Geek Babble– Four Months on the Fediverse

When I wrote my guide on How to Join and Effectively Use Mastodon back in April, I focused largely on well, Mastodon. It was a given considering how people were seeking alternatives to Twitter in droves. Twitter’s future is still up in the air, but the sale to Elon Musk has taken weird and amusing twists, if the billionaire ends up even buying Twitter at all. In the meantime, spending more time on Mastodon especially with a personal account has opened my eyes to the wider world the social network runs on. As I mentioned in my April article, Mastodon runs on ActivityPub, a decentralized social networking protocol. It is just one part of this system that makes up a larger system called the Fediverse.

On the Fediverse Mastodon is one of many social networking platforms and one of many microblogging services. It just happens to be the most popular. Other competitors include Pleroma and Misskey. The beauty of the Fediverse means that even though these are competing social networks, users on these platforms can easily talk to and follow each other in a fairly seamless process thanks to ActivityPub. The ability to communicate with other networks and types of services is also possible, even without signing up for these services. For example PeerTube is a video upload and streaming service. Users on Mastodon can use their account to watch and comment on PeerTube videos without having to sign up for a PeerTube instance.

The Fediverse is a nice alternative to not just the major social networks, but a variety of other services as well. Here are some of the more popular services:

• PeerTube functions similarly to YouTube.
• Pixelfed is an Instagram alternative.
• Funkwhale is an alternative to Spotify, Plex, YouTube Music, and Bandcamp.
• Friendica is a Facebook alternative.
• Lemmy is a Reddit-like service.

 

A comprehensive list of services can be found on Fediverse.info. Again the only downside to these decentralized, federated, and open-source options is the complexity of joining a service for the average user. Signing up on a service’s website isn’t a straightforward process. Potential users must select a service, choose a suitable instance aka a server, and then they’re able to use the service. There’s also the possibility of running into unmoderated and upsetting content, but that can be the overall web in general.

My personal journey into the Fediverse is fairly limited to Fandom.ink, a Mastodon instance and the main instance of Pixelfed. My time spent on both services has been rewarding. If you’re the type of person turned off by the idea of centralized content like the major social networking platforms or how a handful of large companies dominate so much of the internet, these decentralized platforms may be for you. If you’re like me and miss parts of the older internet, i.e. web 2.0, these platforms will definitely remind you of it with a slightly slicker coat of paint. If you’re only interested in engagement and pulling in larger numbers, then you might find these platforms lacking. On a side note, there’s nothing wrong with wanting larger numbers especially if you’re a business or depend on social media for your livelihood.

My time on Mastodon via Fandom.ink has been delightful. Everyone I’ve interacted with has been kind and helpful. Even though it is a social media platform, the overall feeling of the instance is cozy due to its small size. I’ve cultivated friendships and a mutual following with a handful of people. I’ve also followed other people of interest from other Mastodon instances or instances from the other microblogging services. The ability to follow and read posts is just so easy.

 

For everything else happening on Fandom.ink I use the Local timeline. On the larger Mastodon instances the Local timeline was difficult to follow, but on a smaller instance it is an interesting way to discover what people are up to. Members mostly stick to talking about their fandoms, fiction writing, gaming, or their daily lives in a way that reminds me of LiveJournal. It takes very little time to catch up on daily posts which eliminates the incentive to endlessly scroll. The Federated timeline isn’t too bad to follow here, but I rarely use it. The owner of Fandom.ink is on top of banning problematic instances, so coming across incidents of blatant bigotry doesn’t happen too often. This definitely cements my preference for a well-moderated server over a place where anything goes.

The biggest difference in using a personal account on Mastodon versus the blog’s account would be my increased use of the content warning label. The content warning label opens up two input fields. One field for a description of the content and a second field for the actual content. The toot in the second field is placed behind a “show more” button and images are censored unless they’re clicked on. I never used this label on the blog’s account. If I have something to say it will be fairly mundane– as it is an official account representing the blog as a whole, not just myself.

On my personal accounts I found this tag useful when talking about life issues or politics. People would have to take an extra step, literally a click or tap, to read what I have to say. If they didn’t want to engage they could keep scrolling. I love the feeling not forcing someone else to read something they may not want to see.

 

Some on the Fediverse do find this feature to be controversial. Some demand that it be used for everything regarding politics or distressing news. Others find content warning labels as a way for people shy away from seeing inconvenient truths. I personally like this feature as seeing deluge of politics or heavy topics can be a bit much if you’re not ready to engage with them. That said, I don’t press people to use it either. Content warning labels are also useful hiding in NSFW posts, images that are disturbing, or making a longer post shorter. I wish Twitter had this feature beyond just marking images as sensitive content.

Before I signed up for a personal account on a Mastodon instance, I actually found myself interested in Pixelfed. I liked the idea of Instagram, but I didn’t want to deal with any service related to Meta, aka Facebook. Pixelfed is not a good replacement for a full image gallery service, but it’s useful for image posts. The service itself looks similar to Instagram. Unlike Instagram, there is no algorithm to dictate what you should see. Once again you have the options of a Home feed (everyone you follow), a Local feed (everyone on the instance), and a Global feed (all Pixelfed instances). You can choose to follow whatever accounts you like (as long as they aren’t blocked server-wide) including from other Fediverse services. I follow a lot of artists from Mastodon.art as Pixelfed displays their work in a more appealing way than on Mastodon itself.

 

My only issue with Pixelfed is the serious lack of engagement and interesting people to follow. Like with every service on the Fediverse, you have to pick an instance to join. In this case the more users the better, so I picked the largest instance, Pixelfed.social. While I don’t want an algorithm showing me people I don’t follow, it would be nice to be able to find more accounts on my own. I can see how this would bother someone more interested in engagement and maintaining a large following. In this case Pixelfed is probably not a good image sharing alternative to Instagram. On the flip side, well-moderated instances are fairly chill and you don’t have to worry about a service suddenly doing an about-face and trying to make themselves into an entirely different social networking platform. Yes, I am chastising everyone chasing TikTok users by trying to become TikTok.

Another thing holding Pixelfed back is the lack of a mobile app. One is coming, but it is not ready yet. Users are entirely reliant on the web to share their pictures, or using a web app on their mobile devices. Web apps are fairly similar to to apps, but they run on a browser instead instead of a dedicated program. That said, not many people tend to use or prefer web apps unless they don’t have another choice. I suspect once the mobile app is completed Pixelfed may receive a slight boost in users and user engagement.

 

Speaking of apps, I did want to touch on Tusky. It’s my mobile app of choice for Mastodon. Since I’ve begun to use two different accounts on the service, my appreciation of this program has only grown. It allows me to seamlessly switch between accounts. I can reply directly to a toot on one account or switch to the other account to engage with a simple tap, unless the toot is locked to a particular instance. Unlike the web version of Mastodon, I can schedule toots easily. Even the official Twitter app isn’t as useful as Tusky. Speaking of official apps, I don’t see myself switching to Mastodon’s app any time soon as Tusky is just that good.

 

Ultimately, I’m enjoying my time on the Fediverse. It’s not perfect and every problem that can be found on the internet can be found here. I doubt it’s going to pull too many people away from larger centralized networks, but it’s a great alternative for people who value their privacy or dislike algorithms.