Where You’ll Find Me – The Fediverse

In November of 2022, Elon Musk completed his purchase of the social media service Twitter. The place where open communication and organization of fighters for free speech and human rights was now in the hands of a right wing fascist propagandist, and the changes began almost immediately. While Musk himself claimed to promote free speech, he soon showed his true colors, as MAGA trolls, racists, crypto bros, and porn bots flooded the site while Musk shut down anybody who spoke out against them or him. The first of many exoduses from Twitter began then and has continued up through today.

As former tweeters searched for a new home, many, including myself, found themselves checking out a micro blogging service with some similarities to Twitter. This service, called Mastodon, is part of a larger group of services called the Fediverse. Unlike Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and other social media sites, which are all closed “walled gardens” owned by billionaire tech bros like Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, the Fediverse celebrates decentralized services which anybody could host. This is similar to how email works, where users can select which email server and service to host their mailbox on, even one they host in their own home.

With Mastodon, my account is hosted on a server maintained by the TWiT podcast network. They offer access to the server as part of their Club TWiT membership. I can follow other Mastodon users, both on twit.social or on other Mastodon servers such as mastodon.social. What’s more, I can also follow accounts on other Fediverse services. There’s a photo sharing service called Pixelfed, for example, which I can follow from my Mastodon account, while Pixelfed users can follow my Mastodon account and see any posts which contain photos. I also have my own Pixelfed account, hosted on the pxlmo.com server, which I prefer using over Instagram. Other Fediverse services include Bookwyrm, an alternative to Goodreads, Frendica, which can replace Facebook, and PeerTube, a streaming video service in the spirit of YouTube.

While I’m not using all of the services available on the Fediverse, I do like the idea that there are options out there which aren’t locked in with data and privacy protection issues. I’m even toying with the idea of building my own hosts for Mastodon and other Fediverse services, essentially rolling my own social media environment which I can maintain and control while communicating with others in the Fediverse.

You can follow my Mastodon account (https://twit.social/@kevingamin) and my Pixelfed account (https://pxlmo.com/i/web/profile/501140604007532721) from these links or search for me from any Fediverse account you’ve set up for yourself.