This might be a bit of a niche thought, but I’ve been wondering: is it just me, or has anyone else ever thought about how cool (and possibly important) it would be to have a federated alternative to platforms like Giphy and Tenor?

These platforms are everywhere—embedded into our keyboards, messaging apps, social media tools—but they’re centralized, proprietary, and often raise questions around privacy, data mining, and corporate consolidation of internet culture.

In the age of the Fediverse, where we’re seeing federated replacements for Twitter (Mastodon), Reddit (Lemmy), YouTube (PeerTube), Instagram (Pixelfed), etc., it seems like the next logical step would be a federated GIF repository and search engine.

Imagine a platform where communities could host and share GIFs in a decentralized way. Artists could upload and tag their own content, instances could have their own moderation rules, and apps could tap into the federation to serve GIFs without relying on corporate APIs.

It could even potentially extend beyond GIFs into stickers, short looping videos, meme formats, Bitmoji - style Emoji's, etc.

That said—I’d absolutely love to attempt something like this, but I’ll be honest: I just don’t currently have the knowledge, time, or energy to build such a project myself.

Still, I can’t shake the feeling that this could be a valuable addition to the wider Fediverse ecosystem.

So I wanted to put this out there and ask:

Has anyone ever considered/already started working on something like this?

Are there any existing tools or protocols that could make this easier to develop?

What kind of features would you want to see in a federated GIF platform?

Curious to hear your thoughts.

I've been pondering this for a while, and wanted to bring it to the wider Lemmy community:

Should Lemmy consider potentially adding a feature similar to Discord’s @everyone (or maybe @all)—but strictly limited to moderators of a community?

The idea is this: If a mod needs to get the attention of all subscribers to a Lemmy community—say, for instance migrations, rule changes, major events, or time-sensitive issues—there's currently no effective way to notify everyone at once. Even if they pin a post or make a sticky, there's no guarantee everyone will see it, especially in larger or more passive communities.

A feature like @everyone could potentially solve this by triggering a notification or at least a visible alert for every subscriber, similar to how Discord handles announcements.

Potential Benefits:

Improved communication during emergencies or migrations (such as an instance shutdown).

A good way to highlight major community-wide polls, rule changes, or reorganizations.

Could help smaller communities stay engaged and informed.

Ensures announcements don’t get buried in active communities.

Potential Concerns:

Abuse or spam from overuse by mods (though this could be mitigated).

Notification fatigue if used too often, especially in large communities.

Could feel too centralized or “top-down” in a decentralized ecosystem like Lemmy.

Possible Solutions or Safeguards:

Limit the feature to 1 use every X days per community.

Require a confirmation popup or warning before sending it.

Allow users to opt out of @everyone notifications in their settings.

Only make it active in posts or announcements, not comment threads.

I’m curious—has this feature ever been proposed officially before? And more importantly, what are your thoughts?

Would a feature like this enhance moderator tools and improve communication, or would it be too easily abused and go against Lemmy’s decentralized principles?

Looking forward to hearing everyone’s take.

Given that Lemmy currently has no native support for migrating communities if an instance shuts down or becomes unstable, I’ve been wondering:

Has anyone thought about creating a bot that helps with this process?

The basic idea: when a migration is needed, one or more mods could create a new community on the target instance (setting up rules, banner, header, etc.), and then the bot would clone the old community’s content — posts, comments, etc. — and repost them to the new community (all with the community's support, ideally preserving authorship, or noting who posted what).

To be respectful of users, there could even be an option to exclude posts/comments from users who don’t want to be included in the migration.

This kind of tool could dramatically reduce the time and effort needed to manually recreate communities and save valuable content from being lost.

I’d love to attempt this myself, but unfortunately I lack the time, technical know-how, and energy.

Has anything like this already been attempted, or is anyone working on a tool like this?

Curious to hear your thoughts — feasibility, technical hurdles, privacy concerns, etc.

Community Name: okbuddyrosalyn (!okbuddyrosalyn@lemmy.world)

Description: A Lemmy-based homage to the subreddit r/okbuddyrosalyn

This community aims to bring the spirit of r/okbuddyrosalyn to Lemmy — a place for ironic, absurdist, and surreal edits of Calvin and Hobbes comics.

Reddit currently has a feature titled:

“Someone is considering suicide or serious self-harm”

which allows users to flag posts or comments when they are genuinely concerned about someone’s mental health and safety.

When such a report is submitted, Reddit’s system sends an automated private message to the reported user containing mental health support resources, such as contact information for crisis helplines (e.g., the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, text and chat services, etc.).

In some cases, subreddit moderators are also alerted, although Reddit does not provide a consistent framework for moderator intervention.

The goal of the feature is to offer timely support to users in distress and reduce the likelihood of harm.

However, there have been valid concerns about misuse—such as false reporting to harass users, or a lack of moderation tools or guidance for handling these sensitive situations.

Given Lemmy's decentralized, federated structure and commitment to privacy and free expression, would implementing a similar self-harm concern feature be feasible or desirable on Lemmy?

Some specific questions for the community:

Would this feature be beneficial for Lemmy communities/instances, particularly those dealing with sensitive or personal topics (e.g., mental health, LGBTQ+ support, addiction)?

How could the feature be designed to minimize misuse or trolling, while still reaching people who genuinely need help?

Should moderation teams be involved in these reports? If so, how should that process be managed given the decentralized nature of Lemmy instances?

Could this be opt-in at the instance or community level to preserve autonomy?

Are there existing free, decentralized, or open-source tools/services Lemmy could potentially integrate for providing support resources?

Looking forward to your thoughts—especially from developers, mods, and mental health advocates on the platform.

https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/360043513931-What-do-I-do-if-someone-talks-about-seriously-hurting-themselves-or-is-considering-suicide

I've been thinking lately about how much of the web's metadata—like link previews, rich snippets, and structured content—relies on centralized standards like:

Open Graph (by Meta)

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Graph_Protocol

https://www.opengraph.xyz/

https://ogp.me/

https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/what-is-open-graph-and-how-can-i-use-it-for-my-website/

and

Schema.org (by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, and Yandex)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schema.org

These formats are widely used for things like link previews in social media, product listings in search engines, event markup, and more.

Open Graph lets websites control how their content appears when shared (e.g., title, description, preview image), and Schema.org provides a broader vocabulary for marking up structured data like reviews, articles, events, etc.

But both are effectively governed by large, centralized entities.

This makes me wonder:

Has anyone ever proposed, or worked on, a federated or community-governed alternative to these standards?

Something open-source and consensus-driven that better fits the ethos of the Fediverse?

I imagine such a system could:

Empower smaller platforms and content creators.

Improve interoperability across decentralized platforms.

Prevent a few big players from shaping metadata standards to suit themselves.

I’d love to attempt something like this, but I currently lack the time, energy, and technical skill.

Still, I wanted to throw the idea out there in case it sparks interest, or someone knows of prior attempts.

Would love to hear your thoughts, links or brainstorms.

I’ve noticed that most online spaces for witches and covens—like:

Mandragora Magika,

JaguarMoon Cyber Coven,

Inked Spirit Coven,

Missing Witches,

Lunar & Wild Coven,

Witchcraft Academy Coven (Patreon),

Reddit r/Wicca

Wiccan Whispers,

Various Discord/Facebook groups,

etc.

—are centralized or rely on closed platforms.

Even the more “community” oriented ones, such as WitchBook or PaganSquare, are siloed and not interoperable with each other.

Given the rise of the Fediverse and its ability to host decentralized, community-driven platforms (Mastodon for microblogging, Pleroma for lightweight social feeds, PixelFed for image sharing, Lemmy for Reddit, PeerTube for video, etc.), has anyone ever thought about potentially attempting a federated network specifically for witches, covens, and pagan practitioners?

Some possible use cases:

Federated coven “instances” where each group can moderate its own space but still connect with others
Resource sharing (spells, rituals, book clubs, event calendars) via ActivityPub
Privacy and inclusion features for marginalized practitioners
Integration with platforms like PixelFed for sharing altar photos, PeerTube for ritual videos, and Mastodon/Pleroma for discussions and announcements

Does anyone know of any ongoing projects like this, or have thoughts on how such a network could be structured?

What challenges do you foresee (moderation, privacy, drama, etc.), and what features would be most valuable to the witch/pagan community?

I’d love to try building or contributing to something like this, but unfortunately I lack the ability and energy.

Still, I think the idea is worth discussing.

I have owned a S24 for a while now, and quite recently (i.e a couple of days) this notification popped up.

• Driving app is running Tap to exit driving app.

And no matter how many times I tap on it to exit the supposed "Driving App", the notification always reappears a couple of seconds to minutes later.

My Device is:

S24

One UI Version: 7.0

Android Version: 15

Know Your Meme (KYM) is a long-established platform that documents and researches internet memes, viral videos, catchphrases, and more. It uses a hybrid model of community wiki-style contributions and professional editorial oversight, making it a rich historical archive of online culture. Originally part of Rocketboom in 2007, KYM was later acquired by Cheezburger Network (2011) and then Literally Media (2016). It's even recognized by the U.S. Library of Congress.

However, as comprehensive and useful as KYM is, it's still a centralized platform. That centralization limits control, transparency, and long-term resilience, especially when meme culture itself thrives in decentralized, community-driven spaces.

This got me thinking: has anyone ever considered a decentralized and federated alternative to KYM? Something built on the ActivityPub protocol (like Lemmy, Peertube, Mastodon, etc.), where communities could:

Document and archive memes in a federated, self-hosted way

Vote on or curate meme entries collaboratively

Link meme evolution across different cultural and regional instances

Provide transparency around edits, sourcing, and moderation

Preserve meme culture beyond the control of a single corporate entity

A federated “MemePedia” of sorts could better reflect the chaotic, democratic nature of meme creation and diffusion online.

Unfortunately, I don’t have the technical skill or time to build this myself, but I’d love to discuss the idea, see if anyone else has thought along similar lines, or maybe even hear about any existing initiatives.

What do you think?

Is this something worth attempting?

Is there any way to achieve the same level of anonymity on the Fediverse as 4chan offers?

This is just a random idea I had, and I'm curious what others think.

Has anyone ever considered potentially attempting a federated, anonymous imageboard/message board—something in the spirit of 4chan, 8chan, or Plebchan, but using ActivityPub or another decentralized protocol?

What technical, social, or legal obstacles would need to be overcome?

Would federation (like ActivityPub or something custom) actually help, or would it just replicate the same problems at scale?

I know these platforms have reputations that turn people off (and often for good reason), but I still think there's value in the format—especially for niche or "grey zone" communities that often get booted from mainstream platforms.

Plebchan already shows that decentralization can work in this space. It’s serverless, adminless, and built on the Plebbit protocol, which itself is a decentralized, peer-to-peer social media protocol. Plebchan just acts as a frontend for Plebbit, which uses IPFS for data distribution.

I’d honestly love to try building something like this myself, but I don’t have the dev skills or the time.

Still, I wonder:

Has anyone tried federating something like Plebchan or building an ActivityPub-compatible client like it?

What challenges would something like this face, both technically and socially?

Would there be room for such a project in the Fediverse, or would it be rejected outright due to associations?

Genuinely curious to hear others' thoughts.

Plebchan: https://plebchan.org/

Plebchan Github: https://github.com/plebbit/plebchan

Plebbit: https://plebbit.com/

Just a random thought that I had: what if there were a federated, Open-source, lyrics platform—something open and community-driven, where users could submit, edit, and annotate song lyrics, similar to how Mastodon or PeerTube works for social and video content?

In theory, it could even offer an API that centralized music platforms (Spotify, TIDAL, Deezer, Qobuz, etc.) might choose to tap into. Think of it as a libre lyrics backend with federation support.

I’d absolutely love to see or even contribute to something like this, but I don’t currently have the skills or energy to pull it off myself. Has anyone explored this idea before?