It's almost the end of the month again! A little friendly reminder that #Mastodon and the #Fediverse does not serve ads or sell your data :cat_hug_triangle:
Please think about supporting your local admin! If you like to support the services I host for free you can do so here :cat_hug_triangle:
FediFetcher is a simple Python script that can help you pull missing responses from other #Fediverse instances into your own #Mastodon instance. It can also backfill profiles of new followers and followings.
It can be run as cron job, container, or even a GitHub action, meaning you don't need any infrastructure at all.
If you find the free extraction of value from the internet for the training of for-profit disrupting AIs problematic, and,
Are fond of the #fediverse …
How do you feel about the fact that the fediverse can and is being scraped (try searching Google)?
It’s in the nature of the technology (right?) which is arguably only a minor step toward decentralised internet participation.
A shorter roundup this week, as it feels like we´re transitioning to a different news cycle. Last month has focused mainly on current organisations joining the fediverse. Medium, Flipboard, Vivaldi and Mozilla have all set up their own Mastodon servers, and WordPress acquired the ActivityPub plugin. The next phase is now to experience the new users that will slowly start to join via these new types of servers, and how this will change fediverse culture. Meanwhile, the current weeks are more themed around community meetups. Last week was MozFest, with three sessions about the fediverse, and the coming week will be Fediforum.
Matthias Pfefferle, the developer of the ActivityPub plugin for WordPress, did an interview (in German about this. Important takeaway: Automattic is actively looking to make this plugin a Canonical Plugin, with the suggestion coming from the CEO.
Bookwyrm, the federated platform for book reading and tracking, is used to maintain a list of all books being banned from public schools in the US. Bookwyrm is explicit about their involvement in social causes, so this fits right in.
The Mastodon organisation will release Mastodon merchandise soon.
Debirdify, a tool to find your Twitter followers on Mastodon, has been suspended from Twitter.
A full list of all the demos at Fediform this week.
Macstodon is a new Mastodon client for MacOS with an incredible vintage look. Worth checking out for the visuals. (edit, thanks to @liaizon: Macstodon is for very old computers only. it runs on 68020+ or PPC Mac and System 7.1 through 9.2.2 so saying its for MacOS is sorta correct but not really since it only runs on 20 year old operating systems)
If you want to get this weekly roundup of news in your mailbox, consider subscribing to my newsletter. You can do this directly via fediversereport.com. Every week you’ll get the weeks biggest news stories as well as the roundup of shorter news bits. Thank you for reading!
If you are kind enough to follow me, I’ll follow you.
If you are kind enough to talk to me, I’ll talk to you.
I’ll boost that may help another or make them happy or laugh or think.
I love it here. ❤️
If you want people's advice about any topic, type your question and tag it with #AskFedi, which is kind of like a bat signal for advice on the Fediverse 🦇
If you want a post to be shared, try adding "Boosts appreciated!". Some servers may even have an emoji for this such as :boost_ok:
Marketing sucks, but I think we're failing to push the "unique selling proposition" (ugh) of the #fediverse. So many kinds of social media exist, but this place is about "attention democracy". We are "decentralized boosts with dialogue". That the best art, info and ideas go viral, as decided by everyone collectively. No gatekeepers or advantages for advertisers. It embraces journalism's ideals. It's why it matters at a cultural level. It should be the focus of future development and our message.
@ajsadauskas Across the internet, there's a host of niche communities on message boards and web forums, using platforms such as phpBB and its various competitors.
Is there scope to get these communities on the Fediverse?
Over the past couple of weeks, I've been trying out Lemmy (lemmy.ml ), which is basically a Reddit-like platform on the Fediverse. (For those reading this on Mastodon, this post is actually a reply to a post on Lemmy, meaning you can read it on Lemmy, on Mastodon, or elsewhere!)
It's shown me that the concept of a Fediverse -connected discussion forum certainly can work.
So is there scope to either add ActivityPub to any existing message board software platforms?
Alternatively, is there scope to develop a fediverse-connected general purpose message board platform?
Takahē is a new kind of Fediverse server which is aimed at small to medium size servers. It's unusual as it allows the same server to host multiple domains, and allows each user to have multiple identities. You can find out more from the project's official website at:
Since the #fediverse / #mastodon is growing and growing and since it’s wonky as hell, hard for non-techies to figure out I tend to post things on #WelcomeWednesday to help those who fled from #twitter figure things out. I also boost #introduction posts on #wednesday to help new #twittermigration people as well 😊
So if you don’t like it you can mute me on Wednesdays to save your eyeballs 😂
Whoa — #Mastodon passed 10 million users yesterday. According to @mastodonusercount, the number of hours people spend on here is increasing too. That's incredible.
It's a moment to celebrate and to get excited about the work we still have ahead scaling and securing the #fediverse.
I'm starting work on a blog about what it will take to get us to the next 10 million, and I'm curious about what my friends on here think about it. What do we need, in terms of tech or otherwise, to keep growing?
Automattic, the company behind WordPress is now the official author of the ActivityPub plugin. This is pretty big news, since it allows every WordPress website to be a potential fediverse server.
In this piece I take a look at the potential impact on #fediverse culture, zooming in on how tagging your WordPress posts makes them show up when you search for a specific hashtag here on the fediverse.
If #activitypub is implemented on #tumblr I wonder if subblogs will be part of the #fediverse in addition to the main blog. I know I'm ignorant on the technical side of things, but it would be great if subblogs could be part of the Fediverse as well...
👋 Welcome to the #ChaMona account dedicated to crafting and sharing some of the finest @MonaApp custom themes, and occasional tips to making the most out of #MonaApp.
➡️ Follow and turn on Posts Notifications for when new Themes go Live from this account.
🔁 To help reach all Mona for Mastodon users on the #Fediverse, Boosts of existing and new shared custom themes will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. 🙏
Dear #mastodon and #fediverse gurus. Can you work out what I'm missing for making my account appear as verified? I'm sure I've got the right rel=me incantation at https://zz9.org/social/
("help me fediverse... you're my only hope" ... wait, wrong franchise!)
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.
When Rome sent their first scouts to your village you didn't consider that an honor of recognition of your tribe's achievements. You trained your tribe's people, produced weapons and prepared to defend yourself, because it wouldn't be long until they send their first armies to your village.
Hot take/rant time for #ActivityPub with the news that #Meta plans to dip their toe in the water.
I would view Meta as an existential threat to a non-corporate, AP-based #fediverse in large part because of the immaturity of and lack of interoperability in the AP spec itself.
Why?
Because when you have that big of a fish involved in your space made up of small players, the big fish gets to set the rules unless you have some pretty strong protections in place.
I'm pretty sure that the #Fediverse is one of the first social networks I've been on that didn't ever ask me to betray any of the people in my address book.
Lemmy shows how Fediverse-connected message boards can work. So is it time for a Fediverse-connected general purpose message board platform (like phpBB)? Is anyone working on this?
I'll elaborate on my thoughts further in my reply below, but I'm keen to hear what everyone thinks of this concept