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Like every open source platform there are so many alternatives. Like all the open source Linux distributions and all the open source messaging apps. The social media space now has lemmy, kbin, mastodon, now firefish. So many places, Firefish doesn’t appear to be federated yet, hopefully they will soon, users now will have too many options to choose from. This brings me back to when I picked my first linux distro, I had Fedora, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, PopOS, Arch, Manjaro, and hundreds more. It’s a bit overwhelming, I’ll be following the development and hope everything goes well.
Firefish has federation support. You can even see the platform the posts come from in the top right corner of each post.
Firefish is a Fediverse-compatible social networking software forked from Misskey
And it’s from Japan. So it’s great ;)
Misskey is from Japan. Firefish is from some English speaker, I don’t know if they’re USian or English or what
Ya I was talking about Misskey. Firefish is just a rip-off ;P
Harsh!
I must admit Firefish have Mastodon API impl, post edits feature. And improved search, migration and threads.
Been waiting for the main instance to start up! Thanks for this guide.
I’d be more interested in why than how
I’m with you. If we keep migrating to something else we’ll never actually settle to create a real community. I’m sticking with Mastadon. It’s grown into something pretty stable and decent at this point.
Why stick to the worse one, though?
The point of federation is that you can create community with people all over it, no matter what software the server they joined is running.
Mastodon being too big to the point that 90% of it users things it’s the whole fediverse is not positive nor contributes to create an stable community. Many people coming from twitter run from the fediverse, because they’re told there’s nothing other than mastodon, which they find hard to use, lacking and extremely toxic.
Misskey, Firefish, Akkoma, GoToSocial, Microblogpub, etc give people other options that may fit their need for/usage of a microblogging platform better than mastodon does, as each (including Mastodon and each of its forks) has it’s own “profile”
Why stick to the worse one, though?
Why is mastodon the worse one?
Many people coming from twitter run from the fediverse, because they’re told there’s nothing other than mastodon, which they find hard to use, lacking and extremely toxic.
Why is everyone so adamant that Mastodon should accommodate to users leaving Twitter by being a Twitter clone? It was meant to be federated, privacy friendly, self-hosted, less toxic twitter alternative for small communities , not a clone of Twitter. People act like everyone becomes seasoned to using Twitter or other mainstream social media websites by default and it’s mastodon’s fault they leave because its not exactly like Twitter. It’s pretty straightforward to forget all about the fediverse and rant all day, just like Twitter.
It’s one thing to improve UX for users and another thing entirely to specifically chaperone users leaving Twitter, which is not Mastodon’s goals.
Why is mastodon the worse one?
Lack of essential features and the toxicity within it servers.
It was meant to be federated, privacy friendly, self-hosted, less toxic twitter alternative for small communities
1- I didn’t say it had to be a twitter clone. What I said is that some people coming from Twitter that weren’t convinced by Mastodon, may be could have find other microblogging more adequate for their needs and usage. Each microblogging platform has its personality and usability, and Mastodon wasn’t for them.
The problem is when people are told that there’s nothing beyond Mastodon (regarding microblogging) on the fediverse, so they end up running away from the fediverse, after not finding a home on Mastodon.
2- It failed at being less toxic.
Witch hunts over petty arguments, negative reaction to newcomers not knowing how things work, racism that gets minimalised as “not as bad” by big part of the user base.
The fact that it doesn’t have quote posting because it “allows for toxic behaviour”, when other platforms have it and say toxicity is almost non-existant in using that feature, it’s in itself a red flag.
You are not really migrating anywhere, as Mastodon is compatible with Firefish.
FWIW migrating from Mastodon migrates all your followers automatically and you can interact with them just as you did on Mastodon.
You do need to manually recreate your list of people you follow though, from what I could tell.
Once that’s done you haven’t really lost anything unless you were or were intended to be heavily active with the feed on your local mastodon instance. (Vs federation etc)
It does everything Mastodon does but more, honestly. I use both, and definitely prefer Firefish. But I’m a developer so a lot of things about Mastodon really bothered me. The core difference is Firefish fka Calckey is being developed much faster and with a more modern stack. The click to play MFM feature was developed in a few days when the community was concerned about potential seizures due to unasked for auto playing or animated text.
A few key features: QT & Full text search (search I don’t use except for specific posts so can’t speak to that) MFM & cat mode (these are just fun, Misskey flavored markdown has things like tada and sparkle and rainbow. People make art with it)
Probably more important are features such as channels and pages which are more like Facebook or MySpace. People have compared it to Tumblr because you can completely customize the interface. I hope it intros some more people to programming
Everything is moving so quickly these days, and the exodus from other failing sites along with the expectations of those transitioning from them is creating a crescendo that is just unrealistic.
So many people have been working very hard to keep up with all of these new and increasing demands (and they ought to be credited for that), but what is lacking is patience for those working behind the scenes.
They’re doing a great job, but, for God’s sake, give them some slack!
The interface is more customizable, and there are more features (quote posts, for instance)
mastodon didn’t have quote posts because:
it inevitably adds toxicity to people’s behaviours. You are tempted to quote when you should be replying, and so you speak at your audience instead of with the person you are talking to. It becomes performative. Even when doing it for “good” like ridiculing awful comments, you are giving awful comments more eyeballs that way
Some mastodon apps do support quotes though, by loading any linked toots in the posts themselves
That just sounds like them deciding how I can communicate. Quoting is not inherently toxic, they’re just used to how Twitter users utilize it. I’ve also seen plenty of people use quoting of posts for boosting someone’s post without copying it, since copying it breaks the link back to the original post. I used to quote-tweet Patreon, GoFundMe, or donation link posts sometimes.
Firefish just has a different ✨vibe ✨ going on, although it’s not for everyone, here’s the guide I’d use:
Twitter -> Mastodon Reddit -> Lemmy Tumblr -> Firefish YouTube -> PeerTube
They all work the same, and are (to some extent interoperable), but it’s just what layout you’re used to the most.
thanks! As somebody who never used tumblr, what’s the vibe?
Tumblr is focused more on microblogging, so there are longer form posts, fandoms, and artists. I still have my Tumblr account (for some reason, I never use it) so here’s a screenshot of what it looks like compare to Firefish.
thanks!
You can react with cute sticker-like things to a toot and that’s all it took to really convince me. Also I feel like there’s a lot more artists there
I feel that way about stickers on Telegram, they’re just so awesome. Wish I could get more of my friends to use it instead of Messenger, and would really miss them if I stopped using Telegram.
I like Firefish, I am on a Firefish instance myself, and I feel really good about it. It’s fun to use and it federates with Mastodon most of the time, and with Misskey some of the time. Unfortunately, microblogging on the fediverse is not as straightforward as forums on the fediverse, as they’re a lot more fragmented and there are 5 or 6 different platforms instead of 2 like we have here.
What is the advantage of Firefish over Mastodon?
None, really. Maybe the slicker UI, but I’ve been using a great 3rd party app lately for Mastodon (Moshidon), so no big plus there. Was out of Firefish after 12 hours and had to ask the admin where the bloody “delete account” was. In true Facebook fashion, it’s hidden under “other” in settings.
I wasn’t a fan last time I tried it out. I’m glad they changed the name though. Calckey sounded more like an excel alternative.
I’ll have to check it out again at some point though.
Related: https://beehaw.org/post/6853561
mastodon.art has decided to suspend firefish.social from their instance due to issues with its administrator
There are other Firefish instances, though, in case one wants to use Firefish and also federate with mastodon.art.
First time user of firefish. Kind of like the UI. “Global” section is kind of chaotic. Guess that’s just the fediverse for ya
To the uninitiated, Firefish is to Mastodon what Kbin is to Lemmy
Does it still support activitypub?
So Firefish is just a Kbin alternative?
It is a Mastadon alternative where Mastadon is a Twitter ( X ) alternative.
Kbin is a Lemmy alternative where Lemmy is a Reddit alternative.
This is potentially confusing to Kbin users as Kbin also does microblogging.
I understood this comment chain but im so sorry for everyone that is new to the fediverse and has absolutely no clue what is going on lmao
No, not really. Firefish is a microblogging platform. Kbin is a link aggregation and topic discussion platform, with a wonky attempt at microblogging.
I wouldn’t call it an alternative to Mastodon or Twitter either, because Firefish has features that neither of them have. The only Microblogging platform it could be seen as an alternative to, now that it has gone beyond being just a fork, is Misskey.
People tend to compare Firefish and Misskey more to Tumblr, but they still have things that either were inspired by other microblogging platforms (twitter, included), or that are unique to them. So they aren’t fully “Tumblr alternatives” either.
I have a friend who is even less initiated than that. Can you explain for his sake what that means?
Firefish and Mastodon are both microblogging platforms (like Twitter) on the fediverse. Kbin and Lemmy are both forum style platforms (like Reddit).
Where Lemmy and Mastodon are for people who prefer a more basic just the necessities experience, kbin and Firefish provide a more stylish experience with more options and customization.
HOLY SHIT… I just tried firefish.social and there’s TONS of right wing anti trans lies in their trending “news.”
No fucking thank you.
There is a variety of instances for Firefish, such as kitty.social. One weird thing I notices is that the Firefish logo is not consistent across all instances. ThatOneCalculator, creator of Firefish, was recently involved in some drama, so some instance owners put an alternative logo instead.
Ew. I’m on easymode.im and it’s a lovely Firefish instance, I don’t see any shit like that.
How did you settle on that instance?
Honestly, I migrated from Mastodon just when Calckey (now Firefish) seemed to be gaining more traction. I looked at available instances, and this was one of the first to pop up that checked most of my boxes, being that it is a generalistic instance (skewed a bit toward video game/nerd culture), was up-to-date and properly utilized HTTPS, and had limits I was cool with (character limits, drive storage, etc.). I later found out that it’s run by a tech YouTuber I admire, so that was a nice bonus.
My only complaint is that there aren’t many custom emojis. lol
Thank you for your service.
What are you talking about? Trending isn’t even working right now… sources please.
That’s a mastodon server.
Not to speak for @jerome, but they were originally talking about the topics appearing in the trending news, which implies that they are referring to firefish.social’s federation/lack of defederation from problematic instances, not the software itself
Correct they seem to have an issue moderating content.
Quite right. Must have been the global feed.
they posted multiple anti transgender stories. obvious astroturfing. I’m out.
Just to be clear, which firefish server did you join?
I just checked out the main server (firefish.social) and there wasn’t any transphobic content in the “Global” or “Local” section.
I’m wondering if you ended up on a really toxic right-wing fediverse instance, that happens to use Firefish as its software, and so the Firefish main site stupidly/ignorantly listed it as a possible place to sign up. If that’s the case they need to get rid of it.
Isn’t that a problem with specific instances/federation rather than the software itself? There are some hateful right-wing Lemmy instances too but that doesn’t seem to be a problem for you as the instance you use has probably defederated from them.
I mean, to be fair, the person you replied to is using Kbin rather than Lemmy - they’re interacting with a Lemmy community though.
they seem to have an issue moderating content.
They’re also not on your instance in the first place. You’re looking at the Global feed. That isn’t content from Firefish.Social, that’s content from elsewhere on the Fediverse. Firefish.Social admins can’t moderate content on another server.
I went to firefish. I made an account. On fire fish I saw anti transgender astroturfing.
Does this mean firefish is free from all douchebaggery?
No.1- Never join the official instances. They always are too big that are almost impossible to moderate.
2- In which timeline did you see those comments? Because if it was global, it’s possible these are unknown servers the admins aren’t aware of. (The trending section is global)
I’m just saying, that’s like buying a window from Lowe’s, installing it in your home, and then being mad at Lowe’s for having a bad view. They can’t control what you see when you use the tool literally designed to look at the outside world.
Try a different server with better moderation. Maybe firefish.lgbt?
I quickly looked through the #news tag, not seeing this. I guess those bots were active at the time?
Does it not depend on who you follow, is what you see in your feed? Like most networks on Fediverse.
Maybe I’m blind but I’m not seeing a way to follow tags on Firefish (I joined the main instance because the UI convinced me).
You can’t follow tags (something that should be added), but you can add them to Antennas
Yea looks like you’re right.
There’s Antennas, although they may not be exactly what you’re looking for since they’re in a separate location from your main feed.
Can it federate with mastodon?
Indeed! It is, at the most basic level, another UI for the fediverse
I think I’ll stay on Mastodon. I don’t like the Firefish UI. I haven’t tried Akkoma yet.
I just tried it out and the UI and additional functionality is a massive upgrade over the current stock Mastodon experience. And it federates seamlessly with Mastodon accounts. The Antenna feature is something that I’ve been looking for in Mastodon since day one. The fediverse rules. Use it if you like it!
What’s the Antenna feature?
Antennas allow you to create secondary timeline of accounts, terms and tags without them having to appear in the primary timelines.
That way you can follow content from people without follow people.
Here the official explanation from Misskey:
Antenna is a feature that allows you to freely set conditions for a custom timeline and automatically collect matching notes. Antenna conditions can include conditions to include/exclude certain keywords and tags in different combinations as well as other options. When a note matching an antenna’s conditions is posted, the note will automatically be added to that antenna’s timeline.
Interesting - sounds similar to what you can do with the multiple columns in TweetDeck.
