9mo ago

What is your favorite Fediverse platform?

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.

144 comments

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
- Piefed just needs an api.
  
  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:-).
  
  And PieFed and Mbin are also sort of “Lemmy” (though neither in that graphic that I saw:-).
  It is quite an old graphic.
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.
Pretty sure Kbin is dead and gone, might want to update your tree.
- I think fedia.io seems to scratch the itch
  
  I‘m 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.
- FYI there is Mbin, the fork of Kbin
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.
- I agree with you.
Lemmy
Mastodon
Pixelfed
Various Misskey forks that are all about the same
Peertube
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.
  
  I personally use tankie.tube.
Mastodon. Easily better than Twitter in every way, even when it wasn’t full of garbage. Can’t say the same for Lemmy, it’s 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
I only use Lemmy, so... Lemmy.
- I understand that.
  Lemmy is a handy platform.
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.
- Nextcloud is federated?
  https://nextcloud.com/blog/federation-a-foundational-concept-for-digital-sovereignty/
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.
- 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.
- 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.
Mine is…..
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 wasn’t aware of the issues with the Lemmy devs. Some of the original posts about them don’t seem accessible. Is the issue because they are pretty pro-Chinese government?
  
  Yes but also they’re 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 can’t really remember tbh so I could be wrong.
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
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.
- 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.
- 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.
Lemmy. I love to read the posts and play the media.
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
@VanHalbgott I like friendica, it works with Lemmy, microblogging platforms, and macroblogging platforms. I'm maybe not online as much as the average user (and often read fediverse content via bridges instead of nativly), so it's a nice consolation of everything. It also supports rich text and higher char limits for more nuanced posts/replies.
- Cool.
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.
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.
Lemmy & Bluesky until that eventually falls off or Mastodon decides to improve itself
Every time I see this I think it needs a Storage and a Conversation branch.
Events is missing Gancio. Its worth a look :)
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.
No plugins from joomla ?
- What's that?
  
  A PHP CMS for masochists.
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.
There is Matrix but no XMPP :(
XMPP
Lemmy
Akkoma
Peertube
Mbin
Misskey forks (I use CherryPick, but Sharkey is good too)
PeerTube
PieFed
Mastodon
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.
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
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):
not based on ActivityPub, it's actually optional; you can turn/keep it off if you want to
nomadic identity; my channels are resilient against instance shutdown because they aren't restricted to one instance
multiple channels = IDs on one and the same account/login; no need to register additional user accounts for this, and you can easily switch back and forth between channels
OpenWebAuth magic single sign-on, both client-side and server-side support
very extensive permission settings that let me control what I see, what I don't see and what others can see and do
per-contact permission settings
per-channel blacklist/whitelist filter plus per-contact blacklist/whitelist filters plus keyword-triggered, automatically generated, reader-side content warnings, supporting regex and (except the latter) a special filter syntax for extra features
what's "lists" on Mastodon is actually useful because you can use it both to filter your stream and to limit whom you send a post to, not to mention much easier to maintain
a concept of conversations, you can follow entire discussions, and you generally receive all replies to a post (something that at least Mastodon doesn't have, by the way)
not only native support for discussion groups/forums, but they can and do host their own moderated discussion groups/forums (Mastodon has neither)
no arbitrary character limits, characters only limited by the instance database (on (streams), that's theoretically over 24,000,000 characters for one post)
probably more text formatting options than your typical blogging platform and definitely more than any microblogging project in the Fediverse
full-blown blog posts rendered gracefully
non-standard BBcode tags for special features, often observer-aware
embedded links; no need to plaster URLs into your posts in plain sight
images can be embedded "in-line" within the post with text above them and text below them
no limit on how many images a post can have
unlimited poll options
multiple-word hashtags
post categories in addition to hashtags
tag cloud plus category cloud/list
quotes
"quote-tweets"
extensively customisable Web UI
built-in file storage with a built-in file manager, per-file and per-directory permissions settings and WebDAV support that's used for images and other media you embed in your posts (unlike on Mastodon and Lemmy, you know where your uploaded images land, and you can delete them yourself if you need to)
federated event calendar with support for Event-type objects
built-in CalDAV calendar server (headless on (streams))
built-in CardDAV address book server (headless)
support for OAuth and OAuth2
modular; can be extended with official or, if available, third-party "apps", widgets and themes
Extra perks of Hubzilla:
currently more reliable
more active development
easier to get new users on board because hubs are listed on various Fediverse sites, and more public hubs are available
newer and more configurable version of the Redbasic theme
switchable night mode
multiple profiles per channel which can be assigned to certain connections
you can configure new connections before you confirm them
can also connect to diaspora*
can also subscribe to RSS and Atom feeds
event calendar also doubles as a basic frontend for the CalDAV server
non-federating, long-form articles
"cards" that work largely the same
built-in wiki engine based on either BBcode or Markdown for as many wikis of your own as you want to, each with as many pages as you want
support for webpages (the official Hubzilla website is on a Hubzilla channel itself)
Extra perks of (streams):
more advanced
better integration of ActivityPub into the two supported nomadic protocols
contact suggestions also include ActivityPub contacts
new default theme in addition to an older Redbasic version
reworked, more powerful but easier-to-use permissions system
easier to use once you're on board
supports BBcode, Markdown and HTML within the same post
can set Mastodon's sensitive flag for images
built-in announcement/boost/repost/renote/repeat remover, no need to use filter syntax for that
extra protection against both mention spam and hashtag spam
alt-text can be added to images upon upload, no need to graft it into the image-embedding markup code
verification of external identities (available on Mastodon as well, but not on Hubzilla)
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).
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
Iceshrimp
Peertube, Bookwyrm, Lemmy, Mastodon in that order. Theres a ton out there I haven't tried.
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
Email
Is there any write-up about interops between any of them?
Without any particular order: Lemmy, Mastodon, Bookwyrm.
I’m really new to this whole fediverse thing, but I’d 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.
- https://joinfediverse.wiki/Main_Page (admittedly quite Mastodon-centric)
  https://fediverse.party
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.
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
- You’d 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 and matrix (if it counts)
Mastdon is alr ig
Seems a little old. It should have BlueSky and FChannel
- Bluesky uses ATprotocol not ActivityPub, therefore it’s not considered part of the fediverse.
  
  also VC funded corpo trash?
Lemmy and peertube
What's wrong with what the CEO did? He's right that many corps use FOSS and don't contribute back.
- You can’t give away free software as open source and then start demanding royalties. Fuck Matt Mullenweg.
Lemmy and Catodon and Pixelfed, in that order.
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.

144 comments