Fediverse

See also: El fediverso en español

The fediverse is a rather gay name for an informal collection of indie social media sites.

The gimmick is that all sites on the fediverse can communicate with each other. Like what if Twitter users could reply to Tumblr posts, and share posts from Instagram? A lot of the fediverse sites are based on Twitter-like interfaces. Since most sites on the fediverse are owned by regular people, it is a neat alternative to corporate-owned social media with its own pros and cons.

Here's some fediverse instances I know of, and how lenient their adult content rules on art are.

I try to choose mostly LGBTQ-friendly servers, that won't be too shocked by weird art, and have proactive moderation against racism, sexism, anti semitism, and other forms of bigotry. I will attempt to note when a server is popular, but doesn't have proactive moderation.

Some vocabulary:

• “The Fediverse” includes Mastodon, the most popular software. Big instances like Mastodon.social or Mastodon.art run the Mastodon software. Blorbo.social runs Mastodon!
  • There are other sites and software on “the fediverse” that use the ActivityPub protocol and thus can all load each other's posts, like (and not limited to) Misskey and Pixelfed. So no matter if you're on Mastodon or Glup Shitto or Skunt, you can talk to people on other sites for the most part.
  • Threads is semi-federated, but I think many instances block them for being Meta-controlled.
  • Bluesky is not technically on “the fediverse” ActivityPub protocol. They are on their own ATProto thing. But there is some manually bridging/cross-posting between the fediverse and Bskyfrom user efforts.
  • Wordpress and Tumblr keep threatening to federate, but the CEO keeps crashing out instead.
• “Federation”: Servers that are federated can load other's posts.
• “Defederation”: Servers that are defederated cannot load other's posts, and users cannot follow each other. It's a big block button from the admin on the user's behalf.
• “Limited”: Servers that are limited by another server will only load limited content. Example: Blorbo only loads text from Aethy, no images or user icons.
• “CW”: stands for Content Wrapper, or Content Warning. This wraps the post in a little box, with your own typed subject header, so that users must click “read more” to view what's inside. CWs are commonly used for NSFW or controversial subjects - sexuality, violence, politics - but can also be used to shorten long posts, or provide a summary of the post. Different instances will have different rules on what you should CW.

Instances I won't list:

• Private/friends-only servers.
• General instances that ban things kinkier than vanilla hand-holding, like mastodon.art. Normies do not abide with Spongebob gore porn. Lest?
• Unmoderated hellholes, like pawoo and mastodon.social.

Notes:

• Server themes are what you'll see most people posting about. But most sites allow you to post about pretty much anything from work, your pets, or a cool rock you saw in the woods.
• While every fediverse server can technically interact with each other, your home server will affect what you can and cannot see. You should choose a home server based on how much you agree with the rules and moderation, and what the vibes of the community was like (kinda like joining a discord server).
  • For example, I am not interested that interested in tech, so I didn't join a tech-focused server.
  • The home country of the site owner will affect the rules as well. Some countries think squirting and fisting are too hardcore. Some countries have very lenient rules on porn subjects but make you pixelate the subject. There is an interesting “blocklist” in many anglophone servers against Japanese servers, because Japanese servers allow drawings of (for example) Naruto fisting Caillou.
• I'm trying to avoid intangible/gossipy notes like “the admin says they hate Ouran High School incest shippers” in the notes, and sticking to what the viewable moderation is like.

Personal notes:

• I chose Blorbo because I don't want to view lolicon, racism-in-the-guise-of-free-speech, or god forbid “paraphilia discourse”.
  • I chose Blorbo over other fandom instances because the NSFW rules felt more relaxed to me. Adult art can be posted publicly under proper CWs, which is important for my goal of sharing art. There's other people already posting kpop RPF and noncon eroguro, so I do not feel judged for being weird.
  • Blorbo does not connect with Baraag. Some artists only post on Baraag. So in that case, Aethy is a middle man for them to be able to talk to friends on Blorbo and Baraag.
  • Baraag and Aethy both have issues with server stability at times. Their hosts often eject them for their content and they go down, or have to find a new home. They are also defederated from MANY other instances because of how much lolicon they contain.
• Just like any software that anyone can use to make a site, there's just like a weird fucked up rabbithole of deeper and deeper fedi servers that have weird fucked up themes. Truth dot social is just the tip LMAO. This is no different that neocities having terf webrings and racist gore sites in the margins.
  • Joining a more proactively moderated server prevents me from seeing any of that shit, and thus saves my mental health.