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Sean Tilley

@ deadsuperhero @lemmy.world

Posts
73
Comments
108
Joined
2 yr. ago

I write articles and interview people about the Fediverse and decentralized technologies. In my spare time, I play lots of video games. I also like to make pixel art, music, and games.

  • The Seven Deadly Fediverse UX Sins: A Redemption Report Card - We Distribute

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  • You know, you're not the first person to say that about something I wrote. Neither of us use general AI, and I make a point to avoid all of those tools to do things "the old fashioned way".

    It could be due to me being neurodivergent, or it could be that a certain kind of writing got slurped up by AI and that's the default style now. I don't know.

    I work hard on everything I write.

  • Federated End-to-End Encrypted Messaging is Coming Soon

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  • So, I used messaging here in the broad sense. One possible application for it is instant messaging, which there are ActivityPub implementations out there doing that. But it can also be used for statuses or pretty much anything else that gets federated.

  • Federated End-to-End Encrypted Messaging is Coming Soon

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  • It's not, the demo video actually shows that being one such use case. There's nothing stopping anyone from writing a chat service in ActivityPub. But this can also apply to statuses, media, all kinds of other stuff.

  • Fediverse @lemmy.world
    Sean Tilley @lemmy.world

    Federated End-to-End Encrypted Messaging is Coming Soon

    wedistribute.org /2026/02/fediverse-e2ee-coming/
  • Fediverse @lemmy.world
    Sean Tilley @lemmy.world

    Reimagining Fediverse Advocacy

    deadsuperhero.com /reimagining-fediverse-advocacy/

  • ActivityPub Client API: A Way Forward

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  • Yeah, it was kind of an obscure project to begin with. Still, it struck me as an excellent way to prototype federated services that all hooked into a singular identity.

    Hopefully, it inspires future work.

  • Would blockchain work better for the Fediverse, instead of Email Style Instances?

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  • Nope! The main thing going for a distributed ledger would be global consistency, but there are some very negative downsides. It's slow, scales poorly, puts a massive burden on admins operating instances, and the blocks would be effectively immutable...meaning that if the contents of each activity were fully nested inside of a block, edits or deletions would be impossible. We already see problems with CSAM showing up in various blockchains, and a Fediverse blockchain used for social purposes would be no different.

    It's just not the right tool for the job when it comes to social networks. There were a few early experiments in this area, such as Twister, which tried to build a Twitter clone on top of a blockchain using DHT. It has a huge list of limitations, though, and development stopped around 2020.

  • Fediverse @lemmy.world
    Sean Tilley @lemmy.world

    Ghost's ActivityPub Integration Feels Half-Baked

    deadsuperhero.com /ghosts-activitypub-integration-feels-half-baked/

  • The Fediverse and Content Creation: Monetization

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  • Silverpill might not like me making this comparison, but its form and function are shockingly similar to OnlyFans.

  • The Fediverse and Content Creation: Monetization

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  • OpenCollective is a pretty solid open source contender in my experience. It's not perfect, but it's definitely workable.

  • The Fediverse and Content Creation: Monetization

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  • PeerTube's support button is, at best, a lightbox that holds a text string. It's fine for highlighting links, but you still kind of have to dance around with having an account in another system to make the payment.

  • The Fediverse and Content Creation: Monetization

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  • You might be interested in trying out Nostr. I know it's more Bitcoin Lightning focused, which admittedly is not for everybody, but they've managed to make a lot of stuff work when it comes to paying one another.

    In the technical sense, Nostr is really great.

  • The Fediverse and Content Creation: Monetization

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  • Yeah, the YouTube algorithm itself is a huge problem. I think about the fact that there are entire slop studios out there trying to ride algorithm trends, churning out crap to push onto YouTube Kids so that they'll do numbers and make a lot of money from it.

    Like, I have nothing against the concept of a recommendation algorithm itself, but the relationship I just described is nightmare fuel.

  • Fediverse @lemmy.world
    Sean Tilley @lemmy.world

    The Fediverse and Content Creation: Monetization

    deadsuperhero.com /the-fediverse-and-content-creation-monetization/

  • Wafrn is for People Who Miss Tumblr’s Chaotic Energy

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  • Yeah, Wafrn uses both protocols, and basically runs its own PDS and AppView.

  • Wafrn is for People Who Miss Tumblr’s Chaotic Energy

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  • Remote profiles appear to show up, it might be possible to also remotely pull in posts. I didn't see Subscribe functionality in Lemmy, but maybe PieFed or MBin support that.

  • Fediverse @lemmy.world
    Sean Tilley @lemmy.world

    Wafrn is for People Who Miss Tumblr’s Chaotic Energy

    wedistribute.org /2025/10/wafrn-chaotic-good/
  • Fediverse @lemmy.world
    Sean Tilley @lemmy.world

    Decentered S2E5: Anuj Ahooja and Ryan Barrett from A New Social

    spectra.video /w/2mSF49ZFZPYJ9dRnJxW8D2

  • Best Fediverse platforms to do it all right this time

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  • Honestly, it's a tough choice. Hubzilla can theoretically do everything you want, but there's a steep learning curve.

    One thing that might help is to narrow down what kind of features you want. What I'm seeing so far from your description is:

    • Blog / HTML hosting site
    • space for webgames and assets
    • code?
    • Something like Facebook?

    Friendica and Hubzilla] (and everything derived from them) are theoretically right up your alley, but each interface is kind of janky and introduces a learning curve of some kind. Misskey is extremely good, and often feels like the most polished option for long-form stuff. You're kind of limited on clients, though, as most mobile apps use the Mastodon API. Some Misskey forks add support for it, though.

    I know you said you didn't like WordPress, and I get it. However, the actual ActivityPub integration is really really good, and continues to improve. If you self-host WordPress, there's hypothetically enough extensibility there to build everything you want. However, WordPress as a platform can be extremely janky. We tried doing it for We Distribute, and there's a bunch of stuff under the hood that doesn't quite work right with Fediverse integration. Then again, we've been doing a lot of experimental stuff over the years, so it might be different with a fresh install.

  • Best Fediverse platforms to do it all right this time

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  • Yeah, I was a long-term Hubzilla user some years back. There's some really cool stuff that it can do, but it seems to get slower and more bloated the longer you run it.

  • Social Web Foundation is Betting Big on Client-to-Server API

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  • Yeah, it's not great. Unfortunately, there's not a great way to describe this stuff without either leaning into abstract terms, or using oversimplifications.

    The short of it is: only half of the ActivityPub protocol really got adopted by most of the Fediverse: the stuff that lets servers talk to each other. The other half would allow for a lot of cool things to be built, with not everything being its own Fediverse server.

  • Fediverse @lemmy.world
    Sean Tilley @lemmy.world

    Social Web Foundation is Betting Big on Client-to-Server API

    wedistribute.org /2025/08/social-web-foundation-is-betting-big-on-client-to-server-api/

  • fediverse/activitypub based linktree alternative

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  • Honestly, it would be kind of cool if you just had a simple app to log in with your Fediverse identity, and it rendered your existing profile on the page and allowed you to put additional links.

    I don't think it necessarily needs to federate.

  • Fediverse @lemmy.world
    Sean Tilley @lemmy.world

    Relay, By We Distribute: Something Brewing

    newsletter.wedistribute.org /something-brewing/

  • CrowdBucks is a new payment system for the Fediverse

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  • Actually, there's a pretty decent possibility of this happening! Ben from Bandwagon is currently looking into this for the underlying Emissary platform. If it proves easy enough to integrate, there's literally no reason not to.

    Proving it in one project might see adoption across similar efforts.

  • CrowdBucks is a new payment system for the Fediverse

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  • Support for other providers is coming. Bandwagon is in a similar situation. The overall goal is to support a multitude of options, so that no one payment solution has a monopoly.

  • Fediverse @lemmy.world
    Sean Tilley @lemmy.world

    CrowdBucks is a new payment system for the Fediverse

    wedistribute.org /2025/08/introducing-crowdbucks/

  • Is Meta Scraping the Fediverse for AI?

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  • Probably not, but the tradeoff is that you're limiting audience reach. Occasionally, this can also break context in public conversations, where someone might follow someone else who responds to you, but can't see your original post.

  • Fediverse @lemmy.world
    Sean Tilley @lemmy.world

    Is Meta Scraping the Fediverse for AI?

    wedistribute.org /2025/08/is-meta-scraping-the-fediverse-for-ai/
  • Fediverse @lemmy.world
    Sean Tilley @lemmy.world

    Big Updates Are Coming to Loops

    wedistribute.org /2025/08/big-updates-are-coming-to-loops/
  • Fediverse @lemmy.world
    Sean Tilley @lemmy.world

    Decentered S2E3 – Rabble from Nos.Social

    wedistribute.org /podcast/s2e3-rabble-from-nos-social/
  • Fediverse @lemmy.world
    Sean Tilley @lemmy.world

    WordPress-ActivityPub v 7.1.0 Introduces Following Capabilities

    wedistribute.org /2025/07/wordpress-activitypub-v-7-1-0-introduces-following-capabilities/
  • Fediverse @lemmy.world
    Sean Tilley @lemmy.world

    Mitigating the "7 Deadly Fediverse UX Sins"

    deadsuperhero.com /mitigating-the-7-deadly-fediverse-ux-sins/
  • Fediverse @lemmy.world
    Sean Tilley @lemmy.world

    Bandwagon is Bringing Music Sales to the Fediverse

    wedistribute.org /2025/06/bandwagon-music-sales/
  • Fediverse @lemmy.world
    Sean Tilley @lemmy.world

    Bounce Helps You Switch Networks

    wedistribute.org /2025/06/bounce-moves-data/
  • Fediverse @lemmy.world
    Sean Tilley @lemmy.world

    Season 2 Episode 1: FediForum Commentary

    wedistribute.org /podcast/fediforum-june-2025/
  • Fediverse @lemmy.world
    Sean Tilley @lemmy.world

    FediForum is Back!

    wedistribute.org /2025/05/fediforum-is-back/
  • Fediverse @lemmy.world
    Sean Tilley @lemmy.world

    My Dream Fediverse Platform

    deadsuperhero.com /my-dream-fediverse-platform/