this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2024
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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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So, I was thinking that I joined Lemmy.World because Lemmy had more users than MBin. But today I was looking at https://mbin.cocopoops.com/ and started seeing MY posts. I knew Mbin could have different instances. I knew Lemmy could have different instances. And I knew they all federated together.

But I didn't know Mbin could federate with Lemmy. But I'm sure Lemmy/Mbin probably won't federate with Pixelfed, or Peertube.

Mbin, piefed, and Lemmy are essentially reddit replacements. So they should be in a circle. It doesn't matter how many users Mbin has, or piefed has, or Lemmy has. It matters how many the full circle of federated reddit replacements have. Because thats the true circle of users that you can interact with.

So what we need is a website that you enter an instance, and it tells you how big your circle would be on that platform, and a list of federated, and defederated instances with it.

So Lemmy.World would have a pretty high circle. While hexbear would have only itself, if I understand right.

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[–] SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de 44 points 3 months ago (3 children)

zombo.com has circles.

You can do anything there

[–] gashead76@lemmy.world 10 points 3 months ago

I was just wondering if that still existed a few days ago. Glad to know it does. I like knowing the impossible is attainable.

[–] Chozo@fedia.io 7 points 3 months ago

The unattainable is unknown at Zombo Com.

[–] Bricriu@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago

Now that's a deep cut.

[–] Blaze@feddit.org 35 points 3 months ago (1 children)

But I didn’t know Mbin could federate with Lemmy.

Interesting, I thought that was quite well known

[–] Teppic@piefed.social 6 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I guess it's well known if you use either platform, but I can see it's not obvious to someone new to the fediverse and trying to understand it from the outside.

[–] Blaze@feddit.org 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I've encountered OP quite a few times, they've been here for 4 months, that's why I thought they would know

[–] aasatru@kbin.earth 4 points 3 months ago

I'm honestly quite glad people can stay here for months without getting into the technical aspects of the platform. That's probably a pretty central criteria for it to ever achieve wide success. :)

[–] aasatru@kbin.earth 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, I think it's fair to say nothing we do here is particularly well known in a broader sense. You're lucky if people have heard of Mastodon - if they know that it's decentralised that's incredible, and if they understand what that means you've basically encountered an expert.

It's a bit of a challenge that people looking at these sites from the outside will struggle to immediately understand what is really going on here. It just redefines the internet to a point where people cannot really understand it without having it explained.

[–] pseudo@jlai.lu 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

if they know that it’s decentralised that’s incredible

Do you mind if I wear that as a title now ? Pseudo Curious, expert of the fediverse. It sounds very nice.

[–] aasatru@kbin.earth 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)
[–] pseudo@jlai.lu 3 points 3 months ago

Then you're the rector of fedicademia !

[–] can@sh.itjust.works 25 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Mbin also federate with mastodon

[–] Coelacanth@feddit.nu 20 points 3 months ago (1 children)

So does Lemmy, to an extent. It doesn't support microblogs directly, but Mastodon users can post to a community by @-ing it and can reply to comments on Lemmy, and we can reply to their replies and posts.

[–] SocksPls@mastodon.xyz 2 points 3 months ago
[–] lastunusedusername2@sh.itjust.works 19 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Remember Google+ circles? =]

[–] Davel23@fedia.io 22 points 3 months ago (2 children)
[–] Zombiepirate@lemmy.world 16 points 3 months ago

Sign my guestbook!

[–] palordrolap@fedia.io 6 points 3 months ago

"They're back! In POG form!"

But seriously, with the way web search seems to be going these days, webrings coming back might actually be useful.

[–] srasmus@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Honestly amazing feature. I hoped some more successful social networks would steal it but alas.

[–] TheRedSpade@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Didn't Facebook have something similar for a while? I'd bet it was only implemented because of Google Plus, and I'm pretty sure they scrapped it after the G+ sunset, but I'm almost certain it existed.

[–] Chozo@fedia.io 14 points 3 months ago (1 children)

But I'm sure Lemmy/Mbin probably won't federate with Pixelfed, or Peertube.

Technically, they do! It's not fully-integrated yet so the process is a bit hackish, but because the ActivityPub protocol works mostly the same on the backend, content from any of these platforms can appear on the others without much issue.

The biggest issue just has to do with the way you actually interact with each platform may not translate well on another compatible platform. For example, Pixelfed typically nests replies to comments only one layer deep, whereas Lemmy or Mbin will nest many layers deep. The actual nesting still works just fine when you view Pixelfed comments on Lemmy, and if you join in the conversation and reply in the middle of the thread, your post will nest properly for you and will show inline as normal for Pixelfed users. So in some instances, you may need to know a bit about what platform you're posting to, on top of the platform you're posting from.

There's other quirks like Mastodon replies typically being preceded with @ing the user they're replying to, which isn't a thing on the Lemmy side of things. It doesn't really change the way posting works, and you can choose to not do it and things will still work fine.

[–] pseudo@jlai.lu 2 points 3 months ago

Pixelfed typically nests replies to comments only one layer deep

That's my experience too. I'm currently playing with fediversion btw Lemmy and Bookwyrm and I was surprise to see that it is much better.

[–] NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 12 points 3 months ago

Generally speaking, all the major instances are federated with all the other major instances.

The differences are the super tiny instances (which are generally effectively zero traffic) and the controversial instances (mostly tankies). Said controversial instances don't want to advertise that nobody can stand them and the rest of the instances don't want to deal with the bullshit from bringing it up again.

I think it would be a nice novelty to visualize this. But I don't think there would be much actionable information coming out of it and , because this is The Internet, it will likely lead to harassment and brigading.

[–] originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com 10 points 3 months ago

well, this will give you a rundown on each instance

https://defed.xyz/

all of the defeds for https://moist.catsweat.com are spam or 'no longer exists';

[–] otter@lemmy.ca 9 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

But I didn't know Mbin could federate with Lemmy. But I'm sure Lemmy/Mbin probably won't federate with Pixelfed, or Peertube.

I think all of these are "don't federate well currently ", but it's a goal to improve federation over time

For example, Lemmy is federating with Mastodon better than when I first joined. It's also possible to subscribe to peertube channels from Lemmy, but it's a bit buggy.

[–] GooberEar@lemmy.wtf 8 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I recently joined WTF and based on the list of the instances this place is federated with, my assumption is that's the basis for the WTF name. So, maybe something like this could be useful for choosing an instance that's not 1/2 filled with bat shit insane posts by default rather than requiring significant and immediate curation (i.e. blocking stupid shit like hexbear and ml).

[–] Iapar@feddit.org 8 points 3 months ago (1 children)

We need a one protocol that everyone adheres to.

People talk about fediverse and say it is decentralized, which is true, but mostly it is fractured.

I came here because i thought all those services are united under a common protocol so every service can communicate with other services.

Maybe they show it in a different style or follow another philosophy but the "content" is there for everyone.

Doesn't seem that way. Everyone does it in their own way and that kinda sucks to be honest.

But yeah... Cicles would be cool.

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago

People talk about fediverse and say it is decentralized, which is true, but mostly it is fractured.

I've been saying this since day 1 of me being here.

[–] pseudo@jlai.lu 5 points 3 months ago

I am very not sorry to tell you that you are wrong !

I'm subscribe to multiples PeerTube channesl with this account, Lemmy being my choice interface to access it and I'm convinced that Pixed/Lemmy is a great match considering the huge number of community where the content is primarely picture a.k.a all meme and animal picture communities.

I have first-handed post owl pictures on !superbowl@lemmy.world with my PixelFed accound. Just like I've been posting from Bookwyrm and Sharkey and many other fediwares.

Lemmy is a great place to post to, but it is harder to post from Lemmy to another part of the fediverse as every Lemmy post must be sent to a specific community.

[–] Teppic@piefed.social 5 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Hello from PieFed!
Kbin/Mbin is actually very versatile, it has a threads side (much like Lemmy), but it also has the Microblog side which is like Mastodon in form and function. One or other of these usually works for most of the fediverse.

[–] GlenRambo@jlai.lu 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I like the idea. In regards to lemmy and its instances (so I guess a smaller Scale to what your suggesting ... Though I still don't fully get the fediverse).

I did something similar when picking a Lemmy instance. What was the instance that had defederated others the least. There was a git page somewhere that listed them all.

On the flip side I've heard a notion that no one single instance should become the "main" instance. Probably with your suggestion new users would gravitate to the big circle. Thus making it the "default". But maybe it's different when looking outside of lemmy instances to the wider fediverse.

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I see things differently. I think there should be a few general use instances. The general use instances I think should be the "main" instances.

Then there should be specialty instances. Like a star trek instance, with several communities, each covering a different topic.

Or a baseball instance, with several instances, one for each team.

Or a H Jon Benjamin instance, with several communities, one for each project he's worked on. Maybe even have some peertube videos on stuff he's done.

Each general use instance, I can't imagine needing more than 10 of those would have a large amount of people.

Each specific subject instance would have lower population. But thats ok, because their main role isn't to host users. It's to host content. Whereas the general instances would mostly hoat content and be a link aggregator.

Of coarse.......none of that is how it's being applied so far. Right now it's an unorganized mess.

Or a H Jon Benjamin instance

Haha hard to take that seriously 🙂 I'm down with that jazz

[–] MrSoup@lemmy.zip 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

You can see (de)federated instances on lemmy at /instances, like https://lemmy.world/instances

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

This would be massively exploitable by anyone who wanted to know the personal networks of someone they wanted to harass (and businesses wanting to scrape and make shadow profiles on consumer connections).

All you need is their email, since you're doing this before you make an account, you can see all their personal connections and start to use that information to aid in your harassment of them.

Good idea in theory, but it needs a lot of work for showtime.

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago

I think you're kind of misunderstanding what I'm saying.

You wouldn't see where an individual user is. You would see "If I sign up to lemmy.world, I'll have 300,000 people combined across these instances. The people signed up at any of these are counted in that 300,000. They'll see my content, and I'll see their content. But if I sign up to hexbear, my circle will be much lower, because that instance defederates from the majority of users. So my content will only be seen by 50,000 users."

Made up numbers for the sake of proof of concept.