Diving headfirst into the Fediverse

You may have heard of the emerging social media platform Mastodon. If you happen to pay even more attention, you may have also heard of those called Misskey, Pixelfed, Peertube, and such.

Now, you wanna join one of these platforms. However, for a non-technical person it might be hard to know where to start.

I’ll save you the details of how the Fediverse works and let you dive headfirst into making an account, step by step.

Note

No matter what you choose for each step, the architecture of the Fediverse allows users of all platforms, software and instances to be able to interact with each other.

Think of an Instagram user being able to directly comment on a YouTube video without having to make a YouTube account, or a Twitter user being able to browse both Reddit and Twitter posts from the comfort of the Twitter app!

It’s a little bit more complicated than that, and a few things might differ, but it’s still cool!

TL;DR

1. Find out what kind of social media platform you want to get into
2. Choose which Fediverse software you like best that implements the features you need
3. Look for the instance that runs on that software that passes the vibe checks
4. Sign up to that instance

Step 1: type of platform

Away from the Fediverse, there are tons of kinds of social media platforms out there: Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, YouTube… I’m sure you’re familiar with all of them.

The Fediverse has alternatives for most, if not all, of these mainstream platforms!

If you’re someone who likes Twitter, you might want to look at the microblogging platforms the Fediverse has. If you’re someone who likes Reddit, you might want to look at social news platforms.

For the rest of this article, we’ll be looking at the microblogging platforms as they’re the most relevant and probably the most varied.

Step 2: software

So you decided that you want a platform similar to Twitter.

The Fediverse offers tons of platforms like that! But before you can get to making an account, you need to consider the software.

Some of the well-known ones are Mastodon, Misskey and Pleroma. Why the hell are there so many? Simple: because we love choice!

While their main purposes are similar, they may have some differences.

When considering the software to use, consider these things:

• How do you like the look and feel of the user interface? You’ll be able to use third-party clients, but some prefer using their instance’s default web UI.
• Are there any features you need, or like? Are you overwhelmed by too many features?
• Do you have any people you’d like to follow straight away? It might be more convenient to share the same software with them to get the full experience.
• Is the software maintained by its developers? If not, it might start to not follow current web standards or might even have security issues (i.e. be vulnerable to hackers).

Step 3: instances

Let’s say you decided that Mastodon suits your needs and you’re going with it.

Here’s the fun part: you now have tooooons of instances to choose from! Okay, maybe it’s a little more daunting than fun to some, but whatever.

Think of this as choosing a kingdom to live in. Each instance is a kingdom. Each one has its own rules and regulations, different kings and queens and knights, and different people living in them.

Instances are similar. For the software you picked, each instance of that software more or less behave similarly (depending on the version it uses, or if the admins modified it). They each have their own users and administrators and moderators. Hence, they also have different rules.

When looking for an instance, you have to note that all your data lives in the instance you use: your username, all your posts (public and private), and your silliest photos. Yes, its admins can view all that, if they so wish.

Here are more things you have to consider:

• the purpose or topics of an instance — some instances might be directed at techy people, or members of the LGBTQ+ community, or the general population who just wants to chill; this might affect the kinds of posts and people you will come across
• the moderation of the instance — while most instances have admins and mods and rules, not all might be moderated well enough to uphold these rules for instance members and the posts that come in from other instances
• the size of the instance — some people prefer large communities, while some prefer smaller ones
• the hardware of the instance — this might affect how fast or slow the instance is, or how much data it could handle (trust me, some people run instances on the worst hardware. Think of an Android phone on Wi-Fi…)
• the uptime of the instance — you don’t want an instance that goes down all the time, otherwise you might not be able to use it at all nor can others interact with you!
• the location of the instance’s server(s) — this might affect the laws that are applied on the instance

If you’re new to the Fediverse, there are many websites out there for helping you choose your new home. Read each instance’s information and give their local timelines a scroll.

Step 4: accounts

Finally, you decided that https://infosec.space (one of my old instances!) passed the vibe check and you’d like to make it your new home.

What are you waiting for? Get in there and sign up!

However, this guide won’t be teaching you how to set up your new profile nor anything about Fediverse culture.

I will be explaining some little things about Federation in a separate post. Oh wait, you don’t know what Federating is yet…

Some final words

Getting into the Fediverse might feel daunting, but it’s not so hard to make an account.

If you’ve read through all of this and still find it daunting, don’t worry: many users like to test the waters in one instance before switching to a new one not too soon after. In other words: don’t be scared to go instance-hopping!

As far as I know, several Fediverse software support account migration between instances, so you can transfer the lists of your followers and the people you follow from your old instance to your new one. Some software even support the transfer of all your posts to your new instance!

Hmm, what about me, personally? As of writing, I am on my fifth instance, https://shonk.social, which uses Sharkey (a fork of Misskey). I find it really cozy here and Sharkey has tons of cool features.

Have a good day and enjoy the Fediverse!