exploring-the-fediverse - Federated Mind

exploring-the-fediverse

Account portability on the Fediverse vs. the ATmosphere

You want to leave your server. What happens to your followers, your handle, and your posts? On the Fediverse, leaving is a move. In the ATmosphere, most switching isn't a move at all. A neutral look at how each network handles account portability, and the trade-offs behind each.

A bioluminescent deep-sea reef where different glowing organisms represent fediverse platforms all connected by light filaments running through a shared seafloor substrate

fediverse-beyond-mastodon

The Fediverse Beyond Mastodon mini-series is complete. Here's everything.

Four posts on what else runs on ActivityPub besides Mastodon: microblogging alternatives & forks, photo and video platforms, writing tools, forums, books, music, and more.

Four glowing neon shapes, a speech bubble, hexagon, ring, and diamond, linked by a flowing particle trail carrying musical notes and open books, against a dark navy background.

fediverse-beyond-mastodon

Forums, Reading, and Music on the Fediverse

Lemmy, kbin, and PieFed rebuild Reddit as a federation of communities. NodeBB and Discourse bring old-school forums onto the same protocol. BookWyrm tracks reading without selling data, and Funkwhale and Bandwagon do the same for music. Different formats, one open protocol.

An antique quill and inkwell against a vibrant multicolor cosmic backdrop, with constellation lines connecting points of light

fediverse-beyond-mastodon

The Written Fediverse: Where the Words Live

Ghost, WriteFreely, Micro.blog, Plume, WordPress, and Flipboard didn't all arrive at federation the same way. Some built it in from the first commit. Some bridged it onto a product that already existed. Federation decides how far the writing travels.

A vintage camera and ornate photo frame floating in a dark void, surrounded by dozens of photographs scattering outward in every direction, connected by faint network lines

fediverse-beyond-mastodon

The Visual Fediverse: Where Photos and Videos Live Outside the Algorithm

Pixelfed, Loops, PeerTube, and a Flickr that never quite federated. The visual fediverse isn't one Instagram clone. It's an ecosystem where your photos and videos live on infrastructure you control, federate by default, and no algorithm decides who sees them.

fediverse-beyond-mastodon

The Rest of the Ecosystem: Misskey, Pleroma, Friendica & more

Mastodon is the platform most people land on but it's not the only thing growing on the reef. Misskey built an expression-first culture. Friendica has been bridging networks since 2010. GoToSocial made the personal instance practical. In this post we cover all these and more.

Three protocol logos — ActivityPub, AT Protocol (Bluesky), and Nostr — arranged over a dark network graph visualization.

federation-across-networks

Nostr and the Protocol Bridges

Part 3 of Federation Across Networks. Part 1 covered Bridgy Fed and AT Protocol. Part 2 covered Threads' entry into the Fediverse. This series sits inside the broader Exploring the Fediverse umbrella.

Feature image: painterly illustration of a glowing gateway between the fediverse and Meta's world, with a Mastodon elephant at the threshold. Generated using Higgsfield AI (Nano Banana).

federation-across-networks

Threads Entered the Fediverse (With Caveats)

Part 2 of Federation Across Networks. Part 1 covered Bridgy Fed, the bridge connecting ActivityPub and AT Protocol. This series sits inside the broader Exploring the Fediverse umbrella.

Data flowing from the left side depicted in blue with a blue butterfly depicting Bluesky traffic flowing into a glowing orb in the middle. On the right side is data depicted in purple along w

federation-across-networks

The Bridge to Bluesky: What Happens When Two Protocols Try to Talk

Part 1 of the "Federation Across Networks" mini-series - a continuation of the "Exploring the Fediverse" umbrella series.

exploring-mastodon

The Exploring Mastodon mini series is complete. Here's everything.

Four posts on how the open social web works - from federation basics to server governance. Also out: free ebook + 57-min audiobook.

exploring-mastodon

Governance Is the New Differentiator: AI Policy, Moderation, and the Truth Social Cautionary Tale

Part 3 of Exploring Mastodon - the final post in this mini-series. Part 1 maps the AI policy spectrum. Part 2 covers the communities that give the network its texture. This post is the governance layer underneath both.

World map showing regional and language Mastodon instances — sfba.social, mastodon.scot, mstdn.jp, mastodon.uno, and others — pinned to their geographic locations.

exploring-mastodon

Place, Language, and Craft: The Communities That Give Mastodon Its Texture

Part 2 of Exploring Mastodon, a three-part mini-series inside the broader Exploring the Fediverse series. If you're new here, Part 1 covers the overall shape of the network: how instances work, why donation economics matter, and what AI policy reveals about a community's values.