A blog requires a platform designed for blogging. Staying within the realm of federated software, the three natural alternatives are:

1. WordPress, which, thanks to the plugin that makes it compatible with Activitypub, has achieved a level of perfect integration with the Fediverse.
2. Ghost, which, federated a few months ago, is not only a blogging platform but is also specifically designed for creating mailing lists based on the Substack model.
3. Writefreely, which, despite being natively federated, is extremely focused on distraction-free writing and therefore has some seriously limiting features.

Friendica

As for Friendica, I’m a huge fan of that software and manage the second-most active instance in the entire Fediverse. I can assure you that I know it well and appreciate all its most important features. But don’t be fooled by the fact that some call it macro-blogging software. In fact, if you visit a Friendica account’s profile, it’s not possible to filter the Timeline of their posts from the Timeline of the posts they’ve reshared. So, you could virtually create a page like this:

https://poliverso.org/profile/saio

But you could only do that if you don’t share too much other content, otherwise the result would be like this:

https://poliverso.org/profile/notizie

which would be much more confusing 😅

However, Friendica is a very powerful software that allows you to republish your blog feed, as well as automatically reshare your federated blogs. Here I’ve listed some very interesting Friendica features for blogging:

https://poliverso.org/display/0477a01e-1366-ebfd-2002-91a370393480

So, to recap, if you want to use Friendica to create your blog, you can: you can create a new account. Remember to define it as a “page account,” if possible, but also remember that when you reshare content you like, it will appear on your profile page. However, if you don’t need the full suite of tools that characterize a social media platform, you’re better off using WordPress.

Sharkey

We’re talking about software with a very nice interface, but it’s still a social networking software. Being essentially a fork of Misskey, it also has a section for creating static pages that can be easily viewed from outside the Fediverse, but these pages can’t be federated with Activitypub 😭. Ultimately, it seems even less suitable for creating a blog. If you absolutely must use a Fediverse social media platform, then you’d be better off going with Friendica!

Hubzilla

PS: There’s also a software called Hubzilla, which is compatible with Activitypub, although it has developed its own communication protocol. I’m only mentioning it because it’s a feature-rich and well-designed product, but its interface is quite complex and unfriendly, so although I’ve chosen to mention it, I can’t recommend it as an alternative.

Don’t underestimate the danger behind these messages: I’ll reply to you with the same message I wrote here.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the case: we tend to think these spam attempts are intended for stupid or naive people. However, someone who’s just discovered the fediverse and has begun to learn all the strange things that still amaze me (even though I’ve been here for years) might not be surprised by such an oddity. Finally, just as someone recovering from chemotherapy can risk their life with a simple flu, even an intelligent and well-prepared person can experience moments of emotional fragility or fatigue that lower their defenses. These messages are much more dangerous than they seem!

Yes, of course 😅

Do you mean anything in particular with “optimal” management?

I mean this:

1. activitypub groups must be implemented according to the standards, without making incompatible implementations as Misskey did (and as Mastodon will probably do)
2. they must be displayed in an intuitive way as Lemmy does (and as Raccoon for Friendica does), that is, allowing you to see a screen with the list of topics only and not with groups of conversations that distract the user

Are you mostly talking about performance here?

Yes, it seems that Piefed has optimized the DB well

I honestly question the value of RSS feeds. It’s not something “normal” users use. It’s very much a techy thing. I don’t know any non-technical person who even knows what RSS is or has ever even heard of it.

I understand, I myself have completely ignored them; but they are the cleanest fruition protocol that currently exists and enhancing them is important (and today every software in the Fediverse does it, with little effort)

I plan to support applications and/or invitation trees (like lobste.rs uses).

Nice!

What features are you thinking of?

Nothing special, but for example with Mastodon I can check the IPs of the subscribers directly from the user interface and I can easily check if the same email has been used, without entering the DB. With Lemmy I can customize the subscription page to give instructions to users waiting for approval.

I think you need a WYSIWYG editor. That’s what normal people expect.

Good idea!

What is a circle in Friendica? I’m not familiar.

In Friendica (and Bonfire) a circle is a list of users to whom I can restrict the visibility of a message. Unfortunately Friendica does it with DFRN, Bonfire I don’t know how it does it, but it’s very interesting to limit some interactions to groups of friends or distinct groups based on the type of relationship (family, colleagues, etc)

I’m designing and planning the system to support filtering and a good search functionality. Everything is accessible via the backend API (otherwise how?).

Exactly like this

Finally I add that systems like Friendica and Bonfire allow you to manage both multiple accounts (a user can create secondary accounts) and, consequently, also accounts shared with other accounts (delegated accounts). For example, I can create an account for my newspaper and have it managed by fellow journalists who have a Friendica account on my server; or I can create a “Group” account and have it managed by the moderators of the group

Yeah but mastodon plan to support group

Yes, but he’s been saying that for years…

I’m sure that when he implements groups he will do it in a way where they will be usable only by Mastodon users (a bit like Misskey did)

Honestly not really clear - what do you mean with “methodological distrust”? What method would be trustworthy? :)

Let me explain: after seeing that:

• the public prefers minimalist platforms like Mastodon and Pixelfed
• interesting projects carried out by very good developers, like Kbin, die easily
• Actvitypub is a protocol that does not define objects and actors very well and the difficulties of interaction of one app with another are discovered little by little
• it took ten years to develop a valid app for valid and long-lived software like Friendica, while other projects do not have an app yet
• every year new software of the fediverse is created that does not go anywhere

after seeing this, I do not want to get my hopes up… 😂😂😂

I feel it’s too early for that (again, don’t want to shout about it yet). But eventually I would definitely like to do that.

I understand. However, I can tell you what I personally consider fundamental in a Fediverse software:

• optimal management of Activitypub groups, both from an architectural and web graphics point of view: the forumverse (Lemmy, Piefed, Kbin, NodeBB, Friendica groups, Gup.pe groups are too important to be ignored)
• optimal management of the DB: Piefed has made great strides, while this remains the Achilles heel of Friendica
• ability to manage both images as attachments (in the “Notes” format) and inline images (in the “Article” and “Page” formats); inline images are essential to correctly interpret Friendica, Lemmy, Wordpress posts
• provide an RSS feed for users, groups and also for re-sharing (currently the feed for re-sharing is only for the Lemmy/Piefed communities; perhaps it will be in the next version of Friendica)
• a registration system that combines the features of Mastodon and Lemmy
• a moderation system compatible with that of Mastodon and Lemmy (maybe without doing as Pixelfed who created an additional application layer with a separate frontend…)
• if the system allows formatted posts, a formatting bar is necessary (Lemmy is a great model). Then we should figure out whether to use Markdown or a more precise simplified HTML (BBcode is not the best)
• creation and management of events compatible with Mobilizon and Gancio (Friendica does it)
• management of polls
• ability to follow threads (like Friendica) or the flow of microblogging (like Mastodon); Kbin/Mbin does it, but its ergonomics are dramatically confusing
• circle management (like those of Friendica)
• filter timelines based on: instances, type of software used, languages, lists/circles
• ability to clearly distinguish the timeline of remote users: pinned posts, posts, posts and replies, posts and reshares, favorites, media
• agile and efficient search functions like those of Mastodon, and advanced search functions like those of Friendica (which however work terribly)
• allow these functions to be called with the API

Extra options:

• automation possibilities similar to those of Friendica (automatic reshares) or those of the Mastofeed service (automatic reshares with the possibility of customizing the feed)
• development of a “trends”, “news” and recommended users section, similar to that of Mastodon

As for the apps, I find that Raccoon for Friendica has introduced some ergonomic innovations in many ways points of view:

• provides an optimal view of Activitypub groups, even for Mastodon users
• allows you to browse posts from right to left, a feature that I find very useful and that not even the most famous social apps have (Gmail has them, or the apps for Lemmy and Pinterest)
• has a formatting bar in the message composition box
• has a nice preview function for formatted messages
• also manages the Mastodon APIs; this allows Mastodon users to use it and therefore also to advertise the Friendica software to Mastodon users

I totally understand the lack of faith

I hope it’s clear that this is a “methodological distrust”, but I’m rooting for you!

I believe in the mantra that “if someone else is doing something that you think you can do better, you should do it”.

Right!

Not sure what you mean with “damage” here

I’m referring to this: https://github.com/lemmyNet/lemmy/issues/5300

The reason why Mastodon doesn’t show the text of Lemmy’s initial posts is that they don’t want to properly manage the Activitypub message flow. Do they do it out of inexperience? Out of laziness? Or do they do it to penalize Lemmy who (two years ago) was the only software capable of challenging for supremacy in the Fediverse? Friendica’s “Posts with Title” (so-called “Pages”) had the same problem: Friendica developers found an interesting way to solve the problem, namely adding an option to publish the post as a “Page” (Mastodon reads it as a title with a link to the original post) or as a “Note” (Mastodon reads it all). But this is a solution that violates the Activitypub standard and in fact Lemmy developers refused to do it because they are very proud (remember when I told you that software developers in the Fediverse are often in a bad mood? 😜).

but my plan is to support all kinds of ActivityPub content

it’s a complicated goal, but not impossible

I find bonfire especially confusing. I can’t seem to grok what it is - is it a server, or a framework for a server, or an app?

I agree: I’ve often told their developers that they have a serious communication problem! What I don’t like about Bonfire, however, is that it has so far seriously underestimated the importance of Activitypub groups.

I’m not sure what “Masters of the Fediverse” refers to

Gargron, Dansup, Evan Prodromou and longtime Friendica developers Hubzilla and Lemmy :-)

I appreciate your concern, but I am a professional software engineer

Great!

Rest assured, I have worked on very large projects professionally and built plenty of things in side projects

Even more… great! A Fediverse project really needs a team. One-man-show projects are too risky and emotionally draining

I particularly enjoy Rust (…) I am super confused about what Bonfire even is. All these reasons and other reasons are why I wanted to do my own project.

From what you say, it seems like you’ve really nailed the current Fediverse landscape

But rest assured that I am very familiar and comfortable with APIs

Yes, that puts my mind at ease!

I care about documentation

This makes me even more reassured! 🙂

If you have any concrete feedback on the UI and/or UX of Lemmy, Mastodon, Friendica or other apps…

Can I ask you to create a Lemmy community or a Friendica group? It would be nice to discuss in one place

The gup.pe groups are not Mastodon groups, but Activitypub groups that the immer.space project has created according to the standards To allow Mastodon users to easily create groups to use, which can be done by Friendica users and those of all link aggregator or forumverse platforms (from Lotide to NodeBB). Lemmy also supports them, although he does so in an unsatisfactory way.

the fact that it is in the roadmap is important, but it means that it is not there. Moreover, although piefed is a well-optimized platform, bringing the following of users will certainly entail a burden for the servers that host it And we will have to understand how much it is worth: one of the nice things about reddit like software is that you cannot follow other users 🤣

I don’t think Piefed supports microblogging

Hi, I’d be interested in learning more about your project to create a new Fediverse software.

I want to be honest: I don’t have much faith in the success of your project and I’ll explain why.

1. very successful projects like Mastodon show great difficulty in improving, because they were born to be too simple, set up to do minimal microblogging, and then grew together with their user base;
2. very long-lived projects like Friendica, have had even more difficulty in improving because they were born to be very complex,
3. projects that have had a great marketing push like Pixelfed, continue to be (in my opinion) very modest;
4. forumverse (or threadverse) projects like Lemmy have received the main damage precisely from the incompatibility wanted by Mastodon against them;
5. new very interesting projects like Bonfire (the only software together with Friendica and Hubzilla to manage the “circles”) are being developed with difficulty and are made up of many modules and above all do not have a decent app.
6. a brilliant developer like the one who created Kbin has created a wonderful software, but due to the enormous success it had all the Kbin instances went haywire, he was unable to keep up with the support requests and disappeared forever from circulation after a month of burnout
7. even the best software in the Fediverse is useless if there is no smartphone app and not all the software in the Fediverse can be managed with an app

Finally, the impression I had is that even among the most famous developers of the Fediverse there is a bit of ignorance about Activitypub, about other platforms and about how other developers have solved the same problems; also it seems that the “Masters of the Fediverse” are always in a bad mood and have less and less desire to learn new things (a praiseworthy exception is Matthias Pfefferle).

Creating a federated software is therefore not a very simple thing neither technically nor psychologically, but if you feel capable of doing it, perhaps it could be advisable to test yourself a bit:

• developing some web utilities, some plugins or less ambitious projects
• actively contributing to other existing projects (Friendica? Bonfire?)
• getting familiar with both the Mastodon API (which is an industry standard) and with the development and definition of APIs in general: when someone wants to write an app for your software, they will look at your code and in two minutes they will decide if it is worth doing!

Of course I didn’t tell you these things to depress you, but only to point out some things that are often not foreseen: in reality I hope that your idea can become a fantastic project!

Good luck!

Mastodon is a modest, minimal and deliberately limited social network, managed by a staff that doesn’t care about the Activitypub standard and compatibility with other software in the Fediverse; Lemmy is not a social network (users can’t “follow” other users) and this allows it to be a bit lighter to manage, as it doesn’t have to take into account the network it would create between all the nodes.

Friendica on the other hand is a masterpiece of interoperability (it was born to manage different protocols: Activitypub, DFRN, diaspora*, RSS, OSStatus; it has connectors for Bluesky and Tumblr and provided connectors for Facebook and Twitter) and integration (it manages practically all Activitypub objects except polls); it manages groups better than any software that isn’t Reddit-like and has its own APIs, while integrating Mastodon’s APIs (and the Raccoon for Friendica app has improved the interface a lot also thanks to the inspiration of the Lemmy app); allows for advanced features and automation directly from its interface.

Unfortunately, the graphic design is outdated, the ergonomics are anything but friendly (my favorite slogan is “Friendica is not friendly…”), and the queries are a fucking problem, but we are talking about something that has no equal in the Fediverse, and never will unless Bonfire manages to emerge from its current chrysalis of an autoerotic concept.

However, you can’t compare the complexity of Friendica to systems like Mastodon or Lemmy.

Aside from the fact that it’s not true: politicians as such should not be put in a position to deanonymize anything, except through the intervention of the judiciary. Furthermore, this is not the case either: Andrea Stoppa is Elon Musk’s Italian lobbyist and has already distinguished himself a couple of times for having threatened Italian politics if it does not enter into agreements with Starlink

Stroppa claims that he can read direct messages as a shareholder. If this is true, it is not only true for Italy but for the entire world

Of course, yes. Friendica Groups are special accounts (just like Lemmy communities, which are also activitypub groups) and, like all Friendica accounts, they can also be managed in a delegated manner by another profile of the same instance.

Friendica groups are very powerful tools, but always remember that Friendica Groups have a social interface that is less intuitive than that of Lemmy communities, which instead have the simplicity of forums

I agree.

Of course, today Friendica is the most suitable software for managing local communities, thanks to the support of Activitypub groups and event calendars, in addition to the possibility of managing accounts shared between multiple users.

However, it must be recognized that it is a cumbersome and counterintuitive interface. If you want to create a project of this kind based on Friends, you must plan for continuous support from the administrators.

At the moment I would not exclude Friendica, but I would also evaluate other solutions:

Lemmy

It is not a social network and users cannot follow other users but can only follow communities. However, it is probably the easiest software in the Fediverse and is made specifically for creating communities.

Mbin

The interface is still dramatically confusing, but users can also follow other users. If it were possible to modify the interface and make it more pleasant, it could be a great option.

I agree that it is an exceptional software, perhaps the best of the Fediverse, but it has a terrible name. The reason for this name was to mark a continuity with the first potentially federated social network, namely “identi.ca”

Moreover, despite the name, it is not a really friendly software, but presents several ergonomic complexities. Finally, I add that when I pronounce it with my dictation system, it is always transliterated as “free handicap”, which is a very inclusive thing, but every time I have to correct it… 🤣

This is also why I decided to call my instance with a different name such as Poliverso, Too bad that a few months later Zuckerberg decided to launch his failed Metaverso project, which is why every time I have to explain that I did not call it that to parody the Metaverso 🤬

😈

Had a look, seems like facebook–ish UI but 10 years ago. Correct?

No, that’s not correct at all! 🤦🤦🤦

Friendica is the most beautiful and powerful social media software in the Fediverse: it can make you write long, formatted posts with in-line images, with title or without title, it can publish scheduled posts, it can make you follow websites with RSS feeds , Diaspora and GNU Social profiles, it has a connector for Bluesky and TumbIr, it can manage circles like Google+, it can manage public ActivityPub groups (basically like Lemmy communities) but also private ones, it manages activitypub events like those of Mobilizon and Gancio.

The development is continuous and always cutting edge and the developers are pretty smart!

Unfortunately it has two problems that compromise its success:

• the lack of an iOS app
• a painful web 1.1 interface reminiscent of the original Facebook, but unfortunately the development staff no longer has any professional graphics. In reality it would be enough to adapt the soapbox interface (not everyone knows that it is possible to manage a friendica account through the soapbox interface!), but this is a bit of a sore point…

If you want to undertake the development of new Fediverse software, I recommend you take a look at Friendica and, if possible, also Misskey, Bonfire and Kbin; however in the Fediverse it is also important to try to reinvent the wheel, because the diversity of ideas is the true richness of the Fediverse