I was recently checking out the new fediverse.info (you should check it out, btw, it's very well put together), and was struck by something as I was going through. Under the apps section, where users are prompted to pick an app, there is the question: "What do you want to do?". It's not a bad question, based on how the fediverse is structured. Each app has a niche, and so you need to pick an app based on the type of interaction you want to have.

However, what I noticed is that there is no "General" category. I.e., sites that do multiple of these things well. Sure, some sites might have some type of event functionality, and you can share images/videos on mastodon, lemmy and other microblogging/forum sites, but none of it is done to a standard that would make it your go to for any of those types of functions. So, it is necessary to say "what do you want to do" in order to guide people to the site that specializes in what they want.

Yet, this being the fediverse, all of these platforms can talk to each other. So does it have to be that way? Is there a way that we could move towards a more unified and multifunctional fediverse, vs a series of islands that each have different functionalities? What would that look like, and are there any platforms out there that are doing a more unified fediverse experience, specifically having a lot of different functionality/content types in one site/app?

I know people hate facebook comparisons, but I'm thinking of the level of different content/functionality that facebook has, posts, audience control, private/group messaging, groups, marketplace, events. This is the standard that is expected for social media these days. Can the fediverse live up to that expectation?

I am working on ideas for a new fediverse platform with a lot of integrated features, and would like to take the pulse on the most desired features for the fediverse that you feel should be included in most if not all apps. Here are the options to consider, please pick your top 1 or 2 that would make you feel like the fediverse is as useful as other closed wall sites:

• Polls
• Events
• Marketplace/classified ads
• Reels (tiktok style vertical videos)
• E2EE messaging
• Group chat
• Video chat
• Live streaming
• Post migration from other fediverse platforms/instances
• RSS subscriptions
• Import/parsing of gdpr archives from closed wall platforms like Meta, and automatic social graph reconstruction based on other user archive imports

I am pretty sure I know the answer, but I am wondering what people think about this. Say you come across a new fediverse platform. It has a lot of innovative features, and seems to be well thought out overall. A lot of people have been excited by the features and have been joining to check these new features out.

The one rub, the project admits that they used AI agents in the foundational stages of the project to accelerate development progress, then once the foundation was built, they analyzed, bug fixed, and documented the code, and brought in human contributors to assist with developing the project going forward. They do still allow AI code, but only certain types and using certain quality protocols to ensure code consistency, and are clear and up front about this, and unapologetic, as it was the only way they could make this project happen in the time and manner it did.

I know AI is somewhat more accepted in the coding world these days, depending on who you talk to, but I know some people have strong stances in it. How would you feel about a project like this? Under what circumstances would you be ok with joining a platform that has used AI in its code?