Decentralised Social Media

By Samantha Xavia

Lately there's been plenty of talk about Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon & many more new Social Media platforms, along with something called the Fediverse. I thought I'd make a post about all of this, along with explain why we as VEX.blue actually love using these systems and encourage people to use them as well.

So what is the Fediverse? -- The Fediverse is a system of websites that connect to each other through a 'protocol' like Email, you can use Gmail.com and still connect and talk to people on Outlook.com. The Fediverse is using it's own protocol mainly 'ActivityPub' for sites that run the Threads or Mastodon 'Software' / Code. Like email our usernames have our websites at the end of them to make it so we can communicate between websites. You wouldn't want someone to take up NoobMaster69 on every website at the same time would we.

My instance is Southampton.Social and my username is Sam, so simply my username you will follow me from is @sam@southampton.social easy right? This allows people on 'Mastodon.iow.social' to be also have the username 'Sam', so you'd follow @sam@mastodon.iow.social for them. These are two different accounts by two different people. It's like if you have sam@gmail.com you wouldn't own sam@outlook.com

So what is Mastodon? -- Mastodon is a microblogging website that has simular look to Twitter/X, just without the Toxic environment that it's known for today. By Default on Mastodon 'Instances' / Websites you have 500 characters to work with per post or comment. This has been the go to place for interacting with people on the Fediverse for a long time but is not the Fediverse itself just is one of many software / code basis on it. The most common Mastodon instance is Mastodon.Social maybe go check it out sometime.

What is Threads? -- Threads is a microblogging app / website that is made by Instagram (Meta). When they first released the app they mentioned about joining the Fediverse so about 30% of instances have blocked them from being seen on there Instance. Also Threads even know are still in development and haven't fully added all the features to 100% interact with everyone on the Fediverse, is an opt-in system through your settings on the website or app, so if you want me to see your posts please turn on 'Fediverse Sharing'. Maybe we'll do a little tutorial about it in the future.

What is Bluesky? -- Bluesky is another microblogging website but it actually doesn't use the ActivityPub protocol making it harder to see the posts on places like Mastodon. There are 'bridges' out there but are completely a opt-in by both party system meaning even if you opt-in one end, the person replying to your posts will also need to opt-in to see them. Bluesky has a really cool interface as well great concept of what a decentralised social media could be but with AT Protocol being made by them and no other software being released with AT Protocol at the center of it, It doesn't seem to be a great option for a decentralised website.

Why should you care about Decentralisation? -- With centralised systems your data is owned and even sold by the systems that you used, with self-hosting being accessable with decentralised systems like Mastodon you can not only control your data but also control who get's to see it by blocking whole instances or just indeviduals from your whole instance or just your account. Also, with things like PixelFed (a decentralised photo sharing website - it's very simular to Instagram) along with Lemmy (a decentralised forum website - simular to Reddit) you can choose how you see the posts you enjoy, along with how you can interact with it.

Also why should you have to be on Facebook to interact with your friends on there, or why should you need a Twitter to interact with the one nice person on the platform. You should be able to interact with whoever you want without limitations. So why not join the Fediverse today. Thank you for reading.