Unifying the Fediverse
Why are there so many separate platforms in the Fediverse like Mastodon, Lemmy, PixelFed, and PeerTube? It feels like they could all be part of one unified platform.
Posts
Text, images, and videos could just be treated as posts, all with comments enabled.
- Servers that don’t want to host videos could just have a setting to turn off video uploads.
- That would let PeerTube function like Mastodon when video support isn’t needed.
Lemmy + Mastodon + PixelFed
They all do basically the same thing — let people post stuff. So why split them up?
Forums can still work like Lemmy. If you want your post in a forum, cool. If not, that’s fine too.
Matrix + Posts
- As for messaging, I think Matrix could benefit from Signal-style encryption. Each message should be encrypted with a unique key, just like Signal does.
- Add a button like “See recent posts by this user” on profiles.
- This would make it easier for people to switch over from Instagram or Facebook.
plugin-based development
I also think the Fediverse could grow faster if it were plugin-based, kind of like how Obsidian handles plugins. Development would be more modular and flexible.
- Servers could choose which plugins to enable.
- Devs could collaborate instead of reinventing the wheel across platforms like Mastodon, Lemmy, PixelFed, PeerTube, etc.
- This would create a richer, more customizable ecosystem that evolves together.
Questions
Also, just a question from someone who’s not a coder:
Why not just copy Signal’s encryption model?
Summarize
Each user can create posts (with or without a forum), follow forums, follow other users, have private chats, and join encrypted rooms.
This is just some personal rambling, so feel free to ignore it. But if any of it sounds useful, please share it with other people, especially the developers.
Facebook. You are describing facebook.
Not everyone wants to use or host everything.
Like what I have described, server should be able to turn off some features (publish video for example)
Facebook. You are describing facebook.
Forgive me, I don’t understand.
My thought is that plugin-based development could solve this issue, but I could be wrong
Well, different uses would just migrate to the plugins. Don’t you have the twitter plugin? Can’t see my posts then etc.
Don’t you have the twitter plugin?
twitter plugin?
It was an example.
If you have plugins for everything, you’ll have to install them all or miss out => big ugly monolithic soft (even if the code lives in plugins).
Well, diversity is the central idea behind the entire Fediverse… We get many different perspectives on the same content. That includes many individual instances and individual software. The opposite of that would be no diversity. One platform and one software, like Reddit or Facebook or most big commercial services. And we have projects in between, both federated and non-federated, even crypto-based, which combine many aspects into one platform.
thanks!
Each platform have different functions and is a different tool.
How do you imagine all the functions of PeerTube should fit inside Lemmy?
All the platforms are already unified. You can subscribe to a PeerTube channel from Mastodon. You can post to Lemmy communities from Mastodon. People on Pixelfed can follow you on Mastodon.
How do you see all the features of PeerTube fitting into Lemmy?
I mean, videos and text are basically just posts, right? What features couldn’t be implemented on lemmy?
All the platforms are already connected. You can follow a PeerTube channel from Mastodon. You can post in Lemmy communities from Mastodon. People on Pixelfed can follow you on Mastodon.
I haven’t seen a way to post in Lemmy communities directly from Mastodon. The bigger issue for me is that there’s no easy way to search across all these platforms. If I’m into a certain topic, I have to go hunting for it on each one separately.
Mbin supports both Lemmy and Mastodon. Though I have no interest in Mastodon’s “microblogging”/Twitter-like format so I’ve never investigated that, despite being on an mbin instance myself.
good to know! is it possible to search Mbin post on lemmy?
I don’t see why not, but I haven’t really been looking at the origins of particular posts.
You’re pretty much describing Friendica. It does everything you’ve listed there (and more) except for Matrix.
thank you!
I am for it but only if media can be separated into different tab
could you give an example?
About the Signal protocol: It’s end-to-end encrypted. It would not allow for the server to give you a customized feed. Also messages expire but I’m not sure if that’s to the protocol.
thanks
