Unifying the Fediverse

Why are there so many separate platforms in the Fediverse like Mastodon, Lemmy, PixelFed, and PeerTube? It feels like they could all be part of one unified platform.

Posts

Text, images, and videos could just be treated as posts, all with comments enabled.

  • Servers that don’t want to host videos could just have a setting to turn off video uploads.
    • That would let PeerTube function like Mastodon when video support isn’t needed.

Lemmy + Mastodon + PixelFed

They all do basically the same thing — let people post stuff. So why split them up?

Forums can still work like Lemmy. If you want your post in a forum, cool. If not, that’s fine too.

Matrix + Posts

  • As for messaging, I think Matrix could benefit from Signal-style encryption. Each message should be encrypted with a unique key, just like Signal does.
  • Add a button like “See recent posts by this user” on profiles.
    • This would make it easier for people to switch over from Instagram or Facebook.

plugin-based development

I also think the Fediverse could grow faster if it were plugin-based, kind of like how Obsidian handles plugins. Development would be more modular and flexible.

  • Servers could choose which plugins to enable.
  • Devs could collaborate instead of reinventing the wheel across platforms like Mastodon, Lemmy, PixelFed, PeerTube, etc.
  • This would create a richer, more customizable ecosystem that evolves together.

Questions

Also, just a question from someone who’s not a coder:

Why not just copy Signal’s encryption model?

Summarize

Each user can create posts (with or without a forum), follow forums, follow other users, have private chats, and join encrypted rooms.

This is just some personal rambling, so feel free to ignore it. But if any of it sounds useful, please share it with other people, especially the developers.

  • SorteKanin@feddit.dkEnglish
    13·
    16 hours ago

    Matrix is not part of the fediverse, so that’s kind of a special case and doesn’t work the same at all as the rest.

    What you describe sounds very simplified, but let me assure you that there is nothing simple about this problem (I say that as a software engineer that has studied ActivityPub, the protocol underlying the fediverse).

    • Holeheadou92984@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      2·
      16 hours ago

      Matrix is not part of the fediverse, so that’s kind of a special case and doesn’t work the same at all as the rest.

      Didn’t know about that. Is there a fediverse messager people could use?

      What you describe sounds very simplified, but let me assure you that there is nothing simple about this problem (I say that as a software engineer that has studied ActivityPub, the protocol underlying the fediverse).

      I’m sure the development is difficult, and I don’t mean to downplay the complexity involved. Still, I wonder if a modular or plugin-based architecture could help bridge that gap.

      • SorteKanin@feddit.dkEnglish
        5·
        16 hours ago

        It sounds like that would require unifying the architecture of all fediverse platforms, which nobody is interested in and very much goes against the point (decentralization). Right now all of these platforms are written independently, with unique architectures and different programming languages.

        Suffice to say that, while it’s a nice thought, what you’re proposing is not really realistic, nor is it actually desired.

      • Pamasich@kbin.earth
        1·
        15 hours ago

        Is there a fediverse messager people could use?

        There is one in active development. But it doesn’t seem to be federating YET according to the description. That’s an item in the planned list, and federating with other instances of itself is marked as wip. But work is being done on that front, the latest commit on the main branch is from 4 days ago.