Big rumblings in the expansion of the #Fediverse have been happening recently.
#Tumblr has already promised to implement #ActivityPub (the protocol Mastodon uses), which will mean you can follow Tumblr accounts from here and vice versa. And today we a learning that #Flickr is also considering it!
This will be a massive expansion, which obviously carries some uncertainties, but I, for one, welcome our new federation partners.
This is the way the internet is supposed to work.
@pammystarr @katedegerdon @john
That already exists: https://masto.host offers managed Mastodon hosting ($40/mo for ~500 users, seems a bit high but not unreasonable to me), but right now they are so swamped they're not taking new subscriptions. Heck of a problem to have as a business.
I do have some questions about how well Mastodon (the mainline server) scales, and if there are opportunities for optimization that could make managed hosting cheaper per user.
@kadin @pammystarr @katedegerdon Other implementations of ActivityPub are more efficient, so I understand. Pleroma for one.
Still, I think masto.host offers a good deal, and their support is top-notch.
Toot.io also offers managed hosting, but it's starts pretty high: https://toot.io/mastodon_hosting.html
@john @kadin @pammystarr @katedegerdon
I think Pleroma is the way to go. Its Elixir-based scalable architecture, design and compatibility surpasses Mastodon, but it does need more love on the web UI side of things.
The Metatext app connects seamlessly to it as well as Mastodon.
@rsalas @kadin @pammystarr @katedegerdon
Pleroma's web-facing aspect could do with some work, yes. But also, is there a reason Pleroma instances seem to be run by mostly trollish dickheads?
@john
> Pleroma's web-facing aspect
... doesn't matter. It's an artifact of a much older 'verse that you can be appreciate for its olde world charm. Or...
... you can toss it aside and hook up a Pleroma server to literally any other web app you like, including the default Mastodon web apps themselves, Pinafore, Soapbox, Glitch-lily etc. You could fork and update abandoned ones like Halcyon or Brutaldon if you're into that. Bonfire is coming soon...
@kadin
> The web UI should ideally be just like any other client... using the same APIs,
The ActivityPub spec actually has a server>client API, but I'm not sure if it's ever been implemented. Mastodon has its own bespoke API, which Pleroma implemented too.
> potentially not even running on the same server.
I've been using pinafore.social as my web app, which is an instance on Pinafore running on a different server from mastodon.nzoss.nz.
John Conway
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PammyStarr 
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Kadin
Ramiro Salas 
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