Elena Rossini ⁂

The Future is Federated: here are my top 10 reasons why #Mastodon is the best social media platform there is: https://blog.elenarossini.com/top-10-reasons-mastodon-best-social-media-platform/

Basically, a guide for "normies" attempting to convince them to join Mastodon and the #Fediverse

... with shout-outs to @ivory @IceCubesApp @phanpy @cheeaun @dansup

#TheFutureIsFederated #tech #socialmedia #FOSS #blog

The Top 10 Reasons Why Mastodon is the Best Social Media Platform

A guide to Mastodon for "normies" showing the top 10 reasons why it's far better than social media platforms by Big Tech

Elena Rossini
Jun 25, 2024 at 1:27pmWeb
Show threadMichael FosterJun 25, 2024
@_elena Great blog and a great case!
Show threadSteven HiltonJun 25, 2024
@_elena @ivory @IceCubesApp @phanpy @cheeaun @dansup How do we get some high-profile people to abandon Facebook, Twitter, etc in favor of Fedi? The existing network effect of the legacy social media networks is hard to overcome.
Show threadjjudeJun 25, 2024

@mshiltonj @_elena @ivory @IceCubesApp @phanpy @cheeaun @dansup Steven: They will come for scraping the content and train their LLM models (if it is not already happening).

@Flipboard is bringing more and more news channels and publishers here onto #fediverse . As more content creators see traction here, they will come.

Show threadEncryptomaticJun 25, 2024
@jjude
@Flipboard

#Flipboard users would get more traction in the #fediverse if their posts included hashtags. I follow a lot of Flipboard accounts, and it seems they are posting into a void, not where folks would like to discuss their great topical content.
Not a complaint, I just really want Flipboard to be successful here.
Show threadFlipboardJun 25, 2024
@admin @jjude You're right — we are encouraging our federated publishers and curators to add hashtags to their flips; it's not part of everyone's process at the moment but hopefully more will adopt the habit!
Show threadjjudeJun 25, 2024
@Flipboard @admin Over here, I follow hashtags than people. Hashtags are the topics you are interested in. That way, every post on my feed is interesting to me.
Show threadMichael FosterJun 25, 2024
@admin This is a really good idea - hashtags make a big difference in the Fediverse
Show threadJason Culverhouse Jun 26, 2024

@admin @jjude @Flipboard
Hi, I work on our #activitypub implementation and would be glad to consider your feedback.

I don’t think we want to add a ”voice” to your posts via hashtags without some explicit approval.

Show threadjjudeJun 25, 2024

@_elena @ivory @IceCubesApp @phanpy @cheeaun @dansup All great points Elena.

For me Mastodon and Fediverse emphasizes "social" of the social media more while other networks focus on "media" part.

And because of the open nature of #mastodon , innovation here is crazy. There are many different apps and you can pick and choose depending on what feature set is important for you rather than one app dictating every one.

Also you can use single id to follow all fediverse apps - like you can follow fb, twitter, insta, goodreads ... all from a single id and an app. No jumping from one to the other. I love it here.

Show threadanubis2814Jun 26, 2024
@jjude @dansup @cheeaun @_elena @ivory @phanpy @IceCubesApp I refer to algorithm "social" media as parasocial media.
Show threadanubis2814Jun 25, 2024
@_elena @dansup @cheeaun @ivory @phanpy @IceCubesApp Friendica is better than mastodon, just has terrible marketing/naming. Has all the best features of nearly every single social media site ever made, AND it connects with diaspora which is where all the G+ folks migrated to.
Apparently Friendica sounds cool in French and German who are the largest users, but to English speakers it sounds like an even cheaper knockoff of friendster. Its also the oldest operating member of the fediverse and is 6 years older than mastodon. Its other weakness is that it does not take donations, only donations in time from devs so it takes longer to get things fixed but its reached a critical mass of devs now that have fixed and exceeded all the bugs that plagued it for so long.
Show threadcrossgolf_rebel - kostenlose KwalitätspostsJun 25, 2024
@_elena I can give you 10 more reasons why Misskey and similar services are much better than the limiting Mastodon.

But, of course, you're right about the rest and the Fediverse.


I can only advise you to test #Firefish #Sharkey etc. for a while, then you will realize where Mastodon puts all the shackles on

#Fediverse ​​

@ivory @IceCubesApp @phanpy @cheeaun @[email protected]
Show threadpepecyb (Friendica)Jun 25, 2024
@IceCubesApp @phanpy @ivory @cheeaun @_elena @dansup ...or try Hubzilla or Friendica... 😉
Show threadanubis2814Jun 25, 2024
@_elena @dansup @cheeaun @ivory @phanpy @IceCubesApp I had no idea flipboard was attracting so many main stream influences and news sites until this post. It seems to be a more attractive site for the normies, possibly because they had prior interactions with it.
SOOOO many food bloggers
Show threadNessJun 26, 2024
@_elena It's a very nice article! I'll keep it around to convince my friends. I think I might try Phanpy, too. Thanks!
Show threadLee 🌏Jun 26, 2024
@_elena @ivory @IceCubesApp @phanpy @cheeaun @dansup
I would add
1) No Billionaire/Corporation behind it. Because we know Billionaires and Corporations own Social Media companies to extract money from the users and to spread their own political ideology.
2) REAL community moderation. Where we all have a chance to moderate the content here, on our terms and not those of an "owner".
3) Free edit button (Some other companies charge for that!!!)
4) = A top community with very few Trolls.
Show threadJohn ⁂Jun 26, 2024

@_elena @dansup @cheeaun @ivory @phanpy @IceCubesApp @crossgolf_rebel

#Mastodon is not a social media platform, it is only one part of the entire #Fediverse. Whether it is really the best can be questioned. In my opinion, #Friendica is far better. All this hype that has been made about Mastodon for years is completely incomprehensible.

Just my personal opinion.

Show threadanubis2814Jun 26, 2024
@rausgerufen @dansup @cheeaun @_elena @ivory @crossgolf_rebel @phanpy @IceCubesApp Lol I said the same thing earlier. When you know you know. The only people who might have a leg up on us are the hubzilla folks, but I feel like its way too overpowered for the casual user.
Show threadeagerpebbleJun 26, 2024
@_elena I think a lot of people are turned off by the elitism from the fediverse and FOSS communities. So maybe it's not a good idea to start off at the top referring to the target audience as "normies".
Show threadanubis2814Jun 26, 2024
@_elena @dansup @cheeaun @ivory @phanpy @IceCubesApp I like how the number of non-mastodon users on the fediverse are a tiny minority yet half the comments are from non-mastodon users praising some other platform as superior (because its true). Mastodon just has the sexiest marketing/naming/mascot in the fediverse lol.
Show threadJupiter RowlandJun 26, 2024
@anubis2814 Only 65% of all Fediverse users are on Mastodon.

But my estimation is that 98% of all posts that appear on Mastodon are from within Mastodon. Lots of Mastodon users live in Mastodon-only bubbles, some have been since they've joined in October/November, 2022.

CC: @Elena Rossini ✏️✨📸 @dansup @Chee Aun 🤔 @Ivory by Tapbots :emoji_wink: @IceCubesApp

#FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #Fediverse #Mastodon
dansup (@[email protected])

375 Posts, 213 Following, 73.2K Followers · Hi, I'm the developer behind @Pixelfed!#pixelfed #photography #nature #dogs #fedi22

Pixelfed
Show threadanubis2814Jun 26, 2024
@jupiter_rowland @dansup @cheeaun @_elena @ivory @IceCubesApp Why I find it funny. Can't even imagine how limited my view of the fediverse would be if I just followed mastodonians.
Show threadCătă 🇷🇴🇺🇦🇲🇩🇪🇺Jun 27, 2024

@jupiter_rowland It doesn't help that Mastodon doesn't display the networks the content comes from. e.g.: for a Mastodon user, this comment might not even be evident that is coming from Friendica. And you know, when all you got is a hammer...

@dansup @cheeaun @anubis2814 @ivory @_elena @IceCubesApp

Show threadRodent AppJun 27, 2024
@_elena Worth mentioning that @rodentapp is an Android app designed for inexperienced users (e.g. no need to login to explore an instance)
Show threadRobinJun 27, 2024
Best for MICRO-blogging, perhaps. Best alternative to Twitter/X, but not a good replacement for #Facebook.
Show threadCătă 🇷🇴🇺🇦🇲🇩🇪🇺Jun 27, 2024

@_elena I was never into microblogging, but I had a rather deep (so to say) attachment to Facebook. That's why Mastodon never caught up to me. I also happened to migrate to fedi right before the first wave of #twitterrefugees, so I inevitably got some content right from the get-go, more than I expected. I do not really find the name Friendica bad, albeit a little funny, but the promotion really is.

Nevertheless, I highly recommend Friendica to anyone looking for a home/swiss-army knife of the Fediverse. Highly useful with everything one would wish from Mastodon:


  • Crazy formatting options (here's an overline);
  • Posts with titles;
  • Inline images/media inside posts, allowing for richer creativity (cannot demonstrate in a way visible on Mastodon;
  • Groups, Pages for various topics (news, organizations etc.);
  • A crazy amount of sorting options;
  • Integrated Calendar, allowing you to create or join events from all over fedi;
  • Threaded discussions (on multiple levels) that allow you to easily follow all the replies;
  • Like/Dislike buttons ('cuz you cannot like anything and everything, right? Right, Zuck?)
  • Posts and comments as long as your heart desires;
  • And many more.


The amount of options might seem overwhelming, but I'm sure one could find their use one way or another.

@dansup @cheeaun @ivory @phanpy @IceCubesApp

Show threadJupiter RowlandJun 28, 2024
@Elena Rossini ✏️✨📸 What @Cătă didn't even mention: Maybe you perceive Mastodon's 500-character limit as incredibly generous in comparison to 𝕏's 280-character limit. But what if I told you that both Friendica and Hubzilla, which is where I'm posting from, have no character limits at all? As in, we could theoretically post hundreds of thousands of characters, maybe millions, at once. And this is not to outdo Mastodon because both Friendica and Hubzilla are actually older than Mastodon. When Mastodon was launched, it immediately connected itself with both.

On Friendica and Hubzilla, conversations with comments work without mentions. Once you've received a post, you'll also receive all new comments even if you aren't mentioned, and you don't follow whoever writes the comments. At the same time, your own followers are spared from being spammed with your own comments because they only go to whoever wrote the start post of a thread.

Any Friendica account or Hubzilla channel (see further below) can be configured to act as a moderated group or forum, automatically sending posts and comments to all of its connections. Groups are another feature that's often requested by Mastodon users. By the way, Friendica and Hubzilla groups/forums can be joined and used by just about anyone in the Fediverse, including Mastodon users.

Also, both Friendica and Hubzilla can natively connect to Diaspora* and several other non-ActivityPub protocols and platforms, in Friendica's case including Bluesky. Both even used to be able to connect to Twitter. And I think both have a WordPress cross-poster; I know Hubzilla has one.

And if Friendica already blows you away from a previous "Fediverse == Mastodon" point of view, Hubzilla adds even more stuff on top:

  • extensive, fine-grained permission controls at a degree that's nigh-imaginable to most Fediverse users; for example, I can adjust who can generally see my posts, who is allowed to send me their posts, who is allowed to comment on my posts and who is allowed to send me DMs in seven or eight levels, ranging from everyone, if applicable, to everyone with a Fediverse account to only Hubzilla users to only users on my home hub to only those whom I explicitly allow it to only myself
  • individual per-contact permission control via configurable presets called contact roles
  • privacy groups; basically Mastodon's lists or Friendica's circles, but I can send posts to one specific privacy group, and then nobody else will be able to see these posts because those who receive them can't even boost them, not even on Mastodon
  • full, both server-side and client-side support of OpenWebAuth "magic" single sign-on which was developed on a Hubzilla fork, i.e. Hubzilla recognises OpenWebAuth login, and Hubzilla's logins are recognised elsewhere by OpenWebAuth; one of the few features that are newer than Mastodon
  • multiple fully separate identities, so-called channels, on the same login in addition to Friendica's multiple profiles per identity
  • nomadic identity; imagine having your Mastodon account, i.e. live hot backups of your account constantly kept in sync with each other in real-time, on half a dozen other Mastodon instances
  • RSS/Atom feed aggregator; also, each Hubzilla channel generates its own Atom feeds with and without comments (I'm not sure inhowfar Friendica has this implemented)
  • Channel Sources optionally let you automatically repost content coming in from selected contacts
  • built-in file storage like on Friendica, but with permission controls and with WebDAV access; permission settings can limit read access to the file storage and give other Hubzilla or (streams) users write access
  • two calendar systems underneath the same UI, one being basically the same as Friendica's calendar and able to send Event-type objects to those who understand them (Mastodon doesn't), the other one being a CalDAV server
  • also, optional built-in CardDAV contacts server
  • optional built-in chatrooms with access permission controls (which only work within Hubzilla)
  • optionally, long-form articles with the same design and text formatting features as posts, but they aren't automatically sent through the Fediverse
  • optionally, built-in wiki engine that allows one to have multiple wikis on the same channel with multiple pages each; permission settings not only control who can read the wikis in a channel, but also which Hubzilla or (streams) users are allowed to edit them
  • optionally, support for simple Web pages; again, permission settings can hide these pages from those whom you don't want to see them as well as allow selected Hubzilla or (streams) users to edit them; Hubzilla's own website is part of a Hubzilla channel

CC: @dansup @Chee Aun 🤔 @Ivory by Tapbots :emoji_wink: @IceCubesApp

#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #Friendica #Hubzilla
What is Friendica? - Join the Fediverse

Show threadCătă 🇷🇴🇺🇦🇲🇩🇪🇺Jun 28, 2024

@jupiter_rowland thank you for adding to my comment and for the list of extensive features on Hubzilla. I wanted to keep it more brief fwiw 😁

Indeed, Friendica and Hubzilla have virtually no limit on how long comments and posts can be.

And comments on Mastodon can be added without mentions, but the people on the other end won't get notified at all by the reply if you delete them! And the automatic mentions are a complaint of Lemmy users as well from what I see, as the threaded view allows anyone to see who replied to who without the mentions.

Well, on both Friendica and Hubzilla you can type your comments without these tags, and people will still get notified.

And yes, Friendica can also crosspost to Wordpress, Tumblr, even Discourse if the server has the proper add-ons. And Bluesky (of course, you have to have an account there, but it's still cooler to post from a single interface everywhere you want).

Out of curiosity, Jupiter, can you suggest some interesting Hubzilla groups to follow? Especially some non-tech ones 😁

@dansup @cheeaun @ivory @_elena @IceCubesApp