As corporate social media gets worse, and worse, or as some like to call it, “The Enshitification,” some may be wondering, “Where can I go where I won’t be targeted by endless hostile ads, in places that aren’t owned by mega corporations who are harvesting all of my data for theft machines?”
ActivityPub has been the answer to that since around 2008 with StatusNet, now known as GNU Social. But, most would be familiar with the launch of Mastodon in 2016 (some may even remember Friendika in 2010, which was another starting point in-between the two biggest).
So, now you know that AP has a very storied and long history, and that it most definitely isn’t under threat of vanishing forever, or going dead, like so many Twitter alternatives (see: Hive Social), but, where do you start?
Before I get into any specifics, I’d like to provide you with some links so that you know where to get started with each iteration of this software, and its corresponding replacement to corporate social media.
- Mastodon, widely thought of as an early replacement to Twitter (below are more pieces of microblogging software that all sort of serve a similar purpose to Mastodon, that are also different in some key ways)
- Friendica, a much older client that got its start even before Mastodon as an alternative to Facebook, written in PHP.
- Pixelfed, very much a replacement to Instagram, and much more like the original iteration of Meta’s giant that we all remember from the early iPhone days.
- Peertube, a very much still growing Youtube replacement that feels like a mix of tech culture and early-ish Youtube.
- Lemmy, a Reddit replacement that was erected the moment that its CEO decided to lock out the API and kill all 3rd party apps.
- Wafrn, a relatively new Tumblr replacement, fully integrated with the ActivityPub protocol.
- Matrix, an open source, secure replacement to Discord. This is not currently utilizing ActivityPub but, I’ve listed it here for those who are tired of Discord.
Now you’ve got yourself a jumping off point, but what if you don’t want to join mastodon.social? What if you want to join Freindica, or Misskey, or Pleroma? Why are a lot of the alternate ActivityPub instances so specific, and how do I decide what’s best?
So, on a lot of these initial links, you’ll find a way to look through different available servers. Servers, or Instances, where the software is basically the same (or forked with a few modifications), but the community is smaller, with different rules. Sometimes the instance itself has a very specific topic, like “This is the Mastodon instance for Sonic fans!” and it’s possible something like that, seen over and over with numerous topics might seem intimidating, might push you away to the point where you’re like, “Man, I just want something general, where I can post, and won’t be hassled for not talking about cats and only cats!”
Firstly, not a lot of these specific topic instances will hassle you if you don’t strictly adhere to what their instance is about. But, if you’re unsure, they usually have an “about” page where it’s detailed what’s acceptable and what’s not.
And it’s very important to take heed of the “about” and “rules” pages on each instance you think you might like to join, because, like with all things, there are people using this open source software for evil means (nazism, CSA content, etc). But! Do not fret! It is very easy to spot these things, and you can also get an initial idea of which instances are bad by viewing this public block list (this is the list I started with on my own instance at mkultra.monster)
I’ve said in the past that I think a lot of public block lists are bad for social media (manipulation, false flags, clique behavior), but this one seems to be at least somewhat aware that the only content most are worried about blocking out is what’s talked about above.
If the instance you’re looking at isn’t on that list, odds are it’s fine.
I would say these are probably your biggest hurdles right here. Choosing an instance, and then making sure it isn’t a hive of scum and criminality.
With that aside, joining most of these instances across different alternatives will give you the ability to follow people who are talking and operating on other pieces of ActivityPub software. Obviously, this excludes Peertube, slightly, because Peertube is more about posting videos, and there isn’t a user feed for you to view and post to.
The same goes for Lemmy, where all the talking happens across interconnected boards, and while users on, say, Mastodon, can see your conversations, you won’t see a feed of random people talking.
Your last thought, after finally joining something on this list here, and getting yourself setup, is probably, “What happens if the instance I’m on needs to shutdown? Do I lose everything?” Nope! If you’re on Mastodon, you can easily switch your follows and followers over to another instance, as if nothing happened! The only thing you will lose are your posts, so it’s important to keep a backup handy of what you’d like to keep, such as anything you have stickied to the top of your profile so that you can post it again (many of the alternative pieces of software also have a migration option, i.e., this isn’t specific to Mastodon).
I personally use IFTTT to send every single post I make to a Google Doc, but that is way more advanced (and Google is an enshitifying corporation), and maybe not even entirely necessary.
I would say, if you join a large instance, with some kind of history that reaches back for at least a year, you probably won’t have to worry about this for some time, if at all. Of course, mastodon.social is likely never going anywhere, but it’s good to be aware of other choices you can make on the open web.
On a final note, you should also be aware that not every instance is federating with Threads. Some have it limited so that you will only see the profiles of people you specifically seek out and follow, and others have it fully suspended so that you’ll never see anyone from Threads at all.
This is a decision entirely up to an instance admin and their moderation team, but if you are interested in following people you know on Threads, pay special attention to the landing pages of the instances you’re looking at and make sure you know what their policy on Threads is (if they have one).
General questions and answers:
- Can I post NSFW content on Mastodon, or its sister apps?
- On a lot of them, yes, although most will require a content warning so that this content is initially blurred.
- Is Mastodon just a bunch of tech-dudes circle jerking all day?
- It used to be, back in the old days, but now you’ll find many LGBTQ+ types, sex workers, artists, writers, musicians–Anything you could possibly imagine.
- Is there an algorithm learning from what I do and feeding me content specific to what I like or interact with?
- No, there is not. Your feed is entirely dependent on who you follow.
- Can I see people on Bluesky?
- Not initially, but if you follow this account your posts will be fed to Bluesky, and in-turn allow for interaction with Bluesky users (BSKY uses a different protocol, and while I have my opinions on this, I’ll save those for later).
- Can I block and mute people?
- Absolutely, and I would encourage you to do this for anyone you don’t want to see. It’ll make your experience that much better.
- Can I block an entire instance?
- Yes. Each user can choose to simply block out an entire ActivityPub server (on Mastodon, and most of the other pieces of software, I believe) so that they never have to see any users coming from it. Although, this is also a functionality that an instance admin has. The difference is that if your instance admin blocks an entire instance, nobody will see it.
- What if I think it all feels too complicated?
- That’s fine! This is, obviously, quite a bit more work than simply signing up for a Twitter account. But also, consider the piece of mind you’ll have knowing that you have a presence online, that isn’t being harvested by Elon Musk, or Microsoft, and therefore turning you into a commodity.
If you have any additional questions, I would be more than happy to speak to you over at my instance. I hope this list and information has helped, and if you’ve decided to join us, welcome! Welcome to the open web.
Here is a list of mobile apps available to you so that you can stay connected on-the-go.
iOS (it’s better to simply search for these, as Apple doesn’t make linking to apps in their store all that easy):
- Mastodon, the official client.
- Ivory, a mobile Mastodon client.
- Voyager, a mobile Lemmy client.
- Pixelfed, currently on TestFlight.
- Takesama, for Misskey.
- B4X, for Pleroma
Android:
- Mastodon, the official client.
- Tusky, an unofficial Mastodon client for Android users.
- Boost, a mobile Lemmy client for Android.
- Husky, a mobile client for Pleroma.
- Pixelfed, the mobile client for Android users.
- Milktea, the android client for Misskey.
Peertube developers are currently working on an app, so that you don’t have to pin the website to your home screen. Pinning to your home screen is also currently the best way to use Wafrn on your phone.