this post was submitted on 24 Feb 2025
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Fediverse

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A community to talk about the Fediverse and all it's related services using ActivityPub (Mastodon, Lemmy, KBin, etc).

If you wanted to get help with moderating your own community then head over to [email protected]!

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Learn more at these websites: Join The Fediverse Wiki, Fediverse.info, Wikipedia Page, The Federation Info (Stats), FediDB (Stats), Sub Rehab (Reddit Migration)

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It's brief, around 25:15

https://youtube.com/watch?v=nf7XHR3EVHo


If you've been sitting on making a post about your favorite instance, this could be a good opportunity to do so.

Going by our registration applications, a lot of people are learning about the fediverse for the first time and they're excited about the idea. I've really enjoyed reading through them :)

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[–] GaMEChld 12 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Can anyone explain Bluesky vs Mastodon as Twitter alternatives, asking as someone who never really used Twitter much anyway?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Bluesky is corporate, Mastodon is closer to Lemmy in ownership.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (5 children)

On the surface, both of them look very similar in format. They also both advertise themselves as decentralized and different from traditional social media, arguing that they won't face the same problems old social media did.

Mastodon uses ActivityPub, which is the widely used standard that most other fediverse platforms use. Mastodon is properly decentralized, where all the servers can interact and operate independently.

BlueSky made their own protocol that they control, citing that ActivityPub wasn't enough for what they wanted to do, and in some ways that's true. However with their structure, a central relay is needed in order for different instances to interact and so people argue that it isn't truly decentralized. Right now BlueSky is either the only instance, or basically the only instance. They've mentioned that they could transfer control of the relay to some other organization, but past that I don't think they've taken any steps towards that.

BlueSky is also a VC backed company while Mastodon is now under a nonprofit. BlueSky has its roots in crypto tech. There is more technical discussion on if it's even possible to have a decentralized BlueSky and if it's all just talk while they gather users.

My personal opinion is that I really hope bluesky does what they're promising, but I'm not expecting them to be any different than Twitter once they get a critical mass of users and the investors demand profits / infinite growth.

[–] PieMePlenty 15 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Bluesky is what happens when someone with a corporate mindset wants to make something new and good. Mastodon happens when hobbyists get together and make something. Ive heard BlueSky has a board of people in charge to make sure it doesn't end up like twitter. Exactly what one would expect a company to do. Make sure something doesnt go wrong? Put a few people in charge. Mastodon just has the whole community. I may be wrong here as I dont use either. Right now Im just wondering what will happen when BlueSkys provider comes knocking with the hosting bill. As mass social media migrations are rare, its just a shame people are leaving twitter for another big tech site instead of something more community grown.

[–] lepinkainen 6 points 1 day ago

For me the advantage of Bluesky is that I can own my identity. I can reserve [email protected] and use that, without having to run my own instance.

With Mastodon I’d have to put up a full-ass server instance and worry about federation etc just to have my “own” identity instead of [email protected] or something

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

from what i understand, a decentralized bluesky is nothing for an enduser at all.

TL;DR: the cost for an enduser to run a bluesky instance will soon be prohibitive because of the amount of storage needed owed to its shared heap architecture. but what it does is to provide a "credible exit" - if users lose trust or the company shutters, there's nothing in the way of another organisation picking up the mantle and continue from there on.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 day ago

BlueSky made their own protocol that they control, citing that ActivityPub wasn’t enough for what they wanted to do

Sounds like bullshit for useful idiots that don't know what they're talking about.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 day ago

There's a viral marketing campaign going on right now to herd the twitter sheep to the next rich-person's platform. That's why we keep seeing useful idiots say "bluesky" instead of "Mastodon."