OpenSource Social Media
An introduction to the "Fediverse"
Thanks to all who participated in the poll from our OpenSource Everything intro post!
We have tackled the SmartPhone.
We have Abandoned Amazon.
Now, as promised, we are taking a look at OpenSource Social Media.
Social Media is an important tool. It helps us stay connected to loved ones. It helps us educate, spread awareness, and fight misinformation. It is also a valuable weapon in our fight to build dual power and resist the control of those puppeteering C@pItali$m.
For Social Media to fully meet these needs, we need to own it ourselves. It cannot be owned by the Tech Oligarchy, whose interests are tainted by greed and power. It needs to be Open Source. Better yet, it needs to be decentralized and federated.
Decentralized/Federated
We’ve explained “OpenSource” in our intro post. But what are these new words, “decentralized” and “federated?”
They both break the typical centralized models of the Tech Oligarchy. As with any words, there can be nuance depending on the application. But in general terms:
Decentralized means that there is no central authority or host. This ensures that no wealth or power can be accumulated in any single entity.
Federation adds a layer of standardization and cooperation. This allows decentralized applications to talk to each other in a shared language (open protocols).
With that, here are my favorite OpenSource Social Media options.
Mastodon
Mastodon has been building for almost a decade now. It is an answer to “micro-blogging” sites with features similar to Twitter/X/Threads/Bluesky/Substack Notes.
You can post plain text or enrich the posts with links, mentions, emojis, audio, video, or other attachments. The default character limit per post is 500 characters, but can be configured per server.
It has all the features you’d expect — replying, sharing, favoriting, bookmarking, boosting, and moderating.
The first step in joining the Mastodon Fediverse is picking your “host server” from the available servers. You can choose one based on geographical region or shared interests. There is also the default mastodon.social server if you don’t see one that speaks to you.
Don’t stress too much about which server to choose. Federation allows you to migrate your profile to another server if you wish. Each server in the network communicates via the ActivityPub protocol, so you can subscribe to anyone on any instance and still get their posts to your feed.
I joined defcon.social a few years ago. I have admittedly neglected that account since then, but gave it a refresh as part of researching for this article.
https://defcon.social/@jacobfoster
Friendica
Friendica is an answer to Facebook, having familiar features like Groups and Events.
Here is their server directory.
PeerTube
PeerTube is an answer to Google-owned YouTube. It follows the Federation blueprint but focuses on long-form video content.
As our project progresses and creates more video content, we will be utilizing PeerTube. We hope to share a self-hosted server with a mission-aligned group of change-makers.
Hylo
Hylo is a special type of “Social Media.” It isn’t a federated answer to an existing platform, but is geared towards pro-social coordination. The BioRegional crowd seems to be finding a home here, and much of their feature development and discussions are leaning towards enabling BioRegional coordination.
It is an OpenSource project, but has yet to mature to the point of decentralization and federation. I know those features will come in time as they continue to gain support. If I gain enough support for my OpenSource work, I might even get to help implement those features!
I highly encourage hopping in and checking it out.
Other Notable Projects
I don’t have first-hand experience with these, but they look great and are worth researching more.
Diaspora — similar to Mastodon and Friendica
Lemmy — An answer to Reddit
Pixelfed — An answer to Instagram
Which one do I choose?!
One fantastic feature of the Fediverse is that PeerTube, Friendica, and Mastodon (as well as many other Federated apps) support the same underlying open protocols. This allows you to connect with users on other platforms that support the same protocols.
This takes decentralization to a whole new level. Not only are there federated servers for each platform, but different platforms are communicating via open protocols! It is a beautiful contrast to the “walled gardens” of the platforms we are moving away from.
With the Fediverse, we no longer have to worry about “all my friends are on [Z app]!” Friendica doesn’t need to “dominate the market” for it to be useful. As long as we are increasing adoption of the open protocols, all of these platforms will benefit and be able to work together!
Village Servers
The OpenSource, Distributed, and Federated nature of these solutions means that each community will be able to easily host their own instances of these applications. I see this as an important building block for the Network of OpenSource Regenerative Communities. It gives us the sovereignty we deserve without sacrificing connectivity.
SubStack?
What about SubStack, the platform I’m currently writing on?
Right now, SubStack is not OpenSource, Decentralized, or Federated. It also doesn’t appear to be evil — yet. I am going to give them a little more time to reveal their true colors and enjoy the free hosting and audience building. There is currently a great group of people here, and I’m not quite ready to jump ship. They have an opportunity to OpenSource and remain a positive and relevant platform. We will see.
If and when we do jump, it will be over to Ghost — who has announced their support for the Fediverse.
Apologies
Dearest subscribers, I am sorry for the “Seeking Investors” post last week. That post was not fully aligned with our mission. It was a reaction to fear and anxiety. I was unable to sleep that night, grasping for answers and control. It was an attempt to regain stability, but it ultimately did not manifest.
There is still a lot of uncertainty in this void between the safety and comfort of contract work and finding support for our true mission. Any path that involves “ROI” or wealthy investors (mission-aligned or not) is not for us. Your time and attention is valuable, and I should not have published that to your inbox. Thank you to all who are still on this journey with us.
I still want to share parts of that post with you. Many of you have hopped in since our OpenSource Everything series, and I want to make sure you see our broader vision and purpose. It won’t be framed in investment from the wealthy but in participation and cooperation from the community. That will be our next post.
Gratitude
Many thanks to
, our latest paid subscriber!If you have supported us but haven’t been tagged in one of our Gratitude sections yet, please check Substack Messages. I always ask permission before tagging our paid subscribers.
The support from our paid subscribers helped us buy the materials to build a new rainwater collection tank for our Domestead! I will make a full instructional post on that solution once we’ve tested and verified that it is all working. So far, it is looking great!
Every paid subscriber brings our BioHarmonic Dreams into reality! I can feel the Network of OpenSource Regenerative Villages getting closer every day. If you would like to join us in one of those villages, your support now will help us build them.
In service to God, the Regennaisance, and OpenSourcing Everything!
You missed out nostr. I would highly recommend looking into it as it is totally decentralised and the sign in key can be used for a multitude of apps. It is part of the bitcoin universe so the topics are dominated by that, but there is no reason why it should remain so. I use a twitter like app called Primal which is based on nostr.
Ghost is doing some great work with the ActivityPub protocol and once out of Beta in Ghost version 6.0, may prove to be a true game changer for publishers of long form content like myself.
I am watching closely.
https://activitypub.ghost.org/gone-surfing/