Hello everyone!

[jami@hachyderm.io]

@Raccoon @cwebber awwuh sometimes the mansplains are sweet and welcoming (and, in fairness, "requested" here).

[joel@piou.foolbazar.eu]

@cwebber let’s try this way:
ActivityPub is the name of a technical protocol. Like HTTP is for websites.
Fediverse is a short word for Federated Universe. Which means software using ActivityPub can communicate which each other and form a kind of universe. Like Web browsers can all access the same Web contents/sites.
There are several Fediverse compatible software focusing on various subjects (messages, photos, books, etc). You may access their content from any of those.

[orca@nya.one]

@[email protected] fediverse is coined using words "federated"+"universe", it refers to the nature of the network connected using ActivityPub protocol: servers (instances) are interconnected, and one user hosted on one server can reach a user hosted on another server (federated), because the former server will delivers the message to the latter server.

And there's not only Mastodon, too. For example, I'm on a Misskey instance, which is a suite of microblogging software developed independently from Mastodon. You can also subscribe to blogs (writefreely and wordpress with ActivityPub plugin installed), videos (peertube), photo-sharing accounts (pixelfed, which is similar to instagram) or even reddit-like forums (lemmy) as long as it supports ActivityPub.

[cwebber@social.coop]

@joel oh wow sounds pretty cool

it's wild that they could even figure out how to do that with social media

[sam@social.coop]

@cwebber @joel right? Joel forgot to mention this, but you should know that it was invented by Al Gore in the 1990's, isn't that cool?! *pokerface*

[cwebber@social.coop]

@Orca ahh gotcha thanks that makes sense

is misskey a fork of the shark one?

[gorfram@beige.party]

@alyx @cwebber Isn’t that the purchase that made John Mastodon the richest man in the universe?

[mlevison@agilealliance.social]

@Raccoon
and @chawopro You might have missed the joke.

Check @cwebber account bio.

Odds are Christine knows more about it than anyone else on the planet.

[wizard@xyzzy.link]

@cwebber how do you keep getting away with this

[cwebber@social.coop]

thank you @evan do you know anyone who worked on it

[cwebber@social.coop]

@wizard getting away with what I'm new here I just made this account

[sam@social.coop]

@Gorfram @alyx @cwebber only in this universe though; I hear there's a richer version of him with a goatee in the evil mirror universe.

[ramsey@phpc.social]

@mlevison @chawopro @cwebber At least @Raccoon is being super-friendly about it! Great post! A++++ would ask for your help again!!

[raccoon@techhub.social]

@ramsey @mlevison @chawopro @cwebber
Yeah, as I said, I didn't realize anything more than the account age when I copy-pasted that: I send that to every new account I see.

[raccoon@techhub.social]

@cwebber
Yeah, I copy-paste the welcome with hashtag advice to every new account I see. Somehow I saw the account age and something about being a software person when I glanced at the bio, but not the parts about actually knowing the answer to this, lol.

[raccoon@techhub.social]

@badumtss
Yes, I was baited. lol

I'm gonna leave it up because I think it's a good answer.

[aud@fire.asta.lgbt]

@[email protected] ActivityPub is like a sort of casual bar where you're screaming about what you're doing all the time and a bunch of randos in the bar that you don't know are like "what the fuck is wrong with you, why would you do that?" and then you smash pints over each other's heads and desperately wish you could somehow block the other person out of your vision. All while the bartender pretends not to notice.

[aud@fire.asta.lgbt]

@[email protected] but then there's also a corner where people are doing like, a James Joyce book club. The bartender immediately kicks them out.

[raccoon@techhub.social]

@jami @cwebber
In my defense, I wouldn't call it "Mansplaining" when it's a woman in software responding to another woman in software's seemingly genuine question about a software she works with.

I think we overuse that term: "Mansplaining", to me, is typically when a man assumes a woman doesn't know things, because she's a woman, and explains, poorly, the thing.

Either way, I didn't see who it was and treated her as a new user: I think it's important that the first "I am new and what is this?" gets a welcoming and informative response.

[slothrop@chaos.social]

@cwebber I really don’t understand why everyone is always going on about this activity pub.

Myself, I much prefer my passivity sofa.