Teknevra

Is there any way to achieve the same level of anonymity on the Fediverse as 4chan offers?

This is just a random idea I had, and I'm curious what others think.

Has anyone ever considered potentially attempting a federated, anonymous imageboard/message board—something in the spirit of 4chan, 8chan, or Plebchan, but using ActivityPub or another decentralized protocol?

What technical, social, or legal obstacles would need to be overcome?

Would federation (like ActivityPub or something custom) actually help, or would it just replicate the same problems at scale?

I know these platforms have reputations that turn people off (and often for good reason), but I still think there's value in the format—especially for niche or "grey zone" communities that often get booted from mainstream platforms.

Plebchan already shows that decentralization can work in this space. It’s serverless, adminless, and built on the Plebbit protocol, which itself is a decentralized, peer-to-peer social media protocol. Plebchan just acts as a frontend for Plebbit, which uses IPFS for data distribution.

I’d honestly love to try building something like this myself, but I don’t have the dev skills or the time.

Still, I wonder:

Has anyone tried federating something like Plebchan or building an ActivityPub-compatible client like it?

What challenges would something like this face, both technically and socially?

Would there be room for such a project in the Fediverse, or would it be rejected outright due to associations?

Genuinely curious to hear others' thoughts.

Plebchan: https://plebchan.org/

Plebchan Github: https://github.com/plebbit/plebchan

Plebbit: https://plebbit.com/

Just a random thought that I had: what if there were a federated, Open-source, lyrics platform—something open and community-driven, where users could submit, edit, and annotate song lyrics, similar to how Mastodon or PeerTube works for social and video content?

In theory, it could even offer an API that centralized music platforms (Spotify, TIDAL, Deezer, Qobuz, etc.) might choose to tap into. Think of it as a libre lyrics backend with federation support.

I’d absolutely love to see or even contribute to something like this, but I don’t currently have the skills or energy to pull it off myself. Has anyone explored this idea before?

Mastodon’s QR feature lets users quickly share any profile by tapping a QR icon next to the username in the Android app.

This generates a unique QR code that others can scan to instantly open the profile in their app or browser, making it much easier to connect-especially at events or in noisy environments.

Would a similar feature benefit Lemmy?

https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/28/24086164/mastodon-is-making-it-a-lot-easier-to-share-your-profile

https://bgr.com/tech/x-adds-live-video-on-spaces-while-mastodon-adds-qr-codes-for-sharing-your-profile/

https://techcrunch.com/2024/02/28/mastodon-users-can-now-share-their-profile-via-qr-code-on-android/

https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2024/02/mastodon-for-android-update/

(Random Thought That I had.)

Proposal:
Has anyone considered developing a federated, open-source alternative to platforms like:

Google Earth,

Magic Earth,

Google Maps,

Waze,

Here WeGo,

Sygic GPS,

OsmAnd,

etc.?

Imagine a decentralized platform where individuals and organizations can host, contribute, and share mapping, weather, navigation, geospatial data, etc. —fully in the spirit of the Fediverse.

Key Features Could Include:

• Decentralized hosting of map tiles, satellite imagery, and user-contributed data
• Federated sharing of points of interest, routes, and real-time traffic
• Privacy-focused navigation and offline capabilities
• Integration with existing open data sources (e.g., OpenStreetMap)
• Extensible with plugins for specialized uses (hiking, cycling, accessibility, etc.)

Why This Matters:
Current navigation and mapping platforms are largely centralized, raising concerns about privacy, data ownership, and censorship. A federated approach would empower communities, ensure data resilience, and foster innovation—much like Mastodon, Lemmy, PeerTube, etc. have done for social media and video.

Personal Note:
I’d love to help build something like this, but I currently lack the time, expertise, and energy. Still, I wanted to float the idea and see if others in the Fediverse community are interested or already working on similar projects.

Open Questions for the Community:

• What technical hurdles would need to be addressed for federation (e.g., syncing map data, real-time updates)?
• Are there existing projects or protocols that could be extended for this purpose?

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to give a quick update about the future of this community.

Due to ongoing issues with moderation—specifically, the inability to add new mods here—and our desire to grow the community significantly and consolidate the conversation, me and @Pacrat173@lemmy.world have decided to merge this space with another progressive Christian community I started: !open_christian@lemm.ee.

I've added Pacrat as a mod over there, and we're aiming to build something bigger and more active together.

This community will likely stay open for now, but if you're looking for where the action is, I highly recommend checking out !open_christian@lemm.ee.

LINKS TO POSTS REGARDING ISSUE:

Weird Issue regarding Moderators

Question Regarding Moderator Issue

I’m not talking about this from a marketing or influencer perspective—I just personally enjoy seeing post metrics like number of views, especially over time (like Reddit's 48-hour view chart).

It gives a sense of whether a post is reaching people, even if it doesn't get many comments or upvotes.

Curious if others feel the same, or if there’s a reason this hasn’t been implemented?

EDIT: Maybe have it so that there is an option in the user's settings to turn the Analytics on/off?

Or, perhaps have it where instance owners can decide whether or not to allow the Analytics on their instance?

I'm having no luck with the weird moderator issue.

I've attempted to contact sh.itjust.works admins, as well as creating a new user account on sh.itjust.works.

My question is:

I had an idea: I currently moderate another Christian Community on lemm.ee.

I was curious,

should I just create a progressivechristian on lemm.ee, and have users migrate over,

that way I SHOULD be able to add other mods,

or does anyone else have any other ideas,

because I am truly stumped.

Edit:

There already is a lemm.ee community called Open_Christian:

!open_christian@lemm.ee

That is also modded by me, as well as a few others.

Maybe perhaps we merge the two communities together, and add the users that I have been attempting to mod here, to there?

@Pacrat173@lemmy.world

@jubilationtcornpone@sh.itjust.works

Background and Rationale

YouTube's Play Button awards are physical trophies given to creators when they reach significant subscriber milestones, such as 100,000 (Silver), 1 million (Gold), and 10 million (Diamond) subscribers.

These awards have become an iconic part of YouTube's creator culture, serving as both recognition and motivation for content creators.

PeerTube, as a decentralized, open-source alternative to YouTube, currently does not have an equivalent system for recognizing creator achievements at a network-wide level.

Given PeerTube’s federated structure—where each instance is independently managed—implementing a similar recognition system would need to be thoughtfully adapted to fit its unique, decentralized model.

Proposal: Federated Creator Milestone Badges

• Digital Badges: Instead of physical trophies, PeerTube could introduce digital milestone badges that appear on creators’ channel pages and video overlays. These badges could be awarded for reaching certain numbers of subscribers, video views, or other engagement metrics.
• Instance-Level and Network-Level Recognition: Since PeerTube is federated, badges could be awarded both at the instance level (e.g., 1,000 subscribers on a specific instance) and, optionally, at the federated network level (e.g., 10,000 followers across all federated instances).
• Customizable by Instance Admins: Instance administrators could define their own milestone thresholds and badge designs, aligning with PeerTube’s ethos of customization and community control.
• Open-Source Badge Plugin: The badge system could be implemented as an official/Fan-made PeerTube plugin, allowing easy adoption and further customization by the community.
• Optional Physical Awards: For larger, community-driven instances, there could be an option for admins or community groups to crowdfund and send physical awards to creators, if desired.

Potential Benefits

• Boosts creator motivation and engagement, fostering a sense of achievement and community recognition.
• Encourages creators to grow their audience and contribute more content.
• Promotes healthy competition and collaboration between instances.
• Reinforces PeerTube’s commitment to supporting creators in a decentralized, privacy-respecting way.

Implementation Considerations

• Ensure privacy: Participation in the badge system should be opt-in, respecting creators who prefer anonymity.
• Prevent abuse: Badges should be resistant to manipulation (e.g., bot-generated subscribers).
• Federation logic: For network-level badges, develop a protocol for aggregating metrics across instances while maintaining decentralization.

Conclusion

Introducing a federated, customizable creator milestone badge system would bring the motivational benefits of YouTube's Play Button to PeerTube, while respecting its decentralized, open-source ethos and giving communities the flexibility to define their own standards for recognition.

I wanted to suggest a potential idea for an open source project inspired by the (now defunct) AO3 Disco app.

For those who aren’t familiar, AO3 Disco was an unofficial tool that used machine learning to offer personalized Archive of Our Own (AO3) fanfiction recommendations.

Users could share a fanfic they liked, and the app would generate tailored suggestions for new stories, include filters, and link directly to AO3 works.

Unfortunately, AO3 Disco is no longer available, largely due to concerns from the AO3 team about privacy and the risks of third-party apps interacting with user accounts.

Would there be interest in developing an open source tool that:

• Provides personalized, privacy-respecting recommendations for AO3
• Lets users input a work or tag and get new fic suggestions (without requiring login)
• Includes robust filtering options and links to original AO3 pages
• Is entirely transparent and community-built to address security and trust concerns

I think such a project could really help fanfiction fans while respecting user privacy and AO3’s terms, especially if designed with a focus on open source ethics and transparency.

Personally, I’d love to see something like this happen, but I don’t have the time, knowledge, or energy to start it myself.

Would anyone else be interested in collaborating on something like this?

Or does anyone know of existing open source efforts in this area?

**Edit: **

AO3 Disco: The Road to v1.0

I’ve been wondering—does anyone else kind of wish that Lemmy offered the option to search within individual communities?

For instance, you could go to a specific Lemmy community, tap on a search bar/icon, and type the name of a post, a topic, or even a comment to quickly find what you're looking for.

Reddit has this feature, and I find that it's super helpful for narrowing down results in large, active subreddits.

Do you think a community-specific search feature would enhance Lemmy’s usability, or do you prefer the current approach?

Would this even be technically possible under Lemmy’s architecture?

Curious to hear everyone’s thoughts!