The “fediverse” is the term for the federated social web, a collection of social media concepts (Mastodon, PeerTube, Pixelfed, Friendica, Bookwyrm, etc.) that can all talk to each other by virtue of a common protocol: ActivityPub. The technical details don’t matter. What matters is that, in the fediverse, everyone can have a home without paying tribute to a private company or sacrificing their content (or eyeballs) to somebody’s almighty (and secret) “algorithm”. Those digital homes can all share with each other, system to system or account to account, without having to have a home on every system. A photographer on Pixelfed can share photos and have them liked and commented on by someone who follows them on Mastodon. A reshare of the content on Mastodon can be picked up by a group of friends on Friendica. ActivityPub empowers people, and a great many fediverse platforms all speak ActivityPub.
Despite their common mission of disseminating information, not all science organizations are on the fediverse. When they are on platforms that can speak to or be bridged with the fediverse, they don’t often know to do it. I am encouraging them to do so, so that we can return to the marketplace of sharing that we remember from the early days of Twitter and Facebook.
Here is a short introduction to the fediverse, care of people actually on the fediverse, and then some encouragement to turn on access to the fediverse from your science account.
What is the Fediverse?
I can’t tell it any better than Elena Rossini (@_elena), a filmmaker who has done a marvelous job of introducing people to the fediverse:
The fediverse sounds great, but many people claim to find it confusing because there is not just one Mastodon website, one PeerTube website, etc. There are many platforms to choose from and within each platform there are many sites to choose from. Should I be a photo-poster and just use PixelFed? Do I want a classic “Twitter-like” experience provided by Mastodon? Do I want to just be a streamer and go for PeerTube? Let’s say you settle on the “Twitter-like” experience and choose Mastodon. There are hundreds of websites hosting Mastodon servers. Not all let you sign up without an invitation or approval. Those that do still leave many choices. How do you find what you want?
The strength of the fediverse is that you cannot take down one site and take down the social network. The flip side is the paralysis of choice. That being said …
Think about how you chose your first roommate, or your first neighborhood. If you had some freedom in this, you probably looked for kindred spirits with some shared values. They don’t all have to look like you or sound like you … but they probably should share some of the same values. That makes starting in a community much easier. You can do the same in the fediverse! Some hosts are more open, while others are more aligned with a specific community (astronomers, LGBTQ+2I, Canadians, makers, etc.).
To help you find your community on Mastodon, try this: https://joinmastodon.org/servers. You can filter by common interests, policies, etc. Pick one that feels right to you.
If, for some reason, that website folds in the future, most fediverse platforms allow you to transport your account to another platform. It’s not perfect, but it’s better than anything Twitter ever gave us.
@paige gives perspectives on this to help new members of the fediverse by reflecting the confusion back with added clarity:
The fediverse is really no more confusing than email. You can have an email address on many different platforms, like GMail, Outlook, Yahoo, a company address, etc. But because email is, under the hood, a shared protocol, all systems speak “email” and you can send messages between hosts. Email lets you get to a person without being trapped on a specific system (e.g. GMail) that you opted to host your address.
The fediverse is no different, but instead of 2-D written messages with some media abilities, ActivityPub enables a 4-D experience including writing, emojis, images, videos, conversation, reactions, and sharing. In addition, ActivityPub-powered platforms go further than the protocol itself, providing privacy controls, the ability to block or mute others (including WHOLE platforms, so you can keep those pesky shitposters from even seeing your own content or being able to spread their nonsense into your feeds), and control over what is shared and how.
And no ads. No algorithm. Just … engagement.
For tips about using the fediverse, check out https://fedi.tips/what-is-mastodon-what-is-the-fediverse/
I like this fediverse. Is Threads fediverse?
Kind of. Threads has implemented ActivityPub in their system in a limited way. It’s not universal and it’s not fundamental … but it’s better than nothing at all.
Only people with public profiles can be connected to the fediverse. You can learn more here: https://engineering.fb.com/2024/03/21/networking-traffic/threads-has-entered-the-fediverse/
I like this fediverse. Is Bluesky fediverse?
No. Bluesky opted to pursue its own protocol rather than adopt the World Wide Web Consortium’s ActivityPub standard. But, Bluesky is “fediverse adjacent” and because of this, you can “bridge” content from Bluesky to the fediverse … if you want.1For folks on the fediverse, if you don’t want to see Bluesky posts can block the entire Bluesky domain so you never even see them … it’s totally up to you. Some people feel really strongly about this.
Because Bluesky is presently “fediverse adjacent”, you can bridge. Your account can become “followable” on the fediverse, your posts can go out into the fediverse, and reactions and engagement can come back the other way. You can follow people on the fediverse and interact with them. It’s not seamless, but it’s acceptable. You can do this using Bridgy Fed2https://fed.brid.gy/, a service designed to facilitate this.
I recommend all science organizations on Bluesky bridge immediately, to expand your community reach. After all, Bluesky (like Threads) is just another (semi-)walled garden controlled by a private company. It faces the same road to failure that Facebook, Twitter, and others faced 10 years ago. Its values are controlled not by you, but the billionaire in charge. When the billionaire changes, the values change. Wouldn’t you want to connect now with the fediverse, so people are already engaged with you if, later, you decide to establish a direct presence there?
To bridge your Bluesky account to the fediverse so you can be “discovered” in searches in the fediverse, follow the instructions here:
https://fed.brid.gy/docs#bluesky-get-started
Now people in the fediverse can see you! They can follow you! And, you can find and follow them. You just expanded your audience while remaining on Bluesky.
Forget corporate social media. Get me to the fediverse!
So you”ve had a change of heart, and want to move to the fediverse or just open up a presence there. Congratulations!
You’re going to feel a whole lot better in the long run. Use the resources above to get started. Feel free to reach out to me in the fediverse if you have questions (@steve), as I host my own small Mastodon server3https://mastodon.cooleysekula.net for close family and friends.
No matter what, I look forward to engaging with more science organizations in the fediverse. How you get there is up to you, but get there.
