The Fediverse can fix the Internet

What would happen if social media platforms cooperated with each other? Not in any nefarious way, but in an idyllic, customer-first way. What would it be like if we lived in a world where where you could use your account on one platform to like, comment, and share posts from any other?

I’m not talking about merely sharing a link from one platform to another, either. That's possible right now... but interactions are siloed off from each other.

No. What if you could leave a comment on a Facebook post for this article and that comment would automatically appear in the comments section here on this site?

Well, that already exists. It's called "The Fediverse," you might have heard of it.

From Mastodon to Peertube and more—it’s is a collection of different services that are all working together to form an interconnected universe of applications.

It sounds unbelievable, but it’s here today.

The Fediverse wrests control of the web out of the hands of corporate oligarchs and digital tycoons. Vesting that power where it belongs: us.

I’ve spent the last two years living and working on the Fediverse and I’ve learned a lot. See, I started mirroring my videos over on my Peertube instance: subscribeto.me. And it has sucked me. Not in an addictive way. Instead, I’ve gone down this rabbit hole of discovery, realizing the refreshing change of pace that the Fediverse offers. I’ve passed through the looking glass. I’ve seen the promised land. And now, I want to share it with you.

So I want to take a moment to explore 5 of the most important lessons I’ve learned when using this amazing technology that we call “The Fediverse.”

5 – Netiquette was not a fluke

Some of you might be too young to remember the term “netiquette.” Netiquette is a portmanteau of the words “network” and “etiquette” (if that wasn’t obvious). It was an informal agreement between users of the early World Wide Web about what behaviors were considered polite and which were deemed rude (or even unacceptable).

Netiquette is where we got the idea that TYPING IN ALL CAPS WAS EQUIVALENT TO SHOUTING. It’s why we believe that recipients in the To field of an email can be expected to respond while those in the CC field are not. It’s why the leaking of DMs feels like a violation of privacy and more.

But netiquette was not simply a general set of rules that applied to the web as a whole. Many forums codified their own:

• For example, Usenet had their own extensive ruleset
• Reddit had (still has?) reddiquette
• 4chan had the “Rules of the Internet” which was more of a meme, but it’s where Rule 34 and Rule 63 came from
• And there are countless other examples

Today, however, there’s little concept of netiquette beyond Terms of Service (which nobody reads) and Codes of Conduct (which are reviled by the more anarchic out there).

However, I’m here to tell you that netiquette was not a fluke. Rules and taboos are an important part of any human society.

Netiquette is an important part of many of the Fediverse services I’ve used. Not just because it’s something explicitly stated, (though sometimes it is) but because the nature of the Fediverse demands it. I’ll explain.

On one hand, much of the infrastructure that makes up the Fediverse is run by regular folks who simply don’t have the resources to provide unlimited compute time or unmetered bandwidth for free. So it’s expected that, when we use these services—especially when they’re offered to us at no charge—we should show respect.

On the other, the Fediverse doesn’t have an “algorithm” to show you things that you allegedly “might want to see.” So for the purpose of discoverability, it’s up to us to use hashtags to categorize our posts, it’s up to us to assign descriptions to images so they’re accessible to folks who use screen readers and are searchable.

And yes, using hashtags and providing descriptions of photos are things you’re expected to do when you post to Mastodon. And if you don’t, you’ll be corrected. Sometimes gently. Sometimes not.

Which brings me to my next topic:

4 – Kindness is king

That might sound weird when we talk about social media. The idea that kindness, respect, and decency can be a commodity unto themselves on the Internet. But it’s true. At least that’s been my experience on the Fediverse.

Let me provide you with some examples:

One point of etiquette is that, while all legal content is generally allowed on most of the major Fediverse instances, if you’re posting adult content, politics, or other sensitive stuff, you’re almost always required to use a Content Warning.

Content Warnings hide the body of your post until someone clicks to reveal the content. This allows others to opt in to seeing something they might not otherwise want to see.

This is a kindness that users offer each other. Granted, the more extreme the content, the more the use of Content Warnings are enforced by server mods. But lots of folks use Content Warnings for things that really don’t need them. And they do this to show respect for other users. To be kind and to care for folks who might not want to see, let’s say, a complaint about their day or—and as cringeworthy as I find the term—for content that might be triggering, too.

But that’s not the only example. Mastodon supports various visibility levels for its posts. If you’re about to go off on a longwinded rant, you can change your visibility to keep your post out of the timelines of disinterested parties… and we’ll get to timelines and discoverability in a minute.

And it’s not just all about Mastodon. On Peertube, there are lots of folks who offer to mirror your videos on their instances out of the goodness of their hearts. This gives your videos a chance to go viral by getting them out in front of more folks, it helps you save bandwidth, keeps your videos online if your instance goes down temporarily, and it increases download speeds and lowers latency for users who are geographically far away from your server.

It’s putting the “social” part back in “social network”

3 – It’s not a social network

Sure, Mastodon and Peertube, Pixelfed and the like might appear as social networks at first glance. They have many of the common hallmarks of what we consider a contemporary social network, too. “Posts,” “follows,’ “likes,” “shares,” and “comments.”

But today’s social networks are anything but social. Today, they're defined by one thing above all else. One thing that makes the “social” part a total misnomer. The algorithm.

It doesn’t matter if it’s YouTube’s slip'n’slide of recommendations, or if it’s X’s timeline of deranged funhouse politics derailed by Russian and Indian trolls, Facebook’s endless feed of crusty screenshots and AI slop, or TikTok’s general brainrot… every social network has its positively unhinged and perfectly addictive algorithm which was designed from atom to steal untold hours of your life each day and maximize the number of times you mindlessly smash that like button.

I believe that the algorithm is a critical component of social media. By the modern definition, you can’t have a social media platform without an algorithm.

And that doomscrolling stupor that has come to far-and-away be the critical differentiator for what makes a social network? That simply doesn’t exist on the Fediverse.

2 – The Fediverse is boring

And that’s awesome. Don’t get me wrong; I have a blast on the Fediverse.

But Fediverse services? They’re not trying to trick your brain into using them for longer than you intend to.

I’ve found that I’ve fallen into a novel use pattern with Mastodon. I’ll open up the app on my phone and it remembers exactly where I left off in my timeline. I’ll make a mental note of the visible post. Then I’ll tap home and start scrolling through the timeline from the most recent post.

Note that my feed here: it’s filled with the latest posts from only the accounts that I have followed. Nothing less, and (importantly) nothing more. It’s sorted chronologically, so it’s not pushing outrageous stuff in my face to keep me upset and engaged. Again, it’s just the stuff I’ve elected to see by following the accounts that matter to me.

As I scroll, I scan over every post but I will stop to read things that seem of interest. If a post is important enough, or I think it’s of value to others, I’ll boost a post (which is like re-tweeting.) This will put the post in my follower’s feeds—creating the potential for the post to go viral. Leaving a comment will also display my engagement in my followers feeds, too.

And then, at some point—generally pretty quickly—I happen upon some content that looks familiar. Hey, I’m all caught up. There’s no reason to keep scrolling because I know I’ve already seen the posts beyond this point. I guess I’m done with Mastodon now!

So when I say “the Fediverse is boring” I mean it as a compliment. Say what you will about Facebook or X, but they’re not boring. Sure, literally none of your feed is stuff you actually want to see, but they’ve perfected their algorithms to such a state that it keeps you scrolling far longer than sense would dictate.

I appreciate the fact that I can get caught up on my timeline. Or I can follow someone and feel confident that following them means I’ll actually see their posts.

What isn’t boring on the Fediverse, though, is that there’s real potential for memes and viral stuff. You post something that’s worthy of being shared (it doesn’t matter if it’s funny or insightful or genuine) and other real people see that content and have the power to share it.

But…

1 - Virality versus Bioweapons

A virus is a naturally occuring thing. Bioweapons are viruses specifically developed by human being to be an effective killing machine.

Back in the early days of the web, things “went viral.” Flash animations, 240p videos, hashtags, challenges, and more. It was a common occurrence when I was a teenager and most of it was powered by word of mouth. Even well into my young adulthood, this kind of thing would happen.

Now, though? Things don’t go viral, anymore. Instead, we have our uncles and aunts reposting the simulacra of memes. We have our parents posting screenshots from dead platforms. We have so-called “friends” re-posting screenshots of screenshots of Twitter posts, AI slop being passed off as daily inspirational mantras, and even those coarse, prickly cries for help that somehow get proudly re-shared by angsty millennials like a T-shirt from Hot Topic.

The power of the organic “viral” post has been harnessed by the algorithm and processed, homogenized, and refined into proverbial “bioweapons.”

The memes we once shared as part of a culture of genuine creativity, now honed by an unfeeling, uncanny algorithm that substitutes quality for engagement.

Virality is now tempered by a small group of elite and malintentioned oligarchs who wish to forge a cruel bastardization of culture that reflects only their perversions and lust for power.

The social aspects of these platforms have been sloughed off, repackaged and productized—morphing into a proverbial hostage situation where the platform acts as a broker between friendships and a auctioneer for advertisers.

And so many of us have willingly given over control… not just of the Internet, but of our very minds to these tycoons. Not sensing the slow, deliberate enshittification of these platforms and services and becoming owned by it. Consumed by it. Social media is a machine that consumes people and that machine is our enemy.

The Fediverse is not social media. It’s a way to unplug from it. It’s a way to detox from it. It’s a way to free yourself from it.

The Fediverse can’t be owned. It can’t be bought. And it can’t be controlled. It offers a bright and collaborative future for the web—one where valuable content rises to the top organically. One where your posts are seen by your followers. One where people treat each other with dignity. And one where individuals are empowered to make a difference.

When X and Facebook and YouTube collapse (and mark my words, they will), the Fediverse will remain. And that’s because the Fediverse is an idea that’s more powerful and more important than any app or monied interest.

It’s even more important than Mastodon or Peertube. Indeed, they’re just two of a virtually endless ecosystem that support ActivityPub—the protocol that these services use to communicate.

There are services like Owncast which is all about video livestreaming (like Twitch), PixelFed which is for photo sharing (sorta like Instagram), Lemmy for link aggregation (like reddit), Soundstorm for sharing audio (similar to SoundCloud), plus there are plugins for applications like Nextcloud and Wordpress that can help get you on board.

And let’s not forget Castopod which is for podcast distribution. It supports comments, likes, shares and tagging on the fediverse. And we use it to distribute our podcast Off The Console!

So when my clients come to me complaining that their Facebook posts get no engagement unless they pay Facebook to show it to their followers? Well, now I’m recommending that they use the Fediverse instead. It’s a smaller community, but it’s growing. And the faster we move away from the corporate interests in the social media space, the better.

And I’m betting the future (and the legitimacy) of my company on it.

Now I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Have you used the Fediverse? What has your experience been like? Sound off in the comments section!

About The Author:

Gardiner Bryant

I'm an educator, free software advocate, and storyteller. My passion lies in Linux gaming, self-hosting, the fediverse, and the human stories behind the tech we use every day. I believe in privacy, justice, community, and integrity.