I’ve been on the fediverse for roughly a year and a half now, and while that still makes me a “young’un” I suppose, what really strikes me about this place is the observation that a lot of people seem to be missing the point of what the fedi is. Or perhaps it is I that am missing the point but since this is my article, I’m going to assume the former.
The point of the fedi is not the individual apps, but the common protocol. The proof is right there in the name - the fedi-VERSE - which implies that there is a constellation of apps and interfaces into the communication stream. It’s the ability to share thoughts with any other app that implements that same protocol - in this case, ActivityPub (AP). So theoretically, I should be able to see any other posts in the entire world that are publicly shared via the AP protocol. It’s a completely open protocol.
But with great power comes great responsibility and since there’s no algorithm, filtering becomes first my responsibility, then the responsibility of my instance. My view of the breadth of viewing federated media adheres to that old mantra, “just because you can doesn’t mean you should” - what I see is first and foremost my responsibility to manage by muting and blocking individual users and domains. Is that a lot of work? Oh yeah. It’s tedious and for some marginalized communities, I can see how it would be essentially endless. But now I’m in danger of rehashing what I wrote in Personal Responsibility Online, so I won’t go on about it here and now.
Instances As Neighborhoods
I like to use the analogy of neighborhoods and communities to describe how the fediverse works. In my mind, it goes something like this: the app I’m using is my “house” (whatever that is, be it Mastodon, Misskey, Bookwyrm, Pleroma, Pixelfed, etc.), any instance I’ve joined is a subdivision (or maybe an apartment complex), and associations between like-minded instances are like suburbs to the city that includes all users of a given type of “house”. The analogy isn’t perfect, but I think it holds up pretty well for those that are new to the concept of “federated social media”.
And also notice that one can have more than one “house” in more than one “community”. I, in fact, have several different accounts on around 5 different instance types. And you know what? That’s okay. It’s just like “going to the house in the Hamptons for the weekend”.
But just like in my real life house or community (e.g. the subdivision), it’s not really my place to tell anyone else what they should or should not see. Ostensibly, I join a community that has like-minded people and likely a set of rules and policies that align with my own or, at the very least, that I am willing to accept and abide by. Once I “buy my house” in that community, I become part of it and my voice gets amplified by those of a larger collective of people on that particular instance. Together we can decide what is appropriate for our community, but not what is appropriate for other communities. Effectively, the users there have all agreed that “we want to be open to engaging with this but not that”. If a member isn’t willing to abide by those rules, they are free to find another instance that more closely aligns with their federation goals. The admins and mods can collectively decide if there’s some reason to block communication from another instance, and the community can thrive. That community might be 5 people or 50,000 but no matter the size, all the people there agree to the guidelines of that community.
(As an aside here, I’m about to mention a phrase which is historically used derogatorily, but in the case of the Fediverse, I think it applies quite well: “if you don’t like your neighbors, the community, or the HOA, then move somewhere else”. Meaning, if you no longer agree with the majority of your instance residents, or the admin/moderation decisions being made, find another instance. I don’t say this to flippantly brush someone off or minimize the issues they may be having with their instance, but I also feel quite strongly that a lot of people don’t realize how easy it is to move to another instance because they’re locked into the old ways of thinking about social media that the walled gardens and corpo silos have brainwashed them into believing. Moving instances is not a huge chore; it’s somewhat disruptive, yes, but it is easily doable.)
Different Strokes For Different Folks
I don’t think it’s a bad thing to have specialized instances that have different rules from everyone else for the enjoyment/protection/moderation of those that choose to call it “home”. I don’t think that it “breaks the fediverse” to have instances that are more or less self-contained. It might be boring for the users of that instance and yes, they are probably missing out on some discussions or interesting material. But that’s what they agreed to when they created an account on that instance.
And that’s why I don’t understand this idea of “which app is the successor to X/Insta/FB” or “which one is better” talk. Why does it matter what application people are using to make themselves heard as long as the app implements the AP protocol? It’s up to each individual instance to decide whether they want to see that media or not, and I think that most instance admins will primarily leave it to each individual user to curate their own “blocklist” unless there’s a big community outcry via reports. Issues like poor moderation or different moderation philosophies between a Mastodon instance and Bluesky might mean that all Bluesky posts are never seen by that instance, but that’s their loss, right? It doesn’t hurt the posters in the slightest and it also keeps lines of communication open.
Just because your instance is on the fedi doesn’t mean it has to be 100% connected. And the fedi isn’t just Mastodon. It’s Pleroma, Akkoma, Bookwyrm, Misskey, Calckey, Firefish, IceShrimp, Pixelfed, PeerTube, Funkwhale, and a whole host of existing new and up-and-coming viewports into the communications made possible by the AP protocol. Just because Mastodon does something doesn’t mean that there aren’t other options, and you can still talk to all your friends that you had before, as long as they’re on some instance that uses AP to communicate! This is what a free(er), federated social media looks like.
