to centralized commenting systems like Disqus to avoid advertising and tracking. While Webmentions allow for notifications when a blog is mentioned across different platforms, implementation often requires intermediary services like Bridgy to scrape social media data.

Privacy concerns have emerged regarding “silo backfeeds” from platforms such as the Fediverse and Bluesky. When users interact with content on these platforms, their names and avatars may be automatically displayed on external sites without explicit consent for that specific use. To address this, some implementations have moved toward a compromise: displaying only the count of likes and reposts from certain sources, while only showing full names and profile pictures for mentions originating from websites that explicitly support microformats.