f00f/eris/continuum/etcSince Mastodon saw its initial popularity circa 2017, I've noticed that most users and those reporting on it either don't think about the Fediverse as anything more than Mastodon, or treat its history as beginning with Eugen Rochko and the beginning of Mastodon. In fact, Mastodon is the latest in a long line of federated social networks going at least back to Identi.ca, and though I wasn't around for all of it, I find this history pretty interesting. (Thread; boosts welcome!)
The open-source microblogging software Laconica was developed by the company of the same name, owned by Evan Prodromou, starting around 2007. It was to be the basis of the social network Identi.ca, and a hosting service for the internal networks of various companies. Since Laconica was open-source, any user had the right to run their own public instance of the software, and Prodromou wanted these instances to be able to communicate with one another, like e-mail servers.
For this purpose, he created the OpenMicroBlogging protocol, which, although limited, allowed Identi.ca users to communicate with users of other Laconica instances, like Leo Laporte's TWiT Army. In August 2009, Laconica - both the company and the software - was renamed to StatusNet. The same year they began developing OStatus as a more advanced protocol for federation, which by March 2010 had allowed different StatusNet instances to act almost as a single social network.
Adding to this were other projects, such as Friendica and GNU social (which would eventually replace StatusNet), which used the same protocol but with a different (in the provided examples, Facebook-like) feature set. Though Identi.ca remained the central server that most users went to, this collective of servers communicating using OStatus became known as the "federated social web," or alternately as the "Fediverse".
In 2013, StatusNet Inc. was running short on money. Prodromou closed registrations for Identi.ca and laid off the company's staff. But his efforts continued, as he developed a new, more extensible platform called Pump.io. It was never as popular as Identi.ca or StatusNet, but those interested in the future of the federated social web followed its development closely.
That June, StatusNet development merged with GNU social. Without Identi.ca as a central hub, the number of instances expanded and decentralization was realized. I started getting involved a few years after this change; I tried out GNU social as part of a broader effort to open-source my life, and I found quite a lot of people also involved in open-source.
Unfortunately, the federated social web of this time was quite poorly moderated; there were servers with rules against certain kinds of harmful content, but their admins had difficulty keeping up with other instances that did not share the same rules, including a lot of "free speech" instances that permitted everything within the law. The existing platforms were not yet able to suspend entire instances, so the moderators of each instance were effectively required to moderate the whole fediverse.
Mastodon's arrival on the scene nearly constituted a reset of the federated social web. Upon its release in 2016, it federated with GNU social, but it quickly eclipsed that platform in userbase, and most of the new users were unaware of the history behind the federated social web. While Mastodon expanded, GNU social seemingly stagnated, with major instances either disappearing or moving to more advanced federated platforms like Mastodon or Pleroma.
Mastodon saw significant expansion in 2017, with #DeleteFacebook and similar pushes against proprietary social networks, and a few larger companies supporting the platform. This was also the first time many instances began suspending, or "defederating from", entire other servers in the Fediverse.
Blocklists of instances with problematic content were widely shared, effectively shutting those instances out of the network; most successful was the #FediBlock hashtag, started by Black users such as artist Marcia X. For a time, this was highly effective in protecting some users, and even led to the fediverse becoming a haven for queer, leftist, and neurodivergent communities. Unfortunately, racism on the Fediverse persists to this day, even on some otherwise well-moderated instances.
Around the same time, Pump.io's ActivityPump protocol was being built upon by a number of experts to form the W3C standard ActivityPub. Mastodon, Friendica, and Pleroma were eager to adopt the new standard, even before it was formally published, and eventually Mastodon and Pleroma would drop their support for OStatus. The Fediverse would continue to expand and new platforms were developed - PeerTube for video sharing, Pixelfed for image sharing, BookWyrm for book reviewing, etc.
In October of 2022, billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk completed his purchase of Twitter, the platform that the largest Fediverse platforms had always aimed to compete with. Under his leadership, in just a month, most of the company's staff was fired, several features of the website became broken, right-wing content was massively promoted, and fears rapidly rose about the website dying or becoming the exclusive territory of the far-right.
As a result, many fledgling social networks, as well as established networks with better reputations, absorbed massive influxes of Twitter users. The Fediverse was among the more established networks; it saw activity rise into the millions of users, and that's where things stand now. Amidst chaos on the large instances, the usefulness of the Fediverse in finding communities has increased greatly.
But this influx has brought new challenges as well - slowdowns and moderation issues on many instances as they have difficulty absorbing the increased traffic, a further increase in the zealous use of instance suspensions threatening to fragment the network and create centralized silos, and many new users having difficulty understanding how the network functions.
(Thanks for making it to the end of this thread! I hope I didn't make any egregious errors.)
A couple additional notes:
- There were plenty of federated communication platforms before Identi.ca. Usenet, FIDOnet (federated BBSes), IRC networks, and of course, e-mail are examples. The lineage to Mastodon is less direct, but it's there.
- The Diaspora social network, founded and crowdfunded in 2010 by four NYU students and inspired by the ideas of Eben Moglen, is another large federated microblogging platform, but uses its own protocol and is separate from the others.
- There were plenty of federated communication platforms before Identi.ca. Usenet, FIDOnet (federated BBSes), IRC networks, and of course, e-mail are examples. The lineage to Mastodon is less direct, but it's there.
- The Diaspora social network, founded and crowdfunded in 2010 by four NYU students and inspired by the ideas of Eben Moglen, is another large federated microblogging platform, but uses its own protocol and is separate from the others.
- The maintainers of GNU social also worked on the federated music community GNU FM, of which the most prominent instance was Libre.fm (which I also used around the same time I used GNU social). As @mattl describes it, GNU social was his effort to redirect use of GNU FM as a social network, to something better suited for social networking. Both projects started around 2009.
Made some edits to the thread. @clacke tells me that the term Fediverse has been in use since 2011-12, and I can believe that. @jesuisatire confirmed my suggestion that instance suspensions didn't exist in the fediverse during the GNU social era - at the very least, Friendica did not have such a feature.
jeSuisatire neindochohh ᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷ#fediverse most likely came out of:
#federatedweb #thefederation
https://the-federation.info/
https://pod.geraspora.de/tags/federatedweb
11 years ago (23/11/2011):
https://pod.geraspora.de/posts/241894
https://pod.geraspora.de/tags/thefederation
8 years ago:
https://pod.geraspora.de/posts/207698050916223098054533c43e9e16
A publication of diaspora.arg about how to get rid of a troll on an instance scale (27/03/2017):
https://pod.geraspora.de/posts/35714b00d6b201330f7c00145e5c073c
(I know because .. 😮 )
¿Qué es un troll y cómo nos defendemos de ellos?
¿Qué es un troll y cómo nos defendemos de ellos? http://bitsocialmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Internet-Troll.jpg http://bitsocialmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Internet-Troll.jpg En la jerga de Internet, un trol o troll describe a una persona que publica mensajes provocadores, irrelevantes o fuera de tema en una comunidad en línea, como ser un foro de discusión, sala de chat, comentarios de blog, o similar, con la principal intención de molestar o provocar una respuesta emocional negativa en los usuarios y lectores, con fines diversos (incluso por diversión) o, de otra manera, alterar la conversación normal en un tema de discusión, logrando que los mismos usuarios se enfaden y se enfrenten entre sí. Según la Universidad de Indiana son una comunidad en aumento. El trol puede crear mensajes con diferente tipo de contenido como groserías, ofensas, mentiras difíciles de detectar, con la intención de confundir y ocasionar sentimientos encontrados en los demás. (https://es.w...
clacke: exhausted pixie dream boy 🇸🇪🇭🇰💙💛@jesuisatire People involved with the identi.ca-centered network used the term "federated social web" at least a few (EDIT: months) before the first Diaspora pod was deployed:
www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/fede…
The Fediverse was coined as an alternative to the Identiverse. Marjolein Katsma used both in parallel to promote the term:
web.archive.org/web/2013051712…
@f00fc7c8
www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/fede…
The Fediverse was coined as an alternative to the Identiverse. Marjolein Katsma used both in parallel to promote the term:
web.archive.org/web/2013051712…
@f00fc7c8
just to clarify, not sure about the "timestap" you are talking about here:
2005?
2011?
#diaspora wikipedia:
> To obtain the necessary funds the project was launched on April 24, 2010 on Kickstarter, a crowd funding website.
..
The group received crowdfunding in excess of $200,000 via Kickstarter. A consumer alpha version was released on 23 November 2010.
@jesuisatire @f00fc7c8 > The Federated Social Web concept was started in summer 2010
Not about knowing better but digging info together.
Federated website idea was zeitgeist as the diaspora founders were inspired by university lectures on the obvious problem of existing monopolies. Mike McGirven (friendica/hubzilla) at least claims to have started #miskey before the D* hyph on kickstarter.
> before the first Diaspora pod was deployed
> the diaspora project was launched on April 24, 2010
@jesuisatire > Mike McGirven (friendica/hubzilla) at least claims to have started #miskey before the D* hyph on kickstarter.
Yes, that tracks. The first commit[1] of what was then Mistpark[0] was in July 2010, but it's 60 kLOC so had probably been worked on for quite some time.
[0] later Friendika => Friendica => Red Matrix => Hubzilla => Zap/Osada => Mistpark/Roadhouse => Streams (I probably left something out)
[1] github.com/friendica/friendica…
@f00fc7c8
Yes, that tracks. The first commit[1] of what was then Mistpark[0] was in July 2010, but it's 60 kLOC so had probably been worked on for quite some time.
[0] later Friendika => Friendica => Red Matrix => Hubzilla => Zap/Osada => Mistpark/Roadhouse => Streams (I probably left something out)
[1] github.com/friendica/friendica…
@f00fc7c8
@jesuisatire @clacke According to that w3c page: "The Federated Social Web concept was started in summer 2010 at the first Federated Social Web Summit in Portland" and "This XG started on 15 December 2010 and transitioned on 12 January 2012 to Federated Social Web Community Group."
So around the same time, apparently.
sounds like friendica was involved?
You might argue friendica was the one that tried to "federate" the whole time with any protocol that showed up, beingit diaspora* or identica/GNUsocial, actually you'll find even twitter and fb in the federating tools of friendica.
> Mikael Identiverse
Good morning !tzag !identiverse #friendicaverse #fediverse
@jesuisatire Yes, that's how Friendica was and is and it arrived in 2010 as well, just like Diaspora.
That doesn't really have anything to do with the roots of the Fediverse term though.
@f00fc7c8
That doesn't really have anything to do with the roots of the Fediverse term though.
@f00fc7c8
I tried to point to the identica post where the terms start assemble:
!identiverse #friendicaverse #fediverse
sounds to me like the term fedivers was to build a bridge from identi.ca to friendica and the broader decentralized community. on friendica we were talking about "the federation" the whole time, diaspora was "just" about their decentralized alpha protocol.
the result was activitypub
@clacke @jesuisatire thanks for the sources there!
Morrigan@f00fc7c8 @[email protected] @jesuisatire Thank you for sharing this information. I’m not nimble in the digital universe as I came to it later than many. Thus I appreciate this bit of history.
Zorro Notorious MEB 😡Thanks for this! I used to go to the Indie Web conferences when they were here in Portland. I was one of the early users of identi.ca. I'm a hard-core tech guy but I found the technology behind the indie web frustrating to use, so beyond putting a "rel=me" on websites I've never done much with it.
More edits: comments by @mattl indicate that the GNU social project existed long before StatusNet merged with it, which is confirmed by this FSF blog: <https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/fsf-to-host-gnu-social-architecture-meeting>. I've updated my wording to reflect that.
Another note (updated thanks to detailed explanations in a reply by @clacke):
I previously left out Diaspora from this thread because it doesn't directly federate with the social networks I mentioned, but it does, partially. Thanks to common elements in Diaspora and StatusNet software stacks, users of Identi.ca, and StatusNet and GNU social instances, can see posts from Diaspora users. However, the differences mean that Diaspora users can't see their posts, and replies do not work.
I previously left out Diaspora from this thread because it doesn't directly federate with the social networks I mentioned, but it does, partially. Thanks to common elements in Diaspora and StatusNet software stacks, users of Identi.ca, and StatusNet and GNU social instances, can see posts from Diaspora users. However, the differences mean that Diaspora users can't see their posts, and replies do not work.
Friendica also has long had support for federation with Diaspora, and both the OStatus and ActivityPub protocols, plus extensions to read many other social networking and link aggregation services.
Ninja 🦝 
@f00fc7c8 thank you for this excellent thread (and subsequent amendments), there’s a whole bunch I didn’t know on there. But it explains why Mastodon has felt a bit like coming home - I’ve hung out on several of the other open source platforms along the way, makes sense they’re all kinda related!!
Cole LeFavour (they/them)@f00fc7c8
appreciate all the history. Thank you.
appreciate all the history. Thank you.
clacke at libranet.de is my main [mkd]@f00fc7c8 A GNU Social account is still able to follow an account on Diaspora the software (D*).
D* accounts cannot follow OStatus accounts and GS followers of a D* account cannot reply to posts, the D* feed is just a news feed.
Here's why:
OStatus is a stack of protocols:
1. WebFinger
2. Atom
3. ActivityStreams v1
4. WebSub (PubSubHubbub at the time)
5. Salmon
Diaspora of 2010 did these too, but slightly differently. It defined the WebFinger record differently so the Salmon reply endpoints cannot be found by GS. Also GS does Salmon slightly wrong, so they wouldn't be able to talk anyway.
GS is liberal enough that it can follow any Atom+WebSub feed, if it's AS1 then even better.
Diaspora the protocol is now documented and doesn't mention WebSub, it's Salmon for both replies and for updating followers, so GS without ActivityPub cannot follow e.g. a SocialHome account, as SocialHome was developed from the spec rather than imitating the implementation. D* still keeps the legacy WebSub around and can be followed.
@[email protected]
D* accounts cannot follow OStatus accounts and GS followers of a D* account cannot reply to posts, the D* feed is just a news feed.
Here's why:
OStatus is a stack of protocols:
1. WebFinger
2. Atom
3. ActivityStreams v1
4. WebSub (PubSubHubbub at the time)
5. Salmon
Diaspora of 2010 did these too, but slightly differently. It defined the WebFinger record differently so the Salmon reply endpoints cannot be found by GS. Also GS does Salmon slightly wrong, so they wouldn't be able to talk anyway.
GS is liberal enough that it can follow any Atom+WebSub feed, if it's AS1 then even better.
Diaspora the protocol is now documented and doesn't mention WebSub, it's Salmon for both replies and for updating followers, so GS without ActivityPub cannot follow e.g. a SocialHome account, as SocialHome was developed from the spec rather than imitating the implementation. D* still keeps the legacy WebSub around and can be followed.
@[email protected]
@notclacke @clacke thanks for the detailed technical explanation!
Olav@f00fc7c8 I don't remember specifically, so I'll say when I was involved 2 years ago the handful of diaspora* devs were pretty set against expanding beyond their garden.
(Thing is I nuked my ~100 pod and within a year my friend their ~10k pod because diaspora doesn't believe in moderation)
(Thing is I nuked my ~100 pod and within a year my friend their ~10k pod because diaspora doesn't believe in moderation)
Dr. Matt Lee@f00fc7c8 GNU FM is summer 2009, GNU social later that year, using StatusNet code is 2011 and merged project with Free&Social in 2012? There was also a moment when some OTHER project tried to claim the name GNU social and that was after I left the FSF in June 2012.
@f00fc7c8 https://www.fsf.org/bulletin/2010/fall is full of interviews I did with people at the time.
@mattl Thanks for clarifying the timeline and for all the feedback, yeah, I seemed to have a few things confused regarding the GNU social/GNU FM/StatusNet connection
@f00fc7c8 also worth putting it into context that GNU social was focusing on a Facebook replacement. All the typical Facebook stuff like Events etc.
daskeit@f00fc7c8 this is a complete tangent (thank you for writing up this cool bit of history!) - one of the interesting ideas from Diaspora and that was adopted by Google+ was that it recognised we have different social circles and it allowed users to define distinct circles or groups of friends that you could address posts to.
So eg. you could post to everyone who followed you, but you could also post just for your family, or for your hobby/interest group.
@f00fc7c8 mentioning this because there were a bunch of different ideas thrown around while people were experimenting and it’s always sort of cool to see what could have been, what other ideas people came up with, etc.
aRubes@daskeit This neat idea is included and somewhat expanded further in @[email protected] 's (and others') Bonfire @f00fc7c8
Robey ☠️@f00fc7c8 as others have probably already pointed out, IRC was also federated and probably the most direct recent ancestor
@robey You're the second person to do so. I'm not super familiar with IRC internals, but my impression was that rather than being federated, it is simply typical to use multiple IRC servers to communicate with different groups, and only some servers require accounts for authentication.
@f00fc7c8 now i feel very old 😅
the namespace (channels, nicknames) was shared, across a network of servers, some of which might require a separate login (but most didn't)... periodically a debate about admin styles would flare up and the network would split
you would usually login to the same server, admin'd by someone you liked, tho in later times they would make a DNS alias like "irc.gnome.org" to pick a random server if you don't care
@robey ah neat. so that's IRC networks.
I guess I'll add it to the list then!
@robey @f00fc7c8 The things is, IRC servers had to fully trust each other, so a random person couldn't just set up an IRC server and expect other servers to connect.
It's not really federation with federated identity, it's just a cluster of servers in sync.
That's why you had so many IRC networks, but only one well-known Fediverse as servers and people join opportunistically rather than by agreement.
It's not really federation with federated identity, it's just a cluster of servers in sync.
That's why you had so many IRC networks, but only one well-known Fediverse as servers and people join opportunistically rather than by agreement.
@clacke @f00fc7c8 oh yeah, no argument that our concept of moderation has gotten *way* more sophisticated since the 1990s
i think the original post was about predecessors... i don't think any of the "mesh" networks back then had block lists, at least i can't recall any in fidonet or wwivnet
(you could also argue that there are several activitypub-based networks but only one that calls itself "the fediverse")
Sara@f00fc7c8 You mention FidoNet; we also had something like federation on WWIV boards in the early 1990s, but it was clunky af (most systems moved one package of messages daily, via dialup connections, usually late at night; it was slightly faster than mailing physical letters, but not a lot) and when email/listserv and Usenet became more accessible, most of us swapped over into that.
Mike Lerch@f00fc7c8 great thread, And that was my exact reaction when I understood the model: this is like a BBS joining FidoNet or WWIVNet!