What is the Fediverse?: Difference between revisions

From Join the Fediverse
Line 91: Line 91:


== External Links ==
== External Links ==
[https://fediverse.town/ Fediverse Town] The forum for questions about the Fediverse


==== Fediverse Guides ====
==== Fediverse Guides ====

Revision as of 12:14, 10 December 2021

File:Fediverse logo.png
Fediverse logo

The Fediverse is a giant Network of Social Media Platforms.

Imagine

Imagine Twitter, Facebook, Instagram & Co were all part of one giant network. That's basically what the Fediverse is, except the parts are less well known, free software & federated replacements to those.

In the Fediverse you can use your "Twitter" account to interact with "Facebook" users, share "Instagram" posts, comment under "Youtube" videos, listen to "Bandcamp" music, follow "Wordpress" blogs, take part in "reddit" discussions and more.

What are Fediverse projects?

Fediverse projects are the different software parts of the Fediverse. Many of them are replacements for more well known Social Media platforms.
See below which software emulates which other Social Media platform:

classic Social Media Fediverse replacement
microblogging Twitter Mastodon, Ecko, Pleroma, GNUsocial, Misskey
Social network Facebook Friendica, Diaspora
Events & Groups Facebook Mobilizon
photoblogging Instagram Pixelfed
videohosting Youtube Peertube
(macro)blogging Wordpress write freely, Plume
Book cataloguing Goodreads Bookwyrm
audiohosting Spotify, Bandcamp, Soundcloud, ... Funkwhale
forum reddit lemmy

What are some advantages over conventional Social Media?

Federation

The email allegory:

Everybody knows you don't need to use the same email provider to communicate via email. You can send a mail from riseup.net to gmail.com and the other way around. That's about the same way that "federation" in the Fediverse works. Federation just means that different or decentral servers or instances can communicate with each other via a protocol. Just like email uses POP, IMAP or SMTP protocols for federation, the Fediverse uses mostly ActivityPub.

Free Software

All of the software used in the Fediverse is Free Software.

Free Sofware is software that follows the 4 freedoms defined by the FSF:

  • Freedom 0: The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose.
  • Freedom 1: The freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does your computing as you wish. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
  • Freedom 2: The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor.
  • Freedom 3: The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others. By doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

No spying, no ads, no algorithm, no shadowbanning, ...

The Fediverse runs on donations, not on selling your data, so there are no targeted ads, there are no ads at all.
What you see on the Fediverse only depends on who you follow, not on algorithms or shadowbanning.

Further Reading

How do I get an account?
Getting started with your Fediverse account
Best practices
Fediverse - the advanced page on the Fediverse

External Links

Fediverse Town The forum for questions about the Fediverse

Fediverse Guides

The Fediverse: the distributed social network
Guide to the Fediverse
DE: Fediverse – So geht gutes Social Media
DE: Das Fediverse