fediverse platform for a schools community network
I am looking to host a fediverse platform for a community of non-tech people. These people use mostly ig and some still fb. These people are from a network of schools which are ideologically aligned with libre software and decentralisation. It will include adults and also teenagers, who mostly use IG. This is part of a plan of a massive migration to ethical platforms. I am trying to choose the fittest fediverse solution to these, also considering that I am not sure how much my home server will be capable of sustaining, so the platform should ideally be as lightweight as possible. I am considering mastodon, pixelfed, misskey and sharkey, and some people have suggested akkoma.
What would you recommend? Thanks!!
22 replies
I think once groups land in Pixelfed and the new app is released on the official app-stores, which will hopefully both happen this month, it is probably the best option if people are used to IG and Facebook.
Oh I didn't know there was a new app coming out, is the original one being rebuilt?
According to the main developer's mastodon feed, yes.
I wonder if pixelfed is resource hungry? As mastodon?
It's written in php Laravel, so it should be somewhat more lightweight than Mastodon, but not massively so.
Mastodon also has a bit of an unjustified bad reputation for that... yes for very small instances it is a resource hog, but it scales reasonably well to larger number of users after that initial bump.
Semi-related but I was thinking about this earlier this year, and I was wondering about the feasibility of posting bus cancellations via the fediverse instead of via a bussing company’s website or email.
I think updates like that would do well on Mastodon, it's the most popular right now so it has a wider reach / support. Similar to what would have been posted to Twitter before
It definitely seems like a good idea for education services, weather services, local municipal services, and basically all important government institutions to make important announcements and updates via a service they can host themselves or is more distributed, like Mastadon, instead of via Twitter where they have to obey the whims of people like Musk.
Frendica
Is friendica appealing for teenagers? does the UX feel modern/polished? (this is non relevant for me, but sadly for teens it is so important)
Wait you know teenagers who use Facebook ?
not really
You wrote in your post the people you wanted to introduce it to is using Instagram and Facebook and now you said here those people are teenagers .
some adults still use fb. I doubt there are students that use fb. they mostly use ig.
It's because you mentioned Facebook, I thought Friendica would be a good like for like.
Ah ok I see... Yes, some adults still use fb but most people use IG...
IMO, this is one of the main ways the fediverse should seek to grow: Setup fediverse instances run by universities and government institutions.
@geoma Id go for Friendica - its a good mix i think will grow overtime to include different usage types
I have the idea that friendica is kinda old/outdated... Am I mistaken?
@geoma Not sure why.. I mean what functionality doesn't work that makes you think that? Is there anything Mastodon does that Frendica doesn't?
I have no idea It's just a vague feeling, not based in any experience whatsoever. What about resource usage?
@geoma I'm running on a free Oracle Instance and spinning up a separate instance on RBPi but not having any issues.