A few people have asked to join atomicpoet.org, and I’m not taking on new members. This will always exist as a single-user server (mostly).
Conceptually, I think it’s important for people to see single-user servers operating and thriving.
You don’t have to join some random person’s server, pray to god they’re good moderators, and hope they don’t pull a mastodon.lol.
You can just create a server yourself, manage how you feel fit, and enjoy it as a spot that’s truly your own.
If you have the skills to manage it, you can create a Mastodon server on Digital Ocean (or something similar) via 1-click install. It’s easy to get started, though there is still much work that needs to be done.
Now I realize not everyone is a SysAdmin who enjoys tinkering around with databases and delivery queues.
Which is why @reiver and I (and others) are working hard on #SpaceHost, which is a fully managed hosting service.
For the first time this week, we’re letting someone join #SpaceHost as a customer. They will likely be creating a Lemmy server.
My point is, creating your own server is feasible. I’ve done it. This specific Pleroma server has been in operation since Novemeber 2022.
It is truly my spot on the Fediverse – and I love it.
This is a must-read post from an admin of beehaw.org on why they will not be forking #Lemmy. I largely agree with @Gaywallet.
Lemmy may not be perfect. Perhaps it's even problematic. However, it makes the world less worse than it already is -- and less worse is better than worse.
That's what's important to me.
Now if Lemmy proves to be too much of a barrier, there is #Kbin. But since Kbin is so young, it's not a perfect replacement for Lemmy either -- though it's turning out great.
My own goal is to facilitate growth of the Fediverse. For this, #SpaceHost will be supporting both Lemmy and Kbin.
This week, #SpaceHost is onboarding its first customer. That customer will be running a #Lemmy server.
It’s apparent that the #RedditMigration needs servers. We’re one of the first Fediverse managed hosts to support Lemmy. And we’re currently testing #kbin, so that’s coming soon.
As you all know, #SpaceHost isn’t ready for public access yet. But we might make an exception soon for people seeking to create #Lemmy and #kbin servers.
Update on calckey.social: to put it mildly, it’s not performing well today. We’re aware of the problem, as well as what’s causing the problem. There will probably be ongoing difficulties today.
Now for the good news: we’re getting additional people to work on calckey.social, specifically from #SpaceHost.
They’ll be assisting @kainoa with managing ops as well as optimizing the database.
We have a team that will be managing around-the-clock care for calckey.social.
I, myself, will be increasing my donations to the #Calckey project. I believe it’s critical to the Fediverse for Calckey to continue forward, and calckey.social is important for showcasing what Calckey can do.
Once again, I appreciate your patience as well as your ongoing enthusiasm for Calckey.
In case anyone is curious about atomicpoet.org, I’ve been running this since November 2022.
It was originally made for three reasons:
To claim a space on the Fediverse that is completely my own
To operate as a back-up in case my other account becomes difficult to use—at the time, I was on mastodon.social
To act as a spot to talk about what I want without putting people off, especially since some people who follow the main account just want me to talk about Fediverse-related topics
Originally, this operated as a Digital Ocean Droplet. But it eventually became the first server managed and operated by #SpaceHost, which it has been doing admirably since February.
Mind you, I don’t have 17,000 followers on this account. But I’m also operating this with 1 GB of RAM—which you got to admit, is pretty cool.
For the next week, I'm taking a break from this account -- but not the Fediverse. This is to lower my impact of redis on calckey.social.
Consequently, all my messages will be sent from @atomicpoet, which is my single-user server operated by myself and managed by #SpaceHost.
For anything mission critical, this account may occasionally boost messages from @atomicpoet.
If you're thinking of following @atomicpoet, remember that it's primarily used for talking about non-Fediverse related stuff.
For this week, I'm making an exception and will be sharing Fediverse-related stuff on atomicpoet.org. Nevertheless, please don't get angry if you see stuff pertaining to anime, work-outs, video games, music, and other recreational topics. No matter what, atomicpoet.org is still my personal Fediverse server 😉
In advance, I apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.
@seanb@kainoa@atomicpoet The name change also helps avoid a potential legal fight online, as there is already a company using the #Calckey name on the App Store (it's a calculator app that does not boast great ratings).
Changing it is a good thing! Once #Spacehost launches & a decent iPhone / iPad app arrives, I plan to launch a solo instance based upon the platform formally known as Calckey.
First off, @evan sees this from the perspective of someone who's co-authored #ActivityPub. It's his job to spur and enable adoption -- and that's something he's done exceptionally well for 20 years. Of course he wants to help Meta abide by open standards. Which, even if you dislike Meta, you would hope they would do.
My perspective is as one who is building products that compete with Meta. Ideally, I would like people who use Meta to migrate away from there and instead use #Calckey, #GreatApe, and the numerous options available on #SpaceHost.
But even from the perspective of a competitor, I want interoperability with #Barcelona. And even more, I want interoperability based on open standards.
Yes, yes, yes -- "embrace, extend, extinguish". At this point, that phrase is a broken record.
But every time that phrase comes up, I keep asking folks: when has the "extinguish" part of "embrace, extend, extinguish" ever worked?
People say #RSS, but RSS is still here and I use it every day. Hell, Calckey even has an RSS widget and it works like a charm. RSS is not extinguished.
People also say #XMPP, but I can run an XMPP server right now -- no problems. People say XMPP "died" because it's no longer as popular now, but is it because Meta and Google dropped support, or is it because Slack, Discord, Signal, WhatsApp, and even Matrix have come along to eclipse it in popularity? Regardless, even if XMPP is no longer so popular, it's not extinguished.
The most ludicrous example of "extinguish" people bring up is Gmail's dominance of email. But email is the most popular communications technology we have today, even though it's 50 years old. What's more, look at the raw stats. Gmail is only 18% of the email server market -- that's no monopoly. Go have a look at the stats for yourselves:
The pessimistic notion that we will "lose" by allowing Meta to interoperate with ActivityPub -- again, an open standard -- just doesn't convince me. In fact, if Meta is adopting standard ActivityPub, I think "losing" is impossible.
With Meta adopting ActivityPub, we're not losing. We're winning. We're not conceding to Meta by adopting their proprietary APIs for interoperability. They're conceding to us by adopting ActivityPub.
Again, I'm not saying you should all federate with #Barcelona. I'm saying that Meta adopting an open standard that allows for interoperability is a win because, remember, they're adopting our standard. We're not adopting theirs.
Some also ask, "But what if Meta does a bait-and-switch and drops ActivityPub support?"
Well, there's kind of precedence for that.
Not enough people realize this, but Google once adopted the predecessor of ActivityPub. Specifically, they used OStatus for Google Buzz. Certainly, like many Google products, Google Buzz shuttered.
But the development for an open social media protocol lived on, and we all use what was developed right now.
No doubt, if Barcelona becomes Meta's Google Buzz, ActivityPub will live on. It will still be developed. We'll keep using it.
In the meantime, I'll consider ways to help Meta users migrate to platforms that I believe are better.
@atomicpoet Looking forward to doing this on #SpaceHost, ‘cuz I’ll need a fair amount of hand-holding and would prefer to leave some of the better-by-bits stuff to code.
One reason I believe it's more important to emphasize #SpreadFediverse over #SpreadMastodon is because spreading the Fediverse partially addresses the problem of Mastodon churn.
Understand that even if #Mastodon was the best, most intuitive service ever made, there will always be churn because somebody won't like it -- and that's okay.
But when people churn, it's far better for people to move elsewhere on the Fediverse than return to Big Social.
This is a big reason why I'm running https://calckey.social, and why I'm also trying to make it easier for people to start up their own servers through #SpaceHost.
Oh, and it's definitely important that we share news about the greater Fediverse so that churning Mastodon users realize that they have options.
Today, there's been lots of conversations about "Advertisements" in #Calckey's admin settings.
This feature has been available in #Misskey for years. As we all know, Calckey is a fork of Misskey.
Now I don't know of a current Calckey server that displays ads. However, one unique difference between Calckey and Misskey is that people who use Calckey can opt out of them should they never want to see them.
Another important thing to know about advertisements on Calckey is that they don't federate. They're local to a server, and are not displayed elsewhere.
That said, just because this feature is called "Advertisements" doesn't mean it needs to be used for traditional ads.
One potential use could be for crowd-funding. Presently, most Fediverse servers don't have an easy way to direct their users to a crowdfunding platform. Calckey's advertisements function could be one way to alleviate this.
Another potential use could be for mutual aid. If a particular Calckey user falls on hard times, advertisements could be a way for the server to help them out financially.
Finally, another use for ads could be... ads! One big problem that the Fediverse currently has is that artists are having a hard time selling their artworks. Well, if those artists put up an ad, this is less of a problem.
That said, https://calckey.social does not display ads. We have no plans to display ads. The goal of this server is to let people try out Calckey, and to that end, ads distract from that purpose.
If you want to play with this feature yourselves, you can start up your own Calckey server and play with it.
In fact, why not play with Calckey's many, many interesting features on your own server?
Alternatively, if you just want to know what Advertisements look like in the admin control panel, see the screenshot posted below.
Thinking hard about closing down home.social. Moderation is becoming a nightmare. "Inter-instance-wars", too. Plus: Large instances might ultimately not be a good idea to begin with and defy the entire purpose of a fediverse.
Calckey is not the only kind of Fediverse server software I operate, and it won't be the last.
Currently, I also run a Pleroma server (atomicpoet.org) and a Pixelfed server (peerverse.space).
And when #SpaceHost gets off the ground, I plan on running Lemmy, Friendica, Castopod, and Mastodon servers.
However, I know exactly where the wind is blowing, and that's with *key apps.
#Misskey is already taking Japan by storm. And #Calckey is gaining popularity here in the West.
I've also heard that a few more *key apps are in development: one for organizations, the other one specialized for the African-American community.
Here's what I've realized.
For the Fediverse to truly take off, there needs to be more than just Mastodon. There needs to be something else that shows what else is possible on the Fediverse, and it looks like that realization of possibilities will be from the *key apps.
If you asked me a year ago what I thought would take off next from the Fediverse, I would have said it will be Pixelfed or PeerTube. That might still be possible, but based on trends since February, it's more likely to be the *key apps.
This is ultimately a good thing. For one thing, the popularity of *key apps will finally mean that Mastodon will not longer be synonymous with the Fediverse to the general public.
But this also benefits Mastodon because this means that one of the best features of Mastodon will finally be demonstrated: interoperability with other apps.
Once people see Mastodon talking with *key -- and vice versa -- they will finally appreciate the true promise of the Fediverse.
Keep your current handle, but look into #SelfHosting any #Fediverse instance. Keep your current #Mastodon and add on a unique experience that you control completely.
Hell, even #Pixelfed if you're really into pictures. F Instagram.