# The Fediverse ## (and NoVaLUG) --- # Topics 1. What is it? 2. What is it not? (chat, Bluesky, Twitter) 3. The NoVaLUG Instance 4. Other stuff --- # What Is It? * It is a decentralized network of various types of social media apps. * A lot of people call it "Mastodon", but Mastodon is just one software suite that does one type of social media (microblogging, aka Twitter). * Referring to the Fediverse as Mastodon is akin to referring to email as "Exchange". --- # Types of Fediverse Services * microblogging (Mastodon, Pleroma, Akkoma, Miskey) * regular blogging (Ghost, WordPress) * photo sharing (PixelFed) * video sharing (PeerTube) * audio sharing (Funkwhale) * events (Mobilizon) * link aggregation (Lemmy) --- # One Protocol To Rule Them All * The core protocol of the Fediverse is ActivityPub. * ActivityPub is a specification of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the same standards body responsible for the XML, the web, etc... * It is "activities" modeled in JSON exchanged over HTTP in a REST style. * Also uses WebFinger and HTTP Signatures. --- # Mastodon vs BlueSky Really Fediverse vs ATProto | Network | Instances/ PDSs | Users | | --------- | ---------------: | -------: | | Fediverse | 30,762 | 977,029 | | ATProto | 1,000 | 38,000,000 | --- # Comparison Conclusions 1. ATProto network is far bigger and has more users. a) More normies b) More susceptible to censorship 2. Fediverse is far more decentralized. a) Less likely to connect with Granny (and other normies) ---  There is a lot known about the demographics of BlueSky, which means there is a huge privacy problem with BlueSky that they know so much. --- # The NoVaLUG Fediverse Instance * Where ** https://akk.novalug.org * What ** Akkoma, a fork of Pleroma, which is a microblogging style social instance. --- # Why? * Decentralized networks are not suppose to have many mega-nodes. * Fosstodon is great, but it is a mega-node and the problems with it earlier this year point to the problems with mega-nodes. ** Invite Only. ** Way too many people on it. * The bigger instances attract spam, bots, or worse... normies. --- # Akkoma, Not Mastodon * Mastodon is too resource hungy to be practical for a small instance. * We use Akkoma, which is a fork of Pleroma. * Features that are not in either Pleroma or Mastodon. --- # Relayed Hashtags Unlike other microblogging platforms, hashtags are still a thing in the Fediverse. Our instance subscribes to relays for the following hashtags: #linux #homelab #networking #bsd #foss #unixporn #opensource #rustlang #docker #git #golang #riscv --- # Invitation Only * The NoVaLUG instance is invitation only. * This keeps user headaches to a minimum. * How to subscribe? * Ask for an invite link on the mailing list, on Signal, at a meeting, or from a current user. --- # Clients 1. Web client front-end at https://akk.novalug.org 2. Most Mastodon clients will work with Akkoma. 3. List of clients at https://docs.akkoma.dev/stable/clients/ 4. For iOS, I recommend MetaText. --- # FIN