Fediverse

2024-11-19

Please don’t get me wrong, I love that people are finally moving away from Twitter, and I do like Bluesky. However, I am still perplexed as to why so many users are choosing it at the same time. As I write this, Bluesky is about to reach 20,000,000 users, which in my case translates to nearly half the people I was following on Twitter. When I started using Mastodon, the number was considerably lower.

Speaking of which, I think Mastodon would be a better place for companies, news outlets, and institutions to be because of how servers work there, but perhaps Bluesky’s approach was a better one. Since there is currently only one server to choose from, it may be easier for people to understand it.

As for Threads, I don’t like the fact that they are constantly pushing the “For You” feed and are taking so long to properly join the Fediverse. It’s also important to keep in mind that it’s a Meta product.

I’ll still post on my blog first and from there automatically share on social media, but it’s great to see so much enthusiasm and so many people joining a decentralized platform.

Finally, if you are new to Bluesky, the video below will help you learn how verification works on the platform. Even if you are not planning to verify your account, I believe it’s important to know if you are actually following the real person or institution.

2024-11-17

I was considering the recent migration to Bluesky as a fad, but at the rate at which the Bluesky User Count number is growing, it will reach and exceed 19M users very soon. To give you some perspective, there are almost 11M ActivityPub users as of now.

Of course, if Threads was already fully integrated into the Fediverse, the situation would be entirely different. Which brings us to the question I’ve been asking myself for quite some time now: is Threads even serious about being part of the Fediverse?

2024-09-25

Building a community online: a personal experience.

Let’s talk about building a community online, not just selling products. Blogs, newsletters, and social media can be used to connect with like-minded people. I’m interested in an authentic and fulfilling way to build an online presence. What about you?

From time to time, I see people complaining on social media about how they miss the old days when blogs were so prevalent. I never reply, but I do have this answer ready to fire.

—Blogs still exist. There are plenty of them being updated every day.

And the second part of the answer would be: —Start one!

I mentioned the above because this blog post you are currently reading was inspired by another blog post from Molly White, which was inspired by a Platformer post. And it was a post on Mastodon that made me aware of all this.

What I’m trying to say is that blogs and social media can and should coexist and help each other. Let’s also add newsletters to that mix as I try to connect all my thoughts to write this post.

A few days ago, I finally left Substack, and Casey’s post on Platformer also discusses his decision to leave. Of course, his newsletter is much larger than mine, but some of his reasons line up with my decision.

Substack was never my first choice, but I needed a place to go after Revue was discontinued by Twitter, and Substack had this seamless import feature. I’m not going into details again because I have already explained it here and here, but like Casey, I love my blog and website, and I use a newsletter to make people aware of my new posts.

All I’m looking for is a gradual, but real, growth. That’s it. In other words, a community, not numbers. Here’s how he puts it:

The case for By Me a Coffee joining the Fediverse.

If you take a look at my Buy Me a Coffee page, you’ll notice that it is basically a timeline, just like many other social media sites. In my case, perhaps because I talk a lot about it, many of the supporters are Fediverse users. Regardless of the reason, they don’t have access to certain features available to other social media users. Although this is an issue that can be easily fixed with some tweaks to the site, why stop there?

11 Million Possible Supporters

Imagine for a second that Buy Me a Coffee has adopted the ActivityPub protocol and now provides you, as a creator, with a Fediverse feed and address. Probably something like @vladcampos@buymeacoffee.com or @vladcampos@buymeacoffee.social. Or even @vladcampos@bmac.social, to shorten it like Medium did.

In any case, anyone using an ActivityPub-compatible service, like Mastodon, Flipboard, and so many others, would be able to follow your username and see and reply to all your posts from the ActivityPub service they are already using.

It means that creators who are not part of the Fediverse because they believe it is too complicated or who are not familiar with it would be exposed to 11 million users immediately. Since everything is connected, millions of users would not need a Buy Me a Coffee account to follow and engage with the posts of the creators they love.

And there’s no need to change how non-Fediverse users have access to the current Buy Me a Coffee site. For example, my blog is compatible with ActivityPub, but anyone on the open web can read the posts just like they would on any other blog.

As for the creators who are familiar with the Fediverse, they could, for example, use tools to cross-post to their Buy Me a Coffee feed. Another option would be to start using Buy Me a Coffee as their main way to interact with the rest of the Fediverse. That by itself would indirectly promote Buy Me a Coffee to other people on the Fediverse, as everyone would be seeing the company’s URL.

For some creators, this would be their first experience on the Fediverse. Others would probably move their followers to Buy Me a Coffee. In any case, being able to bring your followers with you anywhere is what makes people on the Fediverse move around and try different services. Currently, I’m a Mastodon user, but, I have already moved a couple of times and my followers always came with me.

Restricted to Creators

But instead of letting all users create ActivityPub accounts, I think Buy Me a Coffee should limit them to creators. Running an ActivityPub server is not cheap, and it comes with all sorts of moderation problems, which have caused many companies to give up. Not to mention that there’s no need to open the account creation to supporters since they can use their current Fediverse accounts to follow the creators.

First Steps

This is not a simple project, but it would certainly help Buy Me a Coffee stand out while also helping creators.

However, there are several small changes that can be accomplished with less effort. For example, show the Mastodon icon when the user sets an account on the social links. Another good practice would be to add Mastodon as an option to the “share on social media” feature. But why not create a Buy Me a Coffee Mastodon account or server to start sharing content and interacting with users there? This was the strategy adopted by Medium and Flipboard to get a sense of how things work differently on the Fediverse.

And of course, as I have already mentioned to Jijo Sunny in a recent conversation, many of the above suggestions also apply to Voicenotes.

Anyway, as I said before, I’m biased, but Mastodon is the only social media app I keep on my phone, as there are no ads or algorithms trying to make me addicted to it. I tap the app’s icon and look at my chronologically ordered feed to see and enjoy what people I choose to follow are sharing. In other words, this is the perfect environment to follow and interact with creators I support.

2024-06-14

VCP 6 - Voicenotes: The Inspiring Story & Future Plans (with: Jijo Sunny)

In this conversation, we explore the journey of Voicenotes, from its inspiring origins to its exciting future. Jijo Sunny talks about his journey and how Buy Me a Coffee and Voicenotes came about. As well as many other details, such as why he thinks voice is better than note-taking, new features, privacy, user requests, the possibility of Voicenotes venturing into the Fediverse and so much more.

2024-06-14

The journey of #Voicenotes, from its inspiring origins to its exciting future.

I thoroughly enjoyed this conversation and the post-recording chat, which could have easily been another podcast episode. Jijo Sunny, shares his personal journey history and how Buy Me a Coffee and Voicenotes came to be, as well as many other details. We even elaborated on the possibility of Voicenotes venturing into the Fediverse and so much more.

2024-06-13

It’s been less than two months since I decided to use Micro.blog for my short Fediverse posts. It was an interesting experiment, but I’m going back to Mastodon. Just reactivated my account there and will soon import my followers back.

Like before, you don’t have to do anything. And, yes, I’ll write a blog post explaining the reasons 😉.