this post was submitted on 28 Mar 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).

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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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What do you think about this graphic?

It should give an easy overview of the architecture of the Fediverse and what it differentiates from old social media.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

This doesn’t explain things well. Lemmy is like a bunch of Reddits communicating with each other. The graphic makes it seem like there is just one Lemmy. Also, are Lemmy posts on Mastodon? Mastodon was largely empty last I checked.

Edit: I just now noticed the second Lemmy

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Mastodon users can subscribe to Lemmy communities I think, but it doesn't really work very well. The Mastodon feed isn't really made to support threaded content so all the Lemmy comments will fill and mess up your feed.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago

I think the ATProtocol is better when it comes to connecting between different social media types. But I think ActivityPub makes better use of different servers.

Though I think something like Lemmy is difficult for both because of how different it is from most other social media types.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago

Also, I really like your username. I learned about that fish from Animal Crossing lol.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I just got here but I've noticed this platform is much nicer compared to things like reddit. No bots, no ai softcore porn ads. I'll take the fediverse any day.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Nice to hear. :)

What convinced you to join?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Some people in a left leaning subreddit told me it would be a good backup. Then just yesterday I got perma banned and the admins wouldn't tell me why. So now I'm here

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago

Thanks ! They really were right when they said people here are much more pleasant than on reddit lol

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Needs more chains and walls between groups in the top picture. And maybe some ransom notes.

(This is more to try to make you laugh, than useful feedback, sorry. I don't have a very good idea how to actually include these concepts in a simple diagram.)

[–] [email protected] 14 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

My criticism is that it largely ignores the primary advantage of Fediverse services (Decentralizing services that are designed to operate Centrally), while mostly explaining what I've always considered to be the most pointless feature (Cross Service posting).

It's a mildly neat feature if you want to centralize your entire social profile under one account (which is my security nightmare but you do you), but its not really fundamental to using federated services and its implementation can be inconsistent and confusing.

Maybe have a bunch of "Lemmy" (or whatever) nodes arranged in a circle, the same color, with the same icon, and connected to each other through the middle of the circle (not connecting to the "fediverse", although I guess you could have a transparent "Lemmy" super imposed over it) Then have the users connected to each node. Or something...I'm on a bench and just broadly visualizing it.

The next trick is explaining the fault of centralized services in a graph.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 days ago (1 children)

There's no central authority here. But if it doesn't matter which instance you are on, then all the users on Lemmy are still just part of Lemmy.

On the graph I see other icons than Lemmy.

Are we able to see content from other social media? Or what is meant with that

[–] RvTV95XBeo 14 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Certain other content crosses boarders. Mastadon especially. Whenever you see people replying to messages and it starts with some sort of @[email protected] tagging, you're probably eavesdropping on a Mastadon thread and you don't even know it.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 days ago

GLOBALISTS ARE TAKING OVER

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Love it! I've saved a copy, because I think it'll make future explanations a lot easier. Thanks!

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

Awesome! That's what I wanted to achieve :D

[–] [email protected] 107 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Maybe remove the fediverse in the middle, if I knew nothing about the fediverse it will seem like it is centralized?

[–] DannyBoy 78 points 1 week ago (2 children)

John Fediverse is in the middle, holding all the fediverse conmections together.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 week ago

Is his first name John or Join?

[–] [email protected] 69 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I'd say these fall into the same trap that most fediverse explainers fall into — too focused on implementation details, not the experience. The average FB user thinks they're connecting to friends directly, not really considering the system architecture that powers it.

I'd like a graphic that shows how centralised media blocks connections to others outside thier walled garden.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

The implementation details matter tho, your instance admin actively makes federation decisions that affect the content you see. I like to explain joining an instance as pledging yourself to a warlord in medieval Japan

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Interesting. How would you put this into a picture?

My friend (the average social media user) also didn't seem too interested in it. I can imagine something interesting for the average user in a video but not in an image.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago

I would add random instance names to the service icons, to show them that the websites are interconnected and not just the services

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago

Largely similar to what you have, but abstracting away the metalware and reframing as human-centric.

If the user is at the center, surrounded by more users, making primary & secondary connections, in an approximate circle shape. You can then show traditional social media owners as wedges of that circle, containing (owning) a fraction of the users & preventing connection to others, vs. Fedi that lets you connect to everyone.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That's cool but I think that's too technical for the average social media user

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 week ago (2 children)

That's cool too, but way too much text for it to be quickly consumed on a small display. This is more for the second stage when people are already curious and want to learn more, in my opinion.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 week ago

I agree, yours is simpler and to the point. It gets the general idea across quicker. The links for blaze would be follow up things people would look into.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 week ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago
[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Here is the file link. Let's create multiple versions :D

https://www.canva.com/design/DAGjBaOKTmM/mVzeYlpGz2MwWMdMhFqQIg/edit

(Sorry for the proprietary service!)

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

(Sorry for the proprietary service!)

Ouch, brace yourselves, FOSS ninjas incoming 😄

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

For the top services, I’d make each of the blue background circles a different color to better denote that they’re proprietary and incompatible.

For the Fediverse section, you could add Tumblr, and other services who also federate via activity pub to show our interoperability and expansive reach.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago

Tumblr

Is it already working?

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