Today, we launched our new Mastodon instance. It will ensure a privacy-focused space to engage with and get the latest from our Commissioners, departments, and the official voices of the Commission.
We want to thank @Mastodon for stewarding us and helping us make this possible.
Fostering European digital players is vital to our strategy for a stronger #DigitalEU.
This is a unique opportunity to grow the community even more. Let's get there!
Delightful 💕 to see that #EuropeanCommission now has an official #Mastodon instance. #EC loves Mastodon, as the image clearly shows.
I hope this love will expand further to not just extend to one #FreeSoftware microblogging application, but to become a full embrace of the #OpenStandards based decentralized #SocialNetworking environment and #SocialWeb technology ecosystems that have formed around its open protocols, such as #ActivityPub.
@molly0xfff is a leading cryptocurrency critic, but get to know her and you’ll see she’s anything but cynical about the future of the web. Hear why this researcher, writer and software engineer thinks so in this fascinating conversation with @mike:
Former CEO of Twitter wanted to build a social protocol no-one can control, like SMTP or HTTP for social media. Bluesky’s ATProto was supposed to be an open source protocol that Twitter could eventually utilize, but then Musk happened and Bluesky started taking it to the wrong direction and everything fell apart in Dorsey’s mind.
A very revealing interview. I now see even more future in W3C’s ActivityPub.
AI is the final blow to the concept of humane computing. People like me have spent decades struggling to make computers more comprehensible to human beings. Now the computer is just a black box that not even the people who made it really understand
Yes. There are always opportunities to introduce people to humane technologies, and the more the general web enshittifies through BS tech trends that are hastily cast upon society in a mad dash for the big $$$, the more we can distinguish ourselves by offering delightful solutions that stand out from all that garbage.
In the latest episode of #DotSocial I interview @snarfed.org@snarfed.org, a passionate bridge builder with a focus on connecting people across the open web and the #fediverse. His latest work, #BridgyFed, connects #ActivityPub and #ATProtocol resulting in excitement, critique and lots of discussion.
Ryan and I talk about the parallel communities on #Mastodon and #Bluesky, their shared desire to create an open social web and the pros and cons of their underlying protocols, #ActivityPub and #ATProtocol. Can or should these be bridged? If so, how? As whole new communities continue to join the fediverse, how should the user experience evolve?
Listen to this excellent discussion on our @PeerTube instance or wherever you get your #podcasts.
like you said, the #SocialWeb won't become as ubiquitous as email if our default is opt-in. because most people won't understand the settings etc.
we need an explicitly pro connection but anti intentional harassment federation policy (that I think would be very popular). instead the default is becoming having a network where nobody can stumble on anything upsetting. that's not the open web.
Part 6 of "A Guide to Implementing ActivityPub in a Static Site (or Any Website)" is now out.
Sorry about the delay, this is the part that not many people will like, I assume. I try to explain how to implement the inbox, which by nature is dynamic non-static.
The diversity of network and UX types across the fediverse/social web that my little Friendica server sees is astounding. This is just Diaspora and ActivityPub federated content since Bluesky is integrated through a client API not AT. #fediverse#SocialWeb#ActivityPub#diaspora#Bluesky#friendica
Great interview with Jay Graber (CEO, #Bluesky) on Decoder with Nilay Patel (@reckless1280), where they dig into some of the major difference between Bluesky (#ATProtocol) and #Mastodon (#ActivityPub).
An important distinction is slowly being uncovered about the definition of the term "fediverse." Who is it that gets to decide what this place is? How are we being represented? These are not easy questions to answer and if we don't do a better job describing ourselves, then the job will get done for us by people who don't understand the underlying values we hold. #fediverse#meta#threads
@liaizon Personally, and the way the term was used, since it was first coined, was any software with #OStatus support (later #ActivityPub).
When there were discussions of having a new name, I ran suggestion threads and polls about it, and one suggestion/choice was mycelial, mycelium. I like it so I started using it myself.
For me, it's #AttentionDemocracy. Adding an attention layer to the open web, so that now we can not only post anything to the world, but it can earn eyeballs. That we all decide what info, ideas and art should go viral, not money. It's so huge and only possible here. I fear that the failure to see this potential, or the pursuit of other goals, will impede us from getting there.
When the social media conceptualized in the late 2000s, new services started to pop up every other week. Some of them were even popular. I remember being registered to over 160 different social media services. Jaiku, Qaiku, Bebo, Ello, Tsu, Path, PicPlz etc… there were so many. Then they died one by one after Facebook and Instagram took over.
Some people who remember this are saying the same is happening to Mastodon, Pixelfed and Loops. But they clearly do not understand the concept or interoperability and the social web, Fediverse, that is. They think of these platforms as a singlular, centralized services and they are using the commercial mindset.
The Fediverse will last. It will prosper. And it has already. That is what I sincerely believe. Since 2022 nothing has proven otherwise. I like the direction this is heading to.
Since most users wouldn't understand what ActivityPub / Fediverse is, it is likely there will be far less than 40% or 30% (guesstimate) of their userbase who will appear in the Fediverse network.
It will highly depend on how they will explain the benefits of enabling ActivityPub in their accounts.
I occasionally log in here to keep it alive because this is historical and memorable for me. During this time, and before Mastodon was released, I was running my own Fediverse instance powered by #Hubzilla.
Back then, the protocol of the fediverse was #OStatus, work on #ActivityPub was still about to be started (IIRC).
Today, we have another federated protocol: #ATproto which is powering the #BlueSky network. (Or, is it ATproto network and BlueSky PDS?)
(PS. Max chars in Aleph.Land is 1024; and using the #GlitchSoc fork since it came out.)
If you haven't heard, sadly, #ChirpSocial, one of the popular #ActivityPub “groups” platform, is shutting down “probably” on February 29th.
In an email they sent to admins, the owner and developer can no longer support https://chirp.social financially as they failed to find a new job after they were laid off by #Google last year.
This reminds us the importance of having a built-in groups feature, and one where the groups feature actually federates.
Back in 2008, when the #Fediverse was born, we did have a built-in federated groups in #Laconica / #StatusNet (today known as #GNUsocial). We used bang (!) instead of at (@). A built-in groups feature is more stable as established instances can host them.
Today, we have #Friendica and #Hubzilla (as well as #Streams-based instances) to fill in that, as groups is a built-in feature in those software products. It's just a matter of finding an instance that's open to hosting groups for any topic for the ActivityPub protocol.
That said, any Friendica, Hubzilla, Streams-based instances you suggest for groups?
It turns out that, if any user shares a link to a News outfit located in countries with such laws, the platform/service is required by law to pay the media company. It doesn't matter if the user is from another country, different nationality, and citizenship. (The laws are not the same, but the idea or objective is similar.)
> In Australia Meta temporarily banned links to all known media sites on Facebook until they and the media and government came to an agreement.
>
> In Canada local news publishers couldn’t login to their Facebook or IG accounts let alone post if they’re in the country, ever since the Canadian law passed. Regular users were also blocked from sharing links to news sites. Not sure if that’s been cleared yet there.
To add to the above, #Fediverse software will probably need a filter feature.
Oh, and this will be a good use of the “#fediblock” idea. If fediverse instances are affected by these laws, then a centralised list of news websites to auto-filter/block will be beneficial for all instances.
Maybe I should start an irregular series of "What Hubzilla is like" posts for people in the Fediverse, Mastodon specifically, who don't know anything about it. Not for those who want to switch, but for those who assume that Hubzilla is just like whatever else they know. Like, for Mastodon users who blindly assume that Hubzilla is just like Mastodon with a different UI and then act accordingly. Thus, it'd mostly focus on how Hubzilla is different from Mastodon.
The difficult part would be to limit these posts to only 500 characters. Minus what I'll need for the hashtags, namely #Hubzilla, #FediTips and #FediverseTips to increase discoverability for those who are interested and #FediMeta, #FediverseMeta, #CWFediMeta and #CWFediverseMeta so that these posts are automatically removed or hidden behind generated content warnings by already existing filters. Because I know for a fact that many Mastodon users won't touch anything that goes even a smidge over 500 characters. And I know that there are Mastodon users for whom any and all Fediverse meta is too nerve-gratingly techy.
> Three, vice versa, Mastodon and its users rejecting the culture of non-Mastodon projects whenever it differs from Mastodon's. Many Mastodon users want everything that is "un-Mastodon-like" banned all across the whole Fediverse because it disturbs them, be it posts over 500 characters, be it quotes, be it "quote-tweets", be it text formatting in any way. However, all this stuff is perfectly normal and absolutely part of the culture everywhere outside of Mastodon.
Character limitation. It's funny that it is a reason because three are Mastodon-powered instances (a lot in fact) with more than 500.
What the "purists" did not realise is that the customizable number of characters has been part of the Fediverse since the first Fediverse managed service launched: StatusNet "hosting", in 2008. @-lnxwalt was very active in posting different content on the different length instances back then.
To add to what you mentioned, another reason they hate #Threads is because they supposedly introduced something that isn't part of #Mastodon and #ActivityPub, dots in username.
But it has been around years before Instagram even thought about Threads (assuming they came up with the project during the #TwitterMigration ). You'll often see it from website-based AP implementations. @example.com@example.com
Also, the reasoning "not in ActivityPub" is well, Mastodon is as guilty of that since the discussions of AP started. Since Mastodon was successful in positioning itself at the proper place, everyone ended up / was forced to implement Mastodon-only stuff just so their software will be interoperable with it, even though it isn't part of ActivityPub.
Most "Mastodon purists", as well as, "ActivityPub gatekeepers" use reasons that can't stand; and their solution is fragmentation or contrary to what the Fediverse is, and what AP was made for. Basically, they want to go back to the way things are: "siloed networks" or "walled-gardens".
#BringDownTheWalls has been the goal of the Fediverse since 2008, and even before that when #SocialWeb discussions started (even in related conferences).