The fediverse

A short, plainspoken guide for people who keep hearing the word and would like to know what it actually means.

If you’ve moved, or you’re about to, the platforms you used in your old life are about to feel even less like home. And let’s get one out of the way now: once you’re in Mexico — or anywhere in Latin America — you’ll be on WhatsApp within a week. Doctors, plumbers, the corner restaurant, your landlord, your taxi driver, everyone. It’s the universal messaging layer here, and there’s no getting along without it. WhatsApp is a Meta product; you may not love that — I don’t. The fediverse isn’t a replacement for it. Use both, eyes open.

The algorithms don’t know you’ve changed. The conversations are still about whatever was burning in the country you left. There’s a smaller, quieter room available — populated by people you actually want to talk to, on a server in a jurisdiction you choose. You can pick from any number of independent servers (including the small one I run here) or, if you’re inclined, host your own (I can help). That room is in the fediverse.

What is this?

The fediverse is a network of independent social-media servers that talk to one another.

The model that’s easiest to understand is email. Your inbox might live at gmail.com or proton.me or icloud.com or your own domain — different companies, different rules, different addresses. But you can email anyone at any of those companies, because all email servers speak a shared protocol called SMTP. No single company owns email. You don’t have to be on Gmail to email someone on Gmail.

The fediverse is the same idea applied to social media. Different servers, run by different people, in different countries — all talking to one another through an open protocol called ActivityPub. You can follow someone, reply to them, see their photos, regardless of which server they’re on.

The most well-known software in the fediverse is Mastodon, which is what runs on most of these servers. There are several others — including the lighter alternative I run, called GoToSocial — but they all speak the same protocol, so they all interoperate. People talk about “Mastodon” the way they talk about Gmail: it’s the most familiar name, but it’s not the only thing in the room.

How is this different from Twitter or Instagram?

Twitter, Instagram, Facebook are platforms. One company owns the servers, the rules, and your account. They can shut you down, change the algorithm, sell ads against your content, or sell the company to someone you wouldn’t trust with your dog. You’re a tenant. And the algorithms that run the place reward rage; over the years the timeline becomes a coliseum full of lions and jackals.

The fediverse is closer to the open web of the early 2000s. There’s no single owner. If a server is run badly, you move to another one and take your followers with you. If a corporation buys one server, the others keep working and you can leave. The infrastructure is shared and open; the choice of who hosts you is yours. On a small, hand-moderated server, the host can actually keep the jackals out.

What does my handle look like?

Like an email address, with an extra @ at the front:

@your-name@your-server.com

Mine is @uncle@yolicali.mx. That’s the address other people use to follow me, mention me, or send me a reply, regardless of which server they’re on themselves.

Why does a Mexico relocation helper have his own server?

Two reasons.

I built yolicali.mx on the principle that you should own your own digital identity — your domain, your email, your data, your social presence. Running my own social server instead of having an account on someone else’s is the same idea applied to the social-media layer. It’s part of how the rest of the site is built. (See the colophon for the full plumbing, and owning your identity for the longer version of the principle.)

It also gives me a small, hand-curated room — La Tertulia, after the Spanish literary tradition of a hosted gathering for conversation — where I can have slow, real exchanges with people in the broader fediverse without renting space from a corporation. Membership is by invitation; the door is small on purpose. If you’d like one, write me at uncle@yolicali.mx with a sentence or two about who you are. I read every note.

How do I choose a server?

Whichever you pick, your account can follow and interact with anyone across the fediverse — server choice is mostly about culture and moderation, not reach.

Three reasonable paths.

The first is to ask me for an invitation to La Tertulia, the small instance I run. Email me at uncle@yolicali.mx with a sentence or two about who you are. The room is hand-curated and the door is small on purpose, but if you found your way here you’re likely the kind of person I’d be glad to host.

The second is to pick a server from the official Mastodon list. It’s a filterable picker — language, region, topic, registration policy — with a short description of each server. Choose one whose vibe fits.

The third is to have your own server at your own domain — your own digital home, run for you. That’s the path I describe on the owning your identity page; I can build it for you.

How do I find people to follow?

Follow whoever you find interesting from any server. The most reliable path is to find one or two people whose work you already like, see who they follow, and walk outward from there. Hashtags also work — search #mexico, #cdmx, or whatever your interests are, and you’ll find people across many servers.

You don’t need to follow many. The fediverse rewards small, attentive feeds.

What app should I use?

The official Mastodon web interface works in any browser. On Apple devices, the app I use and recommend is Ivory for iPhone, iPad, and Macintosh. It’s from Tapbots, the small studio that made Tweetbot — the best Twitter client ever made, back in the day before Twitter jumped the shark. Ivory does the same for the fediverse.

A few common questions

• Do I need an account to read posts? No. Anyone’s public profile is a regular web page. You can read my profile, for example, without an account.
• Can I cross-post from Twitter? Tools exist, but it tends to look like a tourist who never settles. Better to write directly here.
• Is it safe? As safe as any small server run by someone you trust. Different from “as safe as a billion-dollar corporation,” which is a different kind of safe.
• Will the people I know be there? Some, slowly. The fediverse is where people who’ve gotten tired of the platforms tend to land. It’s a smaller, quieter room. That’s the point.

— uncle ❧