Are you seeing posts in Federated have no connection to anyone on your instance or anyone they follow?
It happened to me recently and the root cause turned out to be #Streams accounts that were following me. I wasn't following them or interacting with them, but they were somehow able to push irrelevant content to my instance, not just from Streams but all over the Fediverse.
When I suspended the Streams instances, all of the unexplained content stopped.
Hello people on #Streams who are following my Mastodon accounts 👋
Unfortunately, due to the way Streams' software works, its developers are leaving me no choice but to block you, even though you've done nothing wrong.
Streams is sending me your posts and posts you interact with, even if I don't follow you or interact with you. No other Fediverse platform does this AFAIK.
Is anyone else getting traffic from 216.106.86.232 ?
I will open a report with the ISP
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I'm putting this under #FediBlock because I've noticed that since 12 PM EDT yesterday (30-Apr-2024), API requests coming in from 216.106.86.232 have been returning 500 errors constantly from my server. No other 500 errors were being returned.
I blocked the IP at the Cloudflare firewall and now the 500 errors have stopped. There were more than 93K 500 return codes in total until now!
I have no idea what the requests are, and it's too late at night to do more research, but I'm passing this along to other Admins as a warning and to see if anyone else is seeing similar behavior.
@Gargron
Here's what I see in Cloudflare for the last one hour before blocking the IP address. Notice all the requests returning 500 are from this single IP. There are no page views. It's all API requests. And 500 errors stopped after I blocked it.
Mike Macgirvin, the long-time developer that brought us #Friendica, #Hubzilla, #Streams, and the #Zot protocol, is bringing his most powerful concept to the rest of the #Fediverse: Nomadic Identity.
Our project needs a sustainable source of income to help cover costs and we believe this is our best path forward.
The first service we will offer is semi-managed hosting where you bring your AWS/DigitalOcean/Hetzner API key and we install + provision Pixelfed for a low monthly fee.
You can cancel at anytime, and keep your instance + data.
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?
#Bluesky just opened up support for hosting your own server. So I spent a few hours setting one up.
It was pretty painful. The documentation is incomplete, and there's still a manual approval process that is opaque.
It's also not what I expected. It's not like Mastodon where you wind up with your own fully-hosted instance with its own URL. Instead you still access your server via the main web app at bsky.app. The DB is self-hosted but not the UI.
From what I've read when they first went public about it, it was because of #portability which don't exist in the #ActivityPub protocol. When I informed them about the #NomadicIdentity powering #Hubzilla (and #Streams today), they said they weren't aware of it (at least from what I can recall), so they'll look into it.
The second reason is moderation. Which, if we only look at AP protocol it's pretty much basic, if any. But if they were only aware of Hubzilla's #Zot protocol before they started their project, they probably would've used it since moderation and permissions are awesome in Zot (far better than what #Bluesky / #ATproto currently have today).
And well, they already started their own project and set up their goals, so they pushed for it.
At least that's how I understood it. Not necessarily accurate.
Just trying to understand things (maybe someone can help).
Summary of long post:
The Friendica, Hubzilla, Streams, and Socialhome, approach is:
A group of people in the room having a discussion in their own languages. Only people who understand more than one language can understand other people.
The Threads approach is:
They provide their own translator who interprets between two languages.
The Bridge approach is:
There are two translators.
1st Translator: knows Filipino Sign Language (FSL) and English.
2nd Translator: knows Japanese Sign Language (JSL) and English.
a. A Filipino communicated in FSL.
b. Translator A translates FSL into English.
c. Translator B translates English into JSL.
There is a bridge between the FSL and JSL speakers.
How I understand it:
In #Friendica#Hubzilla#Streams and #Socialhome, if users comment on your post from #diaspora and #ActivityPub, users without the other protocol will not see those replies. Only accounts with both protocols can see the comments from both networks.
There is no “opt-in” or “opt-out”, it just is.
I'm no expert in this, but if I understood it correctly, the reason is the mentioned software are not acting as a bridge or translation between protocols. A comment/post from diaspora remains as diaspora, it is not remade into ActivityPub; and vice versa.
In a bridge, there is a translation going on. An ActivityPub comment/post is remade into a Bluesky comment/post and vice versa.
Again, IF I understood it correctly.
#Threads is testing their AP feature, and as it currently stands, a #Fediverse user commenting on a Threads post, that comment is only visible to Threads accounts with AP enabled. At the same time, Threads comments are only visible in the Fediverse if that Threads account who made the comment have AP enabled.
(Based on limited testing when I left comments on AP enabled Threads posts.)
In Threads approach, it appears that they do some translation between Threads-protocol and AP. Or, maybe, they do some filter, if an account enables AP, a Threads-proto post/comment is encapsulated as an AP so AP-supporting sites can recognise it.
Admins should probably discuss with their communities whether or not they want their instances opted-in by default. I think it's unfortunate that he built it to be opt-out rather than opt-in, but Ryan does, at least, seem open to working toward mutually agreeable solutions.
@lrhodes Just trying to understand where you are coming from.
Is the issue about “because it's Bluesky” and not the bridge itself?
Let's change the scenario.
Let's say Bluesky also implemented ActivityPub side-by-side with ATproto (just like how #Socialhome implemented #diaspora side-by-side with #ActivityPub; or #Friendica / #Hubzilla / #Streams have their own protocols side-by-side with AP).
Is there still going to be an issue about it? Or, will it turn into “let's #fediblock Bluesky!”
If it is about “because it's Bluesky”, then the issue is similar to how some people don't want company X and company Y and company Z from implementing the W3C standard ActivityPub, otherwise, they'll fediblock them, correct?
In the case of bridges then, if someone creates a bridge between ActivityPub and, for example, LinkedIn, it should be “opt-in” by default because some users don't want to see their posts/replies within the LinkedIn network. And if LinkedIn later decides to implement ActivityPub, they will be fediblocked?
It doesn't matter if you are new to the #fediverse or if you have been here forever, it's always good to keep in mind that (a) what server you pick, and (b) what software that server runs, matter.
I should admit am fairly new at this. I created my first fediverse account only a year ago. It was a #mastodon server with about 8,000 users. And while it "worked" there was something missing from the experience.
While researching the idea of hosting my own server, I discovered #FireFish which in turn led to discovering #IceShrimp. It's hard to describe how much better the experience is with IceShrimp.
The #UI is just so much better, and the feature set way more robust. The way it handles replies, the ability to quote, to use multiple emojis, etc.
If you have friends or family thinking about joining the Fediverse or are feeling unimpressed with your mastodon experience, I highly recommend getting an account running IceShrimp or other similar software.
Probably also worth mentioning that I also looked at using a #Wordpress integration and #Hubzilla#GoToSocial#Pleroma#Humhub and #Streams. I found them to be clunky; reminding me of how email was in the early 90s.
If the fediverse is going to thrive, then it needs to make a good first impression. Moving beyond mastodon is a good step in the right direction.
"Meta's fediverses", federating with Meta to allow communications, potentially using services from Meta such as automated moderation or ad targeting, and potentially harvesting data on Meta's behalf.
"free fediverses" that reject Meta – and surveillance capitalism more generally
The free fediverses have a lot of advantages over Meta and Meta's fediverses, some of which will be very hard to counter, and clearly have enough critical mass that they'll be just fine.
Here's a set of strategies for the free fediverses to provide a viable alternative to surveillance capitalism. They build on the strengths of today's fediverse at its best – including natural advantages the free fediverses have that Threads and Meta's fediverses will having a very hard time countering – but also are hopefully candid about weaknesses that need to be addressed. It's a long list, so I'll be spreading out over multiple posts; this post currently goes into detail on the first two.
Opposition to Meta and surveillance capitalism is an appealing position. Highlight it!
Focus on consent (including consent-based federation), privacy, and safety
Emphasize "networked communities"
Support concentric federations of instances and communities
Consider "transitively defederating" Meta's fediverses (as well as defederating Threads)
Consider working with people and instances in Meta's fediverses (and Bluesky, Dreamwidth, and other social networks) whose goals and values align with the free fediverses'
Build a sustainable ecosystem
Prepare for Meta's (and their allies') attempts to paint the free fediverses in a bad light
Reduce the dependency on Mastodon
Prioritize accessibility, which is a huge opportunity
Commit to anti-fascist, anti-racist, anti-colonial, and pro-LGBTQIA2S+ principles, policies, practices, and norms for the free fediverses
Thank you for the optimistic PoV on the entrance of others to the #DeSoc of the Fediverse. It is an optimism that I share - especially with Matthias' announcement just an hour ago that his team behind the development of the #WordPress ActivityPub plugin has just released version 2.0.0 - considering the enormous footprint of WordPress installations across the entire Internet belonging to both common, everyday individuals and companies alike, of every shape and size, this is HUGE news.
It instantly, overnight, positions common folks and businesses to leap into the freedoms afforded them by the existing, privacy respecting, #FOSS based Fediverse that hitherto was... well, a bit of a leap for them psychologically. But now they have a familiar platform with which to begin a journey through the minefields of the deprecated, privacy mining, monolithic silos; its proprietors programming their masses of #subjugated_chattel into livestock holding pens, where they are weighed, measured, packaged, placed into inventory, and sold.
That does raise the issue of an error in your assertions however. You mentioned, "instances in Meta's fediverses and on Bluesky".
The truth however, the reality, is that each are merely a single instance - One big monolithic silo, as described above, with the same incentives of monetization through privacy mining techniques that have made them the dreadnoughts that they are; at least in the case of #Meta (Threads).
Bluesky is of that vertically scaling market as well, but much smaller than the #Faceplant and #InstaSPAM engines operated by Meta, and now their new spearhead into the DeSoc space occupied by ActivityPub and other decentralized or federated protocol based, horizontally scaling instances.
#Bluesky hasn't actually shown their hand yet to the general public, but already, they've disenfranchised (fired) much of their talent; some, actually principal architects of their monolith who were frustrated and disillusioned with the direction Jay has been taking the company - moving further and further away from the disowned public community they spawned, organized, and abandoned following the initial trials and tests of the open source preview version of what became #ATP protocol (ATX).
Even Jack has moved on and embraced yet another horizontally scaling protocol in the DeSoc space, #nostr, and it's already bridged and interoperating flawlessly with the ActivityPub powered portion of the Fediverse, which in turn interoperates with instances running other protocols such as #Nomad, #OStatus, #Streams, #Diaspora, and #ZOT... all of them part of the Fediverse.
Many of the extant #ActivityPub powered instances in the Fediverse merely need to install these capabilities with a couple of clicks to enable this interoperability, while others bridge the divide through infrastructure developed and deployed over the past year or so.
What will be Meta's use case here for their business product?
That's the main question I think folks need to address - not punish the good people on the so-called evil side of the divide, the hitherto subjugated chattel that populate Marks so-called Metaverse or whatever he thinks he can compel people to adopt and endure. The point is, childish, domain level blocking by juvenile minds operating ActivityPub powered #Fediverse server instances only serves to paint themselves (and the users who have to date trusted those admins with being told what they can and cannot see and do) into a corner where they effectively cancel themselves, and find that their users have migrated to other spaces... maybe WordPress, where they truly control their own destiny in the DeSoc space and can now fully participate and engage with others - but on their own terms, not someone else's.
And that, I believe, is what the whole thing has always been about, going back as far as #AngelFire and #GeoCities :)
I do agree with you that we should indeed embrace these common, everyday individuals who, through their programmed ignorance, are mostly clueless as to exactly what the Fediverse is, and more importantly, has always promised for them. This is an opportunity, like Steve Austin, (the Six Million Dollar Man): "We can rebuild them, we have the technology, we can make them better, stronger, faster..."
One more thing I should correct you on, the Fediverse is an internetwork of networks, on the Internet - there are no fediverses, Fediverse is itself a plurality, but your intent wasn't lost on me.
Great article, I enjoyed the read and most of all, your optimistically tempered intent. Thanks for sharing and I hope to see much more from you in the future!
EarthJustice sued EPA & won so new water pollution control regulations for slaughterhouses & animal rendering facilities will be enacted by August 2025
The network effect for #ActivityPub is gaining some serious momentum right now. As more services adopt the protocol, more people, more communities and more content are added to the network making it increasingly more valuable for everyone. This will only accelerate in the coming months as Threads, Wordpress, Tumblr, Flipboard and others federate.
We're still in early innings but there's no way to put this genie back in the bottle. The open social Web / the #Fediverse is going to be huge.
This is excellent news Mike. Following your original announcement many months ago, I actually thought this was the case and created a clipboard about for myself, lolz.
It took a bit, but eventually I figured out that such integration would need to wait for a later day.
The #Mastodon software setting of #Spoutible is now a dropdown menu. Currently only for mastodon.social and mastodon.online.
Maybe it's temporary but if it's not, they'll have to add at least a hundred reputable and popular servers. Also, it's Mastodon software only. There are far more software, older and/or better than Mastodon which will probably not get support, at least as far as the approach I am seeing.
#HappyAnniversary#Doom! That's right, Doom turns 30 this month and to celebrate we're #Streaming all Doom, all #Doomcember! Come stop by while we #RipAndTear through all of the official megawads with some extras to make it interesting!
Firstly, don't forget to post your #intro (with that hashtag), as many fediverse users are following/watching that hashtag. You can also check: https://fediverse.info/explore/people
Secondly, don't be shy in using hashtags in your post and on your profile description. Hashtags will help big time in content discovery.
Now, the technical terms you might encounter, and hopefully won't get confused.
There are different fediverse software available, for example #Mastodon is the one running on your instance. Each software offers a different set of features.
An instance is the same as a server. Each instance is running on one particular fediverse software.
Different instances are interoperable and interconnected. They do this through the #ActivityPub protocol, which is a #WebStandard managed by the @w3c.
There are also fediverse group services like https://chirp.social and https://a.gup.pe - Chirp Social allows for moderation but requires creating an admin account. Guppe groups doesn't offer moderation features, however, it is the easiest to create (in case you are interested in starting your own). Both are free-of-charge.
There are also custom #frontend available. Some instances offer their own custom frontend. This is different from themes/skins. For example, this post, I sent it from the https://phanpy.social frontend for Mastodon. There is also https://trunks.social frontend also for Mastodon. Think #Twitter, but you're accessing it from #TweetDeck.
There are also mobile apps available. Some can handle different fediverse software, some only made specifically for one particular fediverse software.
The fediverse was born in 2008-05-18 when Evan Prodromou sent the first message “This is my first post”.
The term “fediverse” was only coined on 2012-05-25 by Mark Eckenwiler. It was known originally as #Identiverse which was coined by Luke Slater on 2010-03-14.
The current protocol, ActivityPub, was started on 2014-09-06 and only became a web standard on 2018-01-23. The first protocol was known as #OpenMicroBlogging which later was replaced by #OStatus in 2010-03-04.
#Streams galaxy
-- note 1: communication with the Fediverse is standard practice in this universe.
#Hubzilla galaxy
-- note 1: developed a way to communicate across the Mycelial Web (a.k.a. the multiverse). Can also communicate with BlueSky and diaspora.
#Friendica galaxy
-- note 1: developed a way to communicate across the Mycelial Web (a.k.a. the multiverse). Can also communicate with BlueSky and diaspora.
#X#Twitter Mycelium (closed borders; isolated; have not discovered there are other mycelium/universes besides their own)
#Tumblr Mycelium (closed borders; isolated; rumours has it their government decided against connecting with the other mycelium/universes, but they are aware)
#Flickr Mycelium (closed borders; isolated; aware of other mycelium/universes)