Fediverse & Mastodon Essays

Compiled by David Slifka, @davidslifka@mastodon.social / david@slifka.com

Submit additions at https://forms.gle/FzhFnJp1ajiwn3cV7

List is unsorted. Inclusion is not an endorsement of content.

https://myttl.blog/social-media-algorithms-and-user-control/

Anders Thoresson

https://newsletter.danhon.com/archive/s14e10-your-timeline-needs-a-dj-enough/

https://gabekangas.com/blog/2022/08/decentralized-discovery/

https://blog.castopod.org/the-fediverse-is-so-much-bigger-than-mastodon/

Benjamin Bellamy

Basic fediverse overview with some good illustrations

https://blog.opencollective.com/the-era-of-mastodon/

Elena Rubashevska

https://bit.ly/mastodon-the-movie

https://blahaj.zone/notes/99nqiqax300

The more I use different #fediverse apps, the more I feel that we are on the edge of a different future, in the early stages of something that we haven't seen before. …
The platform we use no longer determines the information we can access; it doesn't build walls around us. Instead, what out choice of platform determines, is how we interact with information, rather than determining what information we are able interact with in the first place. The walls in the walled garden haven't so much been torn down, as simply never built.

I can write a blog post, and someone on Mastodon can reply to it. I can make a group post on lemmy, and someone from Calckey can reply to it. I can see an awesome photo on Pixelfed, bring it in to #Akkoma and boost it for everyone else to see. And then anyone who sees it can interact with it.

https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2022/12/30/Mastodon-Privacy-and-Search

Thoughts and story on Mastodon/fediverse search and its challenges

https://blog.atomicpoet.org/s/vOcINMxQd

https://www.techdirt.com/2022/12/21/why-would-anyone-use-another-centralized-social-media-service-after-this/

https://thenewstack.io/the-creator-of-activitypub-on-whats-next-for-the-fediverse/

Richard MacManus and Evan Prodromou

Highlights and provocations from our community sprint on federated social networks

https://newpublic.substack.com/p/these-are-the-voyages-of-the-starship

Paul Mendoza and New_Public community

https://www.reframetech.de/en/2022/11/30/mastodon-as-a-common-good-alternative-conditions-apply/

https://deadsuperhero.com/2022/02/towards-a-greater-federated-architecture/

best concrete description of what the future of social media could look like in the fediverse

https://knightcolumbia.org/content/protocols-not-platforms-a-technological-approach-to-free-speech

A protocol-based system, however, moves much of the decision making away from the center and gives it to the ends of the network.
...
Entirely new third parties could spring up focused entirely on providing a better experience. This need not just be around the content moderation filter, but around the entire user experience. Imagine a competing interface for Twitter that would be pre-set (and constantly updated) to moderate out content from trollish accounts, and to better promote more thoughtful, thought-provoking stories, rather than traditional clickbait hot takes. Or an interface could provide a better layout for conversations. Or for newsreading.

The key would be making sure that the “rules” are not only shareable but completely transparent and in the control of any end user. So, I might elect to use the EFF’s openly available controls for Twitter, using an interface provided by a new non-profit, but then be able to tweak the settings if I prefer, say, more content about the EU. Or if I want to use the network mainly for reading news, I might use an interface provided by the New York Times. Or if I want to chat with friends, I could use a special interface designed for better communication among small groups of friends.

https://www.fastcompany.com/90834897/no-mastodon-hasnt-already-peaked

A timeline of early Twitter

https://blog.myfed.space/self-souvereign-identity-and-the-fediverse

https://leelefever.com/dear-friend-mastodon/

https://clivethompson.medium.com/come-join-me-on-mastodon-folks-bbb073ff05d2

https://tidbits.com/2023/01/27/mastodon-a-new-hope-for-social-networking/

Marginalized communities

https://www.fastcompany.com/90817452/can-mastodon-be-a-twitter-refuge-for-marginalized-groups

Marginalized communities

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/11/18/disability-support-twitter-harassment/

Marginalized communities

https://techpolicy.press/the-whiteness-of-mastodon/

Dr. Johnathan Flowers interviewed by Justin Hendrix

https://blog.jonudell.net/2023/01/21/working-with-mastodon-lists/

https://absolutelymaybe.plos.org/2023/01/12/quote-tweeting-over-30-studies-dispel-some-myths/

https://www.techdirt.com/2022/12/29/some-tricks-to-making-mastodon-way-more-useful/

A variety of tips and tools that address current shortcomings of Mastodon.

https://writefreely.au/shlee/mastodon-as-reference-design

https://midrange.tedium.co/issues/mastodon-onboarding-tips/

Mastodon suggestions

https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-tao-of-innovation/202212/the-psychology-of-mastodon-the-great-migration-from-twitter

Mastodon suggestions

https://www.fastcompany.com/90747154/sorry-elon-haters-mastodon-still-cant-replace-twitter

The Raspberry Pi social media incident shows some Mastodon admins need more moderation chops

https://medium.com/@jmproffitt/the-raspberry-pi-social-media-incident-shows-some-mastodon-admins-need-more-moderation-chops-afa3b00be90b

https://www.secjuice.com/mastodon-child-porn-pedophiles/

https://thepublicinsight.org/paper/a-glimpse-into-the-world-of-pedophilia-support-groups-in-cyberspace/

https://popagandhi.com/2022-11-goodbye-twitter/

Personal thoughts and journey of switching from Twitter to Mastodon

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys

Twitter’s Collapse Is Bad News for Organizers – But Another Commons Is Possible

https://truthout.org/articles/twitters-collapse-is-bad-news-for-organizers-but-another-commons-is-possible/

https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/the-future-of-black-twitter, SHAMIRA IBRAHIM, Dec 14 2022

Twitter has also offered many Black professionals platforms they previously never had access to – present company included – allowing them to make their way through the bottlenecks of creative industries that manage to systematically exclude Black working class people from the conversation. “I credit everything to [Twitter],” says Hanna Phifer, a culture writer with a prominent Twitter following. “For a short bit, I tried to go the traditional route of just reaching out to editors or pitching and stuff like that -- I just would not get anything back.” Phifer’s first byline opportunity arose because a mutual follower reached out to her and offered her the opportunity to publish something at Variety, and more opportunities for commissions soon followed, from Harper’s Bazaar to Refinery29. Her current permalancer role at xoNecole.com — where she has done features on everyone from gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams to former video vixen Karrine Steffans — emerged from a mutual connection on Twitter, Brooke Obie, who is the Editor-in-Chief. “There have been so many times where I'm just threading about something that I just sort of thought of a second ago, and then I'll get a DM from an editor like, Hey, do you want to turn this into an essay?” Phifer recounts. “I even heard Doreen St. Felix talking on an old podcast where she said that her writing career sort of started out like that—so you know, we have these behemoths in our generation of writing who we might not have if it wasn't for Twitter and for our ability to just sort of put our thoughts out there on a whim.” While Phifer doesn’t feel that Twitter is as essential to her career success today, her current concerns are more for emerging writers who are not as connected to established networks.

https://newpublic.substack.com/p/-taking-digital-public-spaces-literally

Josh Kramer and Angelica Quicksey

https://write.as/fediverse-report/last-week-in-the-fediverse-ep-22

https://anildash.com/2023/01/16/a-fediverse-search/

https://searchtodon.social/Adventures-in-Mastoland.html

https://softwaremill.com/the-architecture-of-mastodon/

https://blog.jonudell.net/2023/01/19/of-course-the-attention-economy-is-threatened-by-the-fediverse/

https://blog.atomicpoet.org/s/4CRkW9zvj#

https://doctorow.medium.com/how-to-leave-dying-social-media-platforms-9fc550fe5abf

https://flameeyes.blog/2022/11/09/a-lukewarm-take-on-mastodon/

Diego Elio Pettenò

Funding, tech scaling

https://blog.jonudell.net/2023/01/16/mastodon-relationship-graphs/, Jon Udell

https://deadsuperhero.com/2021/10/peertubes-content-wasteland/

https://codeberg.org/fediverse

https://codeberg.org/fediverse/fep/src/branch/main/feps/fep-c390.md

https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/pull/10414

Marginalized communities

https://twitter.com/triketora/status/1594348646396559361

https://wfanet.org/l/library/download/urn:uuid:7d484745-41cd-4cce-a1b9-a1b4e30928ea/garm+brand+safety+floor+suitability+framework+23+sept.pdf

Not about Mastodon, just brand safety guidelines

https://appliednetsci.springeropen.com/articles/10.1007/s41109-021-00392-5

Lucio La Cava, Sergio Greco & Andrea Tagarelli

https://fediverse.observer/stats