Into the Fediverse 🖖

We live in strange times, with strange social networks doing strange things.

So why, on the same day I said I was team IndieWeb, did I enter the Fediverse?

IndieWeb

I’ve been following the IndieWeb for a decade now and have recently started blogging again, slowly adding IndieWeb features to my site.

Right now it’s readable and followable, a bare minimum website experience, but with a little webmention magic it can grow into something more social. That’s the plan anyway.

I’d be able to write and respond to others on the IndieWeb that also do webmentions.

But not everyone wants to make their own website, or buy into a platform with strange features they don’t understand , so there’s a limit to how social it can really end up being.

Mastodon

Enter Mastodon, which erupted in popularity when Musk started to ruin Twitter. It’s a decentralised social network that works a bit like Twitter did but without as many nazis.

Mastodon is powered by ActivityPub, which means it’s part of the Fediverse - a whole network of apps that can all talk to each other.

My website isn’t connected yet because I haven’t added support for it. I do already have ActivityPub on my Micro.blog account, although it’s a little complicated.

Micro.blog

Micro.blog is a microblogging platform with both IndieWeb and Fediverse functionality. I use it at micro.paultibbetts.uk to post shorter content and links to my stuff around the web.

It speaks ActivityPub, so technically you can interact with me at @paultibbetts@micro.blog.

It also has an RSS importer, which I use to posts links from my main site to the Micro.blog timeline, so other users can follow my blog using Micro.blog.

What it does not do, unfortunately, is post those links to ActivityPub.

So I’m going to use Micro.blog to cross-post to my own Mastodon account.

Bluesky

So if I’m going to check out the Fediverse, and other non-IndieWeb social networks, why not check out Bluesky?

Bluesky is taking a different approach to Mastodon and the rest of the Fediverse.

It does not use ActivityPub, it uses the AT Protocol, something else I don’t yet understand or want to add to my own site. So again I’m using Micro.blog to cross-post for me.

POSSE

It’s all in an effort to Post to my Own Site and Syndicate Elsewhere.

I’m taking the IndieWeb approach and putting my content in one place and then posting links to it in as many places and on as many platforms as I can.

There are more advanced approaches than this, ones where I can pull back comments to my own site, but I’m not there just yet.

For now I’m building an online presence and testing out the future of social networking.

Follow me

Which changes how you can follow me, again.

You can follow my blog with RSS.

You can follow my microblog with RSS.

You can follow both using Micro.blog, Mastodon and Bluesky.