So, What Even Is the Fediverse?
I wanted to talk about this on my blog because I want to get my own words out there. Yeah, I might not have a big audience here, but I also want to get into the writing sphere and become more involved in the writing community. So, here we are!
And just a quick note before I start: this post is written in my own words and is not AI-generated. I just wanted to make that clear.
Anyway, let's get into it.
You've probably heard the word Fediverse quite a few times by now. Maybe you've seen people talking about it on Bluesky, Twitter, YouTube, or even in press releases. But what exactly is it? Where do you go to join it? And why are there so many different platforms?
Well, I'm going to try to explain it in a way that makes sense to people who are new to all of this.
Think of the Fediverse as one big universe. Every platform is like its own planet, and the servers within those platforms are like different cities. Each city has its own rules, its own people, and its own way of doing things. You can join a city, make friends, and interact with people from other cities, even if they're using a different platform.
For example, there's Mastodon. You can think of Mastodon as one of the planets in this universe. People can run their own servers, and each server has its own rules that you need to read and follow. Some servers have different communities, and others are just general places for people to hang out and talk about whatever they want.
Then there's Sharkey, which is another platform in the Fediverse. Personally, I think Sharkey is pretty interesting because it has its own style and features. If you're someone who likes trying different social platforms and seeing what they have to offer, I'd recommend checking it out for yourself.
And then there's Misskey! Sorry if I keep bringing it up, but it's worth talking about because Sharkey is based on Misskey. You could use my little planet analogy here and imagine Sharkey as one of Misskey's children. They have a relationship, but they're not exactly the same thing. They can have different features and changes, depending on how their developers work on them.
Of course, that family analogy isn't a perfect explanation of how software development works. I'm just trying to make this a little easier to understand.
Another platform worth mentioning is WriteFreely. Think of it as a blogging platform, kind of like Substack, except it can also connect with the wider Fediverse. This means blogging doesn't necessarily have to be an isolated activity. There are ways for people on different federated platforms to discover and interact with your writing.
I've been using this whole planet-and-city comparison for a while now because I think it's a pretty easy way to explain how the Fediverse works. It might sound a little silly, but hey, whatever helps people understand it!
There's also Catodon, which I've been testing recently. It's another platform related to the Misskey ecosystem. From what I've seen, the project has changed direction in how it follows upstream development, so it's worth checking out what the developers are currently doing if you're interested in it.
Using the family analogy again, you could imagine Catodon and Sharkey as relatives in the Misskey family. They're separate projects, though, and you shouldn't expect them to work in exactly the same way.
Now, let's talk about Pleroma. Yes, Pleroma, P-L-E-R-O-M-A. That's how you spell it, so please don't come after me for spelling it wrong!
Pleroma is another federated social media platform. It's an option for people who prefer something different from Mastodon or Misskey-based platforms. And then there's Akkoma, which is a fork of Pleroma.
You might be wondering what a fork actually means. In software development, a fork is when someone takes an existing project's source code and creates a separate version of it. They can then make their own changes, add features, or take the project in a different direction.
That's the basic idea, anyway. I'm still learning about some of these platforms myself, so feel free to correct me if I've gotten something wrong.
Okay, enough about the different planets for a moment. I'm getting a little distracted here, aren't I? Let's get back to what I actually wanted to talk about.
My experience with the Fediverse
Personally, I think Sharkey is one of the best Misskey-based platforms out there. Honestly, from my experience, it feels like a holy grail to me. I know some people might disagree with that opinion, and that's completely fine. You might even see people arguing with me about it in the comments or somewhere else on the Fediverse, but that's just how I feel about Sharkey.
I'm not saying everyone needs to switch to Sharkey. I'm saying that I enjoy using it, and I think it offers something different from the social platforms that people are used to.
Now, Mastodon is a different story.
I've been using Mastodon on and off since around 2023, 2024, and 2025, and I think there are areas where it could improve. One of those areas, in my opinion, is the user interface.
I'd personally like to see more uniqueness in how these platforms look and feel. Misskey and Sharkey have their own visual styles and features, and I think there's room for Mastodon to explore its own approach too. I'm not saying the interface is completely terrible or anything like that. It's just that, as someone who has been learning about coding and web development, I like seeing different ideas being used in the design of a platform.
I know I'm not some professional developer who knows everything, and I'm certainly not claiming to have all the answers. But I do think that the way we design social media platforms matters. The interface is one of the first things people notice when they join a new platform, and it can affect whether they want to stick around.
But there's another issue with the Fediverse that I really want to talk about, and honestly, I think it's a much bigger problem than whether a platform has a good user interface.
It's the way people bring Twitter-style culture into the Fediverse.
And I really wish more people would talk about this.
The Twitter culture problem
Something I've noticed is that the same kinds of behaviour people complain about on centralized social media can also happen on the Fediverse. People bring the same habits, the same arguments, and sometimes the same attitudes with them when they join a different platform.
And I'm not talking about people simply disagreeing with each other. Disagreements are normal. You're going to meet people whose opinions you don't share, and sometimes you're going to have arguments. That's just part of being in a community with other human beings.
What bothers me is when people start bullying others, encouraging others to target someone, or making the whole experience so uncomfortable that someone feels like they have to leave.
I've seen people pushed away from communities because of this kind of behaviour. Then they end up going back to a centralized platform because they don't feel welcome in the Fediverse anymore.
And honestly, can you blame them?
Imagine joining a decentralized social network because you want to try something different, only to end up dealing with the same drama that you were trying to get away from in the first place. At that point, why would you want to stay?
This kind of behaviour can give people the impression that the entire Fediverse is a toxic place. And while I can't speak for everyone, I can understand why some people come to that conclusion based on their experiences.
I can't change everyone's mind about the Fediverse. I'm also not going to pretend that every server is perfect or that every person using it is friendly. That's obviously not true.
But I do think we need to have an honest conversation about what kind of community we're building here.
The Fediverse isn't a company like Twitter, Bluesky, or Reddit. It's not the same kind of centralized service as those platforms, and it doesn't operate in exactly the same way. There are different projects, different administrators, different communities, and different people making decisions about how their spaces should work.
And that's one of the things that makes the Fediverse interesting to me.
It's not one single website that everyone has to use. It's a collection of different services that can communicate with one another. That means there are opportunities to build communities with their own rules, values, and approaches to moderation.
But having that freedom also means we need to think about how we treat one another.
Just because someone disagrees with you doesn't mean they deserve to be bullied off the platform. Just because you dislike someone's opinion doesn't automatically mean that everyone else needs to join in and target them. And just because someone has made a mistake doesn't mean that every disagreement needs to turn into a massive public spectacle.
People should be able to set boundaries, block accounts, report genuinely harmful behaviour, and decide which communities they want to participate in. Those things matter. At the same time, we should be careful about turning every conflict into another reason to harass someone.
I'm not saying people should never criticize anyone. Criticism is important, especially when there's something genuinely harmful happening. But there is a difference between criticizing someone's actions and making it your mission to drive them away from every community they try to join.
We need to remember that there are actual people behind these accounts.
And yes, that applies to everyone, including the people we don't like.
I also want to make it clear that I'm not claiming the Fediverse is automatically better just because it's decentralized. Decentralization doesn't magically solve every problem with social media. People can still be unpleasant, administrators can still make bad decisions, and communities can still develop toxic environments.
The technology alone isn't going to fix that.
At the end of the day, the people who use these platforms help shape what the experience is like for everyone else.
So, I guess that's what I wanted to get across in this post. The Fediverse has a lot of different platforms to explore, from Mastodon and Sharkey to Misskey, WriteFreely, Pleroma, Akkoma, and Catodon. Each project has its own approach, and there's a lot to learn if you're interested in how decentralized social media works.
But I also want people to think about the kind of community they're creating when they use these platforms.
Because what's the point of having all these different planets if we just bring the same old problems with us everywhere we go?
And that's something I think we should all be willing to talk about.