#openweb

There's a lot of great explanation sites about the fediverse and its various communities, and I wanted to take a stab at this myself. https://jointhefediverse.net The site (very much work in progress) is aimed at a more casual audience. Let me know what you think! #fediverse #SocialMedia #OpenWeb #IndieWeb #JoinTheFediverse

.webp is marketed as the “native” image format for the web, yet it’s one of the least supported when you actually try to upload images on most websites. What an irony 🤡 #web #openweb #opensource

Understanding the Fediverse: How ActivityPub is Reshaping Social Media

In recent years, a new term has been gaining attention in discussions about alternative social networks: the Fediverse. But what exactly is it? How does the underlying protocol ActivityPub work—and which platforms are part of it?

What is the Fediverse?

The word Fediverse is a combination of federation and universe. It refers to a network of independent servers (called instances) that can communicate with each other.

Unlike traditional social networks like Facebook or X (Twitter), which are centrally controlled, the Fediverse is decentralized:

Anyone can run their own server

Each instance has its own rules and moderation

Users can interact across different servers

The result is an open ecosystem instead of a single platform.

The Core: How ActivityPub Works

ActivityPub is an open standard (developed by the W3C) that defines how servers in the Fediverse communicate with each other.

At its core, ActivityPub is built around two main concepts:

1. Actors

Every user, group, or even bot is considered an actor.

Example:

@user@server.com@pixhub.social

1. Activities

Everything that happens is described as an activity:

Creating a post → Create

Following someone → Follow

Liking content → Like

Sharing content → Announce

A Simple Example

Imagine you are on Server A and follow someone on Server B:

You click “Follow”

Server A sends a Follow request to Server B

Server B confirms the request

New posts are automatically delivered to Server A

All of this happens via HTTP and JSON—similar to modern web APIs.

The Inbox & Outbox Model

ActivityPub uses a clear communication structure:

Outbox: Where a user sends activities

Inbox: Where a user receives activities

Each server manages these and distributes content to other servers.

Benefits of ActivityPub

Decentralization: No single point of control

Interoperability: Different platforms can work together

User autonomy: You choose your server

Resilience: No single point of failure

Popular Platforms in the Fediverse

The Fediverse is not one platform, but many interconnected ones:

🐘 Mastodon

Microblogging (similar to Twitter/X)

The most well-known Fediverse platform

📷 Pixelfed

Image-focused (Instagram alternative)

🎥 PeerTube

Decentralized video hosting (YouTube alternative)

✍️ WriteFreely

Blogging platform

💬 Lemmy

Link aggregation (similar to Reddit)

🎵 Funkwhale

Music streaming in the Fediverse

Why the Fediverse Matters Now

Many users are looking for alternatives to big platforms due to:

Privacy concerns

Algorithmic control

Commercialization of content

The Fediverse offers a different approach: open, community-driven, and independent.

Challenges

Despite its potential, the Fediverse also comes with challenges:

A learning curve for new users

Different moderation standards across instances

A sometimes fragmented user experience

Conclusion

The Fediverse is more than just an alternative to existing social networks—it represents a fundamental shift in how we think about online communication.

With ActivityPub as its foundation, it enables an open network that puts control and diversity back into the hands of users.

#Fediverse #ActivityPub #Dezentralisierung #OpenWeb #SocialMedia #Web3 #Internet #DigitaleSouveränität #OpenSource #Protokolle #WebStandards #APIs #JSON #HTTP #SoftwareArchitektur #Mastodon #Pixelfed #PeerTube #Lemmy #Funkwhale #WriteFreely #Datenschutz #Digitalisierung #Netzpolitik #AlternativeSocialMedia #Community #Bloggen #TechBlog #DigitalTrends #Internetkultur

If you're thirsty for reach, you belong on a platform. He said on a platform 🤔 https://brine.dev/posts/discover-a-love-letter-to-rss #rss #openWeb

Anil Dash’s piece is a wake-up call for the #OpenWeb. The threats he outlines feel scarily accurate, a "perfect storm" that needs us all to pause and then consider how to counter them. Definitely worth your time. cc: @anildash@me.dm 🔗 https://www.anildash.com/2026/03/27/endgame-open-web/

Holos Discover added a couple of new filters to its API search - minimum likes and minimum boosts. Additionally, you can pass contentType=image|video|audio|text|all|none to the /api/search endpoint and it works.

Interesting combinations, which I took advantage of for the Open Web Image Gallery.

https://gallery.box464.social/?adapter=holos&instance=discover.holos.social&tag=bloomscrolling&minRepostsCount=10

#FediDev #OpenWeb #HolosDiscover

Tapestry 1.7 is now available in the App Store. It includes a new and improved media viewer, ability to exclude YouTube shorts, new third party Open In support for Mastodon & Bluesky, an option to turn off the timeline item counter and much, much more. Be sure to check out the complete release list (it's long) - https://usetapestry.com/history Download and try Tapestry for free - https://apps.apple.com/app/tapestry-by-iconfactory/id6448078074 #TapestryApp #RSS #OpenWeb

🚀 FediSuite ist live!Der moderne Social‑Media‑Manager fürs Fediverse – für Creator, Brands & Communities. ✅ Mehrere Accounts verbinden ✅ Posts planen & sofort veröffentlichen ✅ Plattform‑spezifischer Composer (Pixelfed, Loops, PeerTube u. v. m.) ✅ Bilder & Videos inkl. Alt‑Text ✅ Insights & Engagement‑Stats, Top‑Posts, Best‑Time‑to‑Post ✅ Historische Datenimporte – damit du Trends wirklich verstehst Influencer‑Take: Ohne Insights fliegst du blind. Mit FediSuite siehst du, welche Inhalte wirklich performen – und wann deine Community am aktivsten ist. Das spart Zeit, verbessert Qualität und macht Wachstum planbar. Mit dabei: Mastodon, Pixelfed, Friendica, Pleroma/Akkoma, Misskey & Co., Loops, PeerTube – alles an einem Ort. 👉 Jetzt ausprobieren: https://www.fedisuite.com #Fediverse #Mastodon #CreatorTools #SocialMedia #IndieTech #OpenWeb

Democracy? What Democracy? It's all about the old mighty cold dollar... -> "When the World Wide Web went live in the early 1990s, its founders hoped it would be a space for anyone to share information and collaborate. But today, the free and open web is shrinking. The Internet Archive has been recording the history of the internet and making it available to the public through its Wayback Machine since 1996. Now, some of the world’s biggest news outlets are blocking the archive’s access to their pages. Major publishers – including The Guardian, The New York Times, the Financial Times, and USA Today – have confirmed they’re ending the Internet Archive’s access to their content. While publishers say they support the archive’s preservation mission, they argue unrestricted access creates unintended consequences, exposing journalism to AI crawlers and members of the public trying to skirt their paywalls. Yet, publishers don’t simply want to lock out AI crawlers. Rather, they want to sell their content to data-hungry tech companies. Their back catalogues of news, books and other media have become a hot commodity as data to train AI systems. https://theconversation.com/news-sites-are-locking-out-the-internet-archive-to-stop-ai-crawling-is-the-open-web-closing-274968 #OpenWeb #Media #InternetArchive #News #Newspapers #Journalism

The #OpenWeb is important. What we are all doing *here*, on #mastodon and the #fediverse at large is important. #SelfHosting is important. You can help the disenfranchised by running a #SignalProxy, a #TOR #snowflake, an #ArchiveBox and more. Long live the open web!

You don’t fight for the open web because you are going to win, you fight for the open web because it is the open web. #fediverse #indieweb #OpenWeb

#Mozilla choosing to kill embeddable Gecko (make it a #Firefox only engine, essentially) over a decade ago was such a tragic mistake.

Alternative browsers & desktop apps had no choice but to go with WebKit or Blink/Electron.

As a result, Mozilla have nobody to blame but themselves for their minuscule marketshare and nil developer mindshare today.

Further readings:

• https://lwn.net/Articles/436412/ (circa 2011)
• https://www.chrislord.net/2016/02/24/the-case-for-an-embeddable-gecko/ from @Cwiiis@mastodon.social
• https://dutherenverseauborddelatable.wordpress.com/2016/03/07/the-gecko-monoculture/ from @Yoric@tabletop.social

#OpenWeb

Iconfactory Tapestry v1.5 features redesigned vertical Quicklinks and less intrusive audio player controls. We've also added support for Tumblr Communities & Tumblr threads, improved Mastodon content warnings, Mac timeline tweaks and much more. Download/update Tapestry today - https://tapestry.iconfactory.com/ #UseTapestry #OpenWeb