This third post in a series about the Fediverse focuses on micro-blogging platforms. My first introduction was to Mastodon, then Pleroma and finally most recently to Misskey. Let’s look briefly at each in turn.
Mastodon
Currently the most popular in terms of active users Mastodon (approximately 2,500+ servers) originated in late 2016 and is a complex application that uses a long list of frameworks and components to deliver what is considered to be the best Web-user interface experience at the moment for both end users and adminstators. However scaling the platform remains a concern and it is driven effectively by a single developer. It originally supported OStatus, but in v1.6 about a year after it launched it added ActivityPub support.
Pleroma
Launched informally in 2017 and like Mastodon, originally supported OStatus but later adopted ActivityPub though a tighter subset known as LitePub, in March 2018 and at time of writing, despite there being over 400 instances they are still running pre-v1 software with no formal release to date. Installation however is much simpler than Mastodon and can run on extremely low-capacity low-performance hardware as a result. It has a native web user interface which is similar to Twitter in some aspects, however also comes with the Mastodon-FE (Front-End) and supports the Mastodon v1 API allowing most Mastodon compliant client and server applications to work with it seamlessly.
Misskey
Reaching v1.0 in April 2018, Misskey is developed predominantly with a strong Japanese influence and elegant styling, conforming to the ActivityPub protocol and a very tidy web interface design. It has similar installation requirements to Mastodon though is considered easier to install and maintain and at time of writing has only 40 servers in operation with posts predominantly in Japanese, but gaining in popularity in other regions.
Server vs Instance and Application vs Fediverse
Let’s be clear, a server running the software for any of these three platforms on it, is “an instance” of that software. Hence you can consider an instance to be a server usually, but technically if you’re load-balancing then things get more hazy. Each instance is for a single domain or subdomain so it still makes sense to think of an instance by its domain name and not call it a server (technically).
It’s also better to separate the application names such as Misskey, Pleroma and Mastodon from the Federated protocol they utilise, such as OStatus and ActivityPub. During the OStatus era (which technically we’re still in however OStatus use is on the decline in favour of ActivityPub/LitePub) the term “Fediverse” was coined to describe the network of federated messaging between different platforms and applications using a common protocol. As naming goes it seems to have stuck, despite a suggestion to use IndieWeb and ActivityWeb and alternative naming conventions based on their current protocol names respectively.
What I’ve Installed
Well the Fediverse sees all, including my Mastodon and my Pleroma servers and tells the story. I’ve had no end of problems with my Mastodon server, with its higher VPS specification to run it, problematic upgrades and poor availability I decided to give Pleroma a shot and haven’t regretted it. They recently added web push notifications which was really great and my script authetication issues also work now so my automation scripts are behaving at last. Having said that make no mistake, they aren’t claiming it’s done yet and their current optimistic GitHub tag of v0.9.9 tells the story indirectly, though the Pleroma development team are keen to ensure it’s as solid as possible before touting a 1.0 release.
Under-the-hood Migration
To date swapping the server and messages under-the-hood as it were it isn’t supported. Meaning if you start up an instance using Mastodon with posts/toots/messages from that instance, becuase how messages are represented by the software on the server, it’s currently not possible to take a message list from one server, migrate the entire lot to a Pleroma server running different software on the same domain. I tried this and too many things broke.
I suspect migration may someday be possible but for now at least shifting to a different domain (or in my case, sub-domain) was the next best option.
No More Mastodon: FEDIVERSE
The truth is that I might set up a Misskey server someday, I might set up a blog that federates using Plume, WriteFreely or a Hugo-ActivityPub bridge might be developed, and I want to be able to describe the means to find me, NOT the technology. In modern conversation we might say “Send me an EMail”, we don’t say “Send me an Outlook” or “Send me a Thunderbird” which, well, could be interesting. In the same fashion I no longer intend to tell people to find me on Mastodon, or Pleroma, or whichever platform I’m using since they all Federate. You can find me now, on the Fediverse.
Updates Across the Board
To reflect this I’m adopting the proposed Fediverse iconongraphy on all of my sites, will be updating URLs, podcast intros/outtros you name it to reflect the Fediverse so when you hear me mention it you’ll know what and why. TEN was updated recently to reflect this.
So if you’re looking to get in touch, you can follow me on the Fediverse @[email protected], just log into your Fediverse account on any instance of Misskey, Pleroma or Mastodon, type that into the search box and you’ll find me, follow/remote follow me and say ‘Hello’.
Catch you on the Fediverse everyone :)