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Title: Some thoughts on federation
Date: 2026-05-28
Tags: gopher, phlog, federation, small-web
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I've been working on a lot of my online presences lately. They all serve a purpose (in my mind) and are not exclusive and, yeah, they have a little bit of 
overlap. But for the most part there is a single theme - getting away from the big corporate internet, embracing the small-web ethos, dialin back on the 
big tech social media scene.

I've been involved with technology since the mid-1980's... I've seen and lived first-hand in a world without internet, instant access, mobile phones, 
online tracking, ads, etc etc. 

So, here I am, 60 year old IT business systems analyst, not trying to relive his BBS sysop days, but trying to block out the constant noise, slow down the 
bombardment of ads and other intrusions to me daily online life, stop giving my personal details and habits so someone else can make a buck, and most of 
all, find people who, like me, need things to slow down... not a little bit, but a lot!

I find the idea of federation appealing. I am out there on Mastodon and have dipped my toes in Lemmy. This is from a guy who has spent years in Reddit and 
to this day checks it multiple times daily. The slower pace and curation on Mastodon is nice...but I've discovered a few things.

"Mastodon, Lemmy, PeerTube, and the rest demonstrated that millions of people will leave commercial platforms when they're motivated. But the Fediverse 
mostly reproduces the structure of what people fled... public timelines, follower counts, viral mechanics, just with different administration. The escape 
was sociological, not architectural. People wanted out, but the tooling they got was "X, but smaller and federated," not "fundamentally different 
social shape.""

Thats a REAL concern. Because, whatever residual authenticity remains on Reddit and X will not survive another two years of generative AI. Comment 
sections, public forums, open chat, all of it is becoming uninhabitable for genuine conversation.

So, is federation the answer or just the emperor in new clothes? Did we leave the platforms, or just rebuild them ourselves?

I have a project in the works, the plan is to address this. I'm not giving any more details than that. It will be a couple years until it either looks 
like it will succeed or if it will fail like a lot of online ideas do over time. 

But regardless, the small-web is important now. It is not fringe any longer. People are tired of algorhithms, tired of ad bombardment, tired of living for 
likes and social standing (think the "Black Mirror" Season 3 episode "Nosedive" to understand what I am talking about), and want a safe, slow, "real" 
environment online that gets them out of the hot mess the internet has become. Federation was supposed to be the answer, I am not sure it is working.

(>_<) Mad Sweeney