<p>Man, yesterday was a doozy. We can’t agree with every platform’s decisions, but we can vote with our feet. </p><p>Surf wants to free our social connections from being locked up in separate self-serving networks. It’s a no-nonsense browser for the open social web that lets you easily create and surf custom feeds that organize people, videos, articles and podcasts around the things you care about.</p><p>Join the waitlist today: <a href="https://waitlist.surf.social/" rel="nofollow"><span class="invisible">https://</span>waitlist.surf.social/</a></p><p><a href="/tags/surf/" rel="tag">#surf</a> <a href="/tags/surfsocial/" rel="tag">#surfsocial</a> <a href="/tags/fediverse/" rel="tag">#fediverse</a> <a href="/tags/meta/" rel="tag">#meta</a></p>
fediverse
<p>As 2025 starts we can expect a lot of change to many social media platforms with the rise of AI</p><p>We will never ever take such steps!</p><p>I keep our services running purely by donations from people on <a href="/tags/mastodon/" rel="tag">#Mastodon</a> and the <a href="/tags/fediverse/" rel="tag">#Fediverse</a> and sometimes that's a little hard but it is and will be the only way</p><p>If you can and want, we can do this together❤️</p><p><a href="https://paypal.me/stuxOS" rel="nofollow"><span class="invisible">https://</span>paypal.me/stuxOS</a><br><a href="https://patreon.com/mstdn" rel="nofollow"><span class="invisible">https://</span>patreon.com/mstdn</a> <br><a href="https://ko-fi.com/mstdn" rel="nofollow"><span class="invisible">https://</span>ko-fi.com/mstdn</a><br><a href="https://bunq.me/stuxhost" rel="nofollow"><span class="invisible">https://</span>bunq.me/stuxhost</a><br><a href="https://stux.me/donate" rel="nofollow"><span class="invisible">https://</span>stux.me/donate</a> </p><p>It can be different 💪</p>
<p>Last Week in Fediverse – ep 98</p><p>Welcome back to Fediverse Report! I’ve had a great holiday break spending time with family and friends, and that has given me some more time to think about why I care about the fediverse, the open social web and why I spend all this time writing Fediverse Report. Explaining to family members what I do was helpful to make this clear: telling an uncle that I write about decentralised technology mainly leads to confusion. But even extremely offline family members easily understand and agree with the idea that having all of our big social platforms being owned by billionaires leads to significant social problems.</p><p>As such, it has helped for me to make it more explicit that I care about decentralisation insofar it is a tool to get somewhere else: I care about better forms of governance and ownership of the social web. I want a social web where people are in control, not a few billionaires (nor nationstate governments, for that matter). Building social networks with decentralised technology is a way to get there.</p><p>The idea that the value of alternative social networks is in governance is far from new. I’ve regularly posted hot takes on my Mastodon to the same effect as well. But for 2025 I want to bring this more into focus for this newsletter. Writing a newsletter that is a weekly update tends to amplify shiny new software that has recently been released. In contrast, explaining how governance works on the fediverse does not align well with ‘this happened in the last 7 days’, as it involves more structural and slower moving forces. I’m experimenting with ways to bring coverage of governance in the fediverse better into focus. Expect more like this newsletter, where I zoom in on an offhanded comment by Misskey developer Syuilo as an illustration of the issues that come with interoperability between different places on the open social web.</p><p>The News</p><p>Mastodon has belatedly published their <a href="https://joinmastodon.org/reports/Mastodon%20Annual%20Report%202023.pdf" rel="nofollow">Annual Report for 2023</a>. The organisation acknowledges the delay, and says that the Annual Report for 2024 is planned to be released in Q1 of this year. Mastodon had a total of 545k euro in donations in 2023, with 476k in costs. The large majority of costs go to personnel expenses, in total 343k was spend on salaries, 72% of the total budget. The popularity of Mastodon’s own servers also come with significant costs, in 2023 they spend 75k on servers and hosting. With a rough estimate of averaging around 250k active users on mastodon.social, this means mastodon.social costs roughly 30 cents per active user per year. The Annual Report also looks at the updates Mastodon has made to the site and apps. Mastodon also shares more about their hiring process, and in a great move for transparency, also published all the salaries of everyone in the organisation. </p><p>Back in the present, Mastodon is <a href="https://mastodon.social/@MastodonEngineering/113782664417082619" rel="nofollow">hiring again</a>, this time for a senior front-end developer. The organisation also held a <a href="https://givebutter.com/givingmastodon" rel="nofollow">crowd-funding campaign</a> in late last year to fund and hire a Trust and Safety lead. The community seemed to have had little appetite for funding such an endeavour, with funding barely pushing past the 12k after a month. It is an indication of the difficult spot the organisation is in; the community has been asking for more safety features in Mastodon, but is not funding a Trust and Safety Lead. The organisation could clearly use someone who writes clear policy and design goals for the direction the software should go in. Currently, not even a Mastodon employee can explain why a <a href="https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/pull/18468" rel="nofollow">safety feature</a> for Mastodon that is fully developed and waiting to be approved has been waiting for approval <a href="https://social.coop/@graue/113523873101355124" rel="nofollow">for over 2.5 years</a>. It turns out that writing the code is often the easy part of making changes in the fediverse, and navigating the social structures to get the code used by people is much harder, and a dedicated Trust and Safety Lead could have certainly helped here. Instead, even after large community outcry we still do not know why Mastodon has not merged this safety feature developed by their own employee.</p></p><p><a href="https://about.surf.social/" rel="nofollow">Surf</a> is a new app by Flipboard for the open social web. It is a beautifully designed app that allows people to build their own custom feeds. The power of Surf is in that it supports many networks, and you can combine posts from Mastodon, Bluesky, Threads, YouTube and Flipboard all into a single custom feed. How Flipboard markets Surf is interesting, describing it as a ‘browser for the social web’. The way Flipboard CEO Mike McCue <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2024/12/18/24323903/flipboard-surf-fediverse-social-web-app" rel="nofollow">sees</a> it, Surf pulls in content from the social web, and gives you the possibility to display that content in custom feeds of your choice. Surf also allows you to filter a custom feed by content: for example, you can scroll through an entire feed, or switch over to a different tab that shows only videos in that feed, for example.</p><p>For more info on Surf, <a href="https://wedistribute.org/2024/12/surf-social-browser/" rel="nofollow">WeDistribute</a> has a closer look at all the features, and <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2024/12/18/24323903/flipboard-surf-fediverse-social-web-app" rel="nofollow">The Verge</a> has more context and comments by McCue. Custom feeds on Bluesky have mainly gone in the direction of the power user and community builder: tools like <a href="https://www.graze.social/" rel="nofollow">Graze</a> offer an huge potential in programmability and flexibility. This is especially useful for those who want to build custom feeds that other people will also use. Surf takes a different approach, by instead prompting people to build their own feeds as much as possible. It’ll be interesting to see which approach will gain traction, and if there is space for both ways of building custom feeds.</p></p><p>Misskey developer Syuilo made some <a href="https://misskey.io/notes/a2o2aj7zb81f05g3" rel="nofollow">comments</a> contemplating breaking federation with Mastodon. Misskey is mainly used in Japan, and has a wide feature set that differs notably from Mastodon. The main reason that Syuilo gave is that she feels Misskey development is constrained by having to meet the needs and requirements of maintaining federation with other (types) of software. That Misskey is considering letting federation between Mastodon and Misskey break is an indication of one of the downsides of how ActivityPub is designed: You can send out anything you want with ActivityPub, but it is exceedingly difficult to know how other software will actually receive and display the things you send out with ActivityPub. There is a significant freedom for fediverse software in how they implement and support even more basic functions. For example, see this comparison table for how the different platforms support <a href="https://funfedi.dev/support_tables/generated/hashtags/" rel="nofollow">hashtags</a>, and how many variations there are. </p><p>Personally, I think it would be healthy for the fediverse as a whole if more fediverse software would start publishing what they deem as necessary for other software to federate with them. The fediverse mainly currently works on the assumption that any form of federation between projects is fine, even if that means that another federated platform will stripping out all markup and images of a post. It might be healthy for a platform to state minimum functional requirements, such as ‘we only want to federate with software that also shows the emoji reactions as we view this to be an integral part of a message’. For now, Syuilo’s post mainly seems to be to vent some frustrations, so it remains to be seen where any of this will actually go.</p><p>The Links</p><p>A <a href="https://russ.garrett.co.uk/2024/12/17/online-safety-act-guide/" rel="nofollow">guide</a> for small websites regarding the UK’s Online Safety Act, with some extra clarification for fediverse sites.<br><a href="https://mastodon.social/@mizkirsten/113760653630014273" rel="nofollow">TheIndieBeat.fm</a> is a new radio station for showcasing indie music from the fediverse, that picks up where <a href="https://radiofreefedi.net/" rel="nofollow">radiofreefedi</a> left, and will use upcoming fediverse audio platform <a href="https://wedistribute.org/2024/09/bandwagon-music/" rel="nofollow">Bandwagon</a>.<br><a href="https://blog.castopod.org/castopod-first-12-plugins/" rel="nofollow">The first 12 plugins of Castopod</a>.<br><a href="https://mastodon.bsd.cafe/@stefano/113758416011174664" rel="nofollow">FediMeteo – Weather in the Fediverse</a>.<br><a href="https://event-federation.eu/2025/01/04/event-bridge-for-activitypub-plugin-released-on-wordpress-org/" rel="nofollow">“Event Bridge For ActivityPub” plugin released on WordPress.org</a>.<br><a href="https://rdfpub.org/index_en.html" rel="nofollow">rdf-pub – generic Activity-Pub Server</a> that focuses on using C2S.<br>Manyfold got a new round of NLNet funding, and <a href="https://manyfold.app/news/2025/01/01/manyfold-nlnet.html" rel="nofollow">published a roadmap</a> of what they’ll be working on.<br><a href="https://piefed.social/post/394576" rel="nofollow">PieFed development update for December 2024.</a><br><a href="https://mitra.social/post/019437a2-a2e5-ed6f-ebff-dcbb6bc6aba4" rel="nofollow">Fediverse tech roadmap reflection on developments in the past year</a>, by Mitra developer Silverpill.</p><p>That’s all for this week, thanks for reading!</p><p><a href="/tags/fediverse/" rel="tag">#fediverse</a></p><p><a href="https://fediversereport.com/last-week-in-fediverse-ep-98/" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="fediversereport.com/last-week-in-fediverse-ep-98/"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">fediversereport.com/last-week-</span><span class="invisible">in-fediverse-ep-98/</span></a></p>
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<p>If you're interested in building your own <a href="/tags/activitypub/" rel="tag">#ActivityPub</a> server but don't know where to start, I recommend checking out <a href="/tags/fedify/" rel="tag">#Fedify</a>'s <a href="/tags/tutorial/" rel="tag">#tutorial</a> <a href="https://fedify.dev/tutorial/microblog" rel="nofollow">Creating your own federated microblog</a>. It provides a comprehensive, step-by-step guide that walks you through building a fully functional federated application. Perfect for developers who want to dive into the <a href="/tags/fediverse/" rel="tag">#fediverse</a>!</p><p><a href="/tags/fedidev/" rel="tag">#fedidev</a></p>
<p>Gamepad.Club is a Mastodon server with a video games focus, but also open to fans of tabletop RPGs, trading card games and all other forms of gaming. Hosted in the UK and EU, but everyone is welcome!</p><p><img src="https://neodb.social/media/emoji/social.growyourown.services/Fediverse.png" class="emoji" alt=":Fediverse:" title=":Fediverse:"> <a href="https://gamepad.club" rel="nofollow"><span class="invisible">https://</span>gamepad.club</a></p><p>You can find out more at <a href="https://gamepad.club/about" rel="nofollow"><span class="invisible">https://</span>gamepad.club/about</a> or contact the admin <span class="h-card"><a href="https://gamepad.club/@Gazimoff" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>Gazimoff</span></a></span> </p><p><a href="/tags/featuredserver/" rel="tag">#FeaturedServer</a> <a href="/tags/gaming/" rel="tag">#Gaming</a> <a href="/tags/videogames/" rel="tag">#VideoGames</a> <a href="/tags/ttrpg/" rel="tag">#TTRPG</a> <a href="/tags/ccg/" rel="tag">#CCG</a> <a href="/tags/mastodon/" rel="tag">#Mastodon</a> <a href="/tags/fediverse/" rel="tag">#Fediverse</a> <a href="/tags/freefediverse/" rel="tag">#FreeFediverse</a></p>
<p>So... Has anyone on here actually talked with the people from the <a href="/tags/socialwebfoundation/" rel="tag">#SocialWebFoundation</a>?</p><p>I can tell the <a href="/tags/mastodon/" rel="tag">#Mastodon</a> Organization has, but <a href="/tags/threads/" rel="tag">#Threads</a> is also listed there, while I don't see any other names that aren't some corporate entity. I'm all for groups that want to expand the <a href="/tags/fediverse/" rel="tag">#Fediverse</a>, even for-profit ones, but it's a red flag when an organization that purports to be for a general movement doesn't have an open line of communication with rank-and-file server-runners and volunteers...</p><p>Edit:<br>I just realized that it was founded by <span class="h-card"><a href="https://cosocial.ca/@evan" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>evan</span></a></span> who is actually very active in mainstream Fedi, and one of the maintainers of the actual protocol. While that doesn't elaborate on actual intentions, it is good to know that at least it's someone who is directly involved, and not some random corporation. <a href="/tags/evanprodromou/" rel="tag">#EvanProdromou</a></p>
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<p>You may have heard that <span class="h-card"><a href="https://flipboard.social/@Flipboard" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>Flipboard</span></a></span> brought 250 publishers to the Fediverse this week. Here are just a few news outlets you might want to follow:</p><p><span class="h-card"><a href="https://flipboard.com/@AssociatedPress" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>AssociatedPress</span></a></span> </p><p><span class="h-card"><a href="https://flipboard.com/@abc" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>abc</span></a></span> </p><p><span class="h-card"><a href="https://flipboard.com/@CBSNews" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>CBSNews</span></a></span> </p><p><span class="h-card"><a href="https://flipboard.com/@cbcnews" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>cbcnews</span></a></span> </p><p><span class="h-card"><a href="https://flipboard.com/@globeandmail" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>globeandmail</span></a></span> </p><p><span class="h-card"><a href="https://flipboard.com/@newyorktimes" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>newyorktimes</span></a></span> </p><p><span class="h-card"><a href="https://flipboard.com/@WashPost" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>WashPost</span></a></span> </p><p>You can follow their entire profile, or just follow the topical Magazines that you're interested in. For example, if you want world news, follow <span class="h-card"><a href="https://flipboard.com/@cbsnews/world-news-791cc5noz" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>world-news-CBSNews</span></a></span>. Or if you want Canadian news, follow <span class="h-card"><a href="https://flipboard.com/@cbcnews/canada-1akomc2pz" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>canada-cbcnews</span></a></span> </p><p><a href="/tags/followfriday/" rel="tag">#FollowFriday</a> <a href="/tags/news/" rel="tag">#News</a> <a href="/tags/media/" rel="tag">#Media</a> <a href="/tags/flipboard/" rel="tag">#Flipboard</a> <a href="/tags/journalism/" rel="tag">#Journalism</a> <a href="/tags/fediverse/" rel="tag">#Fediverse</a></p>
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<p><img src="https://neodb.social/media/emoji/hollo.social/botkit.png" class="emoji" alt=":botkit:" title=":botkit:"> Introducing <a href="/tags/botkit/" rel="tag">#BotKit</a>: A <a href="/tags/typescript/" rel="tag">#TypeScript</a> framework for creating truly standalone <a href="/tags/activitypub/" rel="tag">#ActivityPub</a> bots!</p><p>Unlike traditional Mastodon bots, BotKit lets you build fully independent <a href="/tags/fediverse/" rel="tag">#fediverse</a> bots that aren't constrained by platform limits. Create your entire bot in a single TypeScript file using our simple, expressive API.</p><p>Currently <a href="/tags/deno/" rel="tag">#Deno</a>-only, with Node.js & Bun support planned. Built on the robust <a href="/tags/fedify/" rel="tag">#Fedify</a> foundation.</p><p><a href="https://bokit.fedify.dev/" rel="nofollow"><span class="invisible">https://</span>bokit.fedify.dev/</a></p>
<p>Week in Fediverse 2025-01-10</p><p>Servers</p><p>- <a href="https://hub.somaton.com/item/c6e6261d-b2b0-4887-9982-9dc8c2395101" rel="nofollow">Hubzilla v10.0.6</a><br>- <a href="https://akkoma.dev/AkkomaGang/akkoma/src/tag/v3.14.0/CHANGELOG.md" rel="nofollow">Akkoma v2025.01</a><br>- <a href="https://github.com/Chocobozzz/PeerTube/releases/tag/v7.0.1" rel="nofollow">PeerTube v7.0.1</a><br>- <a href="https://manyfold.app/news/2025/01/06/release-v0-92-0.html" rel="nofollow">Manyfold v0.92.0</a><br>- <a href="https://comam.es/snac/grunfink/p/1736241828.152246" rel="nofollow">snac v2.68</a><br>- <a href="https://code.castopod.org/adaures/castopod/-/releases/v1.13.3" rel="nofollow">Castopod v1.13.3</a><br>- <a href="https://github.com/toddsundsted/ktistec/releases/tag/v2.4.4" rel="nofollow">Ktistec v2.4.4</a><br>- <a href="https://github.com/dimkr/tootik/releases/tag/0.14.1" rel="nofollow">tootik v0.14.1</a><br>- <a href="https://tomcasavant.com/untitled-gaming-social/" rel="nofollow">Untitled Gaming Social: ActivityPub platform that bridges game screenshots and achievements to the fediverse</a><br>- <a href="https://event-federation.eu/?p=561" rel="nofollow">“Event Bridge For ActivityPub” plugin released on WordPress.org</a></p><p>Clients</p><p>- <a href="https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon-android/releases/tag/v2.9.4" rel="nofollow">Mastodon for Android v2.9.4</a><br>- <a href="https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon-ios/releases/tag/2024.12" rel="nofollow">Mastodon for iOS v2024.12</a><br>- <a href="https://github.com/suvam0451/dhaaga/releases/tag/v0.12.0" rel="nofollow">Dhaaga v0.12.0</a><br>- <a href="https://framagit.org/framasoft/peertube/mobile-application/-/releases/v0.5.5" rel="nofollow">PeerTube Mobile v0.5.5</a><br>- <a href="https://github.com/asimons04/tesseract/releases/tag/v1.4.28" rel="nofollow">Tesseract v1.4.28</a><br>- <a href="https://github.com/LiveFastEatTrashRaccoon/RaccoonForFriendica/releases/tag/0.4.0" rel="nofollow">RaccoonForFriendica v0.4.0</a></p><p>Tools and Plugins</p><p>- <a href="https://codeberg.org/marvinsmastodontools/fedinesia/releases/tag/3.3.2" rel="nofollow">Fedinesia v3.3.2</a><br>- <a href="https://gitlab.com/diasporg/poduptime/-/blob/5.4.2/CHANGELOG.md?ref_type=tags#542---2025" rel="nofollow">poduptime v5.4.2</a></p><p>For developers</p><p>- <a href="https://github.com/dahlia/botkit" rel="nofollow">BotKit: A framework for creating ActivityPub bots</a></p><p>Articles</p><p>- <a href="https://mitra.social/post/019437a2-a2e5-ed6f-ebff-dcbb6bc6aba4" rel="nofollow">Fediverse tech roadmap 2025</a><br>- <a href="https://fediversereport.com/last-week-in-fediverse-ep-98/" rel="nofollow">Last Week in Fediverse – ep 98</a></p><p>-----</p><p><a href="/tags/weekinfediverse/" rel="tag">#WeekInFediverse</a> <a href="/tags/fediverse/" rel="tag">#Fediverse</a> <a href="/tags/activitypub/" rel="tag">#ActivityPub</a></p><p>Previous edition: <a href="https://mitra.social/objects/01942e1c-9727-6a7b-ff14-2a50884355ec" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="mitra.social/objects/01942e1c-9727-6a7b-ff14-2a50884355ec"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">mitra.social/objects/01942e1c-</span><span class="invisible">9727-6a7b-ff14-2a50884355ec</span></a></p>
<p>Snac2 is an excellent software solution for accessing the Fediverse. It is lightweight, very easy to compile and install, has minimal dependencies, and the development is progressing along a clear, clean, and logical path - thank you, <span class="h-card"><a href="https://comam.es/snac/grunfink" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>grunfink</span></a></span></p><p>Since last December, BSD Cafe has had, among its services, a snac instance - <a href="https://snac.bsd.cafe" rel="nofollow"><span class="invisible">https://</span>snac.bsd.cafe</a> - which has been used sparingly, mainly by some for testing purposes. I’ve kept it as a 'testing' option.</p><p>In light of the interest it is generating (we now have stable users) and given that development is evolving to allow for both inbound and outbound movement, I have decided to designate it as a stable solution for accessing the Fediverse and to consider it a primary service of the BSD Cafe.</p><p>It has always received the utmost attention, I have consistently updated it promptly, and it has always been accessible, but I have also modified all the descriptions to clarify that it is a stable and definitive solution.</p><p>For more information, there is always a dedicated page on our wiki: <a href="https://wiki.bsd.cafe/snac.bsd.cafe" rel="nofollow"><span class="invisible">https://</span>wiki.bsd.cafe/snac.bsd.cafe</a></p><p>Stay Tuned!</p><p><a href="/tags/bsdcafe/" rel="tag">#BSDCafe</a> <a href="/tags/bsdcafeservices/" rel="tag">#BSDCafeServices</a> <a href="/tags/bsdcafeannouncements/" rel="tag">#BSDCafeAnnouncements</a> <a href="/tags/snac/" rel="tag">#snac</a> <a href="/tags/snac2/" rel="tag">#snac2</a> <a href="/tags/fediverse/" rel="tag">#Fediverse</a> <a href="/tags/mastodon/" rel="tag">#Mastodon</a></p>
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<p>Wie können sich Serverbetreibende im <a href="/tags/fediverse/" rel="tag">#Fediverse</a> miteinander vernetzen?</p><p>Darum geht es in meinem neuesten Artikel für <span class="h-card"><a href="https://social.anoxinon.de/@gnulinux" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>gnulinux</span></a></span>, in dem ich näher auf die Projekte <a href="/tags/fediversemoderationstreff/" rel="tag">#FediverseModerationsTreff</a> und <a href="/tags/fedimins/" rel="tag">#Fedimins</a> eingehe.</p><p><a href="https://gnulinux.ch/wie-vernetzt-seid-ihr" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="gnulinux.ch/wie-vernetzt-seid-ihr"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">gnulinux.ch/wie-vernetzt-seid-</span><span class="invisible">ihr</span></a></p><p>Grüße und ein großes Danke für eure Arbeit an dieser Stelle auch an <span class="h-card"><a href="https://bildung.social/@ebinger" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>ebinger</span></a></span>, <span class="h-card"><a href="https://social.lukas-schieren.de/@lukas" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>lukas</span></a></span> und <span class="h-card"><a href="https://rollenspiel.social/@Tealk" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>Tealk</span></a></span> <3</p>
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<p>What a whirlwind 72 hours in <a href="/tags/brussels/" rel="tag">#Brussels</a> for <a href="/tags/fosdem/" rel="tag">#FOSDEM</a>! Everyone I met has been working so so hard to build technology explicitly trying to break out of a broken system of corporate hegemony. There were so many different fields present here but I primarily focused on the <a href="/tags/fediverse/" rel="tag">#fediverse</a> track.</p>
<p>Because of X and Meta fucking things up once again, people are talking about abandoning social media, because there are no corporate free alternatives. Right.</p><p><a href="/tags/socialweb/" rel="tag">#SocialWeb</a> <a href="/tags/socialmedia/" rel="tag">#SocialMedia</a> <a href="/tags/fediverse/" rel="tag">#Fediverse</a> <a href="/tags/x/" rel="tag">#X</a> <a href="/tags/meta/" rel="tag">#Meta</a></p>
<p>I’m proud to have once again played a small role in pushing  <a href="/tags/mastodon/" rel="tag">#Mastodon</a> and the <a href="/tags/fediverse/" rel="tag">#Fediverse</a> forward. Today’s announcement is an important step in bringing greater community ownership and governance to <span class="h-card"><a href="https://mastodon.social/@Mastodon" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>Mastodon</span></a></span> </p><p>RE: <a href="https://hannahaubry.online/on-community-governance-for-mastodon" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="hannahaubry.online/on-community-governance-for-mastodon"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">hannahaubry.online/on-communit</span><span class="invisible">y-governance-for-mastodon</span></a></p>
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<p>🧶 La Nostra Rete in tour! 🇮🇹</p><p>(English version in the following post)</p><p>Da domani partirà il fantasmagorico imperdibile tour de <a href="https://ournet.rocks/it/" rel="nofollow">La Nostra Rete</a>, che porterà il workshop in giro per l’Italia! ⛵</p><p>Se sarete nei luoghi in cui si terrà il laboratorio siete assolutamente invitatз, 🆓 l’ingresso è libero e gratuito. Se non foste nei paraggi, condividete appppalla con amicз tecnoscetticз, tecnoinnamoratз, tecnoasceticз, tecnorepellenti o tecnoindifferenti. Sono tuttз benvenutз 💕</p><p>Grazie alle persone stratopiche che mi ospiteranno! <span class="h-card"><a href="https://livellosegreto.it/@collettivodemand" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>collettivodemand</span></a></span> <span class="h-card"><a href="https://mastodon.uno/@reclaimthetech" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>reclaimthetech</span></a></span> </p><p>✨ Nota speciale: mentre sarò a Bologna, ci stiamo organizzando per trovarci di persona e partecipare collettivamente al <span class="h-card"><a href="https://mastodon.social/@fediforum" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>fediforum</span></a></span>, tuttз insieme da <a href="https://municipiozero.it/scift/" rel="nofollow">Scift</a>, la nuova officina che aprirà domani a Làbas!</p><p>ℹ️ Per info aggiornate, visitate <a href="https://ournet.rocks/it/" rel="nofollow"><span class="invisible">https://</span>ournet.rocks/it/</a></p><p><a href="/tags/lanostrarete/" rel="tag">#LaNostraRete</a> <a href="/tags/lanostraretetour/" rel="tag">#LaNostraReteTour</a> <a href="/tags/ournettour/" rel="tag">#OurNetTour</a> <a href="/tags/milano/" rel="tag">#Milano</a> <a href="/tags/falacosagiusta/" rel="tag">#FaLaCosaGiusta</a> <a href="/tags/napoli/" rel="tag">#Napoli</a> <a href="/tags/roma/" rel="tag">#Roma</a> <a href="/tags/velletri/" rel="tag">#Velletri</a> <a href="/tags/làbas/" rel="tag">#Làbas</a> <a href="/tags/urbanartlab/" rel="tag">#UrbanArtLab</a> <a href="/tags/bologna/" rel="tag">#Bologna</a> <a href="/tags/bolo/" rel="tag">#Bolo</a> <a href="/tags/verona/" rel="tag">#Verona</a> <a href="/tags/knittingourinternet/" rel="tag">#KnittingOurInternet</a> <a href="/tags/internet/" rel="tag">#Internet</a> <a href="/tags/internethistory/" rel="tag">#InternetHistory</a> <a href="/tags/web/" rel="tag">#Web</a> <a href="/tags/dweb/" rel="tag">#DWeb</a> <a href="/tags/zero81/" rel="tag">#Zero81</a> <a href="/tags/fediverse/" rel="tag">#Fediverse</a> <a href="/tags/decentralization/" rel="tag">#decentralization</a> <a href="/tags/decentralizzazione/" rel="tag">#decentralizzazione</a> <a href="/tags/demand/" rel="tag">#Demand</a> <a href="/tags/laboratorio/" rel="tag">#laboratorio</a> <a href="/tags/lab/" rel="tag">#lab</a></p>
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<p>Last Week in Fediverse – ep 99</p><p>A major news for governance this week on the open social web, with Mastodon shaking up their organisational structure and more.</p><p>The News</p><p>Mastodon published <a href="https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2025/01/the-people-should-own-the-town-square/" rel="nofollow">plans</a> for their new governance structure, with control of Mastodon moving to a new non-profit organisation, and moving ownership away from CEO Eugen Rochko. Mastodon will set up a new top-level non-profit organisation. This new organisation will become owner of various Mastodon related assets, including names and copyrights. These assets are currently still held by Eugen Rochko, and Mastodon says that this is not the intent of Mastodon. Rochko and the Mastodon organisation believe that “Mastodon should not be owned or controlled by a single individual.”</p><p>Rochko has been a major driving force in growing Mastodon into the platform and product that it is today. While his singular ownership in his name of Mastodon does not fit with the current state of the platform, it is indicative of the outsized influence and impact his work has had over the years. In a <a href="https://mastodon.social/@Gargron/113823024820125756" rel="nofollow">thread</a>, Rochko also explains his own perspective, writing about how Mastodon has become tightly integrated with his own identity. He also says that the last two years have taken a toll on him, both mentally and physically. Stepping away from a leadership position that has become so tightly integrated with a sense of self is an incredibly difficult thing to do, and Rochko deserves recognition for both his work, and knowing when to take a step back. Rochko will focus on his original passion of product strategy for Mastodon.</p><p>Even for the Mastodon organisation, there are still multiple unknowns, and the organisation is still in the process of figuring it all out. The short summary of what the organisation of Mastodon will look like: There will be a new top-level organisation for Mastodon. This will be a non-profit organisation that is based in Europe. Mastodon does not know yet which European country. The organisation will be led by a new CEO. The new CEO has already been picked, but Mastodon is waiting for a few final practical details before they will be announced. Under this top-level organisation will be 2 other organisations, the US-based Mastodon non-profit and the current Mastodon GmbH organisation. For the US-based Mastodon non-profit nothing will change, this organisation is mainly for fundraising purposes. The current Mastodon GmbH organisation has become a for-profit organisation due to unclear German bureaucracy. This organisation will involve itself with the daily operations, both of running the mastodon.social and mastodon.online servers as well as development of Mastodon software.</p></p><p><a href="https://www.404media.co/meta-is-blocking-links-to-decentralized-instagram-competitor-pixelfed/" rel="nofollow">404 Media</a> reported this week that Meta is blocking links to Pixelfed on their apps, after various fediverse users reported that links on Meta platforms to their Pixelfed account immediately got taken down as spam. Meta later admitted to <a href="https://www.engadget.com/social-media/meta-admits-it-deleted-links-to-decentralized-instagram-competitor-pixelfed-194624098.html" rel="nofollow">Engadget</a> that “removing the posts was a mistake and that they’d be reinstated.” Meta’s actions have been beneficial for Pixelfed, which has been at the centre of a news cycle. Pixelfed creator Daniel Supernault said that the pixelfed.social was seeing “<a href="https://mastodon.social/@pixelfed/113813596301663822" rel="nofollow">unprecedented levels of traffic</a>“, and according to <a href="https://fedidb.org/software/pixelfed" rel="nofollow">fedidb.org</a> (also created by Supernault) monthly active users for Pixelfed jumped from 20k in December to 27k as of right now. Supernault also <a href="https://mastodon.social/@dansup/113824962164289391" rel="nofollow">reports</a> that pixelfed.social had 11k people joining in the last 24 hours, which also is <a href="https://fedidb.org/network/instance/pixelfed.social" rel="nofollow">validated by fedidb.org</a>. I’m not clear on what the correct statistics are here, but a sudden jump in interest after all the media attention is clearly happening. Pixelfed also got the official apps finally out of testing and available in the <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pixelfed" rel="nofollow">Android Play Store</a> and <a href="https://mastodon.social/@dansup/113827183673421971" rel="nofollow">iOS App Store</a>. The move has been announced and teased for a long time, and the app has been available in testing for a while. </p></p><p>Meta and Zuckerberg decided this week to go fully mask-off, making significant changes to their platforms and rules around hate speech. Most notably are the rules around hate speech, where Meta is now <a href="https://theintercept.com/2025/01/09/facebook-instagram-meta-hate-speech-content-moderation/" rel="nofollow">explicitly</a> allowing hate speech against various minorities. The move sparked a wide backlash, and various Mastodon servers who previously federated with Threads decided to cut defederate from Threads. Notable examples include <a href="https://community.hachyderm.io/blog/2025/01/09/defederation-from-threads/" rel="nofollow">Hachyderm</a> and <a href="https://mstdn.social/@stux/113793895110300721" rel="nofollow">mstdn.social</a>. Other servers such as <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/08/mastodon-ceo-calls-metas-moderation-changes-deeply-troubling-warns-users-cross-posting-from-threads/" rel="nofollow">mastodon.social</a> and <a href="https://www.timothychambers.net/2025/01/10/moderating-threads-at-a-server.html" rel="nofollow">indieweb.social</a> condemned the move by Meta, but refrained from defederating from Threads. </p><p>The Analysis</p><p>In last week’s email introduction I wrote that I was unhappy with the state of governance of both the fediverse as well as the ATmosphere. This week’s news regarding Mastodon is a great step in the right direction. Mastodon has clear ambitions and values about decentralisation, and having a <a href="https://www.theverge.com/23658648/mastodon-ceo-twitter-interview-elon-musk-twitter" rel="nofollow">self-styled dictator-for-life</a> who runs the software just does not fit at all with the stated values. The Mastodon Operations organisation now being a for-profit organisation is also interesting. While this happened outside of the control of Mastodon GmbH as a result of opaque Germany bureaucracy, I think it is potentially a good thing. Running a social media server with 250k monthly active users costs real money. Having servers be financially sustainable is an integral part of having fair and equitable social media platforms. So far, the fediverse has struggled making this happen on a donations model. </p><p>It is the next moves that are the real important ones: what form of governance will the non-profit holding organisation take? Will it allow for real community ownership, as implied by the title of the blog? Who will be the new CEO? What new sets of strategic priorities for Mastodon will be set? Many things are still up in the air, even for the people at Mastodon itself, and those aspects will be where we will see the most impactful changes. Still, this is a great step in the right direction.</p></p><p>I do find the contrast between the moves that Rochko has made and how Supernault approaches Pixelfed and Loops notable. Rochko has been aware of the downsides of his model of governance for Mastodon, and has made the necessary changes, while Supernault seems determined to go at it alone. Supernault has a wild number of projects on his plate: building the Pixelfed platform as well as mobile apps, as well as video platform Loops with it’s mobile apps, running the pixelfed.social and pixelfed.art server, running fedidb.org and more. It is incredibly impressive what Supernault has managed to build, all by himself in his spare time. Supernault has <a href="https://mastodon.social/@dansup/113828037123279931" rel="nofollow">high ambitions</a>, explicitly positioning his platforms as competitors to Instagram and TikTok. But as the looming TikTok ban in the US shows: one of the most important aspects of social media platforms these days is how they are governed, and by whom. Having a single developer governing the development of two different types of platforms, as well as their flagship servers, seems like a form of governance that is not particularly sustainable.</p></p><p>Rochko shared some more statistics about the connection between Threads and mastodon.social in a conversation on the Mastodon Discord, writing: “For some context, 81,745 people follow at least one Threads account from their mastodon.social account (and we are aware of 25,042 Threads account that federate), with some of the most followed accounts being MKBDH, Barack Obama, and Nilay Patel.” He also noted that only 811 Threads accounts follow at least one mastodon.social account. These statistics only represent mastodon.social, not the entire fediverse. But considering mastodon.social is by far the largest server and many other servers do not federate with Threads at all, it does provide a good indication of the actual usage of Threads. Hachyderm also shared some statistics on the connection between Threads and Hachyderm: “There were 2033 unique Hachyderm accounts following 919 unique Threads accounts and 26 unique Threads accounts following 22 unique Hachyderm accounts.”</p><p>Last month I wrote an article <a href="https://fediversereport.com/why-is-meta-adding-fediverse-interoperability-to-threads/" rel="nofollow">‘Why is Meta adding fediverse interoperability to Threads?’</a>, going through the various reasons for Meta to add federation to Threads. I did not have a clear single answer to that question. The data above provides at least an indication that users are also not clear on why Threads should have fediverse interoperability. It turns out that in practice, marginally few people are interested in the two-way connection between Threads and the rest of the fediverse. </p><p>In conversations last week regarding whether or not servers should defederate from Threads, one argument that got brought up repeatedly that connecting with Threads allows people to migrate away from Threads to Mastodon, while still keeping connections with people on Threads. Seeing the statistics on how few people actually use the Threads fediverse connections this argument rings hollow to me. </p></p><p>The Links</p><p>The 5th edition of online unconference <a href="https://mastodon.social/@fediforum/113788203401938518" rel="nofollow">FediForum</a> will take place on April 1st and 2nd this year.<br>Threads is slowly making their fediverse integration <a href="https://www.threads.net/@oncescuradu/post/DD7urOxoRsC?xmt=AQGzFIbYkYAopxpfSm7ttMiOB-gzhve38lcvzCUIYrgrFA" rel="nofollow">available</a> for a small number of EU users.<br>Castopod has made a <a href="https://podlibre.social/@Castopod/113820665881551440" rel="nofollow">demo server available</a> where people can test out the fediverse podcasting platform.<br>PeerTube is slowly making more servers <a href="https://framapiaf.org/@peertube/113792173828648940" rel="nofollow">available</a> in their official apps, being careful to comply with app store regulations.<br>Hachyderm shares their <a href="https://hachyderm.io/@esk/113793277371908181" rel="nofollow">monthly operations costs breakdown.</a><br>Biweekly Lemmy development <a href="https://lemmy.ml/post/24645977" rel="nofollow">update</a>.<br>Ghost’s <a href="https://activitypub.ghost.org/the-story-so-far/" rel="nofollow">update</a> on implementing ActivityPub and reflection on their work in 2024.<br>Piefed held a <a href="https://piefed.social/post/411656" rel="nofollow">community vote for their roadmap for 2025.</a></p><p>That’s all for this week, thanks for reading!</p><p><a href="/tags/fediverse/" rel="tag">#fediverse</a></p><p><a href="https://fediversereport.com/last-week-in-fediverse-ep-99/" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="fediversereport.com/last-week-in-fediverse-ep-99/"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">fediversereport.com/last-week-</span><span class="invisible">in-fediverse-ep-99/</span></a></p>
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<p>Are you a Fediverse developer? Do you work with ActivityPub?</p><p>You should follow <a href="https://activitypub.space" rel="nofollow"><span class="invisible">https://</span>activitypub.space</a></p><p>And here is the awesome thing — you can follow it from your existing Fediverse account!</p><p>Follow these activitypub.space channels:</p><p>• <span class="h-card"><a href="https://activitypub.space/category/2/general-discussion" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>general</span></a></span><br>• <span class="h-card"><a href="https://activitypub.space/category/5/technical-discussion" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>technical-discussion</span></a></span><br>• <span class="h-card"><a href="https://activitypub.space/category/4/frequently-asked-questions" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>faq</span></a></span><br>• <span class="h-card"><a href="https://activitypub.space/category/6/random" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>random</span></a></span><br>• <span class="h-card"><a href="https://activitypub.space/category/11/meta" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>meta</span></a></span></p><p>(Thank you <span class="h-card"><a href="https://community.nodebb.org/user/julian" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>julian</span></a></span> )</p><p><a href="/tags/activitypub/" rel="tag">#ActivityPub</a> <a href="/tags/fedidev/" rel="tag">#FediDev</a> <a href="/tags/fediverse/" rel="tag">#Fediverse</a> <a href="/tags/socialweb/" rel="tag">#SocialWeb</a></p>
<p>I was really excited for the <a href="/tags/fediverse/" rel="tag">#Fediverse</a> in 2024 and I think that feeling has borne out. Projects have released or started in earnest but so did the influenze of facebook, a long-term genocide and queer violence supporter who have this week changed their terms to expressly permit queerphobic and other vicious harms.</p>
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<p>I just signed up for the <a href="/tags/fediforum/" rel="tag">#FediForum</a> "Un-Workshop" coming up in March. Who else is planning to sign in?</p><p>🙋♀️🙋♂️🙋♀️🙋♂️🙋♀️🙋♂️</p><p>"Growing the Open Social Web" was already on my bingo card for 2026. I have my own ideas, but I'm more excited to hear what others have to say.</p><p><a href="https://fediforum.org/2026-03-growing-open-social-web/" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="fediforum.org/2026-03-growing-open-social-web/"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">fediforum.org/2026-03-growing-</span><span class="invisible">open-social-web/</span></a></p><p>If we blame misinformation on social media for the trouble in our democracies, then growing the <a href="/tags/fediverse/" rel="tag">#Fediverse</a> (responsibly) may be our best path forward.</p>
<p>Kzoo.to is a community Mastodon server for the Kalamazoo area in Michigan, USA:</p><p><img src="https://neodb.social/media/emoji/social.growyourown.services/Fediverse.png" class="emoji" alt=":Fediverse:" title=":Fediverse:"> <a href="https://kzoo.to" rel="nofollow"><span class="invisible">https://</span>kzoo.to</a></p><p>You can find out more at <a href="https://kzoo.to/about" rel="nofollow"><span class="invisible">https://</span>kzoo.to/about</a> or contact the admin <span class="h-card"><a href="https://kzoo.to/@notsle" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>notsle</span></a></span> </p><p><a href="/tags/featuredserver/" rel="tag">#FeaturedServer</a> <a href="/tags/kalamazoo/" rel="tag">#Kalamazoo</a> <a href="/tags/kalamazoomi/" rel="tag">#KalamazooMI</a> <a href="/tags/michigan/" rel="tag">#Michigan</a> <a href="/tags/mi/" rel="tag">#MI</a> <a href="/tags/mastodon/" rel="tag">#Mastodon</a> <a href="/tags/fediverse/" rel="tag">#Fediverse</a> <a href="/tags/freefediverse/" rel="tag">#FreeFediverse</a></p>
<p>⭐️ Spotlight ⭐️</p><p>This week in our Community tab, we've featured these inspiring voices from the fediverse, including experts on everything from British history to the NFL. </p><p><a href="https://threads.net/@greg_jenner/" rel="nofollow">@greg_jenner</a><br><span class="h-card"><a href="https://journa.host/@Julia" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>Julia</span></a></span> <br><span class="h-card"><a href="https://threads.net/@kateaconger/" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>kateaconger</span></a></span><br><span class="h-card"><a href="https://threads.net/@noahshachtman/" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>noahshachtman</span></a></span> <br><span class="h-card"><a href="https://threads.net/@rkrelentless/" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>rkrelentless</span></a></span> <br><span class="h-card"><a href="https://threads.net/@profgalloway/" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>profgalloway</span></a></span> </p><p>On Flipboard, you can follow interesting topics, trusted content creators, prestige publishers and people from the fediverse. </p><p>Download the app here: <a href="https://about.flipboard.com/download-flipboard/" rel="nofollow" class="ellipsis" title="about.flipboard.com/download-flipboard/"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">about.flipboard.com/download-f</span><span class="invisible">lipboard/</span></a></p><p><a href="/tags/flipboard/" rel="tag">#Flipboard</a> <a href="/tags/fediverse/" rel="tag">#Fediverse</a> <a href="/tags/federation/" rel="tag">#Federation</a> <a href="/tags/activitypub/" rel="tag">#ActivityPub</a> <a href="/tags/threads/" rel="tag">#Threads</a></p>
<p>Most Fediverse communities operate on donations, and overall our survey participants are not generating enough money to cover costs.</p><p>Very few moderators are receiving any compensation for their labour.</p><p>This is your reminder to donate to your admin if you’re able to.</p><p><a href="/tags/fedifacts/" rel="tag">#FediFacts</a> <a href="/tags/fediverse/" rel="tag">#Fediverse</a> <a href="/tags/decentralisation/" rel="tag">#Decentralisation</a></p>
<p>the <a href="/tags/pixelfed/" rel="tag">#pixelfed</a> surge also means a bigger <a href="/tags/php/" rel="tag">#php</a> footprint in the <a href="/tags/fediverse/" rel="tag">#fediverse</a></p>
<p><a href="/tags/fedify/" rel="tag">#Fedify</a> 1.6 is approaching with three major enhancements: RFC 9421 HTTP Message Signatures support with double-knocking for seamless backward compatibility, a new builder pattern for better code organization in large applications, and native <a href="/tags/cloudflare/" rel="tag">#Cloudflare</a> <a href="/tags/workers/" rel="tag">#Workers</a> support for serverless deployments. These additions strengthen Fedify's standards compliance while expanding deployment flexibility across different environments. Stay tuned for the official release! 🚀</p><p><a href="/tags/activitypub/" rel="tag">#ActivityPub</a> <a href="/tags/fedidev/" rel="tag">#fedidev</a> <a href="/tags/fediverse/" rel="tag">#fediverse</a> <a href="/tags/rfc9421/" rel="tag">#RFC9421</a> <a href="/tags/cloudflareworkers/" rel="tag">#CloudflareWorkers</a></p>