When the social media conceptualized in the late 2000s, new services started to pop up every other week. Some of them were even popular. I remember being registered to over 160 different social media services. Jaiku, Qaiku, Bebo, Ello, Tsu, Path, PicPlz etc… there were so many. Then they died one by one after Facebook and Instagram took over.
Some people who remember this are saying the same is happening to Mastodon, Pixelfed and Loops. But they clearly do not understand the concept or interoperability and the social web, Fediverse, that is. They think of these platforms as a singlular, centralized services and they are using the commercial mindset.
The Fediverse will last. It will prosper. And it has already. That is what I sincerely believe. Since 2022 nothing has proven otherwise. I like the direction this is heading to.
Since most users wouldn't understand what ActivityPub / Fediverse is, it is likely there will be far less than 40% or 30% (guesstimate) of their userbase who will appear in the Fediverse network.
It will highly depend on how they will explain the benefits of enabling ActivityPub in their accounts.
If you haven't heard, sadly, #ChirpSocial, one of the popular #ActivityPub “groups” platform, is shutting down “probably” on February 29th.
In an email they sent to admins, the owner and developer can no longer support https://chirp.social financially as they failed to find a new job after they were laid off by #Google last year.
This reminds us the importance of having a built-in groups feature, and one where the groups feature actually federates.
Back in 2008, when the #Fediverse was born, we did have a built-in federated groups in #Laconica / #StatusNet (today known as #GNUsocial). We used bang (!) instead of at (@). A built-in groups feature is more stable as established instances can host them.
Today, we have #Friendica and #Hubzilla (as well as #Streams-based instances) to fill in that, as groups is a built-in feature in those software products. It's just a matter of finding an instance that's open to hosting groups for any topic for the ActivityPub protocol.
That said, any Friendica, Hubzilla, Streams-based instances you suggest for groups?
I THINK I’ve posted this already, but I think it’s evergreen.
Rahaeli is talking mostly about #Twitter and #Bluesky so I don’t know what the ratios here on #Mastodon are.
“Okay, it's time again to talk about what the experience of having a social media account with a bunch of followers (*) is like.
Maybe I should start an irregular series of "What Hubzilla is like" posts for people in the Fediverse, Mastodon specifically, who don't know anything about it. Not for those who want to switch, but for those who assume that Hubzilla is just like whatever else they know. Like, for Mastodon users who blindly assume that Hubzilla is just like Mastodon with a different UI and then act accordingly. Thus, it'd mostly focus on how Hubzilla is different from Mastodon.
The difficult part would be to limit these posts to only 500 characters. Minus what I'll need for the hashtags, namely #Hubzilla, #FediTips and #FediverseTips to increase discoverability for those who are interested and #FediMeta, #FediverseMeta, #CWFediMeta and #CWFediverseMeta so that these posts are automatically removed or hidden behind generated content warnings by already existing filters. Because I know for a fact that many Mastodon users won't touch anything that goes even a smidge over 500 characters. And I know that there are Mastodon users for whom any and all Fediverse meta is too nerve-gratingly techy.
> Three, vice versa, Mastodon and its users rejecting the culture of non-Mastodon projects whenever it differs from Mastodon's. Many Mastodon users want everything that is "un-Mastodon-like" banned all across the whole Fediverse because it disturbs them, be it posts over 500 characters, be it quotes, be it "quote-tweets", be it text formatting in any way. However, all this stuff is perfectly normal and absolutely part of the culture everywhere outside of Mastodon.
Character limitation. It's funny that it is a reason because three are Mastodon-powered instances (a lot in fact) with more than 500.
What the "purists" did not realise is that the customizable number of characters has been part of the Fediverse since the first Fediverse managed service launched: StatusNet "hosting", in 2008. @-lnxwalt was very active in posting different content on the different length instances back then.
To add to what you mentioned, another reason they hate #Threads is because they supposedly introduced something that isn't part of #Mastodon and #ActivityPub, dots in username.
But it has been around years before Instagram even thought about Threads (assuming they came up with the project during the #TwitterMigration ). You'll often see it from website-based AP implementations. @example.com@example.com
Also, the reasoning "not in ActivityPub" is well, Mastodon is as guilty of that since the discussions of AP started. Since Mastodon was successful in positioning itself at the proper place, everyone ended up / was forced to implement Mastodon-only stuff just so their software will be interoperable with it, even though it isn't part of ActivityPub.
Most "Mastodon purists", as well as, "ActivityPub gatekeepers" use reasons that can't stand; and their solution is fragmentation or contrary to what the Fediverse is, and what AP was made for. Basically, they want to go back to the way things are: "siloed networks" or "walled-gardens".
#BringDownTheWalls has been the goal of the Fediverse since 2008, and even before that when #SocialWeb discussions started (even in related conferences).
"#Mastodon is the most established decentralised #socialweb app to date. For anti-establishment Mastodonians, Dorsey’s involvement was strike one. Strike two came when #Bluesky decided to create its own protocol instead of using an existing one, like #ActivityPub. Now, the debate over #BridgyFed is something like a foul tip ahead of strike three."
”When Musk bought Twitter and there was that initial wave of people fleeing, Mastodon could've kept that momentum, and probably won out as the next big thing, if it'd (1) opened mastodon.social to registrations as the default server and (2) added quote posts. I'm convinced Bluesky's success was entirely because Mastodon didn't do (1) and (2), and while the Fediverse will still likely be the main decentralized network, once Threads federates, the process was significantly slowed and fractured.”
When will people understand that Mastodon or any other Fediverse app will not need to ”success” and be mainstream? I think we are not driven by profit and corporate gain. I think we will exist as long as there are people running their web services.
Please note: This is just my opinion. I have to state this, because I’ve been blocked for less. Comment if you agree/disagree.
I’m not even arguing any more about which social media platform is the best. Only thing certain is that X is shit. For the rest I’m just waiting for the modern microblogging services to be connected via ActivityPub. In the meantime I’m using only Mastodon and Threads.
When coming back from the algorithmic social medias I always feel warm and fuzzy inside knowing the fact that on the Fediverse boosts really matter, because they make the posts pop up naturally as there is no "For you" feed. It's actually fun to boost posts here, because you know YOU are the algorithm. It's more fun and meaningful that way.
Ein hervorragendes Video von @Techaltar über soziale Netzwerke. Hier wird erklärt, was Mastodon einzigartig macht im Vergleich zu allen anderen Social Media Plattformen. Interessant hierbei ist, dass die marktbeherrschenden Konzerne inzwischen ebenfalls versuchen, das vom Fediverse verwendete ActivityPub-Protokoll auf ihren Plattformen zu implementieren. https://youtu.be/R3ptZ1W-FRA
Excellent video by @Techaltar about the #SocialWeb. You can basically send this to anyone who wants to learn what makes Mastodon unique compared to other social media platforms and what it is that we're doing here 🙂
"#Flickr pioneered a lot of the things we came to associate with the #socialweb, including open APIs, #hashtags, and social networking. It also implemeted #CreativeCommons sharing, which was not widely used at the time. Unfortunately, Flickr was acquired by Yahoo (for 22 million, which at the time was a lot), and while they didn’t ruin it, they certainly tried hard to do so."
We have talked a lot about the positive sides of the Fediverse, but not as much about the downsides. For me the top negative things of this free and healthier social web are:
People are patronizing. This happens a lot more than in other places. I mostly mean the unsolicited advice: Alt text, don’t post this or that, avoid commercialism, other social medias and use content warnings for everything. While many mean good, it has been often very aggressive. This happened a lot in 2022. For a while it made the bar to post much higher because I was afraid to make a mistake. Today I don’t care as much.
Nitpicking. Comments are nice, but not when people are overly criticising about what you do or concentrating in irrelevancies. Whataboutism is the worst side effect.
Everyone has their own rules and they are often contradicting each other. Some are extreme and block every other instance, some more allowing. You might accidentally break many rules around the Fediverse without even noticing it (some servers don’t allow posts about meat or alcohol for example).
Politically too left. It seems it is not allowed to be very conservative here. People are anti-commercialism, anti-capitalist, anti-anything.
While saying this, I do not stumble upon these downsides very often since I am quite a chill guy and have my own server. I feel like I can post whatever the fuck I want.
However, I do wonder if these things are the ones that make the Fediverse less approachable by new users. On the other hand I believe the new open social web will transform the way we see the social media in general and soon it does not matter, we don’t have to think what is ”here” when the big players like Threads and Tumblr adapt ActivityPub.
It’s funny to me that some people on Threads are saying Mastodon (mistakenly thinking it’s a one service) will always be ”small” and ”closed”. Well, soon we’ll be in the same crowd with the Threads people, perhaps with others like Tumblr too.
The Fediverse can expand unlike the other truly closed social networks. This is exactly like talking about the Internet in the 80s, ”it will be a small thing for the nerds, and always will be so”.
@BeAware hey, I think #socialWeb seems to be more accessible than #fediverse. The latter is jargon, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but has no meaning to those outside of the in-group.
58 rules for beautiful UI design: interesting rules, and I really like that “ELEGANCE” acronym, but, I always try to think critically when anyone brings some “design rules”.
For example:
“good design is as little design as possible”: while simplicity works for some B2C interfaces, oversimplification can lead to a lot of issues, especially in complex enterprise products, for expert users.
Years ago I was discussing a "Human Flourishing Design Guide" and thinking of launching a Flourishment Initiative within which a periodic table of patterns would shape up.
Right now I'm involved with #SocialCoding movement and reviving the field of Social experience design or #SX for the #SocialWeb. That periodic table is still a very nice way to present a pattern library.
I'd like to give a heads-up to #SocialCoding movement where I'm involved and plan to revive the notion of #SX or Social experience design, esp. for the #SocialWeb.
So much chatter on #Fediverse is either deeply technical or app-specific. The field of SX may offer a more holistic and inclusive perspective, focus on methods, guidance and best-practices.