I had no idea of the size and variety of the Fediverse! It has me feeling a bit overwhelmed. I’m enjoying BookWyrm very much; it’s the GoodReads/LibraryThing replacement I’ve been looking for for years.

I love the simplicity of Paper.wf for blogging. It’s truly elegant; I just click the link and start typing. But as far as I can tell there’s no way for others to find my blog or for me to find other blogs on the site. There’s no browse or follow feature. Nor can anyone comment on my posts! Those seem to me to be HUGE omissions.

Have you used any Fediverse blogging options? What are they like? And what other Fediverse services would you recommend? Other than Mastodon, I’ve already tried that (it didn’t excite me).

  • croobat@lemmy.world
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    I never thought about this indirect upside of using fediverse apps. There is absolutely no incentive to publicity, who the heck is gonna pay me for promoting their book over my BookWyrm? They will make two cents from that.

    So when someone publishes something over these underdog app it’s because they are genuinely interested. It’s really refreshing to be able to read sincere opinions from people tbh.

    • James S. Aaron@beehaw.org
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      How is the first I’ve heard of Clackey? Their website is the most inviting one I’ve seen with the Fediverse so far.

      • 🦊 OneRedFox 🦊@beehaw.org
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        The project is only like a month or two old, though it is a fork of a more well-established Fediverse platform (MissKey), so it’s still building up awareness of its existence.

    • Gil (he/they)@beehaw.org
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      Calckey certainly looks cool and feature rich, but every Calckey instance’s main page alone slows my computer down a lot and overwhelms my eyeballs lol. Don’t know what to do to make that better.

      • 🦊 OneRedFox 🦊@beehaw.org
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        Well, it is a new project, so it probably needs some optimization. As far as visual clutter goes though, I think Mastodon’s quad column layout is much worse about that.

        • Gil (he/they)@beehaw.org
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          Yeah, I remember when it was first launched and it’s come a long way already.

          AFAIK, the quad column layout in Mastodon is based on Tweetdeck. I don’t like it either, but some ex-Twitter users do, so that’s neither here nor there.

          • Leigh@beehaw.orgM
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            I use Ivory both for iOS and macOS, and that’s a great way to browse Masto, IMO. When I’m in the browser though, I do use and prefer the quad layout.

    • fresh@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      How heavy is it to run? I am waiting for GoToSocial to mature slightly before jumping on to host my own instance, but the only reason I’m choosing it really is because of its lightweight-ness.

  • !ozoned@lemmy.world@beehaw.org
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    I use GoToSocial with Sempahore for my microblogging (alternative to Mastodon).

    Also Owncast as an alternative to Twitch.

    And then I watch tilvids.com and other Peertube instances for videos.

    And of course Lemmy. :-D

    Oh and then there’s Funkwhale for audio.

    It’s all in different states of usability, depending on the communities involved.

      • !ozoned@lemmy.world@beehaw.org
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        Understandable. But it’s the chicken and egg problem. Creators don’t want to create content, because there’s no consumers. Consumers don’t want to sign up, because there’s no creators.

        So are you the chicken or the egg? :-D

        If you’re on one you don’t like anymore you could always change instances and watch videos there. If you’re worried about losing comments, well you can comment from other Fediverse servers such as Mastodon or GoToSocial and they show up on the page for the video. :-)

        • sabret00the@beehaw.org
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          You know what, Peertube needs the equivalent of an acquisition and the perfect candidates would be, and I’m on record saying this before, DailyMotion and Vimeo. They’ve already got content and by implementing activitiypub integration, they can grow their audiences and compete with YouTube for once and for all.

          But yeah, for me. I haven’t even found a video to watch let alone comment. That said, my YouTube is generally me watching album reactions, music videos, Hot Ones, Adam Something and Beard Meats Food.

          • !ozoned@lemmy.world@beehaw.org
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            Nothing stopping Vimeo from plumbing in ActivityPun amd joining the Fediverse. It’s open and the only reason no one does is because the data is valuable and they don’t want to share and play nice.

            These walled gardens were not how the internet was imagined.

          • crisisingot@beehaw.org
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            I’ve found several good videos/channels on urbanists.video which is kind of specific to urbanism but still there’s some good stuff. The videos have a lot lower production quality than most YouTube channels, but I actually kind of like how casual it is.

            They’re just making videos because they have something interesting/funny/educational to share and they’re not out there trying to make money.

        • Cass.Forest@beehaw.org
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          1 year ago

          Re PeerTube, as a creator, is it worth it to try an find an instance that suits my content right now?

          • !ozoned@lemmy.world@beehaw.org
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            If you’re putting your content up on Youtube right now, then Peertube can just mirror that content without much work. At least that’s my understanding. I’m not a Youtuber. diode.zone is one I’ve used in the past which doesn’t really have any kind of gatekeeping.

            However, I personally enjoy TILVids the most. They’re curated. You ahve to talk to the TILVids admin to get access and he kind of is there to help folks get started and if you take off then he suggests you create your own. That happens with few. TechLore for instance just did this. But he does have a focus on videos that help folks learn things, but even GamingOnLinux mirrors there.

            • Cass.Forest@beehaw.org
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              To be fair (and I might’ve said this here on Beehaw/Lemmy although my memory isn’t serving me well atm), I have said that I do want to get into self-hosting stuff sometime in the future but I don’t currently have the resources to do so. Currently just seeing what self-hosted stuff there is right now for when I am able to get something set up. Also I would be open to starting my own instance as a large channel anyway. I’ve also thought about a single-user Lemmy instance that federates and is sort of a forum/discussion space for my content.

              • !ozoned@lemmy.world@beehaw.org
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                Totally understand. Everyone has different priorities, responsibilities, etc. It’ll always be here for you when you’re ready and/or interested. ;-)

    • Cass.Forest@beehaw.org
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      I would start using Owncast however, a) my current lease at my apartment prohibits me running a server (because internet is included in the rent), and b) I don’t have any kind of computer to run a server on for Owncast.

      • !ozoned@lemmy.world@beehaw.org
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        Hetzner is $5 a month for a VPS that would run it. And what constitutes a “server”? A server is just another name for a computer.

        • Cass.Forest@beehaw.org
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          As someone who is already in debt because of a bad month with work, I’m not sure if I’m able to put out for a VPS. And as for the “server” thing, what I meant was I don’t have a computer I can dedicate to near 100% uptime for running the instances I’d want to.

          • !ozoned@lemmy.world@beehaw.org
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            Got you. Totally understand. I used to be in the same situation. $5/month is sometimes better spent somewhere else. With Owncast you only really need it up when you’re stream. You could do that from your PC you’re playing on, but idk the kind of overhead that’d cause.

            • Cass.Forest@beehaw.org
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              Hmm, it looks like people have “live” sites up that are at least reachable and they aren’t streaming currently. Did I misread how Owncast works, or is there something else going on here with these sites?

              As for running it during my stream (once I move out of my current apartment), I could have my laptop running Owncast possibly.

              • !ozoned@lemmy.world@beehaw.org
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                So when you go to the page that’s offline, that’s because the Owncast software is up and running as a webserver. I’ve seen some folks that take the entire page down when they’re not streaming. Really only difference is if there’s a landing page there when you’re not streaming or not.

                • Cass.Forest@beehaw.org
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                  I wonder if it would be possible to set up something that 307’s to a static page when I’m not live

                  Edit: another concern is that in running it from my laptop, would I have to go through port forwarding so that a DNS provider can connect with the owncast instance? Because while I’m not completely averse to it (unless someone has an opsec reason for not doing so and has a better alternative), it’s a lot of work and will absolutely have to be something I do after I move out of my current place

  • TooLikeTheNope@beehaw.org
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    Fediverse is well differentiated into many sites offering similar capabilities to their more well established commercial and proprietary counterpart, and as the time passes these federated alternatives quality is nearing practically the production level, apart from Mastodon and Lemmy which are the most known by now it is worth mentioning also PeerTube (Youtube), PixelFed (instagram), Misskey, Calckey and Pleroma (a mix between twitter and tumblr), HubZilla (facebook), FunkWhale(Bandcamp) and OwnCast (twitch).

    Here some handy links:

    https://joinfediverse.wiki/Main_Page

    https://www.fediverse.to/

    https://fediverse.party/

  • Hexorg@beehaw.org
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    Just a side note, ActivityPub protocol - the core engine that lets all of fediverse to talk to the rest of the fediverse is… 5 years old. Every feature imaginable is still to be implemented.

  • Uniquitous@lemmy.one
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    Interesting to see that tumblr is adding support for ActivityPub. I wonder if any other legacy platforms will undertake to federate.

    • The Cuuuuube@beehaw.org
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      Meta is working on an Instagram side project that will act like twitter and will use activitypub. I highly suspect though tumblr and meta taking an interest in the fediverse might ultimately add more people to interact with at the cost of being lousy neighbors

    • Cass.Forest@beehaw.org
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      I do hope that Tumblr gets on ActivityPub soon because I do love the idea of interacting with Tumblr posts here on beehaw or on Mastodon, or whatever other thing uses the protocol.

  • Mustafa Albazy@programming.dev
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    I just tried Calckey it looks more polished UI-wise than any other Fediverse platform I have seen so far. I think Calckey would make an excellent social platform for the public (non-tech) users.

    Pixelfed is also an excellent Instagram alternative, it reminds me of how Instagram used to be before the Facebook acquisition. Their iOS beta app is in good shape as well.

  • HalJor@beehaw.org
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    Is/will there be a movie/TV equivalent of BookWyrm, something to track and discuss what you’ve been watching? A quick search tells me it’s been discussed and seems like something people want but it doesn’t look like it’s been done yet, at least not as a dedicated service. Is that right?

    • BobQuasit@beehaw.orgOP
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      That is absolutely brilliant. I would love something like that. Why doesn’t it exist?

      • Jdreben@beehaw.org
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        I’ve thought about and talked about this too! We need this!!! Letterboxd equivalent.

    • albert180@feddit.de
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      AFAIK the problem is there is no good movie database which allows free use of their data

      • BobQuasit@beehaw.orgOP
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        So what? We’ll create one!

        Years ago the owners of GoodReads announced that Amazon had taken away their access to the Amazon book database. It was an existential threat, they said, and asked the GoodReads community to volunteer to create a new book database to replace Amazon’s. Hundreds or thousands of us worked for free, donating thousands or tens of thousands of hours to the project.

        And then GoodReads announced that they’d sold out to Amazon. Apparently they’d been in negotiations with those bastards the whole time they were lying to us about losing access to the database. Maybe proving that they could sucker their loyal users into donating free labor helped raise the selling price of GoodReads a little.

        As for the database we created, I guess it’s Amazon’s now. Of course, if we create a movie database of our own, NOBODY will be able to buy it! And we can make it available for free use, if we want.

    • BobQuasit@beehaw.orgOP
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      If you have a CSV file of previous reviews from Goodreads or some other site, you can import it into BookWyrm. Look me up when you get there; I’m @BobQuasit@bookwyrm.social .

  • Zelsabriel@beehaw.org
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    I love that you’re sharing these other fediverses. This is really interesting AND helpful, but…

    I love the simplicity of Paper.wf for blogging. It’s truly elegant; I just click the link and start typing.

    Creed? Is that you?