This is a post I originally made on my #calckey account, but I think it belongs here too.
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The more I use different #fediverse apps, the more I feel that we are on the edge of a different future, in the early stages of something that we haven’t seen before.
In the last few months, I’ve used #Mastodon, #Misskey, #Calckey, #Funkwhale, #lemmy, #Peertube, #Bookwyrm and #Pixelfed. Soon, I’m going to try an install of #kbin. In the not too distant future, we will see #GreatApe bringing more options for video chat to the Fediverse. There are countless more platforms that I haven’t had a chance to try.
The network formed by the interconnections between those apps is the Fediverse; a Federated Universe. Federated, because everything out there is connected with everything else, in one giant network. What I am truly beginning to appreciate is just how real that vision is, and just how disruptive to our future it’s going to be. More than a truism, these the fediverse platforms really will allow us to see and interact with nearly anything else out there.
The platform we use no longer determines the information we can access; it doesn’t build walls around us. Instead, what out choice of platform determines, is how we interact with information, rather than determining what information we are able interact with in the first place. The walls in the walled garden haven’t so much been torn down, as simply never built.
I can write a blog post, and someone on Mastodon can reply to it. I can make a group post on lemmy, and someone from Calckey can reply to it. I can see an awesome photo on Pixelfed, bring it in to #Akkoma and boost it for everyone else to see. And then anyone who sees it can interact with it.
The cross platform interactions are still imperfect. Standards are still being developed, code is still being written and features are still being defined, but the future is right here, we are on the cusp of something new and amazing.
Of course, this is all old news to someone who has been part of the fediverse for years now, but it feels different now. The momentum is here, we are seeing a shift and I think once we cross that precipice, once we have normalised the cross channel interactions we are starting to develop, it’s going to be very hard to go back.
Honestly, I can’t wait.
No offense, but I think you are missing the point a bit.
The cross posting functionality of the Fediverse is nice, yes; but in the grand scheme of things (and for most people to be honest) it doesn’t make a real difference. You can easily make a free account on most commercial social network sites as well and almost even use them as if they were one using delegated authorization systems like Oauth2. You are not really being locked in, but of course they will try to make it hard for you to leave, but that’s mostly just the network effects and convenience.
There is of course a reason why it still makes sense to federate, and that is to join forces to reach network effects similar to what you can find on the incumbent large commercial sites. The Fediverse is not quite there yet, but individual websites (like the old forums or blogs) would never get even close to offer similar network effects.
The real deal however is that you get to collectively own the social fabric you use daily, instead of it being operated by for-profit hell-holes that only see you as a product to sell to their advertisement customers. But this ownership comes with certain responsibilities, so you should start thinking about how you can help out with running fediverse sites or host your own 💗
It’s not just cross posting. People can engage with lemmy content from mastodon accounts. Not just read it, but have real conversations. That’s not something that commercial social media allows you to do, even with Oauth. Oauth is using your single account as a key to multiple walled gardens, but the walls are still there.
I am posting from my own lemmy instance, and I run a Calckey instance. Later today, I’m going to be looking at setting up a /kbin instance :)
Excellent. Keep up the great work then 🤩