ialisme/fed.ialis.me

a guide to the fediverse -- WIP

fed.ialis.me — the guide to the fediverse

WIP

Content and sources are licensed in the public domain / Unlicense.

As the website is a work in progress right now we invite all repo collaborators to just work in master branch. Once the site is done enough we'll work with feature branches and pull requests, but that's for another time.

Because the site needs custom code / plugins, it is not built by GitHub Pages. Instead it is built by travis-ci and then committed back to the gh-pages branch. All commits done on master are published two minutes after being committed.

Contributing

This is jekyll static website. Unlink most Jekyll sites, this one is internationalized, which makes things a little bit complicated:

• Most content is in the _i18n/ folder ;
  • for most pages it's just _i18n/{lang}/{page}/content.md
  • some pages or small descriptions are in separated files in _i18n/{lang}/{page}/{part}.md (e.g. _i18n/en/apps/mastodon.md for the small description of Mastodon.
• Global translations are in _i18n/{lang}.yml.

Pages based on lists are mostly defined in _data/ folder (e.g. the apps lists are in _data/apps.yml).

Creating new pages is a little bit more complicated and a guide will be written for that ASAP.

Most of the "lists" parts (tools, apps, servers) are mostly dynamic and seeded from the YML files in _data. Tools are not implemented yet so please don't work on that parts for now.

/instances/

Not done yet but the main idea is to provide a curated list of instances. I'm still thinking on the criterias (less than X users; great connection with the wider fediverse; not strict moderation). That's the list that will be presented for users but we will definitely link to non-curated lists such as instances.mastodon.xyz.

Contact / Organization

The website was started by the soc.ialis.me collective ; but we're more than open to contributions from everyone.

Ping either @[email protected] or come by to IRC at irc.random.sh (SSL) 6667 #random for IM chat.

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fed.ialis.me by the soc.ialis.me collective and contributors.

Site source and content is unlicensed in the public domain.

fed.ialis.me's Issues

Guide: introduction

Introduction guide to the fediverse. Explain all the things, but mostly the big picture.

Will be published at https://fed.ialis.me/introduction/

Content file is at _i18n/en/introduction/content.md.

Also an excerpt could be done to display on the home page in _i18n/en/index/introduction.md.

Software: libraries

List software libraries to work with the fediverse/servers.

Guides: migrating between instances

Guides: identity on the fediverse

Some things are outdated

It is made of a multitude of independent instances, running on different software (such as Mastodon or GNU Social) and federated by OStatus, a set of standardized protocols.

E.g. Mastodon does NOT support OStatus.
Mastodon federates with ActivityPub, the world’s leading federated social web standard.
Pleroma does too and so many other software …

A nice community member also made some guides for ActivityPub

activitypub.rocks

Instances

• Explanation of what an instance is
• Link to full lists
• Define criterias of the curated list of instances

Guides: decentralization

A page to explain the basics of decentralization.

Guide: federation

Explaination of federation/federating networks

Guide: Servers: GNU Social

Introduction to gnu social / …

• https://fed.ialis.me/gnusocial/ _i18n/en/gnusocial/content.md
• Excerpt at https://fed.ialis.me/servers/ _i18n/en/servers/gnusocial.md

Directory terms/rules

So, we've got a directory of accounts. I want it to be diverse but I also don't really want to have an enormous repository. As the subtitles said: interesting accounts.

I started it originally to list bots, mirrors bots, organizations/... that are on the Fediverse. As the list grew some individuals have been added (mostly mirrors such as Elon Musk). I also wish to include individuals account who does news curation / news activisim as well.

So this raises a better question: what kind of terms/rules we should establish for entries in the directory ? If the account falls into a category, we add it, no other terms/rules ?

What is the fediverse?

I really like the idea of this page. But the description of what is the fediverse really needs some improvement. (but I anyway have understand it more as a space holder so ppl have an idea how it could look like. ...so thx for kicking this off)
The description at the moment says: "The fediverse is a decentralized, federated, social micro-blogging network, similar to Twitter."
That's not true. friendica, hubzilla, diaspora, libertree and co are not twitter simliar and aren't mircoblogging networks but are part of the fediverse.
Also I think it's a bad downgrate if we think about the fediverse as a alternative to twitter.

"The fediverse describes a diverse range of federated social networks capable of bringing us the freedom of commuication as if we could speak with the hole universe. No bondage to plattforms, no siloing, no data exploration, no commercial interests but self-organized and community driven to take back the communication in the hand of the communicators. Joining the fediverse is joining the revolte."

....ok maybe not like this, but kind of that direction I would love to see.

routine bitching about choosing proprietary software

Why sticking to github while there is gitlab?
From what I've observed is the only reason why most new projects hosting through github is cause of it's popularity. Everyone knows it and everyone knows how to work with.
A switch would mean something new. But leaving proprietary stuff behind in order to choose opensource doesn't sound like a bad deal for me. :-)

Anytime you choose proprietady software you'll promote what they do, for what values they stand and how they oporate. You'll part of creating proprietary ideology as status quo.
Through that you're also excluding those who really care about open and free culture. Me as a example was shortly about thinking to not give you any feedback, cause interacting with you forces me to use proprietary software.
...and the software isn't even the real problem. It's the culture which stands behind and is rulling this world to it's limts of exploration

Software: bots/..

News / Blog section

Directory: categories

So far we have theses categories/tags in the directory:

• bots
• mirrors
• meta
• news
• news activists
• curators
• culture
• art
• science
• economy
• organizations
• technology
• music
• entertainment
• isp
• jobs
• hackerspaces (maybe we should just rename to "spaces" ? For squats, …)
• conferences

Other ideas? See also the issue #15 about the terms/conditions of inclusion into the directory.

Launch.

Launch!

This issue weren't supposed to be a "real" issue and just a joke with a Futurama reference, but it offensed people/might offense people so I edited it. Sorry about that.

Guides: Why decentralization and federation matters

I propose mixing up theses two awesome writings

• Why you should demand microblogs have open federation as standard by @b9AcE
• Federation is the Future by @project9501

Guide: Servers: Mastodon

Introduction to mastodon / …

• https://fed.ialis.me/mastodon/ _i18n/en/mastodon/content.md
• Excerpt at https://fed.ialis.me/servers/ _i18n/en/servers/mastodon.md

Pages: resources

Write contribution guide / site documentation

Guides: instances

Explain what is an instance, why choosing an instance that is for you matters, etc….

WIP text at https://etherpad.fr/p/lmO3N4XK5F

thanks to @faminefamine who started, and @Wonderfall who contributed.

Other ostatus compatible servers

What about other compatible server ?

For example Friendica , but GnuSocial fork and friendica fork too ?

Are Qvitter must have own section or not ? For user : there are a lot of difference between GS and qvitter.