Darnell (Seize The Day)

Previously, when I first typed up the top Fediverse sites, it was more of an apples-to-oranges comparison, as I could only locate the total number of users on many instances, instead of using the standard monthly active users (or MAU) metric.

However, thanks to David Morley of @fediverseobserver@fediverse.one fame, we can view a list of most of the Fediverse sites on Fediverse Observer (note: donation link for Morley), & rank them based on MAU.

One surprising fact is that the Fediverse now boasts over 300 million potential users (two of the largest sites are still beta testing ActivityPub, hence the word potential), a stat I expected the Fediverse to reach near the end of the year.

Note: Standalone blogs are not included in this list. However, if blog platforms (based on software) were listed, WordPress would boast 16,571 MAU out of 24,472 TU (Total Users) across 8,452 active servers, & WriteFreely would boast 11,352 MAU out of 160,921 TU across 569 active servers. These stats are from FediDB, a free service created by @dansup@mastodon.social of Pixelfed fame (donation link over here).

Without further ado, here are the Top Ten Fediverse Sites based on monthly active users (note: the top three sites' stats are not from Fediverse Observer, but the rest of the instances listed mentioned are from Fediverse Observer).

1) Threads

• Domain: Threads.net
• Monthly Active Users: 200 million
• Total Users: Unknown
• Brand Handle: @threads@threads.net
• Software: Threads (Proprietary)
• Fediverse State: Beta
• ActivityPub Default: Off (users must activate ActivityPub to join Fediverse)
• Type: Micro Blog
• Founders: @zuck@threads.net & @mosseri@threads.net
• Summary: Threads was started by Meta as an alternative to Twitter (now X), & is the largest instance in the Fediverse. Meta's goal is to grow Threads to over a billion users.

2) Flipboard

• Domain: Flipboard.com
• Monthly Active Users: 145 million (latest stat from 2020)
• Total Users: Unknown
• Brand Handle: @flipboard@flipboard.com (note: not yet federated)
• Software: Flipboard (Proprietary)
• Fediverse State: Beta
• ActivityPub Default: On
• Type: Micro Blog
• Founders: @mike@flipboard.com & Evan (latter is a co-founder)
• Summary: Flipboard is a social news network whose presence is a realistic alternative to tech news sites operated by Google, Apple & Microsoft. With tech giants geo-banning nations now or throttling political content, Flipboard may end up becoming the news hub of the Fediverse (& potentially the planet).

3) Minds

• Domain: Minds.com
• Monthly Active Users: 300,000 (2018 & 2020 stat based on TechCrunch & Quartz combined numbers, respectively)
• Total Users: 14 million
• Brand Handle: @minds@minds.com
• Software: Minds (Open Source)
• Fediverse State: Active
• ActivityPub Default: On
• Type: Social Network (blogs, groups, chat, etcetera)
• Founders: @ottman@minds.com, @john@minds.com, @mark@minds.com, @iancrossland@minds.com
• Summary: Minds positions itself as the “free speech” social network where users can voice opinions without fear of banishment within the confines of American constitutional law (with a few caveats for spam, harassment, etcetera). Minds probably is more of an alternative to Facebook than a traditional blog or microblog, & they have recently offered managed hosting services for those who want to power their own social network (including official apps on Android & iOS/iPadOS).

4) Mastodon (Social)

• Domain: Mastodon.social
• Monthly Active Users: 225,299
• Total Users: 2,054,354
• Brand Handle: @mastodon@mastodon.social
• Software: Mastodon (Open Source)
• Fediverse State: Active
• ActivityPub Default: On
• Type: Micro Blog
• Founder: @Gargron@mastodon.social
• Summary: Mastodon software has become the face of the Fediverse, & helped popularize the concept of the Fediverse overall. Mastodon Social is the Flagship Mastodon instance, & is the largest Federated Mastodon instance online.

5) Baraag

• Domain: (Not Safe For Work!!!!) Baraag.net
• Monthly Active Users: 42,826
• Total Users: 294,674
• Brand Handle: @baraag@baag.net
• Software: Mastodon (Open Source)
• Fediverse State: Active
• ActivityPub Default: On
• Type: Micro Blog
• Administrator: @satori@baraag.net
• Summary: Repulsive, albeit legal in the United States 🇺🇸, Baraag features content that would offend most people on planet Earth. The site features offensive content & has been domain-blocked by many (if not most) large instances in the Fediverse. Unless you work in law enforcement or are an activist trying to make the world safer for children, it is advised NOT to visit this site.

6) Pawoo

• Domain: Pawoo.net
• Monthly Active Users: 31,284
• Total Users: 947,405
• Brand Handle: None‽ (@pawoo@pawoo.net is inactive)
• Software: Mastodon (Open Source)
• Fediverse State: Active
• ActivityPub Default: On
• Type: Micro Blog
• Administrator: @pawoo_support@pawoo.net
• Summary: Pawoo is the most prominent Mastodon instance in Japan 🇯🇵 & the site has changed owners over the years. Pawoo's history has been controversial due to its past content (which rivaled Baarag), but the new administrators have been waging a war to clean up the site as of late. Pawoo's content is primarily in Japanese & anime is a favorite topic of the site. The site is owned by SujiTech.

7) MSTDN (Japan)

• Domain: MSTDN.jp
• Monthly Active Users: 20,817
• Total Users: 407,298
• Brand Handle: @mstdn_jp@mstdn.jp
• Software: Mastodon (Open Source)
• Fediverse State: Active
• ActivityPub Default: On
• Type: Micro Blog
• Administrator: Same as Brand Handle
• Summary: MSTDN (Japan) is the second largest Japanese Mastodon instance in the Fediverse. The site is owned & operated by the same company that runs Pawoo (SujiTech) Pawoo), although its history is far less controversial than its larger sibling. Aside from the content primarily being in Japanese, this Mastodon instance is relatively normal.

8) MSTDN (Social)

• Domain: MSTDN.social
• Monthly Active Users: 18,747
• Total Users: 233,716
• Brand Handle: @mstdn@mstdn.social
• Software: Mastodon (Open Source)
• Fediverse State: Active
• ActivityPub Default: On
• Type: Micro Blog
• Administrator: @stux@mstdn.social
• Summary: If you enjoy cats & having fun, then MSTDN (Social) is an enjoyable instance to interact with. The site is run by Stux, who also manages a hosting company Stuxhost based out of the Netherlands 🇳🇱. Stux is famous for hosting various Fediverse sites, but MSTDN (Social) is the largest one Stux manages.

9) Lemmy (World)

• Domain: Lemmy.world
• Monthly Active Users: 18,358
• Total Users: 164,386
• Brand Handle: @lemmyworld@lemmy.world (inactive)
• Software: Lemmy (Open Source)
• Fediverse State: Active
• ActivityPub Default: On
• Type: Forum
• Administrator: @ruud@lemmy.world
• Summary: Lemmy (World) is the most active instance of Lemmy in the Fediverse. The forum is run by Ruud, who also runs various other instances (although this is the only one on the top ten list).

10) Loforo

• Domain: Loforo.com
• Monthly Active Users: 15,828
• Total Users: 48,380
• Brand Handle: @loforo@loforo.com (inactive)
• Software: Loforo (Proprietary)
• Fediverse State: Active Albeit Limited
• ActivityPub Default: On
• Type: Blog
• Founders: Unknown (will update once confirmed)
• Summary: Loforo is the second most popular blogging application in the Fediverse, although the site could eclipse WordPress by the end of the year. The site portrays itself as an alternative to Soup.io, & is partially Federated (you can broadcast into the Fediverse but not interact with it, similar to Threads).

Image via: LicenseSpring

Is The Future Of The Fediverse Proprietary‽

As some of you may have noticed, the most active users (approximately 99%) will experience the Fediverse firsthand from either Threads or Flipboard.

While this stat may discourage proponents of FOSS (Free Open Source Software), the reality is that this ratio could easily change once people begin activating ActivityPub within popular blogging platforms like WordPress & Ghost (the latter who will embrace the Fediverse soon).

According to Hostinger, approximately 810 million WordPress sites exist around the world. As awareness of the Fediverse increases in the public sphere, we could witness hosting companies promoting the ActivityPub WordPress plugin to customers.

Whether on a proprietary platform or via an open-source alternative, the Fediverse is on track to reach billions of users by the end of the decade. This means the ActivityPub power ecosystem could achieve something that Twitter has always aspired to become but ultimately failed to achieve: to become the pulse of the planet.

👨🏾‍💻 by @darnell@darnellclayton.com 🔛 @darnell@darnell.day 📧 darnell@darnell.day

🕺🏾 Follow my adventures upon: 🐘 Darnell (One) 🦁 Darnell (Movies, Opuses, Entertainment) 📸 Darnell (Out Of Office)

🦹🏾‍♂️ WordPress Workarounds: 💻 Darnell (TeleVerse) 🌍 Darnell (Africa) 👨🏾‍🎨 Darnell (Creative Outlet)

🥷🏾 Other Hideaways: 🧵 Darnell (Threads) 🔞 Darnell (Hard News) 🐬 Darnell (Flipboard)

With more social and blogging platforms joining the Fediverse in the future, there will undoubtedly be some confusion over how to display user handles online. Many people will probably forget to add the extra “@” symbol and instead type out an email address on their blog or social network.

This could lead to people clicking on the link & emailing someone, all the while thinking they are partaking in the new Fediverse based upon ActivityPub when in reality they are engaging in another federated network based upon SMTP (or Simple Mail Transfer Protocol).

Instead of letting readers or followers receive a bounce back or NDR (Non-Delivery Report), it would be wise to create a forwarding email address that is similar to your Fediverse handle.

What Is A Forwarding Email Address‽ Why Not Use A Regular Email Address‽

A forwarding email address is an email handle that forwards messages to another email address. You usually cannot email from it, but it can capture messages intended for you without setting up another email account.

Sometimes referred to as alias email accounts, many email providers, domain registrars, and hosting providers allow customers to create forwarding email addresses for free, which means no extra cost to the individual.

However, if you prefer to use a fully functional email address, you might be able to “add on” an extra account for a small fee (say about $1), depending on your email hosting provider.

Note: If you lack the technical skills to set up a forwarding email address, seek the help of a geek friend or contact your domain registrar, hosting provider, or email hosting company for assistance.

Credit: Sharon “Athena” from Battlestar Galactica show (Season 4, Episode 6)

Federated Twining: Who Is This For‽ Is This A Cylon Trick‽ 😜

Creating a federated twin email account that mimics your Fediverse handle is recommended for those who solo host on their domain or run a blog on a custom domain.

For example, on my Misskey instance, my user handle is @darnell@darnell.moe, so I created darnell@darnell.moe, a forwarding email address to complement my site.

I have done something similar for my blogs as well. If someone wants to contact @darnell@darnell.tv, they can email darnell@darnell.tv, which will be forwarded to my primary email address.

Note: On my blog DarnellClayton.com, I opted to create an inexpensive secondary email address that mimics my handle there (darnell@darnellclayton.com) instead of a simple forwarding email address.

What If I Am On Community Instance‽

If you are on a community instance, this option is probably not available to you without assistance from the site admin.

However, instance admins could consider adding a forwarding email as an extra perk for their instance for users (for a small fee, as there is a limit to how many alias email accounts you can freely create) or for active moderators on their instance.

For more significant instances like Threads & Flipboard, this will probably never be an option (as they have over 100 million users), but if you are on a small instance (say under 100), this is quite feasible.

One More Thing

Another benefit of using a secondary email address instead of a forwarding one is that it provides a secure, easy-to-remember way for people to communicate with you.

Although email encryption is imperfect, it may provide a better alternative to sending private messages through the Fediverse (which is not recommended for sensitive information).

Note: @evan@cosocial.ca (one of the founders of ActivityPub) is working on creating end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for the ActivityPub protocol, which he announced on the Fediverse via his Threads account, @evanprodromou@threads.net (you should follow both accounts).

👨🏾‍💻 by @darnell@darnellclayton.com 🔛 @darnell@darnell.day 📧 darnell@darnell.day

🕺🏾 Follow my adventures upon: 🐘 Darnell (One) 🦁 Darnell (Movies, Opuses, Entertainment) 📸 Darnell (Out Of Office)

🦹🏾‍♂️ WordPress Workarounds: 💻 Darnell (TeleVerse) 🌍 Darnell (Africa) 👨🏾‍🎨 Darnell (Creative Outlet)

🥷🏾 Other Hideaways: 🧵 Darnell (Threads) 🔞 Darnell (Hard News) 🐬 Darnell (Flipboard)

The nation of Turkey 🇹🇷 is once again banning a popular product from Meta, this time over condolences regarding the death of a terrorist leader killed in Iran 🇮🇷.

The move came after a senior Turkish official accused the platform of blocking condolence posts following the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, leader of Palestinian militant group Hamas. “We warned Instagram about certain offences. We want some rules to be followed ... We intervene when they disregard legal rules and public sensitivities.” Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said. “We are in contact with them. Our sensitivities are clear, as soon as they correct those shortcomings, we will remove the ban. This is a country with laws and rules.” Uraloglu added. (Reuters)

Out of the 86 million Turkish residents in the country, about 50 million use Instagram, so this ban will be highly disruptive (especially in the business community).

Although Meta could have hidden pro-Hamas posts on their site to everyone outside of Turkey 🇹🇷, they would have risked wrath from Congress members in the United States 🇺🇸 (as well as advertisers for obvious reasons). This is the second major Meta product banned by Turkey 🇹🇷, the latter who previously banned Threads several months ago over Threads sharing information with Instagram.

Note: Anyone traveling to or through Turkey 🇹🇷 is advised to use a Virtual Private Network (VPN), although they should take precautions when visiting certain websites.

👨🏾‍💻 by @darnell@darnellclayton.com 🔛 @darnell@darnell.day 📧 darnell@darnell.day

🕺🏾 Follow my adventures upon: 🐘 Darnell (One) 🦁 Darnell (Movies, Opuses, Entertainment) 📸 Darnell (Out Of Office)

🦹🏾‍♂️ WordPress Workarounds: 💻 Darnell (TeleVerse) 🌍 Darnell (Africa) 👨🏾‍🎨 Darnell (Creative Outlet)

🥷🏾 Other Hideaways: 🧵 Darnell (Threads) 🔞 Darnell (Hard News) 🐬 Darnell (Flipboard)

Note: Scene from The Hunger Games

It is awesome to see how much progress Ghost has made in integrating ActivityPub.

After embracing the Fediverse months ago, Ghost has now volunteered Mastodon as tribute (aka a testing buddy).

For Ghost to be a successful member of the ActivityPub ecosystem, it needs to work well with Mastodon, PixelFed, Buttondown, Flipboard, Lemmy, WriteFreely, Misskey, Threads, and many more.

Now that we've got many of the foundations in place, we're going to shape our roadmap from here around building compatibility for Ghost with 3rd party services first — before we even think about how Ghost integrates with other Ghost sites. Shaping our product and our code architecture around testing against real, existing products is going to ensure that we're on the right track. [...]

First up: We're going to focus on getting Ghost to work (well!) with Mastodon.

Why Mastodon? Mainly because Mastodon has the most active users of any ActivityPub platform, so it will give us the largest footprint to test against — and it will also immediately provide the largest existing audience for Ghost publishers to tap into. So there's real value. (Ghost ActivityPub Blog)

Testing against active platforms is critical, as it will help ensure that Federation works both ways instead of partially, which could frustrate users.

For example, Loforo is the second most active blog platform in the Fediverse. However, ActivityPub implementation is only partial (other platforms can see Loforo, but Loforo can not interact with them yet, similar to where Threads is right now).

Folks interested in following Ghost's progress can follow them within the Fediverse at @index@activitypub.ghost.org & unless you are afraid of Pugs, you will find their content hilariously entertaining (despite being slightly technical).

Image credit: Ghost

👨🏾‍💻 by @darnell@darnellclayton.com 🔛 @darnell@darnell.day 📧 darnell@darnell.day

🕺🏾 Follow my adventures upon: 🐘 Darnell (One) 🦁 Darnell (Movies, Opuses, Entertainment) 📸 Darnell (Out Of Office)

🦹🏾‍♂️ WordPress Workarounds: 💻 Darnell (TeleVerse) 🌍 Darnell (Africa) 👨🏾‍🎨 Darnell (Creative Outlet)

🥷🏾 Other Hideaways: 🧵 Darnell (Threads) 🔞 Darnell (Hard News) 🐬 Darnell (Flipboard)

This is really bad. I was witnessing chaos amongst my fellow travelers (I am thankfully not in the air right now), & it appears that Crowdstirke's update to Microsoft powered machines is resulting in Blue Screens Of Death across numerous airports, banks, & various other businesses worldwide.

Businesses worldwide are experiencing widespread outages, including Windows “blue screen of death” errors, many of them said Friday. The problems are affecting various sectors, from banks, food chains, brokerage houses, news organizations to airlines.

Many customers have reported being unable to restart their computers due to the issue. This outage comes shortly after Microsoft confirmed service problems with its Microsoft 365 apps late Thursday, which affected several airlines including Delta and United. (TechCrunch)

I came across this info via @TechCrunch@flipboard.com & @techcrunch@threads.net & the problem is worse than what people are realizing. Here is a report from @verge@mastodon.social with more details regarding this outage and a potential solution for businesses attempting to fix (albeit temporarily) the issue & save themselves from massive downtime.

The US Federal Aviation Administration says all flights from Delta, United, and American Airlines are grounded due to a “communication issue.” Berlin airport is also warning of travel delays due to “technical issues.” Many 911 emergency call centers in Alaska have also been impacted by the issues.

“We have widespread reports of BSODs on Windows hosts, occurring on multiple sensor versions,” says CrowdStrike in a support note issued at 1:20AM ET today. CrowdStrike has identified the issue and reverted the faulty update, but that doesn't appear to help machines that have already been impacted.

In a Reddit thread, hundreds of IT admins are reporting widespread issues and the workaround steps involve booting affected Windows machines into safe mode and navigating to the CrowdStrike directory and deleting a system file. That will be troublesome on some cloud-based servers, or even for Windows laptops that are deployed and used remotely. (The Verge)

Although I no longer use Windows Machines (my iPad Pro is my computer now), virtually every company I know (including the one I work for) does, which means it is probably chaos in corporate America 🇺🇸 right now.

As far as the financial markets go, investors are punishing both CrowdStrike & Microsoft in pre-market trading right now.

Businesses would be wise to consider alternatives to Microsoft to avoid a similar fiasco in the future.

👨🏾‍💻 by @darnell@darnellclayton.com 🔛 @darnell@darnell.day 📧 darnell@darnell.day

🕺🏾 Follow my adventures upon: 🐘 Darnell (One) 🦁 Darnell (Movies, Opuses, Entertainment) 📸 Darnell (Out Of Office)

🦹🏾‍♂️ WordPress Workarounds: 💻 Darnell (TeleVerse) 🌍 Darnell (Africa) 👨🏾‍🎨 Darnell (Creative Outlet)

🥷🏾 Other Hideaways: 🧵 Darnell (Threads) 🔞 Darnell (Hard News) 🐬 Darnell (Flipboard)

After months in development, Lumaa has launched their Threaded for Mastodon app on the App Store, albeit it is limited to iPhone & Apple Watch (sadly no iPad app is available yet).

Overall, the app provides a clean layout for Mastodon that may appeal to non-techies, & the app even supports multiple accounts.

Aside from the user interface, Threaded provides some of the basic functionality one would expect to use in a Mastodon app (posting, polls, etcetera).

Threaded does not entirely mimic Threads user interface completely (which is wise for legal reasons), but it is enough to appeal to those who enjoy using Meta's latest social network.

However, Threaded lacks some of the features I deem necessary for a Fediverse app nowadays, such as an ability to translate posts, easily report offensive posts to admins (note: I could not find a way to report any posts within the app), & a timestamp on posts which most social media apps have nowadays (including Threads & Mastodon.

Overall, this is an excellent start by @Threaded@mastodon.online & I look forward to future updates.

👨🏾‍💻 by @darnell@darnellclayton.com 🔛 @darnell@darnell.day 📧 darnell@darnell.day

🕺🏾 Follow my adventures upon: 🐘 Darnell (One) 🦁 Darnell (Movies, Opuses, Entertainment) 📸 Darnell (Out Of Office)

🦹🏾‍♂️ WordPress Workarounds: 💻 Darnell (TeleVerse) 🌍 Darnell (Africa) 👨🏾‍🎨 Darnell (Creative Outlet)

🥷🏾 Other Hideaways: 🧵 Darnell (Threads) 🔞 Darnell (Hard News) 🐬 Darnell (Flipboard)

Note: See updates at the end of the article.

After opening up the opportunity for their users to embrace the Fediverse on their accounts, Threads has banned the flagship instances of Mastodon (Social), Misskey (IO) & Bookwyrm (Social), as all three now appear on the Moderated Servers List for bad instances.

I can already hear the Fedipact folks screaming “EEEEEEEEEE” in my ear, along with “I told you so!” & sounding the alarm about Meta moving into the second phase of assimilating all things ActivityPub (do not ask me what the first phase is).

Misskey appearing on the ban list is puzzling, as Misskey (IO) provides a publicly accessible feed in the same way Threads does, as both highlight content from the domain when a person visits the site while logged out (props to @pcottle@threads.net from Meta for revealing how I can view Threads public feed).

Hopefully @syuilo@misskey.io (creator of Misskey) can delegate the task of contacting Meta to an admin, as the Meta ban seems to have been mistakingly applied to the primary Misskey instance. (Note: Many other instances are being blocked for the same reason, so admins should check the list to see if they are on it).

Community Violations‽ Huh‽

Although Misskey's block can be declared an oversight, it is unclear what violations Meta is accusing Mastodon (Social) & Bookwyrm (Social) of doing.

While I doubt @mouse@bookwyrm.social (creator of Bookwyrm) would care about a capitalist mega corporation blocking them (Bookwyrm is anti-corporate), @Mastodon@mastodon.social would probably not be thrilled that Threads blocks them.

It would be wise for @mosseri@threads.net (CEO of Threads) & @Gargron@mastodon.social (Creator of Mastodon) to figure out how to resolve the issue between their instances, as something as simple as a Fediblock could quickly result in many Mastodon & Misskey instances retaliate by blocking Threads out of solidarity with the flagship instances (which is something Meta does not desire).

Related Note: Threads is still muting all Pixelfed instances, as the platform does not provide a publicly accessible feed by default.

Update: Meta has removed Mastodon (Social) from the block list! After news started spreading about the Flagship Mastodon being banned, @shubhankar_91@threads.net (who works at Meta) informed everyone that Threads was investigating why Mastodon was added to the list.

Also, it appears as if mentioning username handles from @threads@threads.net on WriteFreely is currently not working (I am @darnell@threads.net for what it is worth). Previously it did work, which is odd. Hmmm...

Update 2.0: Meta has removed Misskey (IO) from the block list! I am glad as they never should have been on it.

👨🏾‍💻 by @darnell@darnellclayton.com 🔛 @darnell@darnell.day 📧 darnell@darnell.day

🕺🏾 Follow my adventures upon: 🐘 Darnell (One) 🦁 Darnell (Movies, Opuses, Entertainment) 📸 Darnell (Out Of Office)

🦹🏾‍♂️ WordPress Workarounds: 💻 Darnell (TeleVerse) 🌍 Darnell (Africa) 👨🏾‍🎨 Darnell (Creative Outlet)

🥷🏾 Other Hideaways: 🧵 Darnell (Threads) 🔞 Darnell (Hard News) 🐬 Darnell (Flipboard)

I was excited to find out Threads was finally allowing the rest of humanity to activate ActivityPub (which had previously been limited to users located in the United States 🇺🇸, Canada 🇨🇦 & Japan 🇯🇵).

Starting today, people using Threads in 100+ countries can turn on sharing to the fediverse. 🌎 (via @zuck@threads.net on Threads, discovered via @mark@tapbots.social on Mastodon who linked to The Verge)

However, folks residing within a nation that is a member of the European Union & several countries within the Schengen Area will not partake of the Fediverse festivities as Meta is excluding them from the fun.

Note: Sharing to the fediverse is only available for Threads users who: – Created a Threads profile – Are 18 or older – Have public profiles – Are located outside the European Region

(via Instagram Help Center)

I suspect Meta is delaying Fediverse support for European Union Threads users due to the Digital Markets Act, which (for better or worse) complicates launching new technologies within the European Market for non-European companies.

Other companies like Apple have previously announced that they would not launch new technological features within the European Union, & Meta might be mimicking Apple's approach to avoid being fined by the EU.

Meta has declined to state when Fediverse support will be available for European Threads users. However, EU residents can checkout viable alternatives like Mastodon, Misskey & Pleroma (which are available to use without geo-restrictions).

👨🏾‍💻 by @darnell@darnellclayton.com 🔛 @darnell@darnell.day 📧 darnell@darnell.day

🕺🏾 Follow my adventures upon: 🐘 Darnell (One) 🦁 Darnell (Movies, Opuses, Entertainment) 📸 Darnell (Out Of Office)

🦹🏾‍♂️ WordPress Workarounds: 💻 Darnell (TeleVerse) 🌍 Darnell (Africa) 👨🏾‍🎨 Darnell (Creative Outlet)

🥷🏾 Other Hideaways: 🧵 Darnell (Threads) 🔞 Darnell (Hard News) 🐬 Darnell (Flipboard)

After all of that fanfare regarding the VisionPro, it appears as if Apple is realizing most people will not pay for an expensive product upfront that they can not justify using.

Apple has told at least one supplier that it has suspended work on its next high-end Vision headset, an employee at a manufacturer that makes key components for the Vision Pro said. The pullback comes as analysts and supply chain partners have flagged slowing sales of the $3,500 device.

The company is still working on releasing a more affordable Vision product with fewer features before the end of 2025, the person involved in its supply chain and a person involved in the manufacturing of the headsets said. Apple originally planned to divide its Vision line into two models, similar to the standard and Pro versions of the iPhone, according to people involved in its supply chain and former Apple employees who worked on the devices. [...]

Augmented reality is one of Apple's biggest bets. The company aims to eventually replace the iPhone with lightweight glasses, and the Vision Pro is the first step in building consumer and developer interest in that effort. (The Information)

If Apple truly desires to replace the handheld iPhone with face-wearing glasses, they need to normalize the habit of wearing augmented goggles in public.

However, without a high-end product, Apple will be limited in what features they can launch, dooming the augmented reality devices to the realm of gamers & geeks.

Making VisionPro Accessible Again

While Apple should launch a cheaper version of VisionPro (note: would they call it merely Vision instead of Vision Pro‽), the Cupertino giant should consider relaunching an LTE (Long Term Evolution) version, capable of utilizing the latest 5G speeds.

Attaching wireless capabilities to the device would enable carriers to sell VisionPro via their various installment payment plans, allowing more people to afford the device without breaking their bank accounts.

Wireless carrier installment plans are how tens of millions of individuals (including yours truly) can afford expensive iDevices, & if Apple had included a wireless option, VisionPro would have been a modest hit amongst the masses.

👨🏾‍💻 by @darnell@darnellclayton.com 🔛 @darnell@darnell.day 📧 darnell@darnell.day

🕺🏾 Follow my adventures upon: 🐘 Darnell (One) 🦁 Darnell (Movies, Opuses, Entertainment) 📸 Darnell (Out Of Office)

🦹🏾‍♂️ WordPress Workarounds: 💻 Darnell (TeleVerse) 🌍 Darnell (Africa) 👨🏾‍🎨 Darnell (Creative Outlet)

🥷🏾 Other Hideaways: 🧵 Darnell (Threads) 🔞 Darnell (Hard News) 🐬 Darnell (Flipboard)

Image: Fedify Icon

If you have not subscribed to Ghost's hilarious adventures of activating ActivityPub upon their open-source blogging platform, you are missing out on some much-needed (geek‽) humor.

In their latest update, Ghost explained their latest strategy in integrating ActivityPub within their blogging platform. Instead of building ActivityPub within the core software (easier said than done), they are embracing the idea of creating a separate app with the help of Fedify.

When we first built Ghost we made it so you could publish to the web and run a blog. A few years later, we added the ability to deliver those same posts as email newsletters. Same content, new format. [...]

So, Ghost itself doesn't send email newsletters. Instead, it relies on an external service called Mailgun. Ghost offloads the newsletter content to Mailgun along with a list of intended recipients and then says “Seeya later sucker, I'm off for lunch.” Mailgun then goes through the process of carefully delivering each message, recording analytics, errors, and any replies.

When it comes to our ActivityPub service, we're essentially looking to build the same sort of thing. An external piece of software which Ghost can offload content and a list of recipients to, and then say “Seeya later sucker, it's time for my massage.” The ActivityPub service will then carefully handle sending, receiving and storing everything needed to communicate with the wider fediverse. [...]

As we touched on very briefly last week: The very first newsletter subscriber to suggest building ActivityPub as a service was Hong Minhee, the maintainer of an open source project called Fedify.

Fedify is a framework specifically designed for building ActivityPub services. You could think of it as a bit like Rails or Laravel, but specifically for fediverse apps. It's what we've decided to use to build Ghost's ActivityPub service. (Ghost ActivityPub Blog)

While integrating ActivityPub at the core is desirable, it is not always feasible, especially for platforms with thousands of databases & not enough resources to troubleshoot every issue that arises when adding a new feature.

Creating a separate application to handle Fediverse communication & integration will be easier for the Ghost team, as it would allow them to activate ActivityPub faster without breaking their code, bank accounts & brains in an attempt to Federate their platform.

Image: Ghost Icon

Both WordPress (via the WordPress ActivityPub Plugin by @pfefferle@mastodon.social) & Drupal (via the Drupal Module by @swentel@realize.be) have adopted a similar strategy, & hopefully other blogging platforms who viewed adopting ActivityPub as too daunting will consider this option as well.

Side Note: This is one of the reasons why Meta decided to create a separate Fediverse app called Threads, as @zuck@threads.net explained previously that integrating ActivityPub support for Instagram & Facebook was too complicated. Instead, they will allow users to auto-post from Facebook & Instagram to Threads.

Currently, there are five significant blogging platforms that have embraced the Fediverse (WordPress, Drupal, Micro.blog, WriteFreely & Minds), as well as a few upcoming challengers such as Loforo (a potential Tumblr alternative), & Goblin (created by @javi@goblin.band, a former Tumblr employee).

I do wish more blogging platforms would consider adopting ActivityPub support, as it would help them remain relevant in the social space, as well as avoid the fate of Post News.

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