This article first appeared on Symfony Station.
Dip your space boots into the Fediverse with this overview of our professional and personal accounts. Afterwards, you will be prepped to launch your journey.
Introduction
If you follow us you know we are champions of the Fediverse. And have written extensively about itincluding in our weekly newsletters and communiqués. Like Symfony, PHP, Drupal, Sylius, etc. it's open-source and a moral alternative and new foe of corporate social media. Which we can all agree is shit.
This article is motivated in particular by our being selected as one of the first few hundred Fediverse publishers on Flipboard and gaining ten new handles. So, I want to help you sort out the ones you may want to follow. And of course, my existing ones as well. But more importantly I want to help you start your journey through the Fediverse by benefiting from my experience.
If you aren't familiar with the Fediverse, check out the link above to get all the details. The short version is that the Fediverse is a network of interconnected social media platforms using a common set of protocols (mainly ActivityPub) to communicate with each other.
It’s decentralized, as in there is no central authority or c^ntish individual owner controlling the platform. Instead, the Fediverse is made up of a network of independently run servers, called "instances", which connect to each other. Users can communicate with others across different platforms' instances, and have greater control over their data and privacy. You pick the platforms and instances that suit you.
And you can migrate from them to new instances if you don't like what they get up to. I did this with Mastodon.
The Fediverse includes an abundance of platforms, such as Mastodon, Pixelfed, and PeerTube. Each has unique features and communities. It offers an alternative to centralized corporate social media, and prioritizes user needs and privacy over profit.
And there are a plethora of apps to explore it and do it on any operating system.
Here's a final note. If you use a Fediverse platform, contribute to it as well as the owners of the instance you are on. 💶 💵 💴 💷 Servers and development don't pay for themselves.
Mastodon
As you may know Mastodon is by far the largest independent platform in the Fediverse. Technically Threads is part of the Fediverse and comes to you from the bastards at Meta. So, it's truly the largest. But, if you have a minimum of morality don't use it and block it. Like Truth Social we can pretend it's not really part of the Fediverse. 😈 And the vast majority of Threads users don't opt-into the Fediverse anyway. So does it really count?
Of course Mastodon is the better alternative to the platform known as Shitter and it's not run by a drug-addled lunatic. In other words it's a microblogging platform for intelligent and nice people. People like you.
However, Mastodon is showing worrying signs of a slide toward enshittification itself in my opinion. It's favoring growth over safety. That's a danger with these benevolent dictator platforms. But like all open-source software, it can always be forked. And you can move to a fork or another platform. Or even another Mastodon instance that favors privacy over scaling. Hopefully, I am wrong in my suspicions.
Anyway, follow me at @symfonystation@drupal.community.
Because of this benevolent dictator phenomenon you should definitely have multiple Fediverse accounts. Like ⬇️
kbin
I really encourage you to join kbin as (1) it's built with Symfony and (2) it's a replacement for the recently enshittified Reddit. It is part of the Threadiverse. But, it is also a microblogging platform like Mastodon and an alternative to it. So, it's a two for one deal.
It's definitely in the painful growth stage as technically it's still in beta. After Reddit went to shit, kbin was inundated with thousands of users that it's' still not ready for.
This is another benevolent dictator situation that has some negative consequences. Its creator, Ernest Wiśniewski, has had some troubles in his personal life that bring upgrades to a halt. And he could be a better communicator. He ranges from daily updates on development to none at all for weeks. Like some of the creators of Fediverse platforms, he seems to have trouble giving up control and gets burned out.
Which is understandable.
At the moment there is a problem with spam as kbin is open sign up and unfortunately there's a section of the human race that is shit.
An alternative is a fork called Mbin. If you are new to the Threadiverse (which also includes Lemmy and PieFed) I would go this route. It's more democratic and stable at the moment. I would also join an instance that has a permission-based sign up.
Anyway, I was one of the first 400 users of kbin which now has 63,366. I am sticking with Ernest for the time being. I don't kick people when they are down.
So, if you want to help with development, contact him. Believe me, he needs it.
Interact with my threads and posts at @symfonystation@kbin.social from Lemmy, PieFed, Mbin, kbin or Mastodon.
I moderate the [Symfony magazine](https://kbin.social/m/Symfony](https://kbin.social/m/Symfony) there and created the [Symfony Universe Collection](https://kbin.social/u/symfonystation/c/SymfonyUniverse](https://kbin.social/u/symfonystation/c/SymfonyUniverse) which covers Drupal and PHP as well and pulls in content from Lemmy. And I also published an article on this site that goes into kbinin depth.
As mentioned above, I was honored to be included in the second batch of 100 Flipboard Fediverse publishers.
I am a long time and successful user and publisher on Flipboard. I've used it for curation and learning for years.
If you are not familiar with Flipboard, publishers publish magazines that users can follow and interact with. A common use is following magazines to find items to add to the magazines you publish. This is called a flip. You can also flip directly from a URL and many other apps and browsers.
I think this is going to be very big on the Fediverse and possibly surpass Mastodon in size.
Join my 49K+ other Flipboard followers and explore all my zines by following @mobileatom@flipboard.com.
Or follow them individually by topic as indicated in the handles:
- @the-fediverse-vs-corporate-social-media-mobileatom@flipboard.com
- @coding-is-living-mobileatom@flipboard.com
- @symfony-for-the-devil-mobileatom@flipboard.com
- @responsive-design-ux-ui-and-more-mobileatom@flipboard.com
- @videorrific-getting-visual-on-the-web-with-video-mobileatom@flipboard.com
- @blog-me-mobileatom@flipboard.com
- @content-marketing-brand-journalism-native-advertising-mobileatom@flipboard.com@flipboard.com
- @search-optimization-marketing-mobileatom@flipboard.com@flipboard.com
- @email-marketing-mobileatom@flipboard.com@flipboard.com.
Just copy and paste your choices into the search field of your favorite Fediverse client or website to follow.
Symfony for the Devil is very similar to our current Fediverse accounts on Mastodon and kbin and contains some duplicate content. The advantage is that it doesn't contain my personal boosts. So if news only suits you better, follow Symfony for the Devil.
My others zines cover:
- The Fediverse and commercial Social Media
- Programming
- UX, UI, and Web Design
- Video and Photo production
- Blogging and WordPress in particular
- Content Marketing and Brand Journalism
- SEO
- Email Marketing and Newsletter production
Again, these are news only posts and don't include my strong opinions on tech.
![[Pasted image 20240511173734.png]]
WordPress
To publish our newsletter I use WordPress.
And I also hope to make it my main Fediverse account in the long run. There is an Activity Pub plugin that allows you to post your WordPress posts to the Fediverse. People can react to them and their input will show up as comments on your WordPress post. And their are some add-ons for specific functionality.
But, it's far from perfect if it aims to be used instead of a Maston, Friendica, or kbin.
There is a Friends plugin and a variety of related others to allow you to use your site like a Mastodon account. Follow others and interact with them, etc. But these plugins only half-ass work in my opinion. Especially with third party clients. And the documentation is non-existent. The same is true for the Activity Pub plugins.
A quick aside here, I only consider WordPress sites part of the Fediverse if they have the Activity Pub plugin installed. That's why it's not the largest platform. Currently there are 5,000 plus installations.
Follow my mainly Symfony Station posts at @symfonystation@newsletter.mobileatom.net. There will be fewer boosts here.
You can join our newsletter list here as well.
I could have gone through the same process with Drupal but a technical issue with my hosting company won't allow me to implement it. It's security related and has to do with putting a local folder on your web server, if I remember. Maybe that will get changed in the module and I can try it again later.
Personal Accounts
Okay. Let's get into the platforms that are more fun and less depressing on a daily basis. 🌝
Pixelfed
Pixelfed is a better Instagram. You get great photos without the toxic positivity, influencers, AI fakes, and teenage suicides.
My account features travel and dog photos. 🥲 I am a pretty good photographer. And Pixelfed is full of great professional ones. I enjoy it daily.
See my pics at @mobileatom@gram.social.
Friendica
Friendica is one of the oldest platforms in the Fediverse. It's like Facebook without the old people, religious lunatics, and fascists. Easy enough.
Follow my mostly political posts at @friendofsymfony@friendica.me.
FunkWhale
Funkwhale is an alternative to Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, etc, etc.
You can't follow my account there, but it's where I store my punk rock collection for personal streaming.
But, you can join any FunkWhale instance and enjoy the original open-source music that its members post there. It's been the late eighties since I helped create any original music. So, none from me. Like me you can curate your personal streaming library. Give new life to those old records, cassettes, and CDs!
See my profile at @symfonystation@open.audio.
Wrapping Up
I hope you have enjoyed this exploration of my Fediverse accounts and more importantly learned something about the platforms.
Try out these and other options (including casting, video, events, etc.) to discover two or three that work best for you. Because the Fediverse is all about you and giving you control of your posts, data, and privacy.
And remember to tip your platforms and the owners of the instances you are on. 💶 💵 💴 💷 It's easy karma.
Happy scrolling, consuming, and posting Symfonistas! 🚀
Author
Reuben Walker
Founder
Symfony Station
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