Why you need to be using Mastodon & Peertube in 2025

The Fediverse, you might have heard of it. From Mastodon to Peertube, Pixelfed, Lemmy and more—it’s is a collection of different services that are all working together to form an interconnected universe of applications. It sounds unbelievable, but it’s here today.

It wrests control of the web out of the hands of corporate oligarchs and digital tycoons and returns that power to where it belongs: us.

So in this video, I want to take a moment to explore 5 of the most important lessons I’ve learned and why I’m now betting the future of my company on this amazing technology that we call “The Fediverse.”

And just a fair warning: Much of this video is going to be me looking backwards at the history of the web as much as it will be looking forwards.

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-- Chapters --
00:00 What if we lived in a cooperative online world?
01:33 What is an "instance?"
02:11 #5 - Netiquette was not a fluke
04:49 #4 - Kindness is King
06:44 #3 - It's not a Social Network
08:06 #2 - The Fediverse is boring (complement)
11:04 #1 - Viral Memes as Bioweapons
12:59 Social Media is the enemy of humanity
13:36 What the Fediverse truly is

About Gardiner Bryant: A native Maine resident, Gardiner (yes, that's his first name) is an enthusiastic Linux evangelist, a believer in the efficacy and superiority of the Free and Open Source way, and President of Heavy Element. Heavy Element offers web design, media production, and YouTube consulting services to individuals and companies in Maine and beyond.

#Fediverse #Mastodon #ActivityPub

I Spent A Year Living in the Future (of Social Media)

[gardiner_bryant]

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[foxriver]

So grateful for this video in this moment. I thought the Fediverse was more or less Mastadon and a lot of wishful thinking about what else it could be. But to learn that there is already an eco system is exciting. I tried Mastadon 4 years ago, but immediately lost interest as I’ve never understood the appeal to Twitter in the first place. It’s like learning there’s a whole new way of cooking broccoli and getting all excited about that process and then remembering, the moment I take a bite, that oh yeah I hate broccoli..

I do enjoy more intimate and rich interactions though, and it sounds like I could definitely find that like minded community in the Fediverse. I’ve grown so agitated by the modern social internet. The way you make the Fediverse sound is reminiscent of the old BBS days or super early internet, which I absolutely loved! Thanks Gardiner

[tiagox]

As an artist, Mastodon is a breath of fresh air since I don't have to worry about the algorithms and censorship of mainstream social media. Also get more interaction there than on Twitter, despite having 1/10 of the followers.

[Aggronaut]

I left Twitter a little over two years ago and now help run a Mastodon instance and I think the biggest change is how much it improved my general mental health.

[jezebelmei]

The Mastodon instance I was on got shutdown because people were mean to the maintainer. I lost everything.

[eibriel]

Watched the video on Peertube, liked and commented from Mastodon! The Fediverse is mindblowing!

[indero]

It's like you took a time machine, but in a good way.

[xan-ss]

Having an open protocol doesn't protect from centralization. People go where other people are. Successful instances can be bought. New small instances can be blocked by default by big instances to "protect" the users.

[TheLegendarySage]

For me, the Fediverse is like the town in the movie Pleasantville, but in reverse. Crazy, loud, and dumb stuff of X, YouTube, Facebook, et al trying to find the serene, quiet, and kindness of the Fediverse (Pleasantville). It sounds like finding paradise, but is it really? I'm not convinced yet...

[thomaslange]

People will never migrate enmass to a knock off. Real growth happens organicly when something is truly new and interesting. It doesnt matter if the knock off is better than the original in some ways. People will always stick with where the current mass population is in the end.

[dnel]

Ive been on the fediverse for 15 years. It has only got better over time while corporate social networks have risen, turned sour and shut down over and over again. Bluesky isn't immune to this pattern and it'll happen again, people have short memories and never learn.

[Moon-zohu]

Invisible blocks between servers run by network nannies make normal interaction frequently intolerable. Countless people join a server then try to talk to someone on another server, and find out that their admin or the admin of the other server invisibly cut off communication. Or they participated in a distributed blocklist that blocked your server for wrong or nonsensical reasons, with no way to fix it other than move. There is nothing wrong with moderation (the Fediverse needs it because it is not a community, it is a collection of communities, with different rules) but it should be transparent and not rely on a cabal of people that weaponize it for social clout.

[joshuataylor]

I have heard of mastodon, but the reset was new to me and I'm going to be adding them all to learn more for myself. Thanks for sharing

[GIRGHGH]

For me the instances make it completely unmanageable. I just want one place where I can post and see posts from literally anybody. I do not want to be island hopping all day. A continuous system is what I'm comfortable with.

[in-craig-ible]

I hadn't heard of some of these services. I'll have to check them out.

[johnnydystar]

i've had success finding content for mastadon, but i'm struggling to find content for peertube. just not finding the instances i'm interested in, but not sure of any viable places to look.

[zek]

I find that my Pixelfed just looks like Mastodon if I use my Mastodon login on Pixelfed. Is there a setting that tells the sites to behave the way they normally would regardless of which login is used?

[devsimples]

I like the fediverse, but it has the same problems centralized platforms have just with more options. IMO the go to option would be something like NOSTR, truly decentralized and unrestricted. It would be great to have more people on nostr.

[thesilentobserver]

I’ve finally ditched Reddit in favor of Lemmy. And I’m happy I did. I have so much more control over what I see. No more political B.S. shoved in my face when it’s unwanted and people seem to be significantly more polite to me on Lemmy compared to Reddit. And I’m less incentivized to spend a significant amount of my time there. I see something cool, interact with it a little bit, and then move on with my day.

[ijiikieru]

The problem with the Fediverse is that your digital identity is still owned by a third party. I'm more interested in protocols like NOSTR and Pubky were you own your digital identity and social graph separate from any one instance.