Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦
An irregular reminder that calling this place "Mastodon" has a bit similar energy as saying "I just sent you a GMail."
"Fediverse" (or "fedi") is a better term.
Mastodon is just one of many software projects that talk to each other to create this multi-instance social network:
https://axbom.com/fediverse/
(kudos to @axbom for this fantastic infographic!)
There are blogs, Reddit-like communities, video instances and many more, all part of fedi.
Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦
@giraffeslava @axbom "why so many servers" used to be the go-to "freaks out the normies" thing, I am glad we moved up the ladder here a bit, then!
Also, "normies" seem to be joining in droves and doing just fine. So let's give them a bit of credit here.
We could also maybe stop calling them "normies", you know. :blobcatthinking:
Giraffe Slava ????
@rysiek @axbom interesting but exactly the kind of thing that freaks out the normies
aab
aab
Katzentratschen
@warrows @rysiek I'm aware Mastodon is growing faster than other projects right know. It brings me back to my initial question: Where should I look if I wanna see interoperability in practice? The fediverse seems to lack road signs and maps.
warrows
@katzentratschen @rysiek right, that's because most of the switch happening right now is from Twitter to Mastodon. But at some point you'll chance upon someone using something else.
Also I hope as people discover all the fediverse services more and more will start using stuff like peertube, pixelfed, lemmy or funkwhale
Katzentratschen
@warrows Thanks for your answer. Usually I do click through to see what kind of instance it is. So far it was always Mastodon. Some folks posted vids from Peertube but they just linked them in the same way one would post a YouTube link. @rysiek
warrows
@katzentratschen @rysiek you probably just don't recognize it. I might be using pleroma or gnusocial to write this message and you'd get it all the same. That's the beauty of it. The best way to know what software someone's instance is running is to visit this instance. In my case you can go to https://framapiaf.org (second part of my user name) and see that I'm on Mastodon
Katzentratschen
@rysiek After moving from Twitter to Mastodon in November, I've learned a lot about the Fediverse. While I see decentralization in practice every day, other bits of knowledge are rather theoretical: I understand all projects are interoperable via ActivityPub, and thus somehow connected and able to interact with each other. But up to now, I've never stumbled upon one of those interactions. (Or haven't recognized it.) Where should I look if I wanna see how exactly interoperability is applied?
Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦
@lauriehaley as someone has already noted, #JohnMastodon 's full name was "John Federik Mastodon", and went by his middle name. "Fedi" for short. :blobcatthinksmart:
Laurie
Dr. Matt Lee ?:verified:
@rysiek except Fediverse is a term that sounds silly for a lot of people
Dr. Matt Lee ?:verified:
@kingannoy @rysiek How many people have recently joined Mastodon? How many people have recently joined all other Fediverse services combined?
Jesse
@mattl @rysiek
Other words that sound silly (until we are used to them and they don't):
Toot
Tweet
Tumblr
Flickr
Yahoo
Google
Uber
Email
Xerox
Fax
This is very much an incomplete list ?
Evan Prodromou
@rysiek @dneary @linuxfiend @darnell @atomicpoet @axbom @cwebber it will!
Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦
@dneary I still wish Identica came back as an ActivityPub-compatible service. What an amazing piece of history would that bring to fedi!
Dave Neary
@linuxfiend @rysiek @darnell @atomicpoet @axbom @cwebber Users of Identica! The greatest of all @evan 's creations.
![[nick@earth.sol ~]$ :cursor:](https://gnusocial.jp/avatar/78183-48-20240308191309.webp){kind=small}
[nick@earth.sol ~]$ :cursor:
@rysiek @darnell @atomicpoet @axbom @cwebber
Where are the Identicans?
Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦
@darnell @atomicpoet @axbom you might not believe me but this image is 8 years old and refers to the previous attempt at making a federated social network.
Fun fact, Friendica is still with us here on fedi, and GNU Social might join us soon:
https://www.gnusocial.rocks/v3/milestone-activitypub.html
MediaGoblin was started by @cwebber, who then went on to work on ActivityPub, the protocol powering fedi (and Mastodon) today.
There is a *lot* of history here.
Darnell Clayton :verified:
@atomicpoet @rysiek @axbom ??? Sure, why not‽ They can be Species 8472!
Chris Trottier
@darnell @rysiek @axbom Can Parliament-Funkadelic join this mythos?
I know they're not Star Trek canon, but I want them to be.
Darnell Clayton :verified:
@rysiek @axbom I use #StarTrek to explain it: #Fediverse is the Federation of aligned worlds.
#Mastodon is Earth, #Misskey is Vulcan, #Pixelfed is Centauri Prime & #Pleroma is Bajor.
There are many worlds & each server is like a starship or space station from that world.
#ActivityPub is the universal translator that connects them all.
#Twitter is the Klingon Empire, while #Facebook is the Borg. ?
#Matrix is the wormhole aliens & #Tumblr is the Dominion. ???
aab
aab
Chris Trottier
@rysiek @darnell @axbom @cwebber Friendica connects with GNU Social, so in a way, they're already here.
heluecht
Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦
#FollowFriday, Non-Mastodon edition (you can follow and interact with these directly from masto). See parent thread for explanation of #Fediverse.
@technology —
#Lemmy (Reddit-like) community about technology.
@blender — #PeerTube account of the #Blender 3d modelling software. Plenty of beautiful vids.
@SolarpunkPrompts — #OwnCast podcast about #SolarPunk
@heluecht — one of the old-timiest old-timers on here. #Friendica user from before :mastodon: existed.
Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦
I do not need to explain that no single entity run by a small group of people can appreciate experiences and needs of every single person out there.
So we need more diversity in projects, to get more diversity in how the whole network evolves to accommodate all the diverse groups of people joining it nowadays as part of #TwitterMigration.
In other words, we could do with recognizing that on a technical level this place is a bit more… #Fediverse.
(see what I did there?)
:blobcatcoffee:
Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦
And that's not just about some technical capabilities of this or that software, but also about power dynamics (yes, they exist on fedi too, to some extent) and about building a network that can cater to anyone's needs and where everyone can feel safe.
As much as Mastodon-the-software-project is a fantastic piece of software and is by far the most popular instance software on fedi, identifying the whole network with a single project alone means that project gets to decide what is possible.
Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦
In this very thread I have seen responses from people who are using Pleroma or Misskey or Calckey or Friendica as their instance software. This very thread shows exactly how this is a bigger network than just Mastodon.
You can use a Mastodon app and connect to a Mastodon instance and never even know that person you're talking with is using, say, Fedilab with a Pleroma instance.
Recognizing that is, I feel, useful, as it broadens our imagination about what's possible. :blob_derpy:
Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦
I have also seen a lot of people saying "well the app is called Mastodon" — sure, but there are a lot of other apps you can use. Tusky, Metatext, Fedilab and literally dozens more:
https://www.androidauthority.com/best-mastodon-apps-android-1210889/
https://transponderings.blog/2022/05/21/eight-mastodon-apps-for-iphone/
If you happened to download "Fedilab" first, would you argue the whole network is called "Fedilab"?..
And being aware that there's a broad spectrum of options might help you find a mobile app that maybe even works better than the official one. :blobcat_owo:
Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦
I edited this toot, as there were many people pointing out it sounded "annoyed" or "scolding." That was never the intention, and I am sorry it came off that way. :sadcat1:
That said, I do believe language matters a great deal: "The limits of my language mean the limits of my world."
I am not trying to convince you to always use one term over the other (I too sometimes use "Mastodon" in that context). Okay, maybe a tiny bit.
But mainly, I am trying to give broader context. :blobcatuwu:
Alexandre Oliva
Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦
@kwj I don't consider Diaspora a part of fedi. I know Friendica can talk to it, but Diaspora devs flat out refuse to implement any other protocol. So. ?♀️
kwj??
Kainoa
@TG_Esq @rysiek@mstdn.social "I saw it on the fediverse" works
Tim Goodwin
@rysiek@mstdn.social
I'm still waiting for a catchy collective name / noun for these places. "I saw it on the Fediverse / Calckey / Misskey / etc." doesn't work for me, or for the non-tech types I live with. "I saw it online" is generically correct, but somewhat vague.
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