Have you ever wanted to make your own social media website, without Big Tech companies spying on you, poor moderation, excessive ads, and other issues? You’re not alone. Many people are now making their own social media sites. It’s easier to set up than you think!
An Alternative to Websites Run by Big Tech Companies
Today most popular social media is owned by wealthy companies who don’t respect users’ privacy. Facebook is known for collecting massive amounts of information about its users and even about non-users. Facebook and other mainstream social media websites have also begun using your posts, images and videos to train so-called “artificial intelligence” programs.
If you like using the Internet to keep in touch with friends and family, and to stay informed about the world, but you don’t want to deal with all that, there’s good news. The fediverse allows anyone to make their own social media, without corporations or advertisements.
What Does “Fediverse” Mean?
The fediverse is a collection of “federated” or connected websites. When two websites are federated, it means the users of each site can see each others’ posts and interact with one another.
As an example, let’s say that someone named Charlie makes a website for sharing pictures of his pet dog. And let’s say Sally makes a website for sharing pictures of her pet cat. If these sites are federated, Charlie and Sally will be able to comment “how cute!” on each others’ websites, without the need to make multiple accounts.
What is the benefit of making many small-scale, interconnected websites instead of a few giant ones?
- Small websites are easier for the average person to create and maintain
- Small-scale, private websites usually have little or no advertising
- Individuals can create their own rules and don’t have to worry about moderators being too strict or not strict enough
- Increases digital sovereignty
Words to know:
ActivityPub: the protocol which powers the fediverse and allows websites to interact
Instances or servers: websites
Defederate: to disconnect. If you discover a fediverse site with rude users or content you dislike, you can “defederate” from that site, which cuts off their ability to interact with you.
List of Fediverse Alternatives to Mainstream Social Media Sites
The fediverse is growing every day. Here is a list of federated sites to explore. Join one or create your own.
BookWyrm
BookWyrm is a project similar to Goodreads, but not owned by Amazon. BookWyrm users can find new books, track their reading progress, and write book reviews. There are several BookWyrm websites and many of them are accepting new users. Click here for a list of BookWyrm websites.
Lemmy
Lemmy is a decentralized alternative to Reddit. Users can create and join forums about any topic they like. They can have discussions and upvote useful comments. To explore Lemmy websites and forums, check out the Lemmy Explorer.
Tip: “instances” refers to websites, while “communities” refers to individual forums. Join an instance first, and then you can follow the communities.
Mastodon
Mastodon is the most well-known type of fediverse site. It is inspired by Twitter. Users can make short posts with hashtags to increase visibility. Mastodon is very popular, so there are tons of websites you can join. (It’s also easy to make one for yourself, but we’ll get to that in a bit!) Here is a large number of Mastodon websites sorted into different categories based on your interests.
Tip: Some Mastodon websites allow you to sign up and start right away, while others may take a day or two to review new users first. Websites which manually review new users tend to have less spam, so it may be worth it to be patient.
Peertube
Peertube is designed to help people share videos with one another. It’s a YouTube alternative. Peertube isn’t as popular as Mastodon, so there aren’t as many websites. However, you can find a small list here.
PixelFed
PixelFed is ideal for artists, photographers and other people who post lots of pictures. It is similar to Instagram, but not owned by Meta (Facebook.) Users can share images with some text and lots of hashtags. Click here for a list of PixelFed sites.
WriteFreely
Do you prefer reading and writing long blog posts and essays? WriteFreely may be for you. WriteFreely is designed around simplicity and minimalism and says creating a WriteFreely site is “like making your own small Medium or Tumblr.” For information on creating your own site or joining someone else’s, go to their official website here.
Is Bluesky Part of the Fediverse?
Bluesky is generally not considered part of the Fediverse, as it runs on something called the AT protocol instead of ActivityPub. However, it is still possible for Bluesky and Fediverse users to interact with one another due to a project called Bridgy Fed.
How to Make Your Own Social Media Website
You could make your own mini “Twitter” clone for family and friends. Or you could make a Youtube alternative, or an Instagram copycat. You can make a website designed around a specific topic or theme, or you can let people post about anything. You can decide who and what is banned. When you own your website, it’s yours!
Interested in making your own fediverse website? There are two ways to do it:
- you can self-host, which requires technological know-how and some work
- or, you can pay for hosting service to handle the tech stuff for you, which is surprisingly cheap
FediHost, for example, is currently offering basic Mastodon hosting for just $4 a month. And there are several other options as well. The Join Fediverse wiki is a good source of information on both hosting providers and self-hosting.
There you have it! Some people make the fediverse seem complicated, but the truth is, the average person doesn’t need any technical knowledge to get started.
Fediverse Apps
One last thing: do you prefer apps instead of websites? No problem! Whether you use Apple, Android, or Linux, there’s an abundance of apps for mobile Fediverse users.
