this page is an overview of everything i have ever written about the OStatus/ActivityPub fediverse, by date. due to the nature of time, many of these pieces will now be outdated.
this is not actually a comprehensive guide to fediverse journalism and should not be taken as such.
early thoughts on the long‑term sustainability of the Mastodon project, in particular looking at specific features needed for supporting certain kinds of community, and different means of acquiring revenue for the project at‑large.
the article that put me on the map regarding fedi drama. a critique of upstream Mastodonʼs development practices, at a time when upstream was still the sole progenitor of Mastodon software. the historical aspects of this critique are still valid, but the conversation has shifted somewhat since the popularization of fringe Mastodev.
some clarifications and meta‑commentary on Mourning Mastodon, responding to how the original was received.
a list of features for Mastodon that i was hopeful might be implemented.
a proposal for Mastodon custom emoji using Unicode characters and ZWJ sequences—this is not the approach upstream Mastodon decided to use.
an introduction to a custom Mastodon frontend that i worked on developing as a part of the GlitchSoc fork of Mastodon. it includes a brief history of my attempts at Mastodon frontend development, and some analysis of what i believe to be effective frontend design.
( this frontend was never finished ; i left GlitchSoc development before i could bring it to a state of completion. )
the huge gap in writings between this and the next post are for two reasons :— 1. from October until the end of the year, i was busy at work building and designing things for GlitchSoc ; and 2. the vast majority of my time after the new year was spent either on (inter)personal affairs or exploring non‑Mastodon RDF approaches to federated content. i also made a zine.
a re‑analysis of the period of time leading up to the original Mourning Mastodon piece, describing my early attempts at forking the Mastodon software.
a continuätion of the narrative in Fringe Mastodev – Part I, describing the publishing of Mourning Mastodon and further frontend work.
a history of the founding and early development work on the GlitchSoc fork of Mastodon, of which i was an early contributor.
a personal and critical analysis of fediverse culture and its treatment of caretakers, drawing on trends which i noticed and experienced throughout the time that i developed for the software. this was intended only as an intermission in the Fringe Mastodev series, but after people started dogpiling my friends for sharing it ( jeez ! ), i stopped writing about Mastodon altogether ( for some time, at least ).
a mostly contentless flyer mocking up a pink zine aesthetic for fediverse propaganda.
a conclusion to the Fringe Mastodev series, taking note of more recent developments, and analysing the problems with the open‑source model as applied to fediverse projects by disadvantaged developers.
an analysis of “ what sort of problems can be solved through social media ”—with the conclusion “ community problems ”. this piece advocates organizing around community issues such as violence as a way of building fediverse solidarity, by getting diverse groups working together rather than simply arguïng about praxis.