Something About the Fediverse

So back in November I wanted to write something about Twitter. With all the drama with Elon buying the app and making stupid changes, I thought it would be interesting to write about my thoughts on the whole thing and bring up the Fediverse as an alternative. Well, with me being me that never happened. And I went through this cycle every time I heard of some stupid change that was being done to Twitter. But finally, I’ve gotten around to doing so, way too many months later. So, here it is, something about the Fediverse.

So, you finally want to know what the Fediverse is. Well, its a wonderful time to get into it, with the rapid decay of Twitter and all. But first, I should clear up some terminology. I’m sure you’ve heard a few different terms thrown around. Fediverse, Mastodon, Activity Pub, maybe even Pixelfed or Firefish. What even are these? First, the Fediverse. This is a broad term that related to the large collection of interconnected servers all running some implementation of the Activity Pub standard. At a high level, think of it as the name of the social media your using. You might access it though a server running Mastodon or some other software, but thats just what you’re interacting with. Its like if you’ve ever used a 3rd party client for an app. You’re still using that app (Fediverse), but you are interacting with it through something else (Mastodon). This leads well into our next term, Mastodon. Well, really its more than just that, because we also have things like Pixelfed and Firefish. These are the actual software that runs the Fediverse. Various people or organizations can run any software running the Activity Pub standard, and these software will then federate (talk to each other) and create that interconnected Fediverse. Given the open nature of the Activity Pub standard, there are tons of different server softwares, each with their own features. While Mastodon is the most well known, there are others like Pixelfed. Pixelfed tries better to recreate an Instagram like experience. This is the advantage of open source, it allows for software to be catered to specific use cases, but we also have the advantage of the Fediverse. An account on a Mastodon server can still follow and interact with an account on a Pixelfed server. Its like if you could use a Twitter account to follow your friends on Instagram. Its all thanks to the last term, that Activity Pub standard. I’m sure you might be able to pick up on what it means, but its like a common language. In the Fediverse, Mastodon and Pixelfed speak the same language. Because of this, you have that ability to interact with posts between servers like I previously mentioned. If you look at something like Twitter and Instagram, they do not have that Activity Pub standard. This means they speak two completely different languages. They do not have that interoperability that Activity Pub provides. Its important to have this distinction between terms, because having this understanding of how it actually works highlights the benefits of a system like this.

So enough with the technical talk, why use the Fediverse? Well, there are a ton of reasons. I think the most obvious one is to get away from the dumpster fire that Twitter is. Most people agree that Elon is making tons of bad decisions with it. From a limit on how many posts you can view to the removal of the block button, its becoming less and less usable. With the Fediverse, you don’t have to deal with one idiot bringing the whole thing down. How is that possible? Its because no one person owns the Fediverse. By definition, the Fediverse is a bunch of servers talking to each other in the same language. There is no one person that controls all of it, just a bunch of people who control their own servers and the people on it. No one rich asshole can buy it out and ruin it. This also means they control things like what features get implemented. Take Mastodon for example, it provides an experience very comparable to Twitter. But then look at Firefish, it adds things like emoji reactions and advanced markdown that isn’t present in Mastodon. There is something out there that probably fits all your needs, and its only possible because of the open nature of the Fediverse.

Alright, if I’ve sold you by now I’m sure you’re dying to know how to join. And frankly, that is probably the hardest part of this whole thing. Finding an instance, a server to call home. The first step is to find what kind of software you want to use. This is a personal decision, as I don’t know what you’re looking for. Google is going to come in handy, quite a bit. I’d just make sure the implementation you choose allows for import/export of user accounts. This might come in handy if you find something different later on and want to more easily switch (because a lot of popular Activity Pub implementations allow for that). The next thing is to find an instance that runs that software. What this means is some server that’s running the software of your choice. There are a lot of things to consider when picking one. For example, read the rules and privacy policy of the instance. They can differ a lot between instances. What might be good for one is not okay for another. Its also worth seeing what the instance is about. Instances are often dedicated for one topic or another. This doesn’t mean you have to only post about that one thing, but think of it as a congregation of a lot of people who like that thing. You also might want to consider the name of the instance. Usernames are formatted in a format like @[email protected]. This is what other people are gonna see, and to some it might matter. Some may want a more professional instance name, some may want something silly, others might not care. Again, to find one Google is going to be your friend. Often times, you can scroll through some posts on an instance without creating an account, which can help expose you to instances you may not have known about. Once you picked an instance, you’re good to go! Sign up and start checking things out. Follow some people, make some posts, and enjoy yourself.

Now I feel like I should give some disclaimers. The Fediverse is far from what we’ve come to see as traditional social media. I’m going to speak a bit from my own experience with the Fediverse, which lies mostly in Mastodon, but given that its the most popular software, a lot of others take inspiration from it and work in a similar fashion. There is no algorithm. Let me repeat that. There. Is. No. Algorithm. What this means is that there is no more doom scrolling. A bit sad, but trust me, its good for you. But what this also means is that the only posts on your timeline are from people you follow in chronological order. It also means you have to put in a bit more work to see content you like. Thats why I stressed the importance of finding a good instance, it helps you find content you want to see. To elaborate, you have a few more timelines at your disposal. The two to focus on are the local and global. The local one exposes you to every post from everyone on your instance. Hopefully you picked one that you find interesting, so you’ll find some interesting people soon enough. The other way of finding people is through the other people on your instance. There is that global timeline. It might be called remote or something different, but the general idea is that it is a collection of all posts coming into the server. That means if someone on your instance follows an account on a different instance, those posts will show up here. This can be a good way to expose yourself to other people outside of your instance as well as find instances you might have an interest in. There might also be an explore page which shows content that is popular within your instance or hashtags that are trending within your instance. Because of how most Fediverse software is structured, things spread much more organically which leads to a lot more genuine and nice interactions and content.

Of course, no matter how much I hype this up, there are always some downsides. Most of them come from the fact that anyone can set up their own instance. Because anyone can set one up, they also set up the rules that come with it and control what happens. Some instances allow a lot of frowned upon content. Luckily, the reasonable instances can stop talking to the bad instances. However, this means if you somehow find yourself in one of these blacklisted instances, you might not be able to see/interact with posts from other instances. Now I doubt any of my readers would join any of these instances, but where this matters is with the admins. Generally if the admin of one instance does something to piss off the admin of another instance, blocks can happen. I’d like to think that most instance admins are reasonable people, but sadly this is not the truth. It might be worth giving the instance you are thinking about joining a once over to make sure both the admin and community are one that the public at large is okay to associate with. Because if its not, it could get on a block list and if that list is a popular one, you might not be able to enjoy the connected-ness of the Fediverse. But thats not all, you have to trust your admin. Your instance admin has complete control over your access to the Fediverse. While true for any social media, instead of a faceless corporation, its a person. Again, this gets back into making sure the person running your instance is trustworthy. You should also trust them enough not to shut down your instance, or if they do trust them enough to give an advance warning. Thats a less common concern, just like you should be concerned about large instances. As previously stated, one of the benefits to the Fediverse is that no one person owns it. However, instances can get large. According to fedidb.org (Great resource btw), there are about 10.5 million people on the Fediverse. Approximately 1.5 million of those people are on a single instance (mastodon.social). Thats nearly 15% on one server. In fact, about 25% of all people are on 5 different instances. Having so many users centralized in one place defeats the purpose of having a decentralized network. I advise you to pick a smaller instance with a friendly community, but what this look like might change from person to person, and it might take time to find. But its important to find a good instance that suits your needs and probably won’t crumble or get blacklisted.

I would be amiss to not mention some other Twitter competitors in my discussion of popular Twitter alternatives. Things like Threads and cohost tried to take a bite out of Twitter’s market share, but quickly proved to be unpopular options. I feel like I see the most buzz about Bluesky these days, and that probably has a lot to do about its invite only model. However, Bluesky is fundamentally flawed. On paper, it sounds like a great alternative. Its made by the guy who made Twitter, it claims to be built on a federated protocol (similar in nature to Activity Pub and the Fediverse), and has corporate backing. But, there are a few things to keep in mind, mostly relating to that federated protocol they claim to have. They call it the AT Protocol, and they talk a lot of talk about it. But heres the thing, only they have any access to it. Bluesky is the only instance thats compatible with it. Everything they mention about federation and interoperability is nonexistent. All they have is a vague promise for future openness while drawing their core audience to a single instance. If something goes wrong, say goodbye to Bluesky. And thats not to mention their rather bizarre stance on moderation. They created an innovative system of allowing users to set how much hate speech they want to see. Instead of banning this harmful content, they allow it on their platform and let users decide how much of it they want to see. And judging from the FAQ, a lot of that is going to be determined by users. Do you think bad actors will mark their harmful posts as harmful? Because I think not.

The Fediverse is truly a wonderful thing. It has so many benefits and generally is so much better than normal social media. However, it typically comes at the cost of a difficult joining process. Sure, its hard to find an instance and find people who post good content, but its so worth it to have a much better experience overall. I hope this post encourages you to give the Fediverse a try, and I’m sure if you try it you will end up liking it just as much as I do.