The Problem with the Fediverse
I have no issues with the way it is implemented, I have no issues with it at all. For context, I left Twitter to join the Fedi, and it has been great so far! I use Misskey for microblogging, PeerTube for uploading videos, and Lemmy for Reddit-style discussions. The Fediverse is amazing!
Except, idk, for the fact that it is too fragmented? I hope I am using the right words. Like, the current instance I am on does not have support for communities, so i have to do it the hard way and mention @fediverse@lemmy.world so that I can post here. It’s a good workaround, considering it doesn’t have built-in support for communities.
But my point still stands. It’s not a Lemmy/PieFed problem. It’s mostly a fediverse problem. Implementing communities for every platform would help the Fediverse. Not only does it solve discoverability/algorithm issues of the Fediverse (since now when you follow a community, you get all posts from that community), but also it would interconnect every platform (Misskey, PeerTube, Mastodon, etc.)
Imagine you don’t have to use your Lemmy account to check everything on Lemmy. Instead of creating channels in PeerTube, just post to an existing channel/community, and people subscribed to that channel/community can find you easily. I see this as an absolute win for everyone.
I understand this would require collaboration between all developers of all software. But hopefully, this is possible?
Or am I asking for too much?
If I am wrong, then is there any way in which we can solve this issue?
From Evan Prodromou, co-author of ActivityPub: The Fediverse should be more like the Facebook Platform (lots of client apps using the same social graph) rather than the Apple App Store (a bunch of one-feature apps that have to bootstrap their own social network each time).
The issue here is that most developers and users are still thinking in terms of the siloed networks. We don’t need “multiple, separate platforms”. We need to get rid of the platforms! We need to build our tools around protocols.
The WWW was incredibly successful because anyone could whip up some HTML and publish a webpage. The “protocol” of structured text alongside with links was simple to understand, any browser could do it. The Social Web should work the same.
@rglullis@communick.news for some reason, i disagree with you. A LOT OF developers have different visions for their software. I think the fediverse is in a good place at this point. I just feel like communities need to be federated everywhere…
It looks like that first you need to be able to better articulate what do you mean “federating everywhere”, because I can follow a Lemmy community from Mastodon just fine, and you seem to be on Misskey, and we are communicating just fine.
IOW, “federation” is already working.
Perhaps you just mean that you want the UX from misskey to change depending on the source? And you are proposing that this should be done to all software?
@rglullis@communick.news Lemmy -> Misskey works fine. It’s Misskey -> Lemmy which is a bit of a problem, because Lemmy communities and Misskey channels are two different things. Misskey channels dont even federate server-to-server.
I respect the developer’s choices, but if Misskey is going to implement something like channels, might as well federate them too…
I apologise if i havent been clear with the whole “federating” communities, hope this clears things up…
@fediverse@lemmy.world
So this is not a “Fediverse problem”, but a Misskey one?
@rglullis@communick.news
@fediverse@lemmy.world
I may not have conveyed my point clearly.
If it was merely a Misskey problem, i wouldnt have made this post, so ill list my likes and problems one by one, i may have been vague with communication:
My likes:
My ONLY dislike:
I hope i have explained well enough. I apologise if i wasnt clear with this earlier… any solutions to the aforementioned problem?
There is no such thing as “upvote” on ActivityPub. This is an abstraction on top of the “Like” activity. If Misskey UI is geared only towards reactions and doesn’t have a way for users to “like” something, this is a Misskey problem, not a Fediverse one.
And what people are trying to explain to you is that this “standardized system” already exists. ActivityStreams is the standard to define a vocabulary, and ActivityPub is the standard that defines what happens when data is sent between different servers.
The issue I am taking with your comment is that it seems that you are expecting developers to backwards from an unified product vision and build their down to the standard. This only works well when you have one single entity controlling everything. It’s the “Apple Way” of developing products.
@rglullis@communick.news you are right. I am sorry if i may EXPECT certain things to just work, just recently shifted from Twitter (stopped using twitter in 2023, now on Misskey since 2025). To be honest, i was realy confused with what ActivityPub was in the first place.
But i am glad i joined the fediverse. Today I Learnt more about the fediverse. A chaotic but really fun universe of interconnected planets.
I realise that i am asking for everyone to adapt to my needs, and not that i adapt to the ecosystem.
But now i try to learn… thank you for this informational conversation. It’s still amazes me how platforms scripted in different languages are able to connect with each other.
My post is invalidated. It’s now retitled to " why we need to reform our way of thinking about social media."
Still, that wont stop me from making a PeerTube+Lemmy+Misskey platform… :ablobcatangel:
@fediverse@lemmy.world