This blog has been moved.

One of the biggest hurdles the FediVerse has to overcome right now is highlighting quality content in the ocean of spam. In order to get people on the platform, we need both infrastructure and content. We've made great strides in the former as a community, but not as much the latter. Or to put it simply, the best way to help the Fediverse grow is to encourage creators to begin using it. Only once there's creators can an audience grow.

This isn't unique to our platforms, however as a relatively new and small community, we still face this issue a lot more than more established sites. The purpose of this blog is to promote and highlight creators who create thought-provoking and substantive content and aggregate them into one place where potential fans can find them. This'll help encourage creators to join the platform while also giving fans a way to quickly find what they want.

Why create for the Fediverse?

For years now, social media platforms have been very heavy-handed with privacy violations, seemingly arbitrary moderation policies, and favoritism.

This has led to an environment incredibly hostile for both creators and consumers, where it is content that is advertiser-friendly that rises to the top. This puts unrealistic expectations on creators to upload frequently, make videos that are broadly appealing, and avoid scaring off advertisers.

The Fediverse provides the foundation for an ecosystem that is able to tackle this problem at the root. “Alternative platforms” have sprung up in the past, but they often end up being rather shady, since they have nothing to hold them accountable.

The Fediverse is not one site, but rather instead a network of individually hosted servers all running open-source software with a common protocol. This ensures that no one person controls it and everyone is able to see its internal mechanisms.

Even if you decide to still create content for other platforms, you should still consider mirroring your content to a Fediverse platform. That way, you can find a new audience, have insurance should something happen to your main account, and also help out the community initiative.

Submitting Federated Content

Basic Requirements

• Content may not be pornographic/obscene in nature. NSFW is fine as long as an explicitly artistic purpose is served, but there's other places to host your porn/gore.
• Do not upload other's content directly; copyright may be bent in a transformative fashion but explicit plagiarism is not.
• Optional, but it'd be appreciated if your content is not traditionally copyrighted; if you would like to add an open license, Creative Commons has a quick tool that helps you decide on one.

What platforms are accepted?

• PeerTube (Video)
• FunkWhale (Audio)
• WriteFreely/Plume (Blogging)
• PixelFed (Visual Art/Photography)

Exceptions may be made for Matrix rooms and Mastodon accounts on occasion, however they must demonstrate the four characteristics of substantive content; for example, a personal Mastodon would not be accepted, but a Mastodon created for the purpose of an ARG might be.

What instances do you recommend to upload my stuff?

• PeerTube at linuxrocks.online
• FunkWhale at open.audio
• PixelFed at pixelfed.social
• WriteFreely at wordsmith.social

Software and Services

Software is accepted too, however all software must be licensed as open source in one fashion or another. (Despite the name of the blog, permissive licenses are allowed too.)

What constitutes “substantive content?”

Substantive content is consisted of four parts: quality, consistency, novelty, and derivability.

• Quality refers to both presentation and the actual meat of the content. Does your work reflect both professionalism and effort on your part?

• Consistency refers to the ability to upkeep the level of content, more specifically in terms of density as opposed to time. Ultimately, a page that is consisted of high quality content spread across gaps of multiple months comes off as more consistent than a page that finds its quality content drowned out by frequent, thoughtless content.

• Novelty refers to its place in the FediVerse as a whole. Does this need to exist? Does it fill a niche that has not been extensively tapped or bring something new to an existing genre?

• Derivability refers to how the audience is able to interact with the work itself. Is there room for inspiration? Can people build off of this idea to help the community as a whole?

F.A.Q

I'm a content creator, but I'm not on the Fediverse yet. Can I still get a review?

Set up a profile at any of the above instances, mirror your content, and put in at least some effort to update it and I'll be more than happy to review it.

What will the reviews look like?

Reviews will mostly comprise of a brief overview, followed by the creator's statements (if they are available for contact), and my own thoughts as an audience member. I do not intend to score anything, just stir conversation and provide links.

Can I submit others' content for review?

Yes you can, as long as the content is being hosted by them. This means you can recommend a content creator you like, however you cannot re-host others' work or pass it off as your own.

Where can I submit content?

DM me at tomat0@mastodon.social. If you are suggesting someone else's self-hosted work, please also include their contact information in your DM. Alternatively, you may DM me through Twitter if you do not have a Mastodon account.