
First, some quick background, just to make sure everyone’s on the same page. Skip the opening if you already know this part!
Wait, what’s the Fediverse?
ActivityPub is a decentralized (for real, not in the way blockchains are “decentralized”) social networking protocol that’s been getting a lot of chatter lately. It’s like “what if RSS, but with more of the interactive features of social media?” Or “what if OpenID, but we actually got it to take off?”
Services built on the ActivityPub protocol include Mastodon, Pleroma, Pixelfed, and Misskey. None of those are single sites — anyone can start and run their own Mastodon server, hosting as many other users as they’re open to — and then all these independently-run setups federate with each other. So, collectively, they’re “the Fediverse.”
And if you have an account on any installation of any of these services, you can follow, comment on, and generally interact with any of the others.
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