FOSSDLE PieFedWhat is your favorite Fediverse platform?
lemmy.autism.place/pictrs/image/8dc39559-0092-4β¦
submitted by
Kyle Judd
I'll go first...
My favorite Fediverse platforms as of 2024
Mastodon - my main social feed platform that first introduced me to the Fediverse in general.
Lemmy - my second main social feed platform that originally substituted Reddit from years ago.
Matrix protocol - communication platform I use to connect with users on the Lemmy instance I'm on
Peertube - would love to get an account going and use it more often but still don't know how but there's FediVideo.
Bookwyrm - Goodreads alternative that I signed up for that could use more work for a genuine reading tracker.
BONUS: my least favorite Fediverse platform lately
WordPress - because I used to run art blogs on there before I heard word about drama about the CEO of the corporation so I basically had to put out my last existing art blog...RIP.
Lemmy, shortly followed by Piefed.
Will probably switch once Piefed gets mobile apps support and comments view
What's so good about PieFed?
Much more advanced moderation tools: https://join.piefed.social/2024/06/22/piefed-features-for-growing-healthy-communities/
Actual instance blocking compared to the incomplete "mute communities" instance blocking on Lemmy
Development seems fasters than Lemmy, they are almost at feature parity while being much younger
On the other hand, it has some weirdly opinionated features:
If it helps:
1) this is controlled by a user setting. I left the one that automatically "collapses" comments below a threshold at the default, but I disabled the one that "hides" comments by setting the threshold to -10000. So, far from taking away user power, it strictly enhances choices by providing new options, only at the user's behest.
2) it does have such a "reputation" feature, as too does life. Someone who constantly trolls others gets rather "known" for such. But crucially, it's a label - it doesn't hide anything, only enhances what is already there. And yeah it's a bit of an experiment, perhaps it won't work. Or perhaps it will be improved further? Based on the above and the responsiveness of the devs, I would expect complete control if features were ever added to actually do anything wrt this score.
Btw apps already have something similar, as too does PieFed, when adding a label for new accounts - bc people have asked for it, and it can be helpful to know when talking with someone that they are a new account (perhaps they are an alt, but it's something, and again it's just a label).
Yeah, I constantly get downvoted - and some of my posts are among the most heavily downvoted content existing in certain communities (but I also note that such things as Innuendo Studios The Alt Right Playbook got heavily downvoted by the same community as well so... I feel vindicated:-). So I mean it when I say that believe me I KNOW what you mean when expressing those concerns. Perhaps the experiment won't work out, or perhaps it merely needs tuning - e.g. so that any one post or comment doesn't weigh so heavily but rather only their aggregate (median rather than mean perhaps? or maybe only the binary choice of positive or negative total score, and even then perhaps not centered at zero but something more highly negative like -10?).
Also PieFed.social has defederated from hexbear.net and lemmygrad.ml, so those sources of downvoting are entirely removed. It also preferentially weights scores more highly feedback from those with high reputation already - which state I achieved in roughly a week and with only two posts, one a cross-post of the other even. So it's not like seniors are locking out the noobs.
Anyway yes there's enormous potential for misuse there, but it's also something that people have been clamoring for - so it's something that they are being responsive enough to try it out?
3) I'm not sure about the categories - but again the devs are very responsive so surely easy to change things? Also I've definitely joined communities that aren't in those, and while there are large federation issues with any non-Lemmy.World instance right now (I see the same from many instances including my 2 alt accounts elsewhere - so it has little to nothing to do with PieFed; especially after the enormous surge in content surrounding the USA election), I believe that they show up in the main feed.
4) I have never heard that before but I would support it - more "experimental" communities should be allowed, to try things out, a "safe space" if you will:-).
All of these are valid concerns - and seem like they are being worked on.
It doesn't really help for me, but the beauty of the fediverse is that it doesn't have to. You can like PieFed, I can prefer Lemmy and we can both still talk :)
Honestly assigning a label to users that everyone can see based on other users' opinions seems like a bad idea anyway you put it. Independent of it's intention, it can stifle constructive arguments, encourage mass alt accounts, cause classism and mobbing. There is a Black Mirror episode with this exact premise where it impacts your real life reputation, people's perceptions of you & what you're allowed to do.
I looked thru this blog hopeful that there would be protection against mod abuse. Instead you can get banned for downvoting? I don't want to be looking over my back because some dipshit mod had a bad take. This is generating way too much analytical data on users. Communities don't need empowered super mods treating users like numbers on a spreadsheet. Lemmy for sure has problems (ml) but this isn't the answer.
It doesn't need to be *the* answer. It just needs to be *an* answer for certain use cases. Both platforms can easily coexist. That's the beauty of federation.
Lemmy admins can already see who downvotes what, I'm sure they already ban accounts who systematically downvote their communities content
It's a tool. If some admins power trip, well report them on !yepowertrippinbastards@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Mods can also see votes in communities they moderate, lemmy-ui just doesn't show the option (and no other client, to my knowledge, has the feature).
But wont you lose like 99% of the user base? Or is it cross compatible?
PieFed communicates with Lemmy. Same content, different platform. That's one awesome thing about federation.
There is also mbin (fork of kbin), and Sublinks, which is API compatible with Lemmy so should be able to use Lemmy apps with it (from memory, this is what Beehaw are hoping to move to).
Hello from PieFed - yes it works.:-)
Piefed just needs an api, then we can add supoort as app developers.
https://codeberg.org/rimu/pyfedi/issues/13
Unfortunately, Lemmy is the only one with content that appeals to me so far (at least to my knowledge, given the near-unsearchable nature of the fediverseso far). The platforms just aren't large enough.
Iirc Mastodon is about to add a global search function. I've never used it, nor even Twitter (back before it was cancelled into X), just passing on what I heard.
And PieFed and Mbin are also sort of "Lemmy" (though neither in that graphic that I saw:-).
It is quite an old graphic.
It's nice that our choices improve so much by new tools being built so rapidly!:-)
Pretty sure Kbin is dead and gone, might want to update your tree.
I think fedia.io seems to scratch the itch
Iβm pretty sure fedia.io is running on mbin, a clone of kbin that is still being maintained.
I joined SLRPNK.net shortly before kbin kicked the bucket and I quite like the user interface and customisation options here, even if I don't comment much these days.
Also as the pessimistic misanthrope doomer I am, I was originally getting a bit of a kick out of how painfully naive and optimistic the hippies here were/are. I just try to ignore it now though tbh as it's depressing.
Lemmy, I like the simple post structure with all related commentary under the original submission.
Mastodon is fine for people who like it but it's hard to follow the thread of replies as every reply is its own individual post.
I guess the twatter format makes sense for dashing off quick messages but I find it hard to follow and it's difficult to find communities and topics of interest without also including a shit-ton of noise along with the signal.
For me it's definitely Lemmy. I don't like the microblogging format and never have. I've always used forums and then reddit.
The fediverse just works so well with Lemmy I think. It's so fun seeing new communities from instances I've never heard of. I think this format is perfect for the fediverse
I like it too. :)
kbin obviously!
Mbin now!
God willing ernst comes back
How's he doing? I heard he had some health problems.
No idea. But I hope everything works out, i think it wss multiple shiti life events too.
Sometimes people get a bad roll in life.
Big fan of his work, got me to quit using Reddit!
As far as I can tell there's been no communication from him for several months and not since he posted saying he'd turn kbin.social over to a new admin.
But the domain for kbin.social was recently renewed (I posted full details over at https://fedia.io/m/fediverse/t/1403334/Any-updates-on-kbin-social-recently ) which gives me hope that ernest is still around, just a bit more behind the scenes.
Of course, it could also be that the domain was simply auto-renewed (as described in https://www.godaddy.com/en-ca/help/turn-my-domain-auto-renew-on-or-off-41085 ). I think some registrars or services even offer prepayment options for auto-renewing, meaning that ernest might have set this all up before he disappeared, rather than slowly reappearing now...
Between Social, Run, and Artemis, Iβm beginning to think kbin might be cursed. Iβm on my fourth kbin instance, but have decided to revisit my lemmy account to enjoy some native ios app experiences again.
What's your current kbin instance? Curious to see if it's running mbin now or if it really is the original kbin on there still.
Also, anyone remember kbin.cafe ?
Yeah i lost a few accounts switching.
I agree with you.
Lemmy has eaten up just about all the time I used to spend on Mastodon. Pixelfed would be in the running for #1 if it hadn't become so vaporware-y in the last few months.
Any recommendations for a peertube instance?
I use peertube.tv.
Stux (from mstdn.social) is the admin and he's generally pretty great a running stuff. I haven't used it a ton lately but no complaints!
Edit: Daaaamn. Just realized that registrations are disabled. Bummer. Sorry.
No problem at all, I've made it this long without it I can wait longer. Thank you for the suggestion!!!
I personally use tankie.tube.
Mastodon. Easily better than Twitter in every way, even when it wasnβt full of garbage. Canβt say the same for Lemmy, itβs not bad, and in some ways better but in some ways worse.
mbin!
Yeah, that chart needs to be updated. AFAIK no instance is still on kbin, everything has gone to mbin. It's also missing pyfedi/piefed
yep, fedidb has it at a single instance;
https://fedidb.org/software/kbin
i wish i could get a hold of kbin.social if no one is going to do anything with it.. maybe forward it to fedia.io
What's interesting is that currently, the site is broken, but in the footer you can see the last set of magazines that were new.
Which means the database is still intact, and if not a full resurrection, we could get our data back at least (I lost a lot of content when kbin.social went down). Just gotta figure out who to contact - which company is actually maintaining or hosting the servers that kbin.social run on..
Nextcloud is federated? First time I hear about that.
For me it's Lemmy, without a doubt. Never used Twitter, tried mastodon to see what it's all about, didn't like it.
Matrix seems decent, but nobody I know uses it, and finding useful groups is painful, especially on other instances (servers, whatever they call them).
Also, I am confused at why nextcloud is at the intersection of networking, music, and multimedia.
Yes it *technically* has a video viewer and music player, but I would be very surprised if any person in the world right now is genuinely using it to post that content to the fediverse social-network style.
https://nextcloud.com/blog/federation-a-foundational-concept-for-digital-sovereignty/
I only use Lemmy, so... Lemmy.
I understand that.
Lemmy is a handy platform.
Mastodon has successfully replaced Twitter for me, so it's by far my favorite. It does still need better tools for dealing with large-scale posts and users, but overall it feels like it's actually doing the job I want done.
I want to like Piefed/Lemmy more than I actually do. The Fediverse answer to Reddit just doesn't feel ready for prime time yet. It's hard to find/connect with communities and the user base doesn't have that "can address basically any question" magic.
Right now the tools wouldn't support mainstream users anyway. They will only come *after* those are ready, and even then it will be a struggle.
But for now, e.g. a good fraction of the time on PieFed.social a notification won't take me to where it is intending to send me, bc of some prior comment being collapsed, hidden, buried in a thread, etc. - and this is the kind of stuff that will quickly send mainstream people packing.
I've tried mastodon and followed a couple people. But I never did Twitter either. Could you recommend how I could best use mastodon? Who to follow, or for to sort/search out whatever what's popular? I couldn't figure it out
Following hashtags is really powerful and useful on Mastodon. You can click any hashtag on a post to see other posts that use it, and if you like it there's a button you can click to start following that hashtag. You can also search for hashtags in the Explore section. Since there's no algorithm, hashtags are the primary way to get things that interest you into your feed.
@FediTips@social.growyourown.services posts tips on how to use Mastodon, so it's really helpful to follow as a newbie.
@FediFollows@social.growyourown.services posts lists of interesting accounts on Mastodon, usually by topic. It's a good way to grow your follow list!
https://nathanlesage.github.io/academics-on-mastodon/ Here's some lists in case you're into any niche topics.
I really wanted to like bookwyrm and use it but it's just so bare bones. Instead, I switched from goodreads to StoryGraph like two years ago. I really like some of its features like content warnings, moods, very detailed stats of my reading habits, etc.
I use Bookwyrm specifically because its barebones. It's my favorite platform
Mine isβ¦..
Wafrn (endless customisations unlike Misskey and Sharkey) and has react buttons too with extra features such as anonymous questions etc. Basically Tumblr but way better and FOSS too.
Mastodon, very stable, great way to find out current events with minimal reactive posts etc. It just works.
Mbin, a very much more stable and regularly updated fork of kbin, and getting the best of both worlds without having to use Lemmy, due to the problematic nature of Lemmy creators.
BookWyrm, ethical version of GoodReads (and gives you control to add books that are not on the system, enhancing your experience and overall much better than GoodReads imo.
I wasnβt aware of the issues with the Lemmy devs. Some of the original posts about them donβt seem accessible. Is the issue because they are pretty pro-Chinese government?
Yes but also theyβre tankies as well and have been caught previously praising hardcore dictators. Also I think the developers have also said some anti semitic stuff as well but I canβt really remember tbh so I could be wrong.
At least you are off the tankie Lemmy instances. One more point for using MBin, which is better. There are other Lemmy instances that aren't managed by them, e.g. lemmy.world; still that doesn't prevent you from moving to MBin.
Thanks for the info. These sort of things are always difficult. A bit like finding out a favourite musician breaks a boycott or has dodgy ideas but makes great music.
I feel like there's still a pretty big gap in the drawing / art space. I want something that works like the furry art sites all work, which means (a) art posts and text posts separated into distinct feeds, and (b) thumbnails in a grid instead of a vertical timeline. I built a web app to do this but unfortunately it's single-user (and basically locked to the Azure cloud). In the meantime, Pixelfed works pretty well for following Mastodon artists.
I was a Mastodon artist before, but then I almost left the Fediverse and came back restarting my entire social status also.
I have characters, but no inspriation.
Plus, I killed off my WordPress websites because the CEO was setting a bad example.
The problem with any media heavy content is storage. Fediverse is diy, mom's basement servers. Who's going to pay for all the storage?
Ackchually, most of the Fediverse runs on professionally-operated Hetzner rack iron at huge data centres in Germany.
Even if this comes from 22% of the Fediverse being mastodon.social.
Cool.
Lemmy. I love to read the posts and play the media.
I am finding I like Mastodon the best. Lemmy has potential, but I think the political extremism and lack of hobbyist culture here currently, mixed with the incredibly confusing on-boarding process beginners have to navigate, along with the name, all contribute to making it DOA.
Out of curiosity rather than necessity, are there any activitypub based messaging apps (i.e matrix/discord-like)?
One not listed is Ibis (https://ibis.wiki/) which hasn't had much traction. Honestly unsure of how useful it is as a direct wikipedia replacement but i can see it as a cool idea for a bunch of related communities that would otherwise be on separate wikis.
Ibis is *really* early days. I hosted it for a bit and had things like federation issues and softlocks. Will be really interesting when it's a bit more mature though.
Lemmy of course. I love the forum format and it's a great place to fediverse content from another plateforme. I post here with alt on Bookwyrm, Forkkey and PixelFed. I can't wait to share a Loop on my favorite community. But to read content from all over the fediverse, it is best to have an account on the twittoverse. I use Sharkey. I can access so much content that's not on Lemmy. It is much less of an echo chamber plus there is lots of people and I can still post to Lemmy.
Def Lemmy and Matrix
Which one should I join for funny or time killing content?
Lemmy and Mastodon have an equal amount of shitposting and meme content in my experience
There is Matrix but no XMPP :(
No plugins from joomla ?
What's that?
A PHP CMS for masochists.
Wow, that may be the most apt description I've heard for Joomla in a while. Well, my memory of what Joomla was like nearly twenty years ago.
TBH I haven't used it in about 10 years but leaving it for wordpress was an improvement, and I'm no wordpress fan.
I see it's still alive
Everything PHP-related is for masochists
Not nice for Mbin
Ehh, it's not so bad these days
It's even worse nowadays, because we have good alternatives, unlike 20 years ago.
Events is missing Gancio. Its worth a look :)
Lemmy. I've only tried mastodon other and it was mainly just people talking about politics. Which, fair enough Musk make it horrible, but I like to see shitposts and stuff like old twitter :(
I try to post little things aken to Tumblr shitposts but I've gotten a grand total of 0 likes.
Here on Lemmy is my favorite considering that's what I use most on the Fediverse. Second would be the only other one I use: Mastodon.
Every time I see this I think it needs a Storage and a Conversation branch.
Lemmy & Bluesky until that eventually falls off or Mastodon decides to improve itself
Where's Plume? It's better than WriteFrreely IMO
Wasn't it discontinued?
It technically still is in development. But all the devs lack time, and the devs themselves officialy recomment WriteFreely on the Plume website.
Even though Plume has features that are nothing but TBD plans for WriteFreely (e.g. comments, built-in image storage).
A Roblox alternative in the fediverse.
Because I want to get off Roblox.
Brickplanet exists, but its not a fediverse project.
Closed source and aimed for kids, sorry
Already read its ToS
It will suffer the same fate as Roblox
Is roblox not for kids?
It shouldnt be in the first place, there were reports of pedophilia and child labor there
Oh
Hubzilla. Closely followed by the intentionally nameless fork of a fork...... of Hubzilla that's colloquially being referred to as (streams).
Perks of both (excerpt):
Extra perks of Hubzilla:
Extra perks of (streams):
How is matrix even considered a fediverse platform lol? It largely exists independently from the rest of the ecosystem. I do appreciate the representation tho because this is fairly decent free advertising and id like to see it grow
I guess because it can federate with other servers and protocols?
Idfk lol hopefully its possible to use matrix inside mastoclones or lemmy, probably a much better alternative to the less secure direct messages they offer natively
Peertube, Bookwyrm, Lemmy, Mastodon in that order. Theres a ton out there I haven't tried.
Lemmy and peertube and matrix (if it counts)
Mastdon is alr ig
Email
Without any particular order: Lemmy, Mastodon, Bookwyrm.
Iceshrimp
Is there any write-up about interops between any of them?
I wanna check out the fediverse blogging platforms, they seem interesting. Which one would you recommend? I looked at writefreely but it seems that none of the instances let you post as many blogs as you want unless you pay?
Also, is anyone working a fediverse IMDB/letterboxed alternative that uses OMDB dataset? Perhaps a Bookwyrm fork could make it not too hard to start.
Not misskey, it has some crazy glaring issues like note/toot search being missing :/ misskey forks seem to be quite popular tho
I pretty much only use Lemmy but also contact friends and share photos on a Nextcloud instance one of them kindly provided (I assume it isn't federated though?).
I would really like to start using matrix but unless I host my own instance and get everything ready I'll never be able to convince my friends to switch, though some of them are slowly getting fed up with discord too.
Matrix means less memes, trolls, and internet stuff and more civil discussions with humans.
I mostly use Discord for a few group chats, unixporn (please post more of it to Lemmy :3 !unixporn@lemmy.world) and some BG3 stuff. If the group chats moved to Matrix+Jitsi or even some form of Signal (that is still foss and does not require a phone number, self-hosted if possible) I would barely use Discord.
Edit because somehow I missed the most relevant part: I already barely get memes or trolls so not too many changes there.
O_o
What does that face mean?
Lemmy Peertube - the linux experiment is all i got so far but more content would b great. Also tubular integration is sick Matrix Mastodon
Havnt tried the rest but open to beibg convinced
Youβd like Fediverse apps instead of all the more mainstream apps the world is using.
I left Facebook and Reddit because other people in my life are the real monsters.
Mastodon and Lemmy are nicer communities depending on what instance you go to.
Lemmy and peertube
Seems a little old. It should have BlueSky and FChannel
Bluesky uses ATprotocol not ActivityPub, therefore itβs not considered part of the fediverse.
also VC funded corpo trash?
Lemmy and Catodon and Pixelfed, in that order.
Iβm really new to this whole fediverse thing, but Iβd love to know more. Could someone please explain to me what some/all of these applications are?
The easiest way would be to quickly look up the ones you don't know yet. Many have Wikipedia pages and the others usually have good home pages explaining what they do. But as you can see, there's a wide range for hosting different kinds of media and discussions.
What's wrong with what the CEO did? He's right that many corps use FOSS and don't contribute back.
You canβt give away free software as open source and then start demanding royalties. Fuck Matt Mullenweg.
I actually love Lemmy, my only problem is it's absolutely infested with democrats and communists
And internet trolls.
Don't let the door hit you on the way out.