Distributed social media - Mastodon & Fediverse Explained

Mastodon is a "federated" social network that works like Twitter. It puts the control of data into the user's hands, not in a single corporation.

Mastodon uses ActivityPub to make sure that each Mastodon instance can reach the others.

ActivityPub is also implemented by other applications such as PeerTube and Plume. This is what makes up the *Fediverse*: a collection of social networks that function as a single one.

🎵Music used in this video

📚 Sources & Citations

🌍 Social

[deves]

It's crazy to see this video was made 4 years ago, before covid, and is now a great source to explain federated websites after the Reddit/Twitter updates recently. Thanks for the great video (4 years late!) Hoping youtube remains a safe space for content.

[partagashabaneros]

Very good development. Thanks for this informative content. Adoption requires marketing and users themselves can spread the good word. We need to uproot the evil social media monopolies.

[garisoncyr]

The fact that this channel was talking about this 3 years ago is a great testiment to the quality of the channel. If you want to learn about the cutting edge, definetly consider subscribing.

[DangRenBo]

"Has grown exponentially" : shows linear growth
But federated social should be the default for everyone. Agreed.

[mortkebab]

It's not so much that the big social media platforms (including Youtube) have rules, but that they often don't tell you exactly what the rules are or that they apply the rules in an inconsistent way - penalizing some groups and not others for the same supposedly prohibited behaviour.

[fd-idwebsites]

Thanks for this explanation, it is, 3 years later, still a very good start for new users!

[murmurdapp]

Very informative and well explained. Explained in a simple language that can be understood even by those who are not very knowledgable about blockchain technology. Great content!

[TheFGrox]

Thanks for the explanation.
I hope to boost this video with this comment as social media decentralization is more relevant than ever nowadays.

[victorsouza]

Great great great video. Sharing it with my friends! I don't know what is your channel about, but the privacy and decentralization themes are aewsome! Good luck with your channel!

[michaelham]

Very helpful video. I just learned about Mastodon (and the Fediverse) today, so I am starting from ground zero, and your video is excellent as a first orientation. I like the idea because decentralization is powerful — decentralization generally results in resilience and encourages innovation. Centralized structures in general lack flexibility, and the bigger they are, the less flexible they become — and as a result often actively and deliberately stifle innovation. Thanks for the video.

[MrControll]

About the last point. I know of two instances off hand where members of the community can set up monthly donations to the site, and in return they get to be voteing members of the governing body that runs the instance. It's a niche possibility yes, and mostly works because these instances are aimed at the kind of person who would like that idea, but it is A way of handling server fees without ads.

[tonyt]

Oh amazing video, thanks! Been looking for an out from today's "internet" to the golden age of internet, this looks more like it!

[Comedycast]

Nice. I like the presentation. For reasons, I have been participating on a Mastodon instance for a while now, but the whole thing has been a mystery to me. This helps lift at least a bit of the fog.

[meterspoor]

I was 5 seconds into the video and I was like "I know this accent ... but from where?" and the channel is Belgian. That explains it.
Nice video btw.

[sbstn]

I'm pretty new to Mastodon and I really like it, although I'm still a bit confused. I wish there would be an easy way to see the timelines of other instances (if the admins approve it). And more filter options like sorting for a specific language would be a killer. Nevertheless, great recap. Thanks for the upload!

[nevinkgeorge]

Thank you!
Great and simple explanation.
I joined mastadon, part of the Great Indian Twitter exodus.

[domincwild]

It might be better to include some general terminology in the video title. Since I clicked on this video randomly, since I was bored and found it pretty interesting. But I had no idea what it was about before clicking. I think if it said "Decentralized Social Media - Mastodon & The Fediverse Explained" or something of the sort, I'd have been much more likely to click on it, since I have an idea what the video is about before clicking. As currently, the video may as well have no title from the perspective of someone who doesn't know what Mastodon or the Fediverse is. Maybe the thumbnail could also be utilized to add the general terminology too.

[InsertNicknameHereee]

thanks for the great intro video, i've been moving over to peertube, pixelfed, mastodon, and discovering more. it's beautiful and exciting and will try to get my communities to move over.

[dontrez]

This platform should be picking up steam pretty soon since de-platforming has become commonplace on other platforms. Server location and access may be of interest and more people may be more willing to pay and/or donate and learn new ways to communicate with more people.

[paulschoe]

I signed on to Fediverse instances. It is great to be able to follow people on other platforms without needing an account on that platform.
The only item that I miss, and dearly miss, is that in the comments on a post or a video, you do not see the comments that were made by people who are registered on another 'instance' than you are. That is something that has to change. The keyword of Social Media is 'social', but what is social when you can follow people on other platforms or instances but you can communicate (comment) only with the people that are on your own instance? Then we return to the situation that one; the largest, platform (instance) will eventually get the most new users which goes against the objective of decentralisation that Fediverse tries to achieve