Fediverse
The Fediverse is an alliance of independent social networks whose servers are connected through a shared protocol – Mastodon, for example.
What is the Fediverse?
Fediverse is a blend of “federation” and “universe”. It means an alliance of many independent servers that talk to one another through shared, open protocols. The most important is called ActivityPub and has been a standard of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) since 2018. The Fediverse includes, for example, Mastodon for short messages, Pixelfed for photos, PeerTube for videos and Friendica as a classic social network.
How the Fediverse works
Each server, often called an instance, is run by a person, an association or an organisation and has its own rules. You create your account on one of these servers but can follow and write to people on other servers – much like email, where mailboxes at different providers reach one another. There is no central operator and no shared algorithm for everyone.
Strengths and limits
Being distributed makes you independent of a single company, and an account can usually be moved to another server. In return, a lot depends on the server you choose: availability, moderation and data protection differ, and a small operator may also shut the service down. Posts are distributed to many servers and cannot reliably be taken back from there. Private messages in the Fediverse are generally not end-to-end encrypted.
On Friendstime
Friendstime is run centrally by one provider in Germany and is not part of the Fediverse. There is no connection via ActivityPub: from Mastodon or other Fediverse services you cannot follow accounts on Friendstime, nor the other way round. Anyone on Friendstime therefore reaches other Friendstime members. In your profile, however, you can add a link to your Mastodon account.
Frequently asked questions
Is Mastodon the same as the Fediverse?
No. Mastodon is one of many applications in the Fediverse – the best known. The Fediverse covers all services that connect with one another through protocols such as ActivityPub.
Who owns the Fediverse?
No one alone. Each server has its own operator; the protocols are open, and most of the software is open source.
Is Friendstime connected to Mastodon?
No. Friendstime is an independent, centrally operated network without an ActivityPub connection.
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