Are you ready for the Fediverse? You’ve probably not even heard of it! I hadn’t until just a few months ago.
Do you remember when Elon Musk bought and took control of Twitter, and the whole world was shocked at what may happen?
Everyone started talking about the great Twitter exodus!
Yes, some people decided to tweet their final post and leave the platform, but the predicted mass exodus never really happened.
The idea of one person being in total control of such a vast platform and d̶e̶c̶i̶d̶i̶n̶g̶ dictating how users can use it was the talk of the town.
Personally, I don’t know why. There are plenty of examples of that happening in society right now. Just look at Mark Zuckerberg, who owns a controlling share of Facebook, flushing billions of dollars down the metaverse toilet.
Still, the idea of one person in control of Twitter irked the masses so much that during that time, there was a lot of talk about where Twitter users could go.
What alternative platforms are available?
Mastodon was a popular candidate many were talking about, and I found myself doing a little bit of research on the platform, and this is where I came upon the term “Fediverse”.
Mastodon is a decentralised social network and has capabilities similar to Twitter, which made it an attractive alternative.
Twitter boasts upwards of 450 million users compared to Mastodon’s 1.8 million users (down from a peak of 2.5 million users in December 2022). So, to say Mastodon is tiny compared to the goliath of Twitter is an understatement.
The decentralisation of Mastodon was the key aspect for many people jumping over to the platform. No one person in control of the system is appealing.
This is where the fediverse pops into the conversation. Fediverse is a blend (grammatically called a portmanteau) of the words “federation” and “universe”.
Sounds a bit spacey, right?
According to Wikipedia.
“The fediverse is an ensemble of federated (i.e. interconnected) servers that are used for web publishing (i.e. social networking, microblogging, blogging, or websites) and file hosting, but which, while independently hosted, can communicate with each other.”
Blah, blah, blah.
Long story short, Twitter-like features without a dictator at the helm. That was one of the appealing factors that made many s̶o̶m̶e̶ people embrace Mastodon. The other is that Mastodon is open-source, just like WordPress.
See how I related this entire non-WordPress newsletter back to WordPress? Clever huh 🤣
I created a Mastodon account but haven’t really had time to use it much. I’m busy with other stuff, and the fact that there wasn’t a mass Twitter exodus means many of my Ideal Clients are still active on Twitter.
However, people need to know that there are alternative social media platforms that embrace the same ethos of open-source that the WordPress project uses.
And being able to say cool things like “I’m part of the fediverse!”.
Mastodon has seen a slump in popularity as the panic of Twitter totalitarianism wains.
However, nearly 2 million people are still using it daily, and there’s a chance to stake your claim as a niche authority on the platform.
You never know what craziness Elon Musk might inflict on Twitter in the future, pushing a larger number of users to leave the platform for good, and you may be in the sweet spot of being commander in chief of a Mastodon niche community.
The power!!! 😜🤪🤑😵 💫
Talk to you in the fediverse. Or, more likely, on Twitter 😁
Until next time.
Wil.
