wedistribute.org Pixelfed introduces Loops, a Short-Form Video App
Short-form video might in fact be the next frontier for federated media. The dev behind a popular photo-sharing platform is diving in headfirst.
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wedistribute.org Lemmy's Image Problem
The popular Reddit alternative's user count has grown a lot over the past year. One problem, though: users and admins can't delete images.
wedistribute.org Tear Down Walls, and Build Bridges
A libre networking project that's designed to bridge protocol spaces together announced its progress and intentions, and Mastodon users freaked out.
wedistribute.org Bonfire Offers Framework for Next-Gen Fediverse Platforms
Bonfire is an emerging Fediverse project that's been in development for years. It's more than just a platform.
We recently chatted with two of the devs involved with Bonfire. Honestly, they have some really amazing ideas about building a modular Fediverse platform that developers can build on for their own apps.
wedistribute.org Decentered S1E3: Ryan Barrett Has a Bridge to Sell Us
Ryan Barrett talks about protocols for the social web, and how to make them talk to each other.
For our third episode of Decentered, we talked to Ryan Barrett, the creator of Bridgy Fed! Ryan has a lot of experience in working with a variety of decentralized social web protocols, including IndieWeb, ActivityPub, AT Protocol, and Nostr, and has a lot of interesting thoughts on making them talk to each other.
wedistribute.org The Mixtape #4: Space Vibes
You voted, we committed to the bit. Check out the latest playlist of Radio Free Fedi music. This Mixtape commits to the sound of space, adventure, and exploration.
The Mixtape is an ongoing effort by We Distribute to showcase the musicians of the Fediverse and their work. Each issue is a playlist of 10 tracks centered around a theme, that our followers can vote on.
For Issue #4, it’s SPACE VIBES! These are various themes of discovery, exploration, travel, and danger. Even if the tracks aren’t explicitly about space, we put them together based on the complementary vibe and feeling, and interpreted them.
wedistribute.org Queer.af is Shutting Down, Due to Taliban
Mastodon instance Queer.af is shutting down because the country that provides the domain is now ruled by the Taliban.
When registering a country code domain, keep in mind where the domain is being registered. A shift in government or geopolitics can have serious consequences.
wedistribute.org Sublinks Aims to Be a Drop-In Replacement for Lemmy
The Threadiverse is growing again, this time offering an effort to build a new Lemmy replacement from scratch, with API compatibility.
Seems like an interesting effort. A developer is building an alternative Java-based backend to Lemmy’s Rust-based one, with the goal of building in a handful of different features. The dev is looking at using this compatibility to migrate their instance over to the new platform, while allowing the community to use their apps of choice.
wedistribute.org Decentered S1E2: Making Sora, with Takiyoshi Hoshida
The story of one Fediverse app developer and his journey from developing a love for computers to building one of the most versatile apps on the network.
Sora is a really cool iOS fediverse app that supports Mastodon, Misskey, Firefish, and Bluesky all at once. It’s slick, has some incredibly innovative features, and is a delight to use.
We sat down with Hoshida, and talked about his journey into app development, his discovery of the Fediverse, and some of the lessons he learned in making an app that suited his needs.
We Distribute launches Decentered, a Fediverse podcast
wedistribute.org Decentered S1E1: Creation and Discovery
In our first episode, we talk about the relationship between publishers and audiences, and the search for alternatives in the wake of controversy.
This podcast has been a long-time coming. Damon, Laurens, and I have been hard at work interviewing all kinds of people building for the Fediverse, and after hours and hours of interviews, we’ve finally started publishing episodes.
Decentered is our attempt to shine a light on all of the amazing things happening across the network: it’s a place where we talk to some of the brightest minds developing amazing concepts, and their vision of what’s possible. Join us as we cover what’s going on in the network, and what we’re all making together!
wedistribute.org Authorized Fetch Circumvented by Alt-Right Developers
A controversial developer circumvented one of Mastodon's primary tools for blocking bad actors, all so that his servers could connect to Threads.
Authorized Fetch (also referred to as Secure Mode in Mastodon) was recently circumvented by a stupidly easy solution: just sign your fetch requests with some other domain name.
wedistribute.org Getting Tangled Up in Threads
As Threads rolls out federation capabilities and tests out Fediverse compatibility, people are getting worked up over what's next.
The Fediverse is currently divided over whether or not to block Threads. Here are some of the things people are worried about, some opportunities that might come from it, and what we need to do to prepare.
wedistribute.org After Radio Silence, Kbin App Artemis Shuts Down
After a long silence from the developer, project moderators stepped down. The mobile app for Kbin appears to have closed its doors.
wedistribute.org Debunking the Top 10 Myths About Mastodon
A lot of people make up all kinds of wild assumptions Mastodon, how it works, and what it is. We're here to help clear up some of the biggest ones.
Mastodon, we wrote this because we love you and care about you. People have been saying a lot of things, and we need to get the facts right.
@ono Yeah, fair point. It's more geared towards patron support and donation prompts, but it does support things like redeemable codes, which could be paired with some kind of recurring donation system.
It does make me wonder what it would take to build in a checkout system, and whether that goes way beyond what a static site can handle.
wedistribute.org Faircamp is a Free Bandcamp Alternative
In response to the transfer of Bandcamp to a new owner and mass layoffs, a developer has already built a simple alternative for musicians.
A lot of musicians are looking for better, more resilient platforms for selling and distributing their work. Faircamp may be a good solution.
wedistribute.org Pebble Shuts Down...But Starts a Mastodon Instance?
In a crowded space of Twitter competitors, a friendly and beloved platform closed its doors. One of the creators now runs a Mastodon instance.
wedistribute.org The Mixtape #3: Creepy Crawlies!
We've made a special spooky playlist for Halloween! Come check out a hand-picked selection of awesome and unusual songs by Fediverse musicians!
wedistribute.org Firefish Could Be the Next Big Thing
Firefish is a new Fediverse social platform with a beautiful design, cool features, and great tools for your feed. It has a lot of potential to grow.
Firefish is a new Fediverse social platform with a beautiful design, cool features, and great tools for your feed. It has a lot of potential to grow.
wedistribute.org Audon provides fantastic virtual talk spaces for Mastodon
For a first attempt at making a talk space app that easily works with Mastodon, Audon is an incredible experience.
While Mastodon has many, many different kinds of microblogging clients, Audon dares to instead flirt with online talk spaces, and it's fantastic.
@donuts Kbin and Lemmy support is a little bit janky at the moment, it's also kind of easier to view this from the microblogging / social side of the Fediverse.
@donuts I'm biased, but I run We Distribute. @[email protected] 😁
wedistribute.org How to Connect Your WordPress Blog to the Fediverse
It's now possible for WordPress blogs to integrate with the rest of the Fediverse. Here's some tips and tricks on how to get started.
It's now possible for WordPress blogs to use ActivityPub to talk to the rest of the Fediverse. Here's some tips and tricks to get started.
This magazine seriously needs moderators.
@BraveSirZaphod Hey, I'm the guy that wrote this. While I absolutely hold negative bias towards Meta, the point of the article was not to produce a piece of propaganda, but instead illustrate that their policies have updated to acknowledge the existence of third-party accounts on other servers, that they will be collecting data, and that this is likely a sign that federation may be happening sooner than expected.
Not everybody is happy about that, and some developers are working on hardening their applications to protect against unauthorized access for edge cases related to this.
@fazalmajid Maybe so, but Mastodon historically has only allowed users to look up other users, search hashtag indexes, and depending on the server, search your own posts. A lot of this was done under the pretense of protecting users from harassment, but it's a bandaid covering over insufficient tooling for post-based interaction capabilities.
Anyway, the bigger problem is that it's harder to find stuff in federated systems, which can be a big headache for getting new people into the Fediverse. Search isn't a silver bullet, but it goes a long ways towards making discovery easier.
@stopthatgirl7 lmao, looks like we literally posted at the same time 😅
She's actually in Super Hell.
It's entirely possible that a fediverse platform emerges that's capable of performing many different kinds of activities. But, the far more likely outcome is that platforms eventually implement the Client-to-Server half of the ActivityPub protocol, which currently very few platforms implement.
The idea is that virtually every Fediverse platform could, in theory, act as clients for one another, enabling a "one account posts everything" possibility with different frontends accessing different subsets of data.
This has nothing to do with the Fediverse, get this spammy crap out of here.