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The Problem with the Fediverse

I have no issues with the way it is implemented, I have no issues with it at all. For context, I left Twitter to join the Fedi, and it has been great so far! I use Misskey for microblogging, PeerTube for uploading videos, and Lemmy for Reddit-style discussions. The Fediverse is amazing!

Except, idk, for the fact that it is too fragmented? I hope I am using the right words. Like, the current instance I am on does not have support for communities, so i have to do it the hard way and mention @fediverse@lemmy.world so that I can post here. It's a good workaround, considering it doesn't have built-in support for communities.
But my point still stands. It's not a Lemmy/PieFed problem. It's mostly a fediverse problem. Implementing communities for every platform would help the Fediverse. Not only does it solve discoverability/algorithm issues of the Fediverse (since now when you follow a community, you get all posts from that community), but also it would interconnect every platform (Misskey, PeerTube, Mastodon, etc.)

Imagine you don't have to use your Lemmy account to check everything on Lemmy. Instead of creating channels in PeerTube, just post to an existing channel/community, and people subscribed to that channel/community can find you easily. I see this as an absolute win for everyone.

I understand this would require collaboration between all developers of all software. But hopefully, this is possible?
Or am I asking for too much?

If I am wrong, then is there any way in which we can solve this issue?

#fediverse #problems #fediverseproblems

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[-] Microw@piefed.zip 5 points 1 month ago

The developers of Fedi software have different philosophies. Some developers are just not interested in implementing and supporting all kinds of AP actors, kinds of media, ways of attaching media etc. Because they want their software to focus on a certain thing.

Others want to implement everything and interconnect with every platform.

[-] ThatOneAnnoyingBro@drumstodon.net 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

@mkmusic well well well
Why ask when you can contribute(we, I need to do a project for my portfolio aswell)
What do you say? Next year??

[-] Blaze@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 month ago

Mbin has support for both microblogging and communities (so Twitter and Reddit like): https://fedia.io/ Maybe that's something that can interest you.

It doesn't seem too popular, probably because the Twitter and Reddit crowd always had a limited overlap.

[-] Die4Ever@retrolemmy.com 0 points 1 month ago

It doesn’t seem too popular

This is probably why it's not a focus for developers. If Mbin was some huge success, it would show demand for the feature, and more developers would prioritize it higher.

[-] melroy@kbin.melroy.org 0 points 1 month ago

@Die4Ever@retrolemmy.com @fediverse@lemmy.world @mkmusic@torishiro.com @Blaze@lemmy.dbzer0.com I didn't help that the previous developer (ernest wisniewski) abandoned the whole project called kbin. Mbin is a fork of it and continuation of his legacy.

[-] Die4Ever@retrolemmy.com 0 points 1 month ago

The name change definitely confused some people, but keep at it!

[-] melroy@kbin.melroy.org 1 points 1 month ago

I wasn't creative. The M stands for Melroy.

[-] 3dcadmin@lemmy.relayeasy.com 1 points 1 month ago

For me and the clients and fwiends I talk to the issue with the fediverse for them is the decentralised nature. Most of them are NOT tech inclined and the suggestion that they would have to choose a server and that choice will influence the experience is a deal breaker - pure and simple. To follow up then if they do join, the sheer lack of numbers baffles them and they quit

[-] Blaze@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 month ago

What about just pointing them to https://feddit.uk/ , with https://getvoyager.app/ for an app?

Lemmy.ca got a lot of new joiners following the boycottUSA movement in February

[-] mkmusic@torishiro.com 1 points 1 month ago

@3dcadmin@lemmy.relayeasy.com i think that not the problem with the fediverse, but the problem with how wehave been cultured so far. We got the concept of emails, we should get used to this soon too...

@fediverse@lemmy.world

[-] 3dcadmin@lemmy.relayeasy.com 1 points 1 month ago

most of those I talk to struggle with emails to be fair.... we are talking about the non techy people, I feel that is the real reason. Nothing I have seen about the fediverse helps displace the feeling you need to be more techy to use it

[-] mkmusic@torishiro.com 0 points 1 month ago

@3dcadmin@lemmy.relayeasy.com its 2025, and people still dont know how to use email?! And they are using the internet?!!! Its clearly not the fediverse's fault...

My parents barely know how to use a computer, let alone use social media. And they STILL understand how email works! Our family grew up with email.

I am very much worried about the future of the tech world, if this continues...
Sorry to appear disrespectful to you, i truly understand what you're saying. But, i truly dont get people like them...

@fediverse@lemmy.world

[-] OpenStars@piefed.social 0 points 1 month ago

If you will allow me to respectfully disagree, the mere fact that you can make this post at all is evidence against what you are saying, no?

e.g. Reddit has "posts", which may have links to "YouTube" or "Wikipedia", or to "Tiktok" or "Instagram", or "Facebook" or "LinkedIn", etc. - each of those requires a different account (the former three at least allow anonymous viewing, the middle two make it extremely difficult but it can be done if someone has a link to a specific item of content, while iirc the latter two mandate having an account to view the content at all).

Within each component of the Fediverse, it seems connected to a very high degree? e.g. the one we are discussing this on here now is the Threadiverse, which can be read, interacted with (voted, saved, links sent to) and commented on by people with accounts on any instance running Lemmy, Mbin, or Piefed (among Threadiverse software platforms I have also heard of nodeBB and flarum but I do not know what the current status is of their ActivityPub protocol integration). This level of interactivity is high.

And beyond that, you can interact with it via Mastodon, Misskey, Friendica, etc. Granted, this level of interactivity is much lower... but at least it exists? So it is high compared to not being able to interact with it, if that makes sense? A better phrasing might be that something is better than nothing?

And with effort put in by people donating their time & energies & attention & skills, it will improve. e.g. I am writing this to you from PieFed where new features are added practically every week (in fact it is nowhere close to being uncommon to see changes every other day). So what you are asking - it is happening, right in front of our very eyes! It might just seem slow to someone more used to "capitalistic" rather than socialist endeavors because it is not backed by corporate money that would seek a return on their initial investment, e.g. by selling user data, and instead requires the donations (especially of effort and skill, but money works too!) of individual people.

[-] mkmusic@torishiro.com 1 points 1 month ago

@OpenStars@piefed.social @fediverse@lemmy.world if you told me this about 2 minutes ago, i probably wouldve disagreed with you. But, seeing yalls responses, i realise that im asking for a ginormous favour from all developers. Id just make my own software instead of complaining about all of the devs hard word to keep everything interconnected whilst not overwhelming the users with every feature under the sun.

You have proved yourself to be right. The mere fact that every platform is interconnected means that we are actually... connected!

Its not perfect, but thats not a reason for me to just take a back seat and watch and complain.

Id really like to see this grow to become a great community. To make projects like this for the sheer fun and goodness of it, and not expecting money back. Now thats something to applaud for!

[-] OpenStars@piefed.social 1 points 1 month ago

Diagnosing an issue, on a matter that you feel passionate about, is a first step towards finding a solution for it. So now that you are walking partway down this pathway, I hope that you continue - donate or help directly if that sounds fun to you! :)

And welcome to the Fediverse:).

[-] rodneyck@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I have an issue with Fediverse, Lemmy to be exact. The platform is allowing an outside tool that was built for a mod or admin of a community to see votes, how people vote, but it is being exploited by users to spy/dox/harass, gang-up, and use as a tool to exploit other users nefariously. The tool is called Lemvotes. You can access the portal here. Here is a quote from a user (go $fsck yourself @ lemmy.world) who exploits this sharing how to use it with other users;

There’s a few ways of seeing votes. IMO they should be visible all the time. Moderators can see the votes of posts and comments in the subs they moderate. Admins can see all votes federated to their instance. Users have to use a separate tool for it. In this case I used Lemvotes.

This tool, imo, should be banned, or the platform to be "patched" to only allow this to work for admins, not users who abuse it.

[-] rglullis@communick.news 1 points 1 month ago

There is no such thing as a "vote" in ActivityPub/ActivityStreams. This idea of "up/down votes" is just an abstraction of a message saying "Actor A liked B", where B is an Post/Comment (and a post/comment itself just being an abstraction of ActivityStreams objects).

That is to say: there is no way to selectively hide the content a message. If you want federation to work and you want people outside your own server to see your posts, then the server needs to broadcast the messages to anyone listening.

Tools like lemvotes are just exposing this information. There is no point in trying to censor the tool, because this information is available publicly, and any motivated person will be able to track this information.

If you are concerned about what people think of your "likes" and "dislikes", then do not use a public social media service and only communicate with provably secure communication tools.

[-] Die4Ever@retrolemmy.com 0 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I really don't mind having a separate account for Lemmy and Mastodon. It's not pleasant to force different types of content into different website formats, even if the implementation is "ideal".

That said, I am surprised Misskey doesn't allow you to follow @fediverse@lemmy.world as you would follow a user, Mastodon allows this (it's not as good as viewing inside Lemmy but it does work).

[-] DrCake@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

Yeah same. The way I think about federation is in a kind of per “product” approach. That’s a piece of software can be run by anyone and all communicate and work as a whole is the main benefit. Cross compatibility between “products”/software is just an added bonus, but not necessary

[-] mkmusic@torishiro.com 0 points 1 month ago

@Die4Ever@retrolemmy.com i get you. And well after seeing yalls arguments, might as well build my own software with PeerTube+Lemmy+Misskey stocked into one. And it'll help with my coding experience too @fediverse@lemmy.world

[-] Die4Ever@retrolemmy.com 0 points 1 month ago

Do it! You'll probably find like-minded users. Don't forget PixelFed and Loops too.

Although maybe you could just contribute to Mbin or fork it, cause I feel like it already does all of this?

[-] mkmusic@torishiro.com 0 points 1 month ago

@Die4Ever@retrolemmy.com will definately check out mbin too. Ill get a computer soon, and then ill start contributing to mbin and hopefully they see my plea for help lol... i love how different people from different platforms get along in the fediverse, coz on Twitter it was so different... and that was before Musk, so i must imagine it must have gotten worse... @fediverse@lemmy.world

[-] melroy@kbin.melroy.org 0 points 1 month ago

@mkmusic@torishiro.com Thank you for considering Mbin.

[-] mkmusic@torishiro.com 1 points 1 month ago

@melroy@kbin.melroy.org I tried mbin (registered an account for my brother). The UI isnt that bad, UI is actually well-built, i think what scared me was the the different terminologies. On mbin, you have magazines instead of communities, and microblog instead of posts. But it's not that it's bad, youll get used to it.

The disorganised yet connect nature of the fediverse is something we'll have to get used to. It's like how we all can appreciate different cultures from different countries around the world and be able to share and appreciate one another despite differences in culture. The real problem isnt with the Fediverse, it's with how culturally "bland" social media is now...

Ive checked the repo too, but since ive just started with coding, i do not understand anything... ​:mei_cry:​ ill try my best to contribute however i can, really want to see mbin continue the legacy...

@fediverse@lemmy.world...

[-] rglullis@communick.news 0 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Implementing communities for every platform would help the Fediverse

From Evan Prodromou, co-author of ActivityPub: The Fediverse should be more like the Facebook Platform (lots of client apps using the same social graph) rather than the Apple App Store (a bunch of one-feature apps that have to bootstrap their own social network each time).

The issue here is that most developers and users are still thinking in terms of the siloed networks. We don't need "multiple, separate platforms". We need to get rid of the platforms! We need to build our tools around protocols.

The WWW was incredibly successful because anyone could whip up some HTML and publish a webpage. The "protocol" of structured text alongside with links was simple to understand, any browser could do it. The Social Web should work the same.

[-] mkmusic@torishiro.com 1 points 1 month ago

@rglullis@communick.news for some reason, i disagree with you. A LOT OF developers have different visions for their software. I think the fediverse is in a good place at this point. I just feel like communities need to be federated everywhere...

[-] gedaliyah@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago

There are different platforms that serve different uses. Using a common protocol enhances development and growth, and the flexibility of the protocol lets developers build on it without reinventing the wheel.

[-] mkmusic@torishiro.com 0 points 1 month ago

@gedaliyah@lemmy.world honestly, yall are amazing, ive learnt so much from you all. Ill just build my own platform instead of being lazy and complaining about it...

[-] gedaliyah@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

I'm not sure you understood the point I was making. Multiple platforms exist on the fediverse. Interoperability is a nice plus but it's not the core feature of the protocol.

Mastodon is strongest around microblogging because that's what it's built for. Lemmy is strongest for community discussions because that's what it's built for. There are options like mbin that do more to bridge the gap in different ways.

Success of a platform is mostly centered around doing a particular thing very well. There is nothing stopping someone from making multiple accounts across multiple platforms (or even the same platform).

I'd recommend trying to set up different accounts and see if you find one meets your criteria better.

this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2025
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