Fediverse

Found this article while scrolling the Internet. I feel it is pretty applicable to my short experience on the Fediverse so far, since the decentralizaiton aspect of it is offset by the fact that user data is tied heavily to the server you register to, and that the server can dictate what other content you see. OcapPub is an attempt to remedy this issue, while also providing powerufl new tools for moderation and social trust that can protect people

cross-posted from: https://thelemmy.club/post/21830166

geteilt von: https://feddit.org/post/7159700

"The Fediverse is a relatively new concept for most of us, so today I'm covering what it is, why it's relevant for crafters, and how you can join! And if you don't want to join, that's ok too, at least now you know what it is you're not joining 😄"

Video by @thegiddystitcher@lemm.ee

This is a really good introductory video that explains the Fediverse. Very clear, good examples and for a target group with no prior knowledge. So if you want to recommend other people to join the Fediverse, this might be a good start. There are insights into Mastodon and Pixelfed in particular… but Lemmy is also a topic in the video…

Pixelfed has been making incredible strides over the past few years, and has begun developing a suite of different platforms and services for the Fediverse. After just one day on Kickstarter, they've already smashed their campaign goal.

But they still need your help!

We live in interesting times. As users migrate en masse from existing social platforms to new networks and apps, we ought to think about how to make the experience of signing up, connecting to friends, and finding the good stuff as solid as humanly possible.

It's Cory. This time the guy holding court is Cory.

BTW, the Kickstarter for Pixelfed and Loops, the actually-open, ActivityPub based clones of Instagram and TikTok, just hit $35,000 in its first 13 hours. The creator of Mastodon just ceded control to a new non-profit. That's how you do it. By spending money to build free things for the public interest out in the open, not by tithing your money, labor and attention directly to VC-funded for-profit corporations.

For those who don’t know jwz, among other things, you have him to thank for Firefox/Mozilla’s existence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Zawinski

Does anyone else feel like the Fediverse could potentially use a centralized, clear, and engaging way to introduce itself and its platforms to new users?

I’ve noticed a recurring trend: on Reddit, YouTube, and other platforms, there are constant questions like "What is the Fediverse?" or "How does Mastodon/Lemmy/Pixelfed work?"

While it’s great to see so much interest, these questions can become repetitive, and they highlight the need for a more accessible and official introduction to the Fediverse.

What I’m proposing is The FediGuide—a centralized, interactive, and approachable platform or website designed to explain what the Fediverse is, how ActivityPub works, and what its platforms (like Mastodon, Lemmy, Pixelfed, etc.) are all about. Here’s how The FediGuide could look and function:

Key Features of The FediGuide

1. Interactive, Child-Friendly Design

• The FediGuide should be so simple and visually appealing that even a five-year-old could grasp the concepts. Think:

  • Bright visuals
  • Interactive animations
  • Step-by-step explanations
  • Simple, jargon-free language

  It should feel as welcoming as picking up a colorful amusement park brochure or summer camp guide.

2. Centralized Hub for Information

• The FediGuide could serve as a one-stop resource for anyone curious about:

  • What the Fediverse is
  • The differences between Fediverse platforms (Mastodon, Lemmy, Pixelfed, etc.)
  • How to join and use these platforms
  • The concept of ActivityPub and why it matters
  • Comparisons to centralized platforms like Facebook/Reddit/Instagram

• It could also include video tutorials, either normal Youtube/PeerTube videos, or ones similar to interactive training videos you see at workplaces for employees, infographics, and even community-generated FAQs to clarify common concerns.

3. Interactive Tutorial Platform

• The FediGuide could take inspiration from onboarding tools like:

  • Guided tutorials that mimic real-world actions (e.g., "Here’s how you create your first post on Mastodon!")
  • Engaging quizzes like “Which Fediverse platform is right for you?”

• For a truly immersive experience, it could be built as a fediverse-based platform itself, where users could "try out" ActivityPub principles in action.

4. A Fediverse-Based Clippy

• Imagine a friendly, helpful virtual assistant (think Clippy from Microsoft Word) that pops up on different platforms to explain features and answer user questions. For example:

  • Someone joins Mastodon for the first time → the assistant helps them learn the interface and suggests accounts to follow.
  • The assistant could live on The FediGuide website but also integrate with Fediverse apps.

  This assistant could provide context-sensitive help and guide users toward relevant parts of the Fediverse.

Maybe name it Fred if it's a boy, and Fredi if it's a girl, or something similar.

5. Easy to Share and Reference

• The FediGuide should be easy to reference and share, with:
  • A memorable name and URL (e.g., “www.TheFediGuide.org”)
  • Compatibility with multiple languages, ensuring accessibility for a global audience.
  • Integration within Fediverse platforms, where users can easily point others toward the resource.

Why This is Needed:

1. The Learning Curve: While the Fediverse is an exciting decentralized alternative, its concepts can be intimidating or confusing for new users.
2. Constant Repetition: People across various platforms keep asking the same questions, which suggests the need for an official, consistent source of answers.
3. Community Growth: Making the Fediverse easier to understand will lower barriers to entry, helping it grow and thrive.

Potential Obstacles and Solutions

• Obstacle: Many Fediverse projects are run by volunteers with limited resources.

  • Solution: The community could work together to crowdsource the content and development of The FediGuide. Alternatively, organizations backing the Fediverse (e.g., Mastodon gGmbH, Pixelfed, etc.) could potentially allocate resources to this idea.

• Obstacle: Ensuring the information remains up-to-date as platforms evolve.

  • Solution: Treat The FediGuide as an open-source project, with regular contributions and updates from the community.

Potential Next Steps'

If this idea resonates, here’s how something like this might potentially move forward:

1. Gather Feedback: Discuss what features or content would be most helpful. Would a website, platform, or both work best? How simple/interactive should it be?
2. Identify Developers & Contributors: Call for volunteers or organizations in the Fediverse ecosystem to support this idea.
3. Choose a Platform: Decide whether The FediGuide will be a standalone website, an ActivityPub-based app, or both.
4. Launch in Phases: Start with a basic explainer website, then add interactive features like tutorials, a Clippy-style assistant, or even gamified learning modules.

What do you all think?

Does The FediGuide feel like a useful addition to the Fediverse?

I would consider doing something like this, but, unfortunately, I do not have the time, energy, or knowledge.

I've been thinking about how we could potentially enhance the Lemmy experience, and I wonder if anyone else sees potential in incorporating a feature similar to Bluesky's Custom Feeds or Mastodon's Fedialgo?

Here's my thought process:

Why Custom Feeds?

1. User Empowerment: Custom feeds allow users to tailor their experience, moving beyond the limitations of chronological or "popular" sorting.

2. Discovery: They can help users find content and communities they might not encounter otherwise.

3. Flexibility: Users could create feeds based on specific interests, keywords, or even complex criteria.

Bluesky's Approach

Bluesky's implementation of Custom Feeds is particularly interesting:

• Users can create and share their own algorithm-driven feeds
• It promotes algorithmic transparency and user choice
• The feature has been well-received for its innovative approach to content curation

https://bsky.social/about/blog/7-27-2023-custom-feeds

https://bsky.social/about/blog/3-30-2023-algorithmic-choice

https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/26/23739174/bluesky-custom-feeds-algorithms-twitter-alternative

Mastodon's Fedialgo

Alternatively, we could look at Fedialgo, which:

• Allows for custom feed creation within the Mastodon ecosystem
• Is open-source and federated, aligning well with Lemmy's principles

https://github.com/ronilaukkarinen/fedialgo

Potential Implementation for Lemmy

1. User-Created Algorithms: Allow users to define their own feed algorithms using a simple interface.

2. Shareable Feeds: Enable users to share their custom feeds, fostering community curation.

3. Integration with Lemmy's Existing Features: Ensure the custom feeds work well with Lemmy's communities and cross-instance functionality.

4. Open-Source Approach: Keep the feature open-source and possibly federated, in line with Lemmy's ethos.

I, unfortunately, do not have the time, energy, or knowledge to be able to attempt something like this.

What do you all think?

Could this be a valuable addition to Lemmy?

I'd love to hear your thoughts, concerns, or ideas for potential implementation.

Jason Koebler joins the show to chat with Paris and Brian about the looming TikTok ban (that got even less likely after we recorded) and what Mark Zuckerberg is really looking for from the Trump administration. Plus, the new Free the Feeds initiative, John Deere in the FTC’s crosshairs, and more bad AI news.

Mastodon has seen a renewed interest these last few days, but when you look at the statistics mastodon.social siphons the biggest part of the pie, it sees a few thousands new sign-ups a day, while medium sized instance and smaller ones only get a few, sometimes just single digits increase.

This has been exacerbated since mastodon changed its UI both on web and mobile apps, to make the flagship instance the default one for sign-up in an effort to lower the entry barrier, which on the same time is leading to unhealthy concentration, on a platform that advocates for decentralization through federation.

Do you think this is the way forward on the fediverse ?

#mastodon #pixelfed #lemmy #fediverse

Hey everyone,

I’ve been thinking about how the Fediverse handles user accounts and logins for a while now, and I had a question.

Right now, users have to create accounts on specific instances on various platforms, which works but can sometimes feel a bit fragmented—especially when someone wants to interact across multiple instances or migrate to a new one.

Would it make more sense for the Fediverse to adopt a login system based on encrypted keys, like how NOSTR operates (or something similar)?

In such a system, users could have a single "universal" private key that serves as their identity across the network.

Here are some potential benefits I see:

• Single Identity Across Instances: Users wouldn't need to create multiple accounts for each instance, making it easier to interact across the Fediverse.
• Seamless Migration: If your home instance shuts down or you switch to another one, your identity and data could remain intact since it’s tied to your key, not the instance.
• Decentralization Boost: It might make the Fediverse feel even more decentralized, as user identities wouldn’t depend on a specific instance's infrastructure.
• Improved Privacy: Keys could also enable stronger controls over data sharing and access at the individual level.

Of course, there are likely challenges to this approach, such as handling lost keys, onboarding non-technical users, or ensuring compatibility with existing protocols.

But it seems like a conversation worth having.

What does the community think?

Are there reasons this wouldn’t work for the Fediverse, or could this idea help address some existing pain points?

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

EDIT:

I suggested this over on r/Fediverse and a Redditor gave me this:

https://codeberg.org/fediverse/fep/src/branch/main/fep/ef61/fep-ef61.md

https://microformats.org/wiki/rel-me

So I guess that it is being worked on Fediverse - wise.

https://nostr.com/get-starthtml

https://www.nostr-ruby.com/core/keys.html

Has anyone ever considered the potential creation of a Labeler similar to Andrew Lisowski's Bluesky Politician Labeler, but for the Mastodon platform?

This tool, which has been developed for Bluesky, provides valuable transparency by listing top contributors to US politicians.

The Bluesky Politician Labeler

(https://github.com/hipstersmoothie/us-gov-contributions-labeler)

is an innovative Open-Source feature that enhances political discourse on social media.

It automatically labels posts from US politicians with information about their top financial contributors, offering users immediate context about the potential influences on these public figures.

Key benefits of implementing a similar feature on Mastodon could include:

1. Increased transparency: Users would have easy access to information about political funding sources.
2. Enhanced political discourse: This feature could lead to more informed discussions about politics and campaign finance.
3. User empowerment: Mastodon users would be better equipped to critically evaluate political content.
4. Platform differentiation: This unique feature could set Mastodon apart from other social media platforms.

It could be designed to respect Mastodon's federated nature, possibly allowing instance administrators to opt-in or customize the feature for their communities.

Given Mastodon's focus on user privacy and data control, any implementation would need to be carefully considered to ensure it aligns with these core values.

The feature could potentially be developed as an optional plugin that users or instance administrators could choose to enable.

I personally believe that something like this could SIGNIFICANTLY enhance the political discourse on Mastodon while providing valuable transparency to users.

It would be an innovative addition that aligns with Mastodon's ethos of empowering users and fostering meaningful conversations.

I would consider doing something like this, but, unfortunately, I personally lack the time, energy, and technical knowledge.

https://bsky.app/profile/hipstersmoothie.com/post/3lbl2lgnq7c2f

https://bsky.app/profile/us-gov-funding.bsky.social/lists/3lbgx3lqlwk2d

https://bsky.app/profile/hipstersmoothie.com

What Are Audius Music and Gala Music?

Audius Music [https://audius.co/] [https://audius.org/]

is a decentralized music streaming platform built on blockchain technology.

It serves as a music-sharing and discovery platform where artists can upload their music directly, bypassing traditional record labels or streaming services.

With a focus on giving artists more control over their content and revenues, Audius employs blockchain to provide transparency and allows fans to directly support artists via tokens or other forms of cryptocurrency.

It's a hub for independent musicians who want to distribute and monetize their work without middlemen.

Gala Music [https://music.gala.com/]

operates similarly but is part of the Gala Games ecosystem, which utilizes blockchain technology for play-to-earn gaming and entertainment experiences.

Gala Music's goal is to empower artists by decentralizing music ownership and letting fans own Music Nodes.

These nodes help distribute content and reward both the fans and the artists.

Gala Music also integrates its NFTs into the ecosystem, giving fans a unique way to support creators and artists to tokenize their music.

Why Bring This to the Fediverse?

The Fediverse thrives on decentralization and user empowerment—both principles align perfectly with the core concepts behind Audius and Gala Music.

A Fediverse-powered music platform could provide a truly decentralized space for artists and fans to collaborate, share, and monetize music without relying on corporate gatekeepers or proprietary ecosystems.

Imagine a service where:

• Artists can self-host their music or distribute it via interconnected, federated services.
• Music discovery is driven by community interaction rather than opaque algorithms.
• Fans can support their favorite artists directly via tips, donations, or open-source cryptocurrencies.
• The entire platform upholds the values of transparency, user ownership, and privacy.

If a Fediverse equivalent to Audius Music or Gala Music doesn’t already exist, could this be a signal for innovation within the community?

Platforms like Funkwhale already offer some audio-sharing capabilities but focus more on community-driven music libraries rather than artist monetization or blockchain integration.

Could we build upon existing tools like Funkwhale or create something entirely new?

I would consider doing something like this, but, unfortunately, I lack both the knowledge, energy, and time.

What do you think?

Would you be interested in contributing to, or supporting, such an initiative?

1. Microblogging: Mastodon
2. Photo sharing: Pixelfed
3. A social blog: ActivityPub Wordpress Plugin
4. Beyond microblogging: Friendica
5. Content Aggregators: Lemmy, PieFed & Mbin
6. Beautiful and fun microblogging: Sharkey
7. Self-hosting with GoToSocial

"Looking ahead at 2025

What do I plan to do in 2025?

My enthusiasm for the Fediverse keeps growing with each passing day. In the coming weeks, I plan to write about:

• my experiences self-hosting with GoToSocial
• PeerTube (the Fediverse’s alternative to YouTube)
• The Friends plugin for Wordpress by Alex Kirk, which allows you to put your Wordpress site at the center of your online activities
• Mobilizon: a Fediverse project that helps you find, create and organize events
• Matrix.org: a Fediverse-adjacent open network for secure, decentralized communications

And so much more! There are several Fediverse projects like Hubzilla and Pleroma that I keep hearing about and have yet to try."--

Much of the Fediverse, especially the most popular communities, are continuations or clones of existing communities from twitter/reddit/etc., which makes sense given the history of these platforms as alternatives to those sites.

Are there any original communities which exist on the Fediverse with no similar community on the mainstream alternative service?

Hi folks, looking for a bit of steer to get off the ground with self hosting. My goals to start with are pretty straight forward:

• I want to set up Home Assistant to move my smart devices off the cloud and fully contained within the walls of my home.
• I want to set up my own little Pixelfed server for my family's use, along with some other federated socials.

From what I was looking at, I think my easiest route to doing both of these things is with a Home Assistant Yellow (built-in Zigbee and Thread system) with a Raspberry Pi 4.

I've never done anything like this before but I'm interested in learning. If anyone more experienced has any insight or direction, I'd really appreciate it! Cheers!

I've been wondering if there's a decentralized, Fediverse-compatible alternative to Pinterest out there.

The idea of a federated platform for sharing and curating visual content, DIY ideas, and inspiration boards seems like it could be a great addition to the Fediverse ecosystem.

Some questions I have:

Does anyone know of an existing project that's similar to Pinterest but Fediverse-compatible?

If not, has anyone considered developing such a platform?

What challenges might be involved?

Perhaps it could be potentially created under the Pixelfed Banner, similar to Loops?

Would there be interest in the community for a Pinterest-like service on the Fediverse?

I personally believe that this could be an exciting project, but personally, I lack the technical knowledge, energy, and time to take it on myself.

However, I'd love to hear your thoughts and see if there's any traction for this idea.

If such a service doesn't exist yet, maybe this post could spark a discussion or inspire someone with the right skills to consider developing it.

What do you all think?

Is this something you'd be interested in using or contributing to?

in reply to https://whtwnd.com/bnewbold.net/3lbvbtqrg5t2t

which is in reply to https://dustycloud.org/blog/how-decentralized-is-bluesky/

I’ve been wondering—does a Fediverse-based equivalent to Discord exist?

I know there are alternatives like Matrix, Revolt, etc., but what I’m looking for is something more akin to Discord that’s Decentralized, Open-Sourced, and makes use of ActivityPub.

If it doesn’t exist, has anyone ever thought about attempting something like this?

What I envision is something that would potentially serve as a decentralized clone of Discord, with features like voice and video chat, text channels, stickers and emojis, customizable communities, etc.

Perhaps make each of the communities an instance, self-hosted by the instance owner(s).

Names for such a project could reflect its functionality or ethos, perhaps something like:
ActivityChat
SocialHub
MeshTalk

Or maybe a name that’s the complete opposite of “Discord,” such as:
Harmony
Concord
Rapport

Unfortunately, I don’t have the time, energy, or technical knowledge to start such a project myself, but I thought that this might be an interesting idea for the community to discuss or brainstorm.

Would this kind of platform fill a gap in the current Fediverse landscape?

What challenges do you think it would face?

Would it gain traction in the Fediverse?

With the ongoing TikTok concerns, I'm curious about the development status of Loops by Pixelfed.

I've checked their GitHub repository multiple times, but it seems pretty sparse.

Does anyone know of:

• A dedicated progress tracking page

• A development blog

• Active discussion channels (Discord, Matrix, etc.)

• Roadmap resources

• Developers to Follow

etc.?

I'm interested in following the project's evolution but haven't found a reliable way to stay updated.

Any insights would be greatly appreciated.

Ibis is a federated encyclopedia which uses the ActivityPub protocol, just like Mastodon or Lemmy. Users can read and edit articles seamlessly across different instances. Federation ensures that articles get mirrored across many servers, and can be read even if the original instance goes down. The software is written in Rust and uses the cutting-edge Leptos framework based on Webassembly. Ibis is fully open source under the AGPL license, to make future enshittification impossible.

Checkout !ibis@lemmy.ml for more updates and discussions.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/24748390

https://bsky.app/profile/freeourfeeds.com/post/3lfmvqip7zk2v

tldr, it's a new foundation launching with an open letter signed by:

Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia

Shoshana Zuboff, Professor Emerita, Harvard Business School and author of ‘The Age of Surveillance Capitalism’

Mark Ruffalo, Actor

Alex Winter, Actor and filmmaker

Audrey Tang, Former Minister of Digital Affairs, Taiwan

Roger McNamee, Businessman and author of ‘Zucked’

Brian Eno, Musician

Carole Cadwalladr, Investigative journalist

Cory Doctorow, Blogger and journalist

Akilah Hughes, Writer and comedian

Sebastian Soriano, Former Chairman, Arcep

Rosie Boycott, Member, UK House of Lords

Alexandra Geese, Member of the European Parliament, Greens/EFA

...

Bluesky has expressed a clear interest in public governance of the protocol they have developed. We are establishing a Foundation to help steward this process, to ensure that the AT Protocol remains capture-resistant and is instead governed in line with a thriving public interest and open community.

geteilt von: https://anonsys.net/objects/bf69967c-1467-8270-7e3d-48d984455929

🚀 A little guide on how to communicate with #Lemmy from #Mastodon #Friendica #Hubzilla #Sharkey etc

(this is the English translation of this German post: anonsys.net/display/bf69967c-1… If something is linguistically incorrect or incomprehensible, please let me know)

Lemmy is a kind of forum software in the #Fediverse: You can subscribe to forums (called ‘communities’ in Lemmy), share links and participate in discussions. @Tealk and I have described it in more detail (in German) here.

On the one hand, you can follow #Lemmy accounts, in which case the posts will appear in your timeline and you can reply to them, share them, etc.
On the other hand, you can also create posts in Lemmy communities from Mastodon etc.

Follow a community:
The easiest way is to type the account name in full into the search or copy the URL into the search field. This applies to communities (e.g. [ät]fediversede@feddit.de) and Lemmy accounts (e.g. @caos is my Lemmy account) as well as to individual posts in Lemmy (e.g. feddit.org/post/201081 is a post in Lemmy).

Creating posts in communities:
You can create posts in Lemmy communities by tagging the community account
(It should be a public post)
If the community account is tagged with @, it will share the post and the post will also appear in the forum.
For example, this is a post I created from Mastodon in feddit's #Tischtennis forum: metalhead.club/@caos/112749905… ... and this is how it is displayed in Lemmy: feddit.org/post/556495

The only thing to note from Mastodon and Akkoma etc. is: The beginning of the post/the first paragraph becomes the title of the forum post, as Mastodon does not have a heading field. (see also: Instructions Creating a post from Mastodon)

So it is best to start the post like this (see image 1):

This is my headline (as descriptive a title as possible)
@community@lemmy-instance
This is the further text, link etc.
if necessary a picture (only in the initial post a picture is transferred from Mastodon to Lemmy, between Lemmy and Friendica all images in answers are transferred in the meantime)

Send post to multiple communities / groups at the same time
The post can only be sent to one Lemmy community at a time. If several community accounts are tagged, the post will only appear in the last one mentioned. If several different group accounts are tagged in a post, the Lemmy account should come first. According to my tests, it works in the following order: 1. lemmy community 2. friendica forum 3. a.gup.pe group . Then all groups share the post, otherwise it doesn't work with all of them so far.

Search for communities
You can search for interesting forums/communities either on an instance page or here in the ‘Lemmy Explorer’ (see image 2).
If you are interested, enter the URL in the search field and follow the account.

If you have found an interesting community, you can copy its URL into the search field to follow the community account (see image 3) or enter the handle of the account in the form @communityname@lemmy-instance (in Friendica etc. also with !).

The past posts are then often not displayed, but those that come in the future will appear in your timeline.
What is not possible from Mastodon etc. is to create your own community. This requires a Lemmy or kbin account. Otherwise almost everything works (except for pictures in replies, which are not federated, see in detail (in German) here).

If you follow many or very active communities, it can get a bit confusing, especially in Mastodon. A clearer view is available if you view it on the page of the community itself, i.e. open it externally in the browser.
(the original URL of posts is sometimes hidden behind the #Fediverse logo)

There are also other public groups in the #Fediverse, e.g. Friendica-Forums and kbin-Magazines, which work in a similar way.

edit: kbin is no longer developed, the successor is its fork mbin

@fediverse