Social media platforms have grown enormously in recent years, not just in size but also in importance in our everyday lives. But if you’re tired of the walled gardens created by Meta and the like, there’s an alternative: The fediverse.
So what exactly is the fediverse and how can you get started? This practical guide will demystify the fediverse and allow you to participate in this open, user-centric digital realm.
The rise of the fediverse
Before we get into how to publish content on the fediverse, let’s set you up with a bit of background on what it is and why it exists.
Traditional social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and others are immensely popular, but they have glaring weaknesses that aren’t easy to fix. Most of those problems are the direct result of being controlled by a single corporate entity with financial interests to protect, shareholders to satisfy, and advertisers to serve.
This ultimately leads to privacy issues, censorship, and a closed approach to how information is shared on the internet.
The fediverse tries to solve these problems by cutting out the corporations to create a completely free and open social network.
How does the fediverse work?
The fediverse is a “federated universe” of servers that communicate with each other while remaining completely independent. That means that no one controls the entire thing.
A big advantage of this approach is that by keeping things small, growth is led by communities. In other words, it’s less of a social media platform where users shout into the void, and more of a social networking platform, where users are encouraged to interact with each other in smaller groups.
For example, for most of the fediverse, there is no algorithm deciding what you see. Timelines are chronological, although you can search for specific hashtags or follow other users to see more of their posts. That gives it a much more organic feel than the curated (or sponsored) content that most social media platforms spoon-feed their users.
Another key element is the use of different servers, or instances, rather than one central hub to host users and content. All of these are interconnected, so you can still see posts on other servers or change your local server at any time.
The easiest way to understand this is to think of it in geographical terms. Each server is like a city, with local infrastructure, culture, rules, and residents. You can still learn about what’s going on in other cities, but it’s probably not as important to you on a daily basis.
Your city is connected to other cities within a larger country, and you’re free to move between them if you find a place where you think you’ll fit in better.
And just like a truly idyllic village, there aren’t any advertisements plastered everywhere you go.
Exploring fediverse platforms
To get a better sense of what the fediverse is, let’s look at some of the major platforms that use it. I’m using the word “platforms”, but really, they’re just different interfaces for information found in the wider fediverse.
These platforms are interoperable, provided they use the same protocol (in this case, ActivityPub). There are a few other protocols, but that’s a bit beyond the scope of this beginner’s guide. Suffice it to say that none of them are closed platforms like Instagram or Twitter, and the goal is for all of them to work together.
Here’s a quick list of some of the most popular fediverse platforms, as well as what they’re used for.
Mastodon
Mastodon is the most well-known platform in the fediverse. It’s been around since 2016, but rose to fame in the wake of Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter.
Twitter (now X) is the most apt comparison to Mastodon, which is an open-source microblogging platform. Users can post “toots”, which are short-form messages similar to tweets.
For most people, Mastodon is the smoothest introduction to the fediverse. It’s relatively easy to set up and use, especially if you’re already familiar with Twitter.
Tip: looking for more X alternatives? Check out these options.
Pixelfed
For Instagram addicts, Pixelfed might be your best gateway into the fediverse. It’s an open-source image sharing platform with a decentralized, instance-based experience.
In practical terms, this makes it similar to Mastodon in that you have a small group of “local” users, as well as access to the larger “global” feed containing everything in the wider fediverse.
Most servers are based on geographical locations, but there are others for specific types of photography or art.
Threads
Threads is a controversial platform for many fediverse fans. The platform is essentially Meta’s response to X. At the moment, it has only partially adopted the ActivityPub protocol. As a result, users have the option to join the fediverse with their accounts, but it is not enabled by default.
Still, if it fully embraces the open nature of the fediverse, it could be the first mainstream platform to do so. The danger is that it’s not decentralized, and ultimately Meta decides what content can or cannot be posted.
Threads is free to use with no ads as of writing. At some point, it will likely be monetized, and that could determine the fate of its foray into the fediverse.
Not on Threads yet? Here’s what you should know before signing up.
Lemmy
Lemmy is another fediverse platform that’s picked up steam lately. It’s essentially a federated Reddit alternative, with each instance providing a similar experience to a single subreddit.
Like Reddit, Lemmy allows you to create posts in a community, upvote or downvote posts, and browse the most popular posts. However, there’s no central organization behind it, so there are no ads or profit incentives.
It’s nowhere near the size of Reddit, but many users have switched over as the social news giant has become more hostile toward third-party apps to interact with it.
PeerTube
Next up is a federated YouTube alternative called PeerTube. Like the platforms listed above, it uses the ActivityPub protocol to create a federated, peer-to-peer video hosting platform.
Each video is uploaded to a single instance, and instances are often organized around a single theme or topic. However, anyone can watch videos from any other instance, provided they are public.
One quirk of PeerTube is that, unlike YouTube, videos aren’t always streamed from a server. It supports peer-to-peer playback, with each user acting as a relay point. This lessens the burden on the server, which makes the whole thing work more smoothly.
WordPress
WordPress is the biggest blogging platform in the world, and its owner Automattic made a commitment to join the fediverse in 2023. The company acquired the main ActivityPub plugin, fixed it up, and now any WordPress-based blog can publish to the fediverse free of charge.
This is done via a plugin for the CMS, but the entire process is just flipping a switch and choosing an alias for people to follow your site.
It’s worth noting that WordPress isn’t the only major company to add fediverse support. Flipboard, Medium, and Tumblr have all embraced the ActivityPub protocol to varying degrees.
Other platforms, such as Jack Dorsey’s Bluesky, have developed their own competing protocols which are not compatible with ActivityPub.
Tweaking your WordPress setup? Learn how to customize the WordPress admin dashboard.
Setting up Your fediverse home
The barrier of entry for the fediverse is low, but you have to understand that it’s radically different from the world of walled social media platforms we’ve built in the past few decades.
Once you create an account on one federated platform, you have access to all of the data on the fediverse that uses the same protocol.
To keep things simple, we’ll run through the steps to create an account on Mastodon below.
How to create a fediverse account on Mastodon
- Head over to the Mastodon server page and select a server to join.
- Click Create Account, then read through and agree to the rules.
- Enter your account information, then click Sign Up.
- Confirm your account by clicking the link in your email inbox.
Congratulations, you’re now a member of the fediverse! Your username contains your handle, plus your home server after an @ symbol (like jane@wateringhole.com).
Finding interesting users and content
Now you can follow other users, not just from your home server but from any other public server. You can search for users directly, although most Mastodon servers do a pretty good job of suggesting users for beginners.
To explore posts, click Explore on the right-hand side. This will show some of the most “boosted” (Mastodon’s equivalent of retweets) posts on your home server.
For a more complete view of the latest posts, check out Live feeds on the right-hand side. From there, you can choose to see posts from your home server, other connected servers, or all servers in the fediverse.
Publishing content to the fediverse
How you post content to the fediverse will depend on which platform you’re using, but once it’s posted, it’s available throughout the entire federated network – such as Mastodon.
For many platforms, you simply need to toggle a switch and the content you’re already creating will automatically be published to the fediverse.
As mentioned above, for WordPress sites, all you need to do is install the ActivityPub plugin. Once you’ve done that, head to Settings, Discussion, and toggle the switch for Enter the fediverse.
What’s different about your content when it’s published to the fediverse?
Although content published to the fediverse can technically be accessed from all platforms, you might not always be able to see it.
For example, if you are a Mastodon user, you can follow your friend who uses Pixelfed. Their posts will show up in your feed as photos with the caption as the text of the post.
However, server owners can block posts from certain sources. Many Mastodon server owners have blocked all Threads posts, simply because it’s part of Meta. That means that even if you follow your friend on Threads, you won’t see their posts.
In addition to this, the platform you’re using determines how the content is displayed. Things like hashtags, images, and hyperlinks work on virtually every platform, but the text of a post might be truncated if it’s too long.
To keep things simple, try signing up for the federated platform that’s the most similar to the way you want to interact with the internet. If that’s photos, try Pixelfed. If it’s microblogging, stick to Mastodon.
The fediverse is still very much in its infancy, so hopefully some of these kinks will be worked out in the coming years. For now, you’ll still have to put up with a few inconveniences to break your dependence on centralized platforms.
Featured image generated using Dall-E 3
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