#statusNet

2025-12-20
Whenever someone announces to "bring" something "to the Fediverse", chances are that Friendica has actually had it since 2010, for five and a half years longer than Mastodon has been around.

For example, just about everyone on Mastodon is fully convinced that Eugen Rochko has brought quote-posts to the Fediverse this year. That's because next to nobody on Mastodon knows that Friendica has been able to quote-post practically everything in the Fediverse, including Mastodon toots, for 15 years now.

And if Friendica doesn't have it, chances are still that Hubzilla has it, and that Hubzilla has probably had it for longer than Mastodon has been around, too.

For example, private messages that are actually private. Mastodon doesn't have them because the "privacy" of Mastodon DMs is only "guaranteed" by limiting whom a DM is sent to. Hubzilla does have them and has had them since 2012, since it was still named Red. How? Because Hubzilla also limits who is permitted to see a DM.

Oh, and Hubzilla even offers optional encryption on top of that.

Or how about server-independent identity? Everyone still waiting for Bluesky to finally be the pioneer who invents this and implements it for the first time? LOL! Once again, Hubzilla has had this since 2012. Not a vague concept, not an unstable proof-of-concept, but daily-driven by production-grade channels on production-grade servers. (streams) has it, too, inherited from Hubzilla through a whole number of forks. Forte has it, too, and Forte is the first and, so far, only Fediverse server software that uses ActivityPub for nomadic identity.

Now I'm waiting for someone to announce that something will "bring" actual groups "to the Fediverse". A feature that was actually introduced to the Fediverse by StatusNet in 2008, and that's also available on Friendica, Hubzilla, (streams) and Forte. Not to mention that the very principle of the Threadiverse (Lemmy, the remains of /kbin, Mbin, PieFed) is based on groups.

This is what happens when you think that the feature set of the whole Fediverse is the feature set of Mastodon and maybe Pixelfed because that's all you know.

Speaking of Mastodon: Just because it's being "brought to the Fediverse", doesn't mean it'll be adopted by Mastodon.

#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #Fediverse #Mastodon #MastodonCentrism #MastodonNormativity #Friendica #Hubzilla #Streams #(streams) #Forte #NomadicIdentity #StatusNet #Threadiverse #Lemmy #/kbin #Mbin #PieFed #Groups #FediGroups #FediverseGroups
2025-12-20
Whenever someone announces to "bring" something "to the Fediverse", chances are that Friendica has actually had it since 2010, for five and a half years longer than Mastodon has been around.

For example, just about everyone on Mastodon is fully convinced that Eugen Rochko has brought quote-posts to the Fediverse this year. That's because next to nobody on Mastodon knows that Friendica has been able to quote-post practically everything in the Fediverse, including Mastodon toots, for 15 years now.

And if Friendica doesn't have it, chances are still that Hubzilla has it, and that Hubzilla has probably had it for longer than Mastodon has been around, too.

For example, private messages that are actually private. Mastodon doesn't have them because the "privacy" of Mastodon DMs is only "guaranteed" by limiting whom a DM is sent to. Hubzilla does have them and has had them since 2012, since it was still named Red. How? Because Hubzilla also limits who is permitted to see a DM.

Oh, and Hubzilla even offers optional encryption on top of that.

Or how about server-independent identity? Everyone still waiting for Bluesky to finally be the pioneer who invents this and implements it for the first time? LOL! Once again, Hubzilla has had this since 2012. Not a vague concept, not an unstable proof-of-concept, but daily-driven by production-grade channels on production-grade servers. (streams) has it, too, inherited from Hubzilla through a whole number of forks. Forte has it, too, and Forte is the first and, so far, only Fediverse server software that uses ActivityPub for nomadic identity.

Now I'm waiting for someone to announce that something will "bring" actual groups "to the Fediverse". A feature that was actually introduced to the Fediverse by StatusNet in 2008, and that's also available on Friendica, Hubzilla, (streams) and Forte. Not to mention that the very principle of the Threadiverse (Lemmy, the remains of /kbin, Mbin, PieFed) is based on groups.

This is what happens when you think that the feature set of the whole Fediverse is the feature set of Mastodon and maybe Pixelfed because that's all you know.

Speaking of Mastodon: Just because it's being "brought to the Fediverse", doesn't mean it'll be adopted by Mastodon.

#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #Fediverse #Mastodon #MastodonCentrism #MastodonNormativity #Friendica #Hubzilla #Streams #(streams) #Forte #NomadicIdentity #StatusNet #Threadiverse #Lemmy #/kbin #Mbin #PieFed #Groups #FediGroups #FediverseGroups
dansupdansup
2025-11-03

Made in Canada.

@evan I'm honestly speechless seeing you launch photos.cosocial.ca

Your StatusNet software changed everything for me. I ran it until 2016, and it led me to Mastodon, which eventually inspired Pixelfed in 2018.

You've been my hero since day one. To see you now using Pixelfed... this moment feels impossibly full circle.

Thank you for everything you've built and for inspiring generations of federated software builders.

The future is federated. ❤️

2025-10-19
@Maxi 11x 💉
Das Fediverse wird immer mehr zu Facebook und ich hab da wenig Lust drauf.

Das Fediverse war Facebook, bevor es von Millionen von ahnungslosen Mastodon-Newbies zu Twitter gemacht wurde.

Mehr als die Hälfte der Mastodon-Nutzer glaubt, das Fediverse sei nur Mastodon. Der weit überwiegende Teil derer, die eines Besseren belehrt wurden, glauben immer noch, das Fediverse sei
  • (frühestens) 2016
  • von Eugen Rochko
  • als reine Microblogging-Plattform und Twitter-Klon
  • mit einem Zeichenlimit von 500 Zeichen
erfunden worden. Und alles, was davon abweicht und nicht "offensichtlich (wie PeerTube & Co.) als Extra an Mastodon drangeklebt" worden ist, wird aufgefaßt als lästige Eindringlinge im Mastodon-Fediverse, die sich nicht an die Regeln des Mastodon-Fediverse halten und sich auch nicht an die Kultur des Mastodon-Fediverse anpassen.

Um das mal zurechtzurücken:

Im Januar 2016 ging Mastodon an den Start.

Im Juli 2010, fünfeinhalb Jahre vor Mastodon, startete Friendica (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendica, https://friendi.ca) als Facebook-Alternative.
  • Ohne Zeichenbegrenzung (tatsächlich 16.777.215 Zeichen).
  • Mit allem, was eine gute Bloggingplattform an Textformatierung hergibt.
  • Mit Inhaltswarnungen, die jeder für sich selbst automatisch generieren lassen kann mittels einer Liste von Schlüsselwörtern.
  • Mit Titeln und Zusammenfassungen, und die Zusammenfassungen waren schon immer in dem Datenfeld, das Mastodon seit 2017 für CWs verwendet.
  • Mit der Fähigkeit, andere Posts als Komplettzitate zu teilen. Und nicht ein einziges Mal ist das mißbräuchlich verwendet worden.

Jetzt regen sich Mastodon-Nutzer darüber auf, daß Friendica auf so infame und rücksichtslose Art und Weise ins Mastodon-Fediverse eingedrungen ist und seine Nutzer
  • sich nicht ans 500-Zeichen-Limit halten
  • alle mit ihren Textformatierungen nerven
  • keine CWs schreiben
  • dafür das CW-Feld mißbrauchen mit "Titeln oder was weiß ich, was das ist"
Daß Friendica schon seit über 15 Jahren quote-posten kann, weiß zum Glück beinahe niemand auf Mastodon.

Fakt ist aber: Friendica gab es nicht nur schon fünfeinhalb Jahre, als Mastodon startete, sondern es war auch schon fünfeinhalb Jahre im Fediverse, als Mastodon startete. Und es hatte auch schon gut fünf Jahre lang seine eigene Kultur, als Mastodon startete.

In dem Augenblick, wo Mastodon startete, verband es sich sofort mit StatusNet (von 2008, wofür Mastodon ursprünglich nur eine Alternativoberfläche war; heute GNU social, https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Social, https://gnusocial.rocks/), Friendica und Hubzilla (von 2015, basiert auf einem Fork eines Forks von Friendica von 2012; https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubzilla, https://hubzilla.org). Und nicht umgekehrt.

Wir waren zuerst hier. Findet euch damit ab.

#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #LangerPost #CWLangerPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #Fediverse #NichtNurMastodon #MastodonZentrizität #MastodonNormativität #StatusNet #GNUsocial #Friendica #Hubzilla #CW #CWs #CWMeta #ContentWarning #ContentWarnings #ContentWarningMeta #Zeichenlimit #Zeichenlimits #ZeichenlimitMeta #CWZeichenlimitMeta #500Zeichen #QuotePost #QuotePosts #QuoteTweet #QuoteTweets #QuoteToot #QuoteToots #QuoteTröt #QuoteTröts #QuoteBoost #QuoteBoosts #QuotedShares #QuotePostDebatte #QuoteTrötDebatte
Johannes Brakensiekletterus@kirche.social
2025-10-13

Das #Fediverse ist (zumindest an ein paar Stellen) in der Mitte der Gesellschaft angekommen. Das ist stark und sicher mehr als mensch hoffen konnte als @evan damals 2008 #identica und #StatusNet gegründet und geschrieben hat.
Andererseits: Es ist auch eine Entwicklung von jetzt 17 Jahren, die zeigt, wie lange solche Projekte auch "im digitalen Zeitalter" brauchen. #ostatus #activitypub

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identi.ca

2025-08-07

#FediverseHistogram

On October 2, 2013, GNU social developer MMN-o (Mikael Nordfeldth) published a blog piece announcing that they'd rolled out a change to their WebFinger implementation, adding backwards-compatible support for the RFC7033 version;

"Plus of course the former RFC6415 (Web Host Metadata), which StatusNet supports (but only XRD format)."

web.archive.org/web/2016072211

For those who don't know, masrodon.social was created to federate with #GnuSocial servers.

#WebFinger #StatusNet

2025-08-04

@h2owasser

Diese Frage stellt sich mir so nicht.

Ich bin seit 2008, oft mit eigenen Instanzen, im #Fediverse.

Zuerst auf #Identica, #Pumpio, #StatusNet und #GnuSocial, bis heute mit #Mastodon und #Diaspora.

Auch bei #Misskey, #Pleroma, #GoToSocial, #Friendica, #Hubzilla. #WriteFreely und #Pixelfed hatte ich Abstecher gemacht und diese Systeme getestet. Schlussendlich bin ich eben bei Mastodon und Diaspora hängengeblieben.

Da beutetet aber nicht, dass ich nicht weiterhin die Augen aufhalten und andere Projekte ausprobieren werde, und wer weiß, vielleicht ist irgendwann ja doch ein Wechsel für mich fällig. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

2025-06-24
@Mirko Schenk
wenn ich das recht mitbekam, war z.B. die "Content Warning" im Protokoll eigentlich als Überschrift gedacht, wurde dann für "Spoiler" genutzt, die dann zu den CWs wurde.

Ursprünglich war das die Zusammenfassung von StatusNet von 2008.

Überschriften im Sinne von Post-Titeln kamen im Fediverse 2010 mit Mistpark (heute Friendica) an, und zwar zusätzlich zu Zusammenfassungen. Aber die spielen auf Mastodon nur eine Rolle bei Article-Type Objects, wo Mastodon den Titel zeigt und dann aufs Original verlinkt.

2017 kam dann ein Bastler aus der Demoszene und reichte auf Mastodon einen Pull Request ein, mit dem auf Mastodon die Unterstützung des Zusammenfassungsfelds eingebaut wurde. Aber nicht als Zusammenfassung, weil das bei nur 500 Zeichen Quatsch wäre, sondern als Inhaltswarnung.

Seitdem glauben alle auf Mastodon, das Feld wäre von vornherein für CWs und nur für CWs erfunden worden.

Quoted Posts werden jetzt nach etlichen Jahren langsam eingeführt

Auf Mastodon. Fast das ganze übrige Fediverse hat sie schon. Friendica hat sie auch schon seit Anbeginn (2010). Und so können Friendica und Hubzilla Mastodon-Tröts quote-posten, seit es Mastodon überhaupt gibt. Und das werden sie weiterhin können, egal, wer auf Mastodon was wie einstellt.

Andererseits muss man Mastodon halt zugestehen, dass es den Einstieg vergleichsweise einfach macht. Also abgesehen davon, dass dieses Instanzen-Zeug für Monopol-gewohnte User anscheinend generell nicht so einfach ist.

Och, 2022/2023 sind auch Unmengen an Japanern nach misskey.io gerailroadet worden.

Mastodon ist nur so groß, weil es praktisch allen westlichen Twitter-Flüchtlingen als die einzige Twitter-Alternative angepriesen wurde. Wohlgemerkt, überwiegend von Leuten, die selbst glaubten, das Fediverse sei nur Mastodon.

Und die meisten Alternativen skalieren auch schlecht auf sehr viele User.

Wobei Mastodon eigentlich pro Identität absurd viele Server-Ressourcen braucht. Möglicherweise kommt das notorische Fliegengewicht Akkoma mit noch mehr Identitäten pro Server klar.

Selbst die Friendica-Familie ist dank PHP leichtwiegiger als Mastodon, auch Friendica selbst, das um 2012 geradezu absurd viel Leistung pro Nase brauchte, und sogar das Featuremonster Hubzilla. Weil die aber ziemlich obskur sind und auf (streams) geschätzt 90% aller Nutzer und auf Forte praktisch jeder auf einem eigenen Server ist, ist überhaupt nicht bekannt, wie die skalieren. Also, mal abgesehen vom Schluckauf, den die bestehenden bekannteren Nodes Anfang des Jahres hatten, als haufenweise Leute aus Facebook umgestiegen sind.

GoToSocial dürfte auch eine Riesenkapazität haben auf entsprechend leistungsfähigen Maschinen, gerade auch, weil es kein Web-Frontend hat. Da ist es nur eben so, daß eine Fediverse-Serveranwendung ohne Web-Frontend jetzt nicht unbedingt so attraktiv ist, auch wenn alle Welt mit Smartphone-Apps unterwegs ist.

CC: @Michael Blume

#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #LangerPost #CWLangerPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #Fediverse #StatusNet #GNUsocial #Mastodon #Friendica #Hubzilla #Streams #(streams) #Forte #Akkoma #GoToSocial #CW #CWs #CWMeta #ContentWarning #ContentWarnings #ContentWarningMeta
Sarven Capadislicsarven@w3c.social
2025-06-05

@classicweb @evan

I did the whole frontend (some backend) for #StatusNet #identica. HTML, CSS - no JavaScript.

I take pride in that work b/c it was technically "state of the art".

Progressively enhanced; valid markup, alternate stylesheets, and a tonne of structured data directly in the pages. Essentially enabling a read API.

Something for the #microformats fans:

microformats.org/discuss/mail/

microformats.org/discuss/mail/

>the best implementations of microformats in a social
media site

#FediForum

2025-05-07
@crossgolf_rebel - kostenlose Kwalitätsposts Interessant ist der Punkt, wo Laconi.ca, also der Quellcode von Identi.ca, zu StatusNet wurde: Haufenweise Leute wollten ihre eigenen Microblogging-Server mit dieser Software fahren, stellten dann aber fest, daß sie damit völlig isoliert waren, weil die Server ja nicht miteinander kommunizierten. Das war der eigentliche Startschuß der Föderation, weil Evan an der Stelle erstmals ein Protokoll schrieb, mit dem solche Server miteinander interagieren konnten.

#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #LangerPost #CWLangerPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #Identi.ca #Laconi.ca #StatusNet
Yohan Yukiya Sese Cuneta 사요한 🧇youronlyone@app.wafrn.net
2025-05-05

The bang (!) version originated from Laconica later renamed to StatusNet and later became GNUsocial. It was the very first and original Fediverse software, way back in 2008. It was always meant for groups.

Mastodon® software is planning on adding groups too, and they probably will use bang (!) as well. Besides, it's the only logical reason.

The sharp/pound/hashtag (#) is for hashtags ever since hashtags were invented. While the atsam (@) is for user accounts that has been around since the 90s (afaik).

What looks like an "email" is called WebFinger. It is actually a webstandard (see: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebFinger ). Aside from email addresses and OpenID, the first social network [software] that used it was Laconica/StatusNet/GNUsocial in 2008 (the birth of the Fediverse).

Since Threadiverse software like Lemmy, Kbin, and Mbin were built for the Fediverse network, they're following the standards and established practices, instead of reinventing the wheel. If they were joining the Matrix network, they no doubt would follow the standards and practices in the Matrix network.

That's the answer to "why".


#Laconica #StatusNet #GNUsocial #Fediverse #Mastodon #WebFinger #Threadiverse #Lemmy #Kbin #Mbin
The Secret Life Of Plants🌱Blickwinkel@digitalcourage.social
2025-01-26

Gnihihi, in alten Dateien gewühlt, eigentlich was ganz anderes gesucht...
Das gefunden... 6.September 2014 #statusnet #quitter #gnusocial #fediverse

Liebe Twitterer,
unser Ansturm auf Quitter(quitter.se) hat offenbar den Server ( old.quitter.se) arg belastet.
Dadurch wird die Seite langsam, was schon viele von euch bemängelt haben. Es lässt sich jedoch ganz einfach vermeiden.
Wie ich an mir selbst festgestellt habe, ist die ganze Sache nicht so ohne Weiteres für jeden verständlich...

Der Server, also old.quitter.se ist einer von vielen im StatusNet. Eine Liste möglicher Server im Statusnet findet ihr hier:
skilledtests.com/wiki/List_of_
...
Ihr könnt euch bei jedem x-beliebigen dieser Server einen Account anmelden. Es muss nicht zwingend old.quitter.se sein. Nehmt bitte einen anderen!!
.... Also, seid bitte so nett, und richtet euch eure Accounts nicht alle bei quitter.se ein, nutzt auch die vielen
anderen! Ansonsten vergeht uns auf Quitter bald allen der Spaß

🙈😂 #neuhier #althier

Liebe Twitterer, 

unser Ansturm auf Quitter(https://quitter.se) hat offenbar den Server ( http://old.quitter.se) arg belastet. 

Dadurch wird die Seite langsam, was schon viele von euch bemängelt haben. Es lässt sich jedoch ganz einfach vermeiden. 

Wie ich an mir selbst festgestellt habe, ist die ganze Sache nicht so ohne Weiteres für jeden verständlich. Daher versuche ich mich hier mal an einer Erklärung: 

 

Der Server, also old.quitter.se ist einer von vielen im StatusNet. Eine Liste möglicher Server im Statusnet findet ihr hier: 

http://www.skilledtests.com/wiki/List_of_Independent_Statusnet_Instances 

 

Der Vorteil von StatusNet ist die Dezentralität. Wenn euch der Begriff "Denzentrales Netzwerk" nichts sagt, könnt ihr hier gucken: http://www.golem.de/news/das-soziale-netzwerk-der-zukunft-wie-facebook-nur-besser-1405-106310.html 

oder auch hier: http://stefanhabring.me/fileadmin/portfolio/assets/Habring-Stefan-Bachelorarbeit-Teil-2.pdf und die Vorteile werden euch schnell bewusst werden. 

 

Ihr könnt euch bei jedem x-beliebigen dieser Server einen Account anmelden. Es muss nicht zwingend old.quitter.se sein. Nehmt bitte einen anderen!! 

Was euch so gut an Quitter gefällt, ist die Web-Oberfläche, die euch an Tw.... (ihr wisst schon XD) erinnert. Diese Weboberfläche, wie Quitter, bieten auch andere Websites an, wie z. B. 

http://micro.vinilox.eu/. Dort könnt ihr euch z. B. anmelden und habt das gleiche Design, ohne gleichzeitig den Server old.quitter.se über Geb
Colegota en Akkomacolegota@fe.disroot.org
2024-12-30
Reproduzco aquí mi despedida del nodo gnusocial.net que va a cerrar con las uvas y que tantas alegrías nos dio a quienes lo poblamos.

Pues, como decían antes en los conciertos, "ya sabéis que la cosa se está acabando o casi acabando..." y que antes de que empecéis a dar la tabarra con los #cachitos de nochevieja 😀 este nodo de !gnusocial habrá cerrado.

Y yo siento que tengo mucho que agradecer.
Primero, claro, a la gente que lo hizo posible técnicamente. La que desarrolló #statusNet y sus antecesores y secuelas. Y que estuvieron manteniendo y ampliando mientras pudieron. Así como a las diferentes personas que han mantenido el nodo en pié a lo largo de no sé si doce o más años.

Pero también, a quienes estuvisteis aquí. Ocupando este lugar y dándonos un sitio acogedor donde resistir mientras el resto del planeta abrazaba el capitalismo de vigilancia.

Y, sobre todo, sobre todo, sobre todo. A nuestro querido @administrator. A quien solo puedo decir gracias, gracias, gracias, por habernos traído hasta aquí. 🤗 🤗 🤗

Y me despido con este vídeo que me parece un buen recuerdo con el que quedarnos.

Como aquí nunca hemos tenido #AltText, os cuento que el vídeo es una animación con figuras tipo comic en el que se ve una isla que está siendo ocupada por grandes edificios y personas con dinero y lupas representando a las GAFAM. Y que poco a poco van saliendo aldeas con unas pocas personas que se comunican entre sí.

Enlace al video
http://www.fotolibre.org/albums/tomatuordenador/tto-locos-redelibreros-c01-720.ogv

¡Larga vida al #fediverso!
2024-12-18
@@reiver ⊼ (Charles) :batman: Mastodon did start out as a full-stack Web application AFAIK. It used the OStatus protocol, the same protocol as what GNU social was based on and what StatusNet was using prior to its merger with its own fork, GNU social.

However, at first, it was not positioned as a fully independent project of its own, much less a federated walled garden that allegedly only connected to itself. It was initially conceived and advertised as an alternative to GNU social proper with a different, "easier-to-use", more Twitter-like GUI being its main selling-point.

I guess it's pretty obvious that what was working underneath was not GNU social proper either. Two examples to prove this:

Neither Identi.ca nor StatusNet nor GNU social had a rigid, hard-coded character limit of 500 characters. Mastodon had it from the get-go.

Also, Identi.ca, StatusNet and GNU social had a summary field. It was part of the OpenMicroBlogging and OStatus protocols. Both Friendica and Hubzilla made use of this summary field as such. Mastodon did not have the summary field implemented because summaries were pointless if all you had was 500 characters.

Fast-forward to 2017. Mastodon had meanwhile repositioned itself on the "market" as a stand-alone microblogging platform, implying to be a "decentralised, federated walled garden" with its own exclusive technology that nothing else used, and that nothing else connected to. Something that just about every last Mastodon newbie takes Mastodon for still today.

At some point in 2017, a Mastodon user from the demo scene with some development experience submitted a pull request to Mastodon's GitHub repository which would repurpose this very same summary field as a content warning field. The pull request was accepted and merged. Ever since shortly afterwards, Mastodon users started believing that Mastodon's content warning field was invented by Eugen Rochko from scratch. And they still do.

#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #Fediverse #Identi.ca #StatusNet #OStatus #Mastodon #Friendica #Hubzilla #FediverseHistory
2024-12-15
@@reiver ⊼ (Charles) :batman: 2008. When @Evan Prodromou launched Identi.ca.

After all, Mastodon started out as an alternative frontend for GNU social. GNU social is a fork of StatusNet. StatusNet, in turn, was the software which Identi.ca used to run on until it was merged into GNU social in 2013. (Evan first launched Identi.ca, and then he open-sourced the technology under the name of Laconi.ca, later StatusNet.)

This also means that the OStatus protocol is part of Mastodon's history as well. OStatus is the protocol that GNU social was based on back in the day and probably still is, that later versions of StatusNet were based on, and that Mastodon was originally based on. It's the successor to OpenMicroBlogging, the protocol that Identi.ca was launched on, and that early StatusNet was based on. But it was gone when Mastodon was launched.

It's also fair to mention Friendica, the Facebook alternative launched by @Mike Macgirvin ?️ in 2010, and Hubzilla, the "federated social content management system" which, in 2015, emerged from something that Mike himself had forked off Friendica in 2012.

Both speak a whole lot of protocols. Hubzilla used to speak OStatus, Friendica still does. And so, when the very first Mastodon test release came out in early 2016, and the very first Mastodon instance was started up, it was immediately able to connect to GNU social, Friendica and Hubzilla.

It's an important part of Mastodon's history that Mastodon has never in its history been an isolated walled garden, that Mastodon has never in its history been connected to only itself.

Speaking of Hubzilla, it should be mentioned once again, namely in 2017.

The very first Fediverse project to implement ActivityPub was Hubzilla in July. Mastodon followed in September. These two were the only Fediverse projects that adopted ActivityPub before it was declared a standard. And so, for quite a while, it was only these two that could use ActivityPub to connect to each other (while still also being able to do so via OStatus, by the way). But since both have vastly different philosophies, actual compatibility was and still is limited.

#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #Fediverse #Identi.ca #StatusNet #OStatus #Mastodon #Friendica #Hubzilla #ActivityPub #FediverseHistory
2024-12-11
@cy
The people who wrote the Fediverse

There were no "people who wrote the Fediverse". These was no committee who laid down the standards.

The Fediverse was invented by @Evan Prodromou. In 2008. By first creating a centralised Twitter alternative silo named Identi.ca.

And then open-sourcing the underlying technology as Laconi.ca, later StatusNet (merged into GNU social in 2013).

And then laying the protocol open as OpenMicroBlogging, later superseded by OStatus.

Then, in 2010, @Mike Macgirvin ?️ decided that the world needs a free, open-source, decentralised, secure alternative to Facebook that's better than Facebook. And so he made Mistpark, today Friendica.

But the features he wanted Friendica to have were impossible to achieve with any existing protocol. OStatus wasn't even that good for microblogging, much less Mike's ambitious plans. Besides, he's an experienced protocol designer. So he created a whole new protocol, DFRN, and built Friendica on top of it. Friendica did adopt OStatus as an extra protocol, though, because Friendica's goal was and still is to federate with everything and then some.

In 2011, Mike had seen many public Friendica nodes shut down with or without warning and people always losing everything and having to start over from scratch. So he decided to do something against it.

He invented nomadic identity. And built a new protocol around it, Zot, because there was no way DFRN could take care of this, let alone OStatus.

In 2012, he forked Friendica into Red and rewrote the whole backend against Zot, which, however, required the creation of yet another identity scheme.

For one, one login could now have multiple fully separate and independent identities on it. For example, my Hubzilla channel URL is https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/channel/jupiter_rowland.

Besides, one identity could now reside on multiple server instances which is what nomadic identity means.

Red was later renamed Red Matrix and, in 2015, refactored, redesigned and renamed into Hubzilla.

Mastodon and Pleroma started in 2016 as OStatus-based alternative UIs for GNU social. Mastodon was the first to be turned into a stand-alone project with not much interest in connecting to anything outside, all in spite of already being federated with Pleroma, GNU social, Friendica and Hubzilla via OStatus.

ActivityPub came out in 2017. No, not 2018. It was standardised in 2018. But it came out in 2017.

In July, 2017, Hubzilla was the first Fediverse project to integrate ActivityPub. Next to its own Zot, next to diaspora*, next to OStatus etc. On the one hand, Hubzilla tried to stay as close to the ActivityPub spec as possible and feasible. On the other hand, Hubzilla had to make its ActivityPub integration, which has always been an optional add-on, compatible to its own technology, to its own Zot protocol, to the way it works.

In September, Mastodon was the second Fediverse project to adopt ActivityPub. But Mastodon was more interested in doing its own thing and being as close to Twitter as it could than in sticking to a protocol spec, much less connecting to non-Mastodon stuff such as Hubzilla with which it already shared two protocols now.

Mastodon was the one that added Webfinger. ActivityPub doesn't even require Webfinger. The ActivityPub spec doesn't contain Webfinger. But Mastodon requires Webfinger. It can't live without Webfinger. So everything that wants to properly federate with Mastodon needs to implement Webfinger.

After ActivityPub had become a standard, more projects adopted it. But as lax a specification as ActivityPub is, it allowed for a lot of liberties.

Some devs looked at how Mastodon had integrated ActivityPub, decided it was rubbish and did it their own way.

Some devs looked at how Mastodon had integrated ActivityPub, decided they couldn't do it the same way because what they did was too different from Mastodon and did it their own way.

Some devs didn't look at what anyone else did and did it their own way.

Probably none of them looked at how Hubzilla had integrated ActivityPub because none of them even knew that Hubzilla existed. Except for those who were maintaining Friendica now. And Friendica had to make it compatible with DFRN and with the way it had been working since 2010.

Fast-forward to 2023. Mike's current piece of work was the streams repository which contains an intentionally nameless fork of a fork of three forks of a fork (of a fork) of Hubzilla, slimmed down from Hubzilla, but modernised and technologically even more advanced.

It was then that @silverpill, creator and maintainer of Mitra, got into contact with him because he wanted to add nomadic identity to Mitra. Something that's built on ActivityPub and only supports ActivityPub. A first. No-one had ever done nomadic identity with nothing but ActivityPub before.

So the two started working on how to implement nomadic identity using only ActivityPub. Mike had a vision of a Fediverse with nomadic identity all over and Fediverse identities cloned beyond server application borders. Like, a (streams) channel cloned to Mitra, Mastodon, PeerTube and Mobilizon, all with the same identity.

This, however, required another, brand-new way of identifying Fediverse actors. And so FEP-ef61 "Portable Objects" was created.

We're probably in the middle of xkcd 927 now.

Mike set up an experimental branch of (streams) to develop and test nomadic identity via ActivityPub, also since (streams) already had nomadic identity anyway.

Around summer, the "nomadic" branch (for nomadic identity via ActivityPub) seemed reliable enough to merge it into "dev". And in July, "dev" was merged into "release", complete with nomadic-identity-via-ActivityPub code.

It was shortly after that merge that I created my two (streams) channels. The channel URL of my channel for Fediverse memes is https://streams.elsmussols.net/channel/fedimemes_on_streams. But its DID, which all channels created on accounts registered after that merge got, is https://streams.elsmussols.net/.well-known/apgateway/did:⁠key:z6Mkf2dhUa65zBYCNVqs3AHyt8uPixauZ7bPzEJn15LJANsd/actor. And that's only two IDs of the same channel. There are also others for (streams)' native Nomad protocol, Hubzilla's Zot6 protocol, ActivityPub, OAuth, OAuth2 and probably also OpenWebAuth magic single sign-on, another one of Mike's creations. Not to mention that (streams) channels, like Hubzilla channels and Friendica accounts, can also optionally be group actors.

In fact, this blew up into (streams) users' faces because (streams) confused the various IDs to such degrees that it wouldn't federate at all anymore. It took Mike a whole lot of work to iron this out again, so much that he officially retired from Fediverse development on August 31st.

And in the middle of this, he even created yet another fork, Forte, which is (streams) minus Nomad, minus Zot6, based on and supporting only ActivityPub. My guess is still that one of the reasons to create Forte at that point was to get rid of the Nomad and Zot6 IDs to sort the ID mess out.

Even if nomadic identity via ActivityPub should ever become stable and start spreading, I don't expect DIDs to become the one norm in the Fediverse. Not with all those barely or unmaintained projects and those devs who refuse to acknowledge that devs of other projects do great stuff, too.

#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #Fediverse #OStatus #DFRN #Zot #ActivityPub #Nomad #Laconi.ca #Identi.ca #StatusNet #GNUsocial #Friendica #Hubzilla #Mastodon #Pleroma #Streams #(streams) #Forte #FEP_ef61
Sebastian Krzyszkowiakdos@librem.one
2024-11-29

Does anyone happen to know whether the old data of #identica users that weren't migrated over when it switched from #StatusNet to #pumpio has been archived anywhere? I see a mention that there was a plan to upload it to @internetarchive, but can't find anything more than that. #fediverse #ostatus

@reiver ⊼ (Charles) :batman:reiver
2024-11-17

From @tonytins on the history of the Fediverse, Mastodon, and ActivityPub, and how it has similarities to Bluesky's history.

github.com/pixelfed/pixelfed/i

The Fediverse owes its existence to a company that was no different from Bluesky. Like Bluesky, StatusNet was a company with software named after it (now GNU Social), and its goal was to federate microblogging. Their software used a protocol called OStatus. It was based on hodgepodge of other software and saw little adoption. Mastodon was one of the few exceptions and soon became the dominant federated platform. Meanwhile, StatusNet decided to start from scratch and created ActivityPub with Pump.io as their testing ground. When it was done, they handed it over to W3C. Bluesky has a similar roadmap.

So while I get your concerns, give these people some slack. The developers of Bluesky had the rug pulled under them twice. First, Dorsey left when they added stricter user moderation, and then Elon took over Twitter, their primary source of funding. Naturally, Elon sees Bluesky as a threat and target now. The last thing these people need is the Fediverse, the one group who share similar visions, shunning them too.

This isn't Threads.
2024-11-15
@Dr Pen Twitter support on Friendica and Hubzilla is technically still implemented, but factually ended when Twitter closed their API for third-party clients. That was when Musk was already at the helm.

Facebook support on Friendica must have started in late 2011 when Mike still maintained it, and it already ended in 2012, but that might have been when the community maintained Facebook.

By the way, diaspora* support came to Friendica in mid-2011 after about half a year of work, including a lot of reverse-engineering. Hubzilla, being a Friendica fork, has had it since it was launched.

OStatus support was removed from Hubzilla with version 6. I'd have to look up when it came out. Whether Friendica still supports it, no idea.

The uafilter was introduced to (streams) and Forte in September, 2024.

CC: @Johannes Ernst

#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #Fediverse #StatusNet #diaspora* #Tumblr #Twitter #Facebook #Friendica #Hubzilla #Streams #(streams) #Forte

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