What is Fediverse?
In simple terms, it is a network of websites that interact with each other through a shared protocol called ActivityPub.
We have been hearing about it for some time, but what exactly is it?
What is Fediverse?
In simple terms, it is a network of websites that interact with each other through a shared protocol. ie: ActivityPub
The Fediverse is a collection of interconnected social platforms communicating through a shared protocol called ActivityPub.
As someone from Reddit says:
Federated by definition means we are spread, not centralized. (source)
In normal social media, if you post or upload something, it would show up only on that website, but in the fediverse, it can also show on the other websites that are part of the fediverse.
It is not centralized. User can control their data and can see the same data on different platforms, though the features will depend on the platform.
But some of those platforms are run by corporations and some by individuals.
Now all these platforms have their own rules and algorithms to show a feed, but users can interact from data from one website to another. Kinda like all those platforms using the same database/protocol.
The most popular Fediverse protocol is Activity Pub.
Mastadon is not the fedeverse but just one of the platform using the fediverse protocol.
Do we already use a Federated System?
Yes, emails.
A long time back we could only sent email from Gmail to Gmail and not to other services, ie: Gmail to Outlook wouldn't have worked.
Due to innovation, we were introduced to POP, IMAP, and SMTP. Those protocol allowed services to allow sending emails from one server to another and even allow other servers to access their email by proper authentication.
Remember every service has its own set of features, protections, and rules that they follow but the core principle of sending data is done through the protocols.
Example: Google has a spam policy different from Outlook.
Who actually is storing your data?
The original source of content is stored in the service where you are posting. That service does signal other services in that new content was added where the other services can also store that data.
Whether the other services stores the data is dependent on that service.
If you care a lot about your data, deciding the right services to post or create your account matters a lot.
How will spam be handled?
There are multiple instances of it. Handling spam where content is posted and handling spam when other instance receive it.
Handling spam when content is posted
This will be handled by the service where you are posting content. Whether the service thinks that the content posted is spam or not depends on the service logic before it signals other services on the Fediverse about the new content being posted.
Handling spam when content is received from other services
You can receive content from other services in fediverse and it's on the individual service decision if they want which service to send or receive data from. ie: A service can decide that they don't want to receive data from other services because they think it contains a lot of spam.
Let's say if content is received from a valid service in the fediverse can still be made to go to spam and the service receiving the data can make the decision before the content is shown in the service. This can save the service from keeping spam minimum in case other service gets compromised.
