Fediverse

Every user, post, community, etc. on each of these services is represented as an ActivityPub object. Let's take the example of following your Lemmy user from Mastodon. I can search for @[email protected] in Mastodon and in the background my Mastodon instance will issue the following WebFinger request to lemmy.ml: https://lemmy.ml/.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct:[email protected]. This will return the following JSON: -

{
  "subject": "acct:[email protected]",
  "links": [
    {
      "rel": "http://webfinger.net/rel/profile-page",
      "type": "text/html",
      "href": "https://lemmy.ml/u/Gohos"
    },
    {
      "rel": "self",
      "type": "application/activity+json",
      "href": "https://lemmy.ml/u/Gohos",
      "properties": {
        "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams#type": "Person"
      }
    }
  ]
}

From here I can request the application/activity+json URL at https://lemmy.ml/u/Gohos and if I request JSON I get: -

{
  "@context": [
    "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams",
    "https://w3id.org/security/v1",
    {
      "lemmy": "https://join-lemmy.org/ns#",
      "litepub": "http://litepub.social/ns#",
      "pt": "https://joinpeertube.org/ns#",
      "sc": "http://schema.org/",
      "ChatMessage": "litepub:ChatMessage",
      "commentsEnabled": "pt:commentsEnabled",
      "sensitive": "as:sensitive",
      "matrixUserId": "lemmy:matrixUserId",
      "postingRestrictedToMods": "lemmy:postingRestrictedToMods",
      "removeData": "lemmy:removeData",
      "stickied": "lemmy:stickied",
      "moderators": {
        "@type": "@id",
        "@id": "lemmy:moderators"
      },
      "expires": "as:endTime",
      "distinguished": "lemmy:distinguished",
      "language": "sc:inLanguage",
      "identifier": "sc:identifier"
    }
  ],
  "type": "Person",
  "id": "https://lemmy.ml/u/Gohos",
  "preferredUsername": "Gohos",
  "inbox": "https://lemmy.ml/u/Gohos/inbox",
  "outbox": "https://lemmy.ml/u/Gohos/outbox",
  "publicKey": {
    "id": "https://lemmy.ml/u/Gohos#main-key",
    "owner": "https://lemmy.ml/u/Gohos",
    "publicKeyPem": "-----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY-----\nMIIBIjANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAAOCAQ8AMIIBCgKCAQEAwDc9TbmcvR/eRx0zuXl5\nqUu8vwcU3K1/70BqLdae/HtbjqXoHbVUI3exSVOTLVmPQ4oHjf6Lq5axyRRwihTh\nbDgWYSBCqZ07L6VrgXVg2APCkFpX32XlbFbbMQDXf+kodj6YrzwelXEJ03eTDKaa\nuFkFt0Uelu1k0AZVydGYT3U2iZ0jNGvpUMWQycTJ/k0r8n61JLuEMkvkVlH4ZDGb\nGTjwjLRds/zawe8FAK/Grn+AW/UTmW/1kBLcqhkeRYzWhyrVy+/f9jf03s0rW92w\n8PWM02AAE9edIpnK2XgElfkVWJenQzw7WDp045XPHMlUh5iizAJGcPAzdeEVNLq8\nGQIDAQAB\n-----END PUBLIC KEY-----\n"
  },
  "endpoints": {
    "sharedInbox": "https://lemmy.ml/inbox"
  },
  "published": "2023-06-03T17:30:16.990908+00:00"
}

This includes two important properties: inbox and outbox. Using ActivityPub I now know I can send you a message by POSTing a request to your inbox and I can fetch posts, comments, etc. you've made via your outbox.

Your public key is also included. This is how, if you sent me a message, I can verify that the message actually came from you.

That's a very brief overview but I hope that helps!

ActivityPub. It's a protocol just like SMTP for email. It allows these different platforms you mentioned to interact with each other. They all together form the fediverse.

All platforms on the fediverse interact because they are part of the same protocol, ActivityPub. (While there are more federated and decentralised protocols, "Fediverse" refers to ActivityPub based social network)

Other federated and/or decentralised platforms have other protocols, for example Diaspora* which has its own protocol, also supported by Hubzilla (which main protocol is Zot and also supports AP), Friendica (also AP and Ostatus) and SocialHome. Or Ostatus (GNU Social, Pleroma (also AP), and Matrix (Matrix)

A social media can interact with other social media that share the same protocol.

so Friendica can interact with Diaspora, Lemmy and GNU social, because it supports Diapora*, AP and OStatus, but the other three, being mono-protocol cannot interact with each other.