O Fediverso é uma gigantesca rede de plataformas de mídia social. Existem plataformas de microblogging, blogging, fotoblogging, hospedagem de vídeos e muito mais... E todas elas estão interligadas ou "federadas".
Portanto, você só precisa de uma única conta para seguir usuárias(os) em qualquer uma das plataformas.

File:Fediverse logo.png
Fediverse logo

Imagine

Imagine que Twitter, Facebook, Instagram e afins fossem todas partes de uma rede gigante de mídias sociais. Basicamente, é isto que o Fediverso é, com a diferença de que as partes - diferentemente das anteriores - são menos conhecidas, bem como são softwares livres federados.

No Fediverso você pode usar, digamos assim, a sua conta do "Twitter" para interagir com os usuários do "Facebook, compartilhar posts do "Instagram", comentar nos vídeos do "Youtube", ouvir as musicas do "Bandcamp", seguir os blogs do "Blogger", participar das discussões do "Reddit" e mais.

Comparativo com outras mídias sociais

Funcionalidades

O Fediverso e seus muitos projetos deixam você fazer, montar, administrar a tua própria rede social e compor uma rede maior de mídias sociais.

O Fediverso tem muitas vantagens sobre mídias sociais mais comerciais. Dada sua natureza descentralizada, é possível criar círculos de convívio com outras redes pequenas. Montar e administrar sua própria instância permite que você crie as regras. A maioria dos mantedores de instâncias o fazem com seus próprios recursos para terem suas próprias redes sociais que não exploram seus pares pelos seus dados, ou para fortalecerem e explorarem uma temática em especpifico.

The Fediverse innovates on what has worked before and adds many new features. A commonly supported feature is custom emojis. Similarly to Discord, it lets administrators add their own (even animated) emoji. The Fediverse also lets you decide who gets to see your posts: with so called scopes, you can decide whether only the users you mention, your followers or the public gets to see them.

Morals

Traditional social media is neither social nor media. It is not made for you, it is made to exploit you and it is full of misleading ads and fake news.
This is because the aim of traditional social media is to make a whole lot of money.
The aim of the Fediverse is to benefit the people.
The aim of traditional social media is to control and steer the users.
The aim of the Fediverse is to empower the users to control the Fediverse.

Downsides

Compared to traditional social media there are also some downsides:

  • The Fediverse has a much smaller user base than other platforms, so if you're primarily looking for a wide audience then it might not be for you.
  • Not all Fediverse projects are at the same stage of development and some important functions one projects has, the other might still be missing.
  • Fediverse projects and instances are run by volunteers with not a lot of money behind them. Worst case: A project might no longer be maintained or an instance might close.
  • There are some instances that allow hate-speech, fake news or worse. Make sure you don't end up on one of them.

Terminology

  • Your account or identity has a unique address called a handle and is hosted on one of the many servers, also called instances.
  • An instance is basically a small social network hosted on one server. Each instance can have its own set of rules as for what content is allowed. You can also host your own instance. Each instance runs one software.
  • The software used on an instance is essential for the user experience and possibilities.
  • Many software projects use the same protocol which enables instances to communicate with each other. Most software projects use Activity Pub. Some projects might not have full federation with other projects yet.
  • The Fediverse (federated universe) is the sum of all accounts, on all instances using any software, communicating with any protocol.
    The Fediverse includes more than just social media projects. Any software that federates using one of the protocols is part of the Fediverse.
  • @PaulaToThePeople@ClimateJustice.social is an example for a handle. ClimateJustice.social is the instance the account is on. The software it uses is Mastodon. Thanks to the ActivityPub protocol it can follow accounts on other instances that use e.g. Mastodon, GNU Social or Pixelfed software.

How do I get an account?

Main article: How do I get an account?

If you just want to get to know the Fediverse experience you can start by creating a profile on mastodon.social or mastodon.online.
You can later move instances or create accounts on different instances and projects.
For more info on finding the right instance and creating an account click the link above.

Further Reading

External Links

Main article: Fediverse weblinks

Fediverse Town The forum for questions about the Fediverse

Fediverse Guides