Permissions, part 1: Introduction

Hubzilla's permission system works on three levels. In Mastospeak, the first level is your entire account.

The second level is everyone whom you follow, individually. Like, you can go to your list of followed accounts and click on them and configure them. Among other things, you can assign to them a set of permissions that, usually, you'll first define. You'll probably have multiple such sets of permissions.

(Yes, this completely leaves out those who only follow you, and whom you don't follow back. Such a thing does not exist on Friendica, Hubzilla, (streams) and Forte. That is, it does, but you don't have a list of these, and you can't configure these, because they can't do much anyway as long as you don't follow them.)

And the third level is each toot that is not a reply, and then that toot forces its own permissions hard upon all toots that reply to it. If you reply to someone else's toot, your toot will have the same permissions as the start toot with no way for you to change them.

Translated to Mastodon, Hubzilla offers the following permissions:

• Can see your toots when visiting your Mastodon account at https://mastodon.social/@jasperb
• Can send their toots onto your timeline (I'm being serious here, you can literally follow someone and forbid them to send you their toots)
• Can see your profile
• Can see your lists of followers and followed when visiting your Mastodon account at https://mastodon.social/@jasperb
• Can see both the images and other media in your toots and the images and other media you've tooted at https://mastodon.social/@jasperb/media
• Can fave and reply to your toots (those of your toots that aren't replies)
• Can send you DMs

• Can upload images and other files and modify existing files at https://mastodon.social/@jasperb/media
  (because https://mastodon.social/@jasperb/media is not a managed cloud file storage, and the only way to add images or other media there is by you tooting them)
• Can see the webpages you've built on your account
  (because Mastodon doesn't have webpages)
• Can see the pages in the wikis you've built on your account
  (because Mastodon doesn't have wikis)
• Can edit the webpages you've built on your account
  (because Mastodon doesn't have webpages)
• Can edit the pages in the wikis you've built on your account
  (because Mastodon doesn't have wikis)
• Can send you a toot by visiting your Mastodon account at https://mastodon.social/@jasperb and using the toot editor that's present there to send a toot straight to your "wall"
  (because Mastodon doesn't have a wall, Mastodon doesn't have a toot editor on your account page for people who aren't you, and Mastodon doesn't have this entire feature)
• Can like or dislike any element in your profile at https://mastodon.social/@jasperb
  (because liking or disliking things in profiles is not possible on Mastodon)
• Can chat with me
  (because Mastodon doesn't have a chat)
• Can automatically repost my toots through their account
  (because Mastodon doesn't have this feature either)
• Can do absolutely anything on my account that I can, just by visiting https://mastodon.social/@jasperb
  (not possible for a whole lot of reasons)

• Automatically confirm follow requests (yes/no)
• Allow replies on your start toots from
• Manually allow disallowed replies (yes/no)
• Only allow replies on your start toots for so many days (number)
• Allow DMs from
• Allow to see your followers and followed
• Allow to full-text search your account
• Allow non-followed-non-followers to fave your toots (yes/no)
• Be notified about non-followed mentioning you (yes/no)
• Not if at least so many accounts are mentioned (number) (this is spam prevention)
• Receive toots from non-followed if they contain any of these hashtags (same as following hashtags, only that this is one text field and not a bunch of followed "accounts")
• Not if at least so many hashtags are in the toot (number) (again, this is spam prevention)
• Don't allow replies to replies from non-followed (yes/no) (reply guy filter)
• Show a timeline of your own toots (yes/no)
• Add your account to the directory (yes/no)
• Hide your account from Google and other search engines (yes/no)
• Delete toots and their replies from your timeline if you haven't interacted with them after so many days (number)
• Allow toots from your followed accounts that are replies in threads starting with toots from accounts that you don't follow

Events

However, Mastodon has no way to handle the actual event part. Like, you can't confirm your participation in an event on Mastodon. Mastodon doesn't know events. Mastodon has no buttons or other UI elements for interacting with events. And Mastodon doesn't have an event calendar either which you'd add the event to when confirming your participation.

There are also events with no announcement post. For example, birthdays. Friendica, Hubzilla, (streams) and Forte have a dedicated birthday field in their profiles, much unlike Mastodon. For example, I have a "birthday" in my public profile. When someone on Friendica, Hubzilla, (streams) or Forte connects to me, and I confirm that connection, my "birthday" will be added to their event calendar, and they will be notified about my "birthday" every year. This might also work for users on PieFed which has an event calendar, too, although I'm not sure if PieFed understands these birthday fields.

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#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #Fediverse #Friendica #Hubzilla #Streams #(streams) #Forte #Events

Groups, part 3: Replying to a thread, and how conversations work

Even if you reply to Carol who has replied to Bob who has replied to Alice who has started a thread in the group.

Within Mastodon, you'd have to mention Carol so she receives and sees your reply, you'd have to mention Bob so he receives and sees your reply, you'd have to mention Alice so she receives and sees your reply.

Conversations on Friendica, Hubzilla, (streams) and Forte work much more like on Facebook: Your reply will go past Carol. Past Bob. Past Alice. Straight to the group account/channel. From there to Alice because she has started the conversation. And to Bob and Carol because they have received the quote-post of Alice's post. And to everyone else who has received the quote-post of Alice's post.

Now, how does everyone see your reply?

At this point, it's important to say that a Friendica feed or a Hubzilla or (streams) or Forte stream looks vastly different from a Twitter feed or a Mastodon timeline and much more like a Facebook feed. Again, that's because Friendica was a Facebook alternative long before Twitter clones became the default. And Hubzilla, (streams) and Forte are direct descendants of Friendica with largely the same purpose. So no mimicking Twitter's behaviour here.

What does your Mastodon timeline look like? Single posts with no context. And more single posts with no context. You receive a new post, it immediately shows up at the top of your timeline as a single post with no context. You have no idea how many unread messages you have. You want to see the context of a post, you have to click and click and click.

Facebook doesn't show you single-post-with-no-context piecemeal. Neither do Friendica, Hubzilla, (streams) and Forte. They always show you entire conversations with the top post and with all comments.

Imagine your Mastodon timeline. But instead of single posts with no context, you always see entire conversations with the top post and all replies; that is, you actually only see the last three replies, but you can easily unfold the thread view and see everything.

Imagine whenever someone replies to a post that you already have in your timeline, you automatically receive that reply.

Imagine that you have a little counter of unread messages somewhere. When you receive a new post, the counter goes up by one. When you receive a new reply, the counter goes up by one. But neither that new post nor that new reply is automatically added to the top of your timeline.

Now you click the counter of unread messages. Out comes a list of unread messages. Not the messages proper. A list, including who sent them and, if that's the case, whom they reply to (not as in whom they directly reply to, as in Carol in the above example, but who wrote the top post, as in Alice in the above example).

You can click on any item in the list. Imagine you do. You will leave the timeline view. You will be shown only that one conversation with the top post and the comments. And the view will focus on the new comment and flag it as seen, and the counter of unread messages will go down by one. You can scroll through the conversation and see the entire context in which that reply was posted.

This is what Friendica groups, Hubzilla forums, (streams) groups and Forte groups are geared towards. They aren't group add-ons to Mastodon, and they aren't geared towards integrating perfectly into Mastodon. Remember that Friendica groups are almost six years older than Mastodon itself.

I'm not sure how exactly Mastodon users receive replies from Friendica groups, Hubzilla forums, (streams) groups or Forte groups. One thing is certain: They will not visibly mention you. Another thing is certain: They will send you replies regardless.

I can only guess what happens: You do get replies. But you get them as new posts in your timeline. And you have to scroll down your timeline until you stumble upon them. If you really want to participate in groups, if you really want to see everything that happens there, you'll have to scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll down your timeline until you hit posts which you know you've seen before. You probably won't be notified about these replies.

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#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #Fediverse #Friendica #Hubzilla #Streams #(streams) #Forte #Groups #FediGroups #FediverseGroups #Conversation #Conversations

Groups, part 2: Starting a thread

If you want to start a new thread in that group, you have to be a member of the group account. Connected to the group account. In Mastospeak, mutually follow the group account.

Then, if you send a new post that mentions the group account, and it is not a reply to another post, then the group account will automatically quote your post and send the quote-post with your post in it to all its connections (followers).

You know quotes? Quote-posts? Like, quote-tweets? What half of Mastodon is so afraid of because it's used on Twitter only to harass and dogpile people? That's what I'm talking about. Friendica has had these quote-posts for almost 16 years, and never have they been used for harassment and dogpiling, for never has anyone used Friendica as a drop-in replacement for Twitter. Friendica calls them "shares". And Friendica has used these quote-posts in groups for almost 16 years.

That is, within Friendica (and its descendants), one thing is a wee bit different: If you're on Friendica or Hubzilla or (streams) or Forte, you have to send a DM with a special mention (!group instead of @group on Friendica, @!group on Hubzilla, (streams) and Forte) to the group account for this to happen. This automatically activates what's "mentioned only" on Mastodon and makes your post a DM.

But from Mastodon accounts and the like, it accepts public posts with @group mentions. That's because Mastodon & Co. don't know !group and @!group mentions.

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#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #QuotePost #QuotePosts #QuoteTweet #QuoteTweets #QuoteToot #QuoteToots #QuoteBoost #QuoteBoosts #QuotedShares #QuotePostDebate #QuoteTootDebate #Fediverse #Friendica #Hubzilla #Streams #(streams) #Forte #Groups #FediGroups #FediverseGroups

I'd like to see more of that in the fediverse features like events, groups, moderation, different roles, permissions etc. complemented by secure communication!

Friendica

• federating events
• groups (which are special accounts)
• private groups
• hidden groups
• moderated groups
• groups with multiple moderators on the same server
• a permissions system
• DMs that are actually private because they're covered by the permissions system rather than just handling who receives a message
• etc.

It was made as an alternative for Facebook right away. It was not meant to be a Facebook clone, though, but better than Facebook while also covering all long-form blogging features.

And Friendica is fully federated with Mastodon. You can follow Friendica accounts from Mastodon, and Friendica users can connect to your Mastodon account from Friendica.

Hubzilla

• federating events (in addition to a non-federating CalDAV calendar server)
• groups (which are special channels; Hubzilla calls them "forums")
• various independent options of making groups private that can be combined
• hidden groups, groups with multiple admins/moderators anywhere on Hubzilla or (streams) or Forte
• the second-most advanced permissions system in the Fediverse on three levels (entire channel, individual contacts, content) with 17 different permissions and seven or eight channel-wide permission levels for each
• DMs that are actually private because they're covered by the permissions system rather than just handling who receives a message
• optional additional encryption (only works within Hubzilla)
• optional non-federating articles
• optional planning cards
• optional webpages
• optional wikis
• nomadic (fully portable, decentralised, distributed) identity
• etc. etc.

It is considered a "decentralised social content management system" that can be just about anything you want it to be because it's so modular. Basically, what's incomplete and unstable at best and an unfulfilled promise at worst on Bonfire has been readily available and rock-solid stable for over 10 years on Hubzilla. And even more on top of that.

Red, the Hubzilla precursor, was the first software to establish nomadic identity, something that Bluesky claims to be in the process of inventing from scratch. And that was as early as 2012.

Hubzilla was the very first software to implement ActivityPub. And unlike Mastodon, Hubzilla implemented ActivityPub by the book and largely still does so.

And Hubzilla is optionally fully federated with Mastodon. In fact, this comment that you're reading right now comes from Hubzilla. Like, you're directly speaking with someone on something that has absolutely everything you wish for the Fediverse to have, and that has had all of it for longer than Mastodon has existed.

(streams), Forte

• federating events (in addition to a non-federating CalDAV calendar server)
• groups (which are special channels)
• private groups
• hidden groups
• groups with multiple admins/moderators anywhere on Hubzilla or (streams) or Forte
• groups with moderated posting and commenting (as in posts and comments from new members will have to be confirmed by the moderators in order to be visible)
• the most advanced permissions system in the Fediverse on three levels (entire channel, individual contacts, content) with 15 different permissions and three or four channel-wide permission levels for each
• DMs that are actually private because they're covered by the permissions system rather than just handling who receives a message
• nomadic (fully portable, decentralised, distributed) identity
• etc.

Forte is from August, 2024. It was created by Friendica's creator as a fork of (streams).

Forte was the first software to establish nomadic identity via ActivityPub.

And both are fully federated with Mastodon; (streams) optionally so, but it is by default.

I've made a document with a series of tables which directly compare the features of Mastodon, Friendica, Hubzilla, (streams) and Forte:

https://hub.netzgemeinde.eu/item/0a75de76-eb27-4149-b708-f20b2f79d392

In fact, this document is on the very same Hubzilla channel that I'm commenting from right now.

#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #Fediverse #NotOnlyMastodon #FediverseIsNotMastodon #MastodonIsNotTheFediverse #Friendica #Hubzilla #Streams #(streams) #Forte #Calendar #Events #Groups #FediGroups #FediverseGroups #PrivateGroups #Permission #Permissions

Groups, part 1: Membership

However, Friendica is not a Twitter clone. It's a Facebook replacement, and it has been one long before cloning Twitter was considered the one thing the Fediverse does.

Now, Twitter has followers and followed. As does Mastodon because Mastodon is a Twitter clone.

But Facebook doesn't have followers and followed. It has "friends" which in Twitterspeak and Mastospeak are mutual followers. Thus, it's the same on Friendica.

Friendica doesn't have followers and followed as two fully separate things and mutuals as the state when you follow someone and they follow you back. It has connections which are always mutual.

So in order to really join a Friendica group, you must connect to it (Mastodon: follow it), and the group account must confirm the connection (Mastodon: follow you back).

It's basically the same on Hubzilla, (streams) and Forte. Only that on these three, much unlike on Mastodon and Friendica, the account, the login and the identity are not tied together into one thing. Imagine you could have as many Mastodon-accounts-as-in-identities on one Mastodon-account-as-in-login. Imagine you could switch back and forth between fully independent identities on the same server without having to log out and back in again. Only that Hubzilla, (streams) and Forte refer to a Mastodon-account-as-in-identity as a "channel" and to a Mastodon-account-as-in-login as an "account".

This means that on Hubzilla, (streams) and Forte, a group (Hubzilla: forum) is a channel with special settings. As a group owner, you have one account/login, and on that one account/login, you have your personal channel, and you have your group/forum channel, and you can switch between them while staying logged in.

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#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #Fediverse #Friendica #Hubzilla #Streams #(streams) #Forte #Groups #FediGroups #FediverseGroups

@Mrfunkedude

It-is-so.

As horrid as the macrosocial space is right now, the interpersonal space is still a garden of delights.

Just be kind, ya nerf-herders!

(Gives the #fediverse a gentle noogie)

A new @iftas report brings insights from fediverse moderators, administrators, and community managers: worsening mod-to-user ratio, spam, burnout, lack of tools.

"Moderators are the backbone of a safer social web – but most are unpaid, under-supported, and under constant strain. If we want a future for decentralised platforms that respects user agency, civil speech, and community autonomy, we need to support the infrastructure that keeps it safe."

https://about.iftas.org/2026/01/08/the-2025-social-web-trust-safety-report-is-here/

#fediverse #FediAdmin #MastoAdmin #SocialMedia #IFTAS

RE: https://about.iftas.org/2026/01/08/the-2025-social-web-trust-safety-report-is-here/

Really interesting insight into trust and safety on the Social Web that I'd recommend anyone in this space reads.

Social platforms have to be safe and to be safe they must be moderated. There are learnings in here about the work moderators do that I think far too many of us take for granted.

#SocialWeb #Moderation #Fediverse #Mastodon

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Aure Free Press

It’s bizarre to think #Meta chose for this. What is the point of a social platform if it’s filled with non-humans

Please let’s try and keep the #Fediverse human♥️ and animals ofc

Hey everyone,

Gaza Verified is now open again for verification calls in 2026.

The new process for signing up for verification calls uses sign in with Mastodon and should remove the last remaining technical hurdle that was giving some of our friends in Gaza a hard time (adding the verification link to your Mastodon account is not intuitive in the current Mastodon interface). With this new flow, you won’t have to, we do it for you.

https://gaza-verified.org

Also, please remember that Israel, USA, and Germany are continuing their genocide of the Palestinian people with the complicity of the UK and almost the entire rest of the EU.

And we can help, if only a little. And even if it’s just a drop in the ocean it’s still a meaningful drop for those it helps:

https://gaza-verified.org/donate/

💕

#GazaVerified #Gaza #Palestine #fediverse #mastodon #israel #USA #Germany #UK #EU #genocide #ethnicCleansing #apartheid #settlerColonialism #mutualAid #fediAid #StopIsrael #FreePalestine

@PhillipPlays Thank you for the mention, and it’s my pleasure! RG is visually unlike any other #Mastodon instance on the #Fediverse. It’s something I take great pride in but I can’t take all the credit.

RG is great because of the amazing people who post here, and users of other instances who interact with us.

Also, shoutout to the incredible Mastodon team

@JohanDiederik
Zeker, volledig met open vizier en op persoonlijke titel. Dat is het prettige aan de #fediverse, vrijheid van meningsuiting en er is geen eigenaar die algoritmes manipuleert.

Zelf heb ik er voor gekozen om ook mijn gezicht op de profielfoto te plaatsen. Ik hoef me voor niemand te verbergen.

Wanneer je met elkaar van mening verschilt dan praat je daar over. 'Praten' betekent vaak meer luisteren dan daadwerkelijk zelf praten.

@harld @FvdHorst

At the Newsmast Foundation, we're building to make a difference.

With a suite of white-label app flavours, we're able to quickly spin up Social Web integrated social platforms for digital communities.

For The Bristol Cable, this meant building something which combined news + social. Something that doesn't fit into a box but serves the Cable's members and the local community.

You can see a case study on The Bristol Cable app here: https://goodcommons.world/casestudies/bristol-cable-newsmast-foundation-uk-news-coop

#SocialWeb #SocialMedia #Fediverse