jrollans.com is a Fediverse instance that uses the ActivityPub protocol. In other words, users at this host can communicate with people that use software like Mastodon, Pleroma, Friendica, etc. all around the world.
This server runs the snac software and there is no automatic sign-up process.
Less than a week till @fediforum's Growing the Social Web unworkshop! Get all the latest from @tchambers's Surf feed:
https://surf.social/feed/surf%2Fcustom%2F01jvprse7ptd6b9gccy3m9g547
#FediForum #SurfFeeds #ActivityPub #Decentralization #SocialWeb
#HolosDiscover is back, from a clean slate.
A #Fediverse search engine that uses standard #ActivityPub federation. It follows you like any account, respects indexable flags, #nobot, #noindex, locked accounts. Deletions, edits, blocks are processed instantly through ActivityPub.
You have full control. Block it, mention it with "unfollow", or disable indexing in your settings.
Source code under AGPL-3.0 on #Codeberg.
Details: https://discover.holos.social/how-it-works
Account: @HolosDiscover
#mastoblaster #snac #snac2 #activitypub #fediverse #ios #client
RE: https://mastodon.social/@reiver/112133984854710390
"A guide to implement ActivityPub in a static site (or any website)" by @mapache
https://maho.dev/2024/02/a-guide-to-implement-activitypub-in-a-static-site-or-any-website/
It is a lightweight, privacy-first Fediverse client for iOS, built around a simple idea: fast, small, predictable behavior, and first-class support for snac.
What makes it different:
• snac-first by design, not "compatible by accident"
• Works with all Mastodon API compatible software, including Mastodon, snac, GoToSocial, Akkoma, and others
• EXIF stripping on upload (HDR and orientation preserved)
• Optional on-device alt text generation via Apple Intelligence for your uploads and for images in your timeline
• Markdown posting for snac
• Granular notifications, grouping, multi-account
• Blocking and moderation tools
• Very small footprint, very low RAM usage
Alt text generation happens entirely on device via Apple APIs on supported hardware. Nothing is sent to external services.
It is built around my own workflow and priorities. It may not be for everyone, and that is perfectly fine.
Important note:
MastoBlaster will always be free for BSD Cafe users, illumos Cafe users, and for anyone connecting to a snac instance, including self-hosted ones.
The app is already usable, but this is still a test phase. I am looking for feedback, bug reports, and real-world usage insights.
TestFlight link:
https://testflight.apple.com/join/Pkxa5R1k
Stay tuned.
#MastoBlaster #iOS #Apple #Fediverse #Mastodon #snac #GoToSocial #Akkoma #ActivityPub
#MastoBlaster has its own #Fediverse account - powered by #snac
Follow @mastoblaster to receive all the updates, insights, etc.
The current fediverse is an evolutionary dead-end for 2 reasons:
1. It has painted itself in a small niche of decentralizing typical social media use cases, by means of post-facto interop and the introduction of protocol decay.
2. Lacking a proper grassroots standardization process, and with the primary mechanism for fediverse extension being only post-facto interoperability, there is no way out.
Congratulations to the early adopters, who managed to "cross the chasm" with their own app platforms. It took true grit to become deep #ActivityPub experts, and plug holes needed for your app, but you have made it. Post-facto interop works in your favor now. You are unrestrained to productively add more features in your app, and put them on the fedi wire for others to deal with.
To avoid fedi to become less and less attractive to newcomers, we must now consider:
“Why do we want to grow the open social web, and for whom?” -- @ben
To chain things together a bit on this fleety medium of ours, create a hyperweb 😜 I'll quote this toot to follow-up to
https://social.coop/@smallcircles/116110545919004233
I remember about 2018 or so, when I joined my first #SocialCG meetup. It was when the CG was still strongly tied to #SocialHub community.
There were mundane items on the agenda, interesting to any #ActivityPub dev, and also the call to action was "whether you are technical or not at all, join the meetup, we are open and inclusive to all fedizens". Very friendly, good vibes.
However during the session the talk was not only CS expert level, but dealing with subject matter nowhere near the spec. It was 'wire reality' slang, and to learn it the guidance was either nowhere, or everywhere, dispersed. And this is still as it is today. To expertised AP developers their domain language sounds all natural, but it likely seems Martian to a dev newcomer.
Stark contrast to the W3C specs that leave folks with refreshing "Let's implement this" vibe.
I recreated an old diagram in Excalidraw that I spread about a couple years ago, and made it a bit more informative. Explanation can be found in the #AltText
See also and for discussion: https://discuss.coding.social/t/diagram-interoperability-in-practice/828
Or join the Social experience design chatroom at: https://matrix.to/#/#socialcoding-foundations:matrix.org
Also posted to #SocialHub at: https://socialhub.activitypub.rocks/t/activitypub-versus-fediverse-interoperability-in-practice/8498
#SX #SocialCoding #SocialWeb #ActivityPub #SolidProject #fediverse
Though with regards to progress, there's a difference in both approaches.
At the #SolidProject side you have inertia by the slow standardization process. But should they figure things out in a good way, eventually the ecosystem catches up and the inertia can quickly decrease.
While at #ActivityPub side, since AS/AP remains stagnant, the ever increasing protocol decay and tech debt non-linearly increases inertia and progress. And on top of that, you are never done once you implemented the 'ad-hoc specs' of the installed base, and you have to account for continuous whack-a-mole development and maintenance burdens to fix #interoperability breakages.
The AS/AP based fediverse devolves into effectively no interoperability, and a situation that is more comporative to NPM dependency hell.
Btw, just found the v2 release announcement of @fedify and that is a prime example on how, on the grassroots environment end of the spectrum we can maneuvre into better territory.
Kudos to the #fedify developers. Handing people tools they need to focus on solutions, and build without getting thrown into deep on-the-wire impl detail reeds to worry about.
That is the positive side of the equation. There's not only a big uptick in interest for the #SocialAPI i.e. #ActivityPub client-to-server, which offers new opportunity to correct course. But also are there more #FOSS projects focused on robust tool and library support for the 'Solution developer' stakeholder.
In the revamp of the delightful commons initiative, made possible with support of @nlnet I emphasized all these projects, while I de-emphasized the apps that are already doing good for themself, but contribute to further divergence from open standards.
https://delightful.coding.social
https://hollo.social/@fedify/019c8521-92ef-7d5f-be4d-c50eae575742
This is how #Holos currently handles #E2EE DMs over #ActivityPub. Holos is a project we develop alongside #Fedilab.
I've seen an ongoing debate between "Note" versus "Article" in ActivityPub / ActivityStreams.
When is something a "Note"‽
When is something an "Article"‽
Personally — I would probably have made the distinction this way.
An "Article" has a title.
A "Note" doesn't have a title.
(In ActivityPub / ActivityStreams, a 'title' seems to tend to get represented in the "name" field.)
It just doesn't seem natural not using the OG hashtag games account. The benefit of the new way is stability, resource use, and features. Still, it's like I am missing part of me. Maybe after I get used to the "Friends" part of #WordPress and #ActivityPub I can feel "whole" again. LOL
@Mastodon is changing course when it comes to how people join the platform. In late 2022, the team decided to send sign-ups directly to their server in order to make onboarding more straightforward. But that didn't align with the promise of decentralization. Here, Community Director @haubles explains the new approach to server recommendation, along with some other ways Mastodon is helping build community.
#Mastodon #SocialMedia #Decentralization #ActivityPub #Community #Technology #Tech
number of files generated by snac is huge, but i don't care that much anymore.
$ du -hd0 /var/snaci like snac a lot: i run my own server and client, i can modify css (and i do tweak it often, i can modify the source code---didn't get to that yet ;)
133M /var/snac
$ find /var/snac | wc -l
35603
sometimes i use snac command line, but mostly snac web ui and nothing else.
someday maybe i'll try to build some minimalist #activitypub server, but looks like a lot of work :)
see also
activitypub-single-php-file by @Edent@mastodon.social
Week in Fediverse 2026-02-20
Servers
- snac v2.90
- Castopod v1.15.0
- Ktistec v3.3.0
- tootik v0.21.1
- Badgefed v0.1.1
- Gush! v0.0.30
- Wanderer v0.18.5
- PieFed v1.6.6
- Our technical direction (Mastodon)
Clients
- Sengi v1.8.0
- tooi v0.21.2
- Summit v1.77.0
- Aria v1.4.3
- Pixelix v4.3.2
Tools and Plugins
- feed2fedi v3.5.0
- PeerTube Browser: A video discovery project for the federated PeerTube network
Protocol
- FEP-34c1: Collection Filtering using TREE Hypermedia Vocabulary
Articles
- Where Does Community Live?
- Why MAEPs? What should they look like?
- how to not regret c2s
- Reimagining Fediverse Advocacy
- FR#154 – Search and Community
-----
#WeekInFediverse #Fediverse #ActivityPub
Previous edition: https://mitra.social/objects/019c5906-05c0-87bf-8302-8226a8513c00
@anewsocial @dansup Bridges are kewl, but #BlueSky is not #ActivityPub, #Threads is #META, and #Bernie is correct when he says #Billionaires shouldn’t exist. I’m just sayin’ I prefer my #Fediverse free & #opensource & not managed by either #Crypto execs or #techbro billionaires. But maybe that’s just me.
having full end-to-end control of two of the biggest fediverse platforms is a rare thing.
it means real progress: comment controls, unified messenger, ephemeral stories.
it also helps legitimize smaller projects doing incredible work — emissary, gotosocial and beyond.
we're living the fairytale 🫶
OpenBSD wasn't able to run snac stable on this machine, it crashed after a few requests with "illegal instruction".
#snac #snac2 #fediverse #activitypub #NetBSD #OpenBSD #retrocomputing #retroserver #retrohardware #pentiumii #pentium2 #oldhardware
@dansup @supapp @HolosSocial is also working on encrypted messages on #activitypub will they be compatible?
In *theory* you should be able to follow this test user:
@你好@i18n.viii.fi
But I can't find any Fediverse software which actually supports non-ASCII usernames.
If you are able to see the user, its description, and its avatar - please send me a screenshot 🙂
Logo mais o terceiro vídeo da série de estudos ActivityPub vai aparecer nesse link.
https://bolha.tube/w/aikMnT3MjgWDFkzEy8qU3x
:)
We live in the future now. It is OK to use Unicode everywhere.
It seems bizarre to me that modern Internet services sometimes "forget" that there's a world outside the Anglosphere. Some people have the temerity to speak foreign languages! And some of those languages have accents on their letters!! Even worse, some don't use English letters at all!!!
A decade ago, I was miffed that GitHub only supported some ASCII characters in its project names. There's no technical reason why your repo can't be called "ഹലോ വേൾഡ്".
Similarly, I'm frustrated that Mastodon (the largest ActivityPub service) doesn't allow Unicode usernames and has resisted efforts to change.
So I built a small ActivityPub server which publishes content from an Actor called @你好@i18n.viii.fi - it is only a demo account, but it works!
Some ActivityPub clients report that they are able to follow it and receive messages from it. Others - like Mastodon - simply can't see anything from it. Take a look at the replies on Mastodon to see which services work. You can also see some of its posts on the Fediverse.
The ActivityPub specification says:
Building an international base of users is important in a federated network. Internationalization
I can't find anything in the specifications which limits what languages a username can be written in. But there are a few clues scattered about.
The user's @ name is defined by preferredUsername which is:
A short username which may be used to refer to the actor, with no uniqueness guarantees. 4.1 Actor objects
There's nothing in there about what scripts it can contain. However, later on, the spec says:
Properties containing natural language values, such as
name,preferredUsername, orsummary, make use of natural language support defined in ActivityStreams. 4. Actors
So it is expected that a preferred username could be written in multiple scripts. Which implies that the default need not be limited to A-Z0-9.
The ActivityStreams specification talks about language mapping.
Finally, the ActivityPub specification has some examples on non-Latin text in names.
So, I think that it is acceptable for usernames to be written in a variety of non-Latin scripts.
There are usually a few objections to "Unicode Everywhere" zealots like me. I'd like to forestall any arguments.
Well, what about them? ASCII has plenty of similar looking characters. I doubt most people would notice when a capital i is replaced by a lower L - and vice-versa. Similarly the kerning issue of an r and n looking like an m is well known. Are mixed language homographs more dangerous? I don't think so.
Well, what if they do? Maybe not being found by people who can't type your language is a feature, not a bug. But, anyway, clients can let users search for other people, or copy and paste their names.
It is up to a client to decide how they want to render text input. The "problems" of strange Unicode combinations are well known. This is not a hard computer-science problem.
The spec makes clear this is allowed.
I have no evidence for this. But I bet you'd get pretty frustrated if you had to switch keyboard just to type your own name, wouldn't you? In any case, why can't I have a username of @😉
If you build ActivityPub software, give some thought to the billions of people who don't have names which easily fit into ASCII.
If your software can see @你好@i18n.viii.fi and its posts, please let me know.
Hey, this is great. It is so nice to see the uptick of interest in the #C2S part of #ActivityPub. Very uplifting and gives me hope for the future of #fediverse.
I really liked your #FOSDEM presentation, and thank you for mentioning my humble list. They are just notes atm, but I will try to keep them up-to-date. I just made a bunch of updates..
https://codeberg.org/fediverse/delightful-fediverse-experience/issues/130
Would love to hear more on what are the particular plans and goals for your project in the near future?
"how to not regret c2s" my opinions about how activitypub c2s ought to be implemented, probably with way too much snark for anyone to take it seriously. wrote pretty much all of it at like 1 am so expect the writing to not be great. will prolly regret it tomorrow but eh. whatever
w.on-t.work/activitypub/c2s
In previous years, I published two "fediverse tech roadmap" posts:
- Fediverse tech roadmap 2024
- Fediverse tech roadmap 2025
However, I didn't publish such post this year because not much has happened in 2025. Many problems I talked about require complex solutions, but unfortunately proposed solutions are often very limited or lead to centralization. Or worse, there is no solution but only an imitation of work. I don't want to write about that.
I saw a thread today where ATProto ecosystem was compared to #ActivityPub. Things are happening in the Atmosphere, but not in Fediverse. MAU graphs are flat. What's going on?
There are multiple factors at play, but I think fake activity may be the biggest contributor. Trivial developments presented as breakthroughs. Features that already exist somewhere in Fediverse presented as new inventions. Vaporware. Specs written by people who have no idea how to implement them. Working groups that do nothing but meetings.
Real work is ignored, competent developers see that and quit.
We need to fix this.
For my part, I will continue to document #Fediverse development at @weekinfediverse. But this newsletter doesn't have much impact.
After quite some time, I’m finally ready to share this.
MastoBlaster is now available in public testing on TestFlight.
It is a lightweight, privacy-first Fediverse client for iOS, built around a simple idea: fast, small, predictable behavior, and first-class support for snac.
What makes it different:
• snac-first by design, not "compatible by accident"
• Works with all Mastodon API compatible software, including Mastodon, snac, GoToSocial, Akkoma, and others
• EXIF stripping on upload (HDR and orientation preserved)
• Optional on-device alt text generation via Apple Intelligence for your uploads and for images in your timeline
• Markdown posting for snac
• Granular notifications, grouping, multi-account
• Blocking and moderation tools
• Very small footprint, very low RAM usage
Alt text generation happens entirely on device via Apple APIs on supported hardware. Nothing is sent to external services.
It is built around my own workflow and priorities. It may not be for everyone, and that is perfectly fine.
Important note:
MastoBlaster will always be free for BSD Cafe users, illumos Cafe users, and for anyone connecting to a snac instance, including self-hosted ones.
The app is already usable, but this is still a test phase. I am looking for feedback, bug reports, and real-world usage insights.
TestFlight link:
https://testflight.apple.com/join/Pkxa5R1k
Stay tuned.
#MastoBlaster #iOS #Fediverse #Mastodon #snac #Akkoma #GoToSocial #ActivityPub #OwnYourData
Maybe something to clarify with #HolosSocial. There is a full moderation system like on any Fediverse instance. Moderators can ban accounts. But relays are dumb by design: your identity and data belong to you, not to the relay. A ban is like a relay going down, you don't lose everything. You can move to another relay and keep all your followers, following, and data. With a custom domain the transition is seamless, otherwise it works through standard #ActivityPub migration.
Also, thanks to: byte, dandelions, oxzi, davidrv00, ag-eitilt, pmjv, zen, daltux and anyone else I may have missed for contributing to this release!
I submitted a Pull Request to update MacPorts' snac to 2.90 here:
https://github.com/macports/macports-ports/pull/31230
1 of 3 GitHub Continuous Integration checks completed successfully.
Fingers crossed the other two go off without a hitch. If so, it's up to someone else with commit access to merge it.
#snac #MacPorts #OpenSource #ActivityPub #Mastodon #NoDatabaseNeeded
#NoJavaScript #NoCookiesEither #NotMuchBullShit #snacAnnounces
3 platforms in the 2 comma club across 1 federated protocol.
Mastodon, Misskey and Pixelfed now have over 1 million people each.
This calls for a celebration 🥳
Minor tweak to improve signature key retrieving for some Wordpress configurations.
Fixed web UI incorrect links to actor public pages for some configurations.
Fixed mismatch in the accounts being followed number in the public and people pages.
Notifications can be filtered by category (contributed by byte).
Dates are shown adjusted to the account's time zone (contributed by dandelions).
Configurable limit for poll items (contributed by dandelions).
Fixed incorrect scope when editing a post (contributed by dandelions).
Change the strip_exif logic to work with the already existing OpenBSD sandbox (contributed by oxzi).
Mastodon API: Add poll creation (contributed by davidrv00), fixed a voting bug (contributed by davidrv00), added a fix to verify_credentials (contributed by ag-eitilt).
Updated Czech, German, Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish translations (contributed by pmjv, zen, daltux).
If you find #snac useful, please consider buying grunfink a coffee or contributing via LiberaPay.
Heh, heh. Tonight I stumbled upon a hidden little feature in Fedify's CLI.
If you run `fedify nodeinfo mastodon.social -b` you get a cute little ascii art representation of the instance's logo.
Happy to see a bit of fun mixed into these fedi tools!
It's probably less of a problem now that the fediverse is much bigger (than it was 5 years ago). But one of the things I've heard puts newbies off alternative social apps/ networks is too much meta-discussion about development and deployment of the apps/ networks themselves.
Maybe we could agree on a standard way of tagging this stuff (eg #DevMeta)? Then the DevMeta tag could be filtered out by default for newbies.
(1/3)
In #ActivityPub, once a post is federated, you lose control over how remote instances handle interactions on it. Some servers like #GoToSocial are working on interaction controls, but non-compatible instances simply ignore your rules.
With #HolosSocial, we're considering a "safe mode" available at publishing time. Your post would only be delivered to followers on instances that respect interaction controls. Not enabled by default, but there for those who need it.
For everyone curious about what’s coming next in #Vernissage, here’s the updated roadmap for 2026:
https://github.com/orgs/VernissageApp/projects/5
It outlines the planned work for the coming year, but it doesn’t include everything. Along the way, libraries will be updated, important bugs fixed, and other improvements addressed as they come up.
The roadmap shows the direction rather than a fixed promise for every single change.
Week in Fediverse 2026-02-13
Servers
- Stegodon v1.7.1
- Hollo v0.7.2
- Manyfold v0.132.1
- Mbin v1.9.1
- tootik v0.21.0
- Mitra v4.18.0
- ActivityPub for WordPress v7.9.1
- flohmarkt v0.14.4
- PieFed v1.6.4
- Trunk & Tidbits, January 2026 (Mastodon)
- OpenSimulator ActivityPub Bridge
Clients
- Fedilab v3.36.1
- toot v0.51.1
- tooi v0.21.0
- Jerboa v0.0.85
- Interstellar v0.11.2
- Pixelix v4.3.0
- Fedi Reader: A link-focused Mastodon news reader for iOS and macOS
Tools and Plugins
- ap-thread-reader: ActivityPub-compatible Thread Reader (not only for Mastodon)
For developers
- Progress Report - February 2026 (GoActivityPub)
Articles
- On fediverse content warnings and filters
- Trusting Trust in the Fediverse
- Adding Fediverse Comments to a Pelican Blog
-----
#WeekInFediverse #Fediverse #ActivityPub
Previous edition: https://mitra.social/objects/019c3449-e714-29e9-b9f6-03cc6804b4aa
After shutting down #HolosDiscover, we're rethinking the approach with #HolosIndex: users explicitly opt in by adding #HolosIndex to their bio with interest tags, then submit their profile. No assumptions, no default settings.
This will power interest-based discovery across the #Fediverse, helping people find each other through shared interests. Still all through #ActivityPub of course, with real-time deletions and updates.
Never before has it been this easy to leverage the fediverse across the web.
With @webintents and @socialwebgraph, you will be unstoppable 🚀
Available Soon.
#WebIntents #SocialWebGraph #Fediverse #ActivityPub #ActivityIntents
I'm playing around with Offer activities in Fedify. The AP Vocab provides this, easy peasy.
✅ Alice OFFERS Book to Bob
✅ Bob ACCEPTS Alice's OFFER
Or:
✅ Bob OFFERS Rotten Tomato to Alice
❌ Alice REJECTS Bob's OFFER
----------------
But I'm not clear if this is right:
❓Alice ANNOUNCES OFFER of Labubu to Followers?
❓Bob OFFERS $10 for Labubu to Alice?
❓ Alice ACCEPTS Bob's OFFER of $10 for Labubu?
✅ Alice OFFERS Labubu to Bob
✅ Bob ACCEPTS Labubu
Hashtag following also allow URLs to RSS feeds of ActivityPub objects (like e.g. https://mastodon.social/tags/ThankYouTuesday).
Users can now configure a webhook to receive an HTTP POST for every notification. This can be useful for implementing bots that react to activities, like autorepliers, chatbots or interactive textual games (see snac(1) for more information).
The number of pending follow confirmations is shown next to the "people" link.
Faster performance metrics (contributed by dandelions).
Improved lowercasing in hashtags (contributed by postscriptum).
A search-by-url tweak for implementations that return 200 for invalid webfinger queries (e.g. piefed).
Mastodon API: added follow confirmation endpoints, fixed collisions in attachment file names.
Fixed potential crashes in attachment uploads.
If you find #snac useful, please consider buying grunfink a coffee or contributing via LiberaPay.
Notifications are now shown in a more compact way (i.e. all reactions are shown just above your post, instead of repeating the post ad nauseam for every reaction).
New command-line option unmute to, well, no-longer-mute an actor.
The private timeline now includes an approximate mark between new posts and "already seen" ones.
Fixed a spurious 404 error in the instance root URL for some configurations.
If you find #snac useful, please consider contributing via LiberaPay: https://liberapay.com/grunfink/
This release has been inspired by the song The Answers to the Questions by #Christabell and #DavidLynch.