We Distribute

https://nostree.me/news@wedistribute.org

We Distribute is a news site reporting on the future of the Internet. We cover the Fediverse, Bluesky, Nostr, and more. We keep a pulse on the development of these spaces, and the people living in them.

Public Key

npub1w9wuqc3s6lr25c4sgj52werj3tngvt43qrccqrher4wvn7tjm32s2ck403

NIP-05 Address

news@wedistribute.org

NIP-57 Address

wedistribute@getalby.com

Profile Code

nprofile1qqs8zhwqvgcd0342v2cyf298v3eg4e5x96cspuvqpmu36hxfl9edc4gpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduhsxwgcg3

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

Author Public Key

npub1w9wuqc3s6lr25c4sgj52werj3tngvt43qrccqrher4wvn7tjm32s2ck403

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Last Notes

2024-09-11 22:24:19

For #Fediverse musicians looking for a new #Bandcamp alternative, Bandwagon feels extremely promising.
https://wedistribute.org/2024/09/bandwagon-music/

2024-08-19 16:31:17

We want to start actively promoting #Nostr events on our site. These include game jams, hackathons, art collabs, unconferences, live listens, and webinars.
We're currently looking at using an events calendar on our site, with the goal of integrating it with the greater Social Web. This includes ActivityPub, Bluesky, and Nostr.
If you're an event organizer, and would like to have something included on our calendar, give us a shout!

2024-08-12 20:49:17

Within the last few years, publishing within the #Fediverse has started to take off. This week's opinion piece focuses on some of the current hurdles this network has, when it comes to user experience, and proposes ideas and a vision of what's possible.
https://wedistribute.org/2024/08/fediverse-publishing/

2024-08-09 04:48:30

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We now have a nice preview up, and intend to update the set with new icons soon!
https://icons.wedistribute.org/

2024-08-07 18:47:02

We have a small gift for you today: over the past 8 months, we've been building an icon library for various decentralized social platforms and protocols within the space. It's an ongoing effort, and we're happy to release our initial version today. It's like Font Awesome, but for the Social Web!
https://wedistribute.org/2024/08/decentralized-social-icons/

2024-08-07 15:27:48

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While there's something to be said about the value of converging on existing efforts, shoring up support, and strengthening existing communities, each project brings different things to the table that are valuable.
Sometimes, these things only get as far as being experiments. @nprofile…uay6 mentioned to us in an interview that he has a list of like 90 different protocols / projects. The nature of decenteralized communication is itself decenteralized.
We're in the process of writing a big article that compares the strengths and weaknesses of ActivityPub, Nostr, and AT Proto, and are convinced that each comes with ideas the others should consider.

2024-08-07 14:59:52

The author of "Protocols, Not Platforms", Techdirt's Mike Masnick, has joined the #Bluesky board of directors. His goal is to help the organization stay true to their original vision.
https://wedistribute.org/2024/08/mike-masnick-joins-bluesky/

2024-08-06 22:13:07

The #MastodonForHarris campaign has raised close to $500,000 within two weeks of being live. It is probably the largest attempt for political organizing on the #Fediverse, and may provide a playbook for other efforts going forward.
https://wedistribute.org/2024/08/mastodon-for-harris/

2024-07-12 07:23:07

A beloved Lemmy event returns this year, and it's already off to a strong start! There's still plenty of time to participate.
https://wedistribute.org/2024/07/canvas-2024-live/

2024-07-11 23:20:10

In this guide, we go over tips and tricks for dealing with one of PeerTube's biggest headaches: fixing broken videos.
https://wedistribute.org/2024/07/fixing-peertube-videos/

2024-07-10 04:29:27

Nice! Openvibe now supports Bluesky in addition to Nostr and the Mastodon API! 🥳
https://openvibe.social/

2024-07-05 01:40:56

This looks amazing! So many people focus on recreating existing services, when the trick is to let users pick and choose what form factors they actually want. #note1p5s…2vdq

2024-07-05 01:32:03

Huh, neat! The Mastodon API support in @openvibe now works with our #Akkoma instance. We can now post to ActivityPub and Nostr at the same time.

2024-07-03 22:04:45

We apologize for the lack of updates. Our Chief Editor, @nprofile…vxfe, has been recovering from burnout for the past few weeks, and hasn't been able to get anything published. He's recovering, and continuing to work on new pieces.
We have a ton of great articles being written, and hope to return to our regular schedule very soon!

2024-06-14 04:57:27

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Regarding the Private DM's, we had to issue a retraction. Fediverse clients only started adopting federated edits relatively recently. Prior to that, people relied on "Delete & Redraft", which attempts to send a delete that may or may not go through, and hand the user the content for editing.
In this case, the DM was actually a Public post that accidentally had the wrong scope applied. The time and content matched up perfectly, and the delete request did not correctly remove the content from mastodon.social's cache. When Maven ingested posts, they did so from a public firehose endpoint for that server, rather than use federation as intended.

2024-06-13 20:53:33

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For #Nostr users and Podcasting 2.0 fans, you can find this episode on TrueFans: https://truefans.fm/decentered/666ab5363034c5521bf3c5d5

2024-06-13 20:41:11

Today, we're sitting down to interview @npub1wmr…g240 for the #Decentered podcast! We're really excited to talk about #Nostr, his experience with building Nos and Planetary, and learn more about his personal story and vision for what is being built here and now.

2024-06-13 13:46:15

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Due to new info by the admin involved, we are formally issuing a retraction.
Maven did not, in fact, leak Private Mentions and make them public. What was mirrored ended up being a cached copy of a public post that was sent in error, then deleted under the infamous "Delete and Redraft" function.
The article has been updated to reflect this, front and center.

2024-06-13 09:09:07

For the latest episode of our #Decentered podcast, we sat down and chatted with Jesse Karmani, who is building Frequency: a federated, private photo-sharing app for friends.
She has some really wonderful ideas, and has put a lot of thought into building the right kind of experience.
https://wedistribute.org/podcast/frequency-jesse-karmani/

2024-06-12 23:16:33

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Wow, that's cool! 🤯

2024-06-12 20:26:11

A social network founded by a former OpenAI employee was caught importing public posts from Mastodon...and ran AI analysis to add tags to them.
https://wedistribute.org/2024/06/maven-mastodon-posts/

2024-06-11 19:28:44

What's your favorite thing about being on #Nostr?

2024-06-06 22:06:43

The dedicated Trust and Safety organization launched their community platform for moderation support last week. Here's what it does.
https://wedistribute.org/2024/06/iftas-connect-launches/

2024-06-06 20:31:21

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One thing that's irritating as a double standard is that some groups of people state that they're completely against doxxing, except when it happens to someone they're fundamentally opposed to.
Just because you don't like someone's politics doesn't mean that doxxing them is acceptable.

2024-06-06 20:28:12

The weird thing about the Business Insider article is that everything that was said about fiatjiaf's political views already existed out in the open. There was no need to reveal his identity out of the blue.

2024-06-06 19:39:03

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Cool, totally makes sense! Thanks for your hard work! 💪

2024-06-05 06:58:58

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//cc @npub1uzp…k3xk, thank you for your update, we made sure to include it in our article!

2024-06-05 06:57:14

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Out of curiosity, what clients currently support the embedded player?

2024-06-05 03:12:29

The widely-known music platform is embracing Nostr, but it's a small demo that's only a taste of what's to come.
https://wedistribute.org/2024/05/tidal-embraces-nostr/

2024-06-03 05:41:51

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We're currently using Amethyst as our main Android app, and it's great!

2024-06-03 05:18:59

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It would be really cool to be able to post to two networks from one mobile app, though. We would love to review Openvibe with our own platform whenever that becomes possible!

2024-06-03 05:16:42

Hmmm... although we're able to log in to our #Akkoma account through @npub1nwk…dgjz, it looks like our timeline doesn't populate, and we can't post anything. 🤔
Akkoma supports the Mastodon APIs, but it's still a different platform with slightly different needs. We'll try opening a bug report with details.

2024-06-02 05:50:28

There's a lot of really good mobile clients for #Nostr, but the Web clients we've tried so far have left us wanting. For those of you who use Nostr on Web, what are your go-to clients?

2024-06-02 03:07:21

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Y'all need to find some retrocomputing nerds to write Nostr clients. It's one of the best things to happen to the Mastodon community.
It might seem like a gimmick, but being able to get ancient computers to work with your network is a great way to offer a variety of access options.
https://wedistribute.org/2023/07/mastodon-retro-clients/

2024-06-02 02:20:21

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It's a fascinating opportunity, especially as we continue to delve further into the network and learn about it.
Our hope is to tap into a variety of federated and peer-to-peer networks, and help people learn about everything that's going on.

2024-06-01 00:00:19

How do you get those nice, simple addresses on your Nostr profile, instead of the NPub Key? We're here to walk you through it with NIP-05.
https://wedistribute.org/2024/05/nostr-nip-05/

2024-05-31 18:31:44

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I mean, it's a bridge built by someone who is pretty controversial for building Fediverse instances that allowed hate speech, harassment, and right-wing propaganda.
A lot of Fediverse users listed on Mostr are not there consensually, and many people actively block that bridge.

2024-05-31 03:29:19

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Elongate

2024-05-31 02:46:58

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You should still have your NIP-05, as long as the service provider you're using is still online.

2024-05-31 02:45:58

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We actually used a WordPress plug-in for ours: https://wordpress.org/plugins/nostr-verify/
Pretty easy to set up, if you have a blog!

2024-05-31 02:27:35

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Fun fact: you don't have to put your NPub on a Nostree link! You can use your NIP-05 as part of the URL, which is way easier to read.

2024-05-31 01:56:21

Man, @npub1ntr…xcpf is really, really good.
https://nostree.me/news@wedistribute.org

2024-05-30 21:03:30

We are thrilled to be partnering with @npub1pu3…tfch as part of their Journalism Accelerator Program! We look forward to bringing our quality news coverage to #Nostr, and hope to report on this network's developments as well!
https://wedistribute.org/2024/05/nos-journalism-accelerator/

2024-05-30 18:41:47

The Trust and Safety work that's being done with efforts like @npub12m2…e68j and @npub14h2…e2sh are super, super interesting.
Federated and peer-to-peer networks are growing at a breakneck pace, which is great! Being able to curate and control your own experience in those spaces is fundamentally important, and helps people filter out the garbage they don't want to deal with.

2024-05-30 18:32:47

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Yay! Thanks for the shout-out. We're thrilled to be here!

2024-05-27 05:16:27

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Nots

2024-05-24 22:52:31

Our founder @npub1ldz…n99t wrote some history about his journey starting our publication, and talks about where we've been, and where we're going.
https://deadsuperhero.com/2024/05/my-hopes-for-we-distribute/

2024-05-23 04:19:21

It's time to listen and vote in this year's edition of the Fediverse's favorite annual music contest, FediVision!
https://wedistribute.org/2024/05/listen-fedivision-2024/

2024-05-23 01:49:33

The pioneer of the AT Protocol introduces a new milestone to their social messaging plans. Encryption and federation are expected in the future.
https://wedistribute.org/2024/05/bluesky-introduces-dms/

2024-05-22 06:02:28

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Yes, we're actually in touch with @npub1j60…d7ua already! We're looking forward to being announced in your second journalism cohort! 😄

2024-05-21 19:30:46

With Mastodon's recent incorporation as a US 501c3, the question has come up: who are the board members? What do they do? And why were they chosen?
https://wedistribute.org/2024/05/mastodons-board-members/

2024-05-16 15:40:19

A brief #introduction: we're a nonprofit news publication dedicated to federated, decentralized, and peer-to-peer communication technologies. A big focus for us involves three things: digital sovereignty, user empowerment, and the future of the Internet.
We talk about the #Fediverse, as well as #Nostr and #Bluesky, and showcase both the emerging technologies of the space, along with the people who use it every day.
https://nostree.me/npub1w9wuqc3s6lr25c4sgj52werj3tngvt43qrccqrher4wvn7tjm32s2ck403

2024-05-13 17:50:28

Bridgy Fed's integration between Bluesky and the Fediverse is now in public beta, and you can try it for yourself!
https://wedistribute.org/2024/05/fediverse-bluesky-bridge/

2024-05-08 17:43:11

In light of the announcement of Mastodon’s US-based 501c3 Non-Profit, and the reveal of that organization’s board members, there has been backlash from members of the Mastodon community. Some people are even saying that this is the last straw, it’s time for a hard fork of the project! Before I dig in, I would like …
https://wedistribute.org/2024/05/forking-mastodon/

2024-05-07 04:20:46

Nostr is another effort to build an open social network on the Web, and it's very different than ActivityPub. Here's how it works.
https://wedistribute.org/2024/05/nostr-crash-course/

2024-05-06 22:03:45

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Definitely worth checking out! We're in the process of ramping up coverage for Nostr, so we will definitely have a guide in the near future.

2024-05-06 20:15:59

The beloved annual music contest for the Fediverse is back! Now is the time to make and submit your song! Deadline: May 12th, 2024.
https://wedistribute.org/2024/05/fedivision-2024-has-begun/

2024-05-06 01:57:27

In a surprise update, Jack Dorsey has departed from Bluesky's board of directors, in pursuit of his other projects and ventures.
https://wedistribute.org/2024/05/bluesky-jack-dorsey/

2024-05-02 20:32:02

A recent proposal and grant funding might finally make secure, encrypted private messaging viable for the entire network.
https://wedistribute.org/2024/05/encrypted-dms-activitypub/

2024-05-01 20:41:02

An increasing amount of Fediverse platforms support Live Streaming. We wrote a short guide to help you get started!
https://wedistribute.org/2024/04/streaming-obs-studio/

2024-04-30 03:27:45

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Not totally sure. My assumption is that they're short Note activities with a link, but I'd love to see proper use of the Article type, possibly attached via a Quote Boost.
Maybe someday!

2024-04-30 03:02:36

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Currently, our Flipboard magazines are not Federated, but we plan on filing a request for that!

2024-04-27 22:18:52

The company behind one of the biggest projects in the Fediverse has migrated as an entity to the United States as a 501c3.
https://wedistribute.org/2024/04/mastodon-us-nonprofit/

2024-04-24 07:47:15

We officially have Publisher status on @npub18gz…hsf0! 🎉
If #Flipboard is your preferred way of reading articles, you can follow us over there! We're splitting our articles into several different magazines, based on the different networks we're covering.
https://m.primal.net/HzOb.png
https://flipboard.com/@WeDistribute

2024-04-22 23:53:23

There's an effort on the network to connect the Fediverse's federation powers to Solid's data storage and access capabilities.
https://wedistribute.org/2024/04/activitypods-federated-solid-pods/

2024-04-22 20:29:54

Ghost, a major publishing platform, follows in the footsteps of WordPress. Both platforms may be able to follow each other soon.
https://wedistribute.org/2024/04/ghost-implements-activitypub/

2024-04-21 00:30:48

We Distribute is looking to expand its team! Check out the volunteer positions we currently have available, and if you feel like we're a good fit, come work with us!
We're looking to expand our reporting for the #Fediverse, polish up our site, and secure funding to pay our contributors!
https://wedistribute.org/about/jobs/

2024-04-17 20:54:16

Emissary has some really wild tricks up its sleeve, and allows you to build whatever kind of interface or app experience you want.
https://wedistribute.org/2024/04/emissary-social-web/

2024-04-17 08:28:35

The developer of Pixelfed unveils his newest project, a long-awaited suite of tools designed to help people building for the Fediverse.
https://wedistribute.org/2024/04/pubkit-closed-beta/

2024-04-13 00:56:51

Welcome to The Mixtape, our periodic playlist showcasing the musicians of the Fediverse! For this edition, we’re going with a particular sound: things that seem like they belng from another era, even hough the may have come out recently. We’ve searched far and wide, and produced this playlist just for you. If you enjoyed this, …
https://wedistribute.org/2024/03/the-mixtape-5-canned-nostalgia/

2024-04-12 01:06:18

Are you a Threads user who just started hearing about the Fediverse? Don't worry! We're here to answer your burning questions, while keeping it simple!
https://wedistribute.org/2024/04/threads-fediverse-beginners/

2024-04-11 20:55:21

The European Union Digital Services Act is upon us! But don't worry - our favorite Trust & Safety organization is here to demystify compliance.
https://wedistribute.org/2024/04/iftas-dsa-guide/

2024-04-10 04:57:40

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One criticism so far: it seems like you can only have one Nostr account at a time? If so, that's kind of a bummer.

2024-04-10 04:52:08

Huh, @npub1pls…kx8j seems pretty nice so far! Pretty polished!

2024-04-05 20:21:34

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Video version available here on #PeerTube: https://spectra.video/w/cgUdgFb1ZpcTEK8UydLu59

2024-04-05 20:19:26

A new episode of the #Decentered podcast is out! We sat down with Manton Reece of Micro.blog to talk about IndieWeb principles, blogging, and the joy of having your own personal custom space online.
https://wedistribute.org/podcast/manton-reece-micro-blog/

2024-04-03 23:13:30

Reflecting on some of the hurdles for procuring a Fediverse instance for the US Government. There are a lot of hoops to jump through, but is it worthwhile?
https://wedistribute.org/2024/04/us-government-hosted-fediverse/

2024-04-03 00:40:37

Joe Biden's official account is now connected to the Fediverse, thanks to Threads. We'll see if anything comes of it.
https://wedistribute.org/2024/04/president-biden-on-fedi/

2024-03-29 23:45:41

A community index of servers added a new rule recently, that requires every participant to defederate from Threads. Some admins are unhappy.
https://wedistribute.org/2024/03/block-threads-to-remain-listed/

2024-03-22 01:39:00

Despite assurances that Threads wants to be good neighbors in the Fediverse, some think Meta might be pulling out some old tricks.
https://wedistribute.org/2024/03/is-threads-hiding-pixelfed/

2024-03-21 20:18:33

Our interview with Rudy Fraser from #Blacksky just dropped. He shared some valuable insights on building black spaces on an emerging federated network, and brought up the headaches, struggles, and joy of being involved.
https://wedistribute.org/podcast/blacksky-rudy-fraser/

2024-03-19 05:58:47

We're attending the Fediverse's most popular unconference, and providing updates of the talks, along with commentary!
https://wedistribute.org/2024/03/fediforum-live/

2024-03-19 04:20:49

ActivityPub has fostered a social web for millions of people. To grow, some developers believe it needs improvement. These are their efforts.
https://wedistribute.org/2024/03/extending-activitypub/

2024-03-17 21:44:36

One of the Zot's most powerful concepts for identity management and remote access is being ported to work on ActivityPub. It could change the Fediverse.
https://wedistribute.org/2024/03/activitypub-nomadic-identity/

2024-03-16 11:19:44

Short-form video might in fact be the next frontier for federated media. The dev behind a popular photo-sharing platform is diving in headfirst.
https://wedistribute.org/2024/03/loops-by-pixelfed/

2024-03-16 01:22:39

One of the Bonfire project's partner communities has launched, and it's to support scientific research for the commons.
https://wedistribute.org/2024/02/bonfire-open-science/

2024-03-14 01:30:40

FediForum is the Fediverse's recurring unconference where developers, community members, designers, and thinkers come together to share their ideas!
https://wedistribute.org/2024/03/fediforum-is-next-week/

2024-03-07 00:11:15

Over the past few months, Damon and I have both dealt with a very annoying headache: the instances we were both on kept shutting down. First, it was Firefish.social, with a gradual degredation in service that never recovered. We moved to Mozilla.social, and loved it for a while, but a combination of bad moderation and …
https://wedistribute.org/2024/03/we-distribute-social/

2024-03-06 01:07:20

The popular Reddit alternative's user count has grown a lot over the past year. One problem, though: users and admins can't delete images.
https://wedistribute.org/2024/03/lemmy-image-problem/

2024-03-03 00:19:01

It turns out, if people in an online community really don't like what you're doing, they can turn to harassment, threats, or worse to try to shut you down.
https://wedistribute.org/2024/03/contentnation-mastodons-toxicity/

2024-02-29 18:30:19

New Episode! 📣 We sit down with Jaz Michael-King from IFTAS to talk about the challenges of building out Trust & Safety for decentralized social spaces. #Decentered
https://wedistribute.org/podcast/trust-safety-jaz-michael-king/

2024-02-27 17:25:45

The fledgling Fediverse discovery hub takes a big step today, showcasing deeper integrations with Mastodon, and a developer API for communities.
https://wedistribute.org/2024/02/newsmast-3-update/

2024-02-21 00:54:39

Here’s an awesome, fun project to start off the week. Fedi Trading Card Maker is a simple, easy-to-use app programmed by nash, with art assets made by hexephere. The app is extremely easy to use, and the included guide at the bottom of the page gives good suggestions for image size and additional features. There …
https://wedistribute.org/2024/02/fediverse-trading-cards/

2024-02-14 07:57:56

A libre networking project that's designed to bridge protocol spaces together announced its progress and intentions, and Mastodon users freaked out.
https://wedistribute.org/2024/02/tear-down-walls-not-bridges/

2024-02-13 03:51:56

Bonfire is an emerging Fediverse project that's been in development for years. It's more than just a platform.
https://wedistribute.org/2024/02/bonfire-nextgen-framework/

2024-02-10 20:33:17

For the second time this month, a Fediverse project reports a critical vulnerability. The devs are on top of it: admins, update your servers!
https://wedistribute.org/2024/02/pixelfed-cve/

2024-02-07 04:35:41

Bluesky, the ambitious spinoff effort of Twitter to develop a platform, protocol, and ecosystem - finally opens the floodgates.
https://wedistribute.org/2024/02/bluesky-opened-up/

2024-02-02 02:47:18

A Trust & Safety organization is offering a covenant and language to help instances adjust their policies. Will it help?
https://wedistribute.org/2024/02/iftas-vs-deadnaming-misgendering/

2024-02-01 20:12:58

A new Mastodon vulnerability was found out in the wild, and it's a nasty one. Admins are advised to update to the latest release ASAP.
https://wedistribute.org/2024/02/mastodon-remote-takeover/

2024-01-31 17:54:57

Episode Three of our #Decentered Podcast is now available! This time, were talking about Bridgy Fed! 🌈🦄
Join us and @npub192z…egjh as we talk about decentralized social web protocols, and the effort to make them talk to one another. We cover #IndieWeb, #ActivityPub, #ATProto, and #Nostr.
https://wedistribute.org/podcast/bridgyfed-ryan-barrett/