Skip to main content

FediForum April 2026

Fedi Appliance

Topics Advocacy & growth Hosting & operations

Convener: Anthony Zone (@ozoned@btfree.social)

Participants who chose to record their names here:

Notes

  • CHARLES: a friend of mine (and others) were working on this (a Fediverse Appliance) during the pre-Musk Twitter (censorship) era, as a way of people being able to “escape” Twitter

    • I.e., there seems to be both at least a use-case for this, and seems to be some demand for this

  • Single board computer with Fediverse on it

  • CHARLES: FediCon (Fediverse Conference) happening in August 2026 in Vancouver, Canada as part of FOSSY https://2026.fossy.ca/

  • Appliance for the Fediverse

  • Appliance is a generalized term

  • Easier to sell and share a product than an idea

  • Dirt cheap and accessible

  • Anthony has been talking Ben Pate of Emmissary to work on this idea

  • ANTHONY: fediverse node on a Raspberry Pi

  • Own inhome social network that connects to everyone elses

  • More complex than just plugging it in but general idea

  • Digital Mailbox – Anthony

  • Social challenges: discovery - Mayel

    • IP address accessible???? Domain????

  • Tailscale « creates a mesh network to directly access the “mailbox” without giving out IP address.

    (1) How do we the devices (2) How do we get the software installed to be tinkered with

  • see https://holos.social

  • Just plug in and it works « Goal

  • CHARLES: an ‘appliance’ is something that you plug in and it just works. you don’t have to tinker with it or configure it to get it to work.

  • Discussion about Holos

  • See how holos handles domain names: https://holos.social/custom-domains

  • ANONYMOUS: Why have a FediApplication rather than a free account

    • CHARLES: Your free account could be deleted or suspended. If that happens you loose all your data, and loose your identity. With a Fediverse Application you control your identity and you data. No one can take it from you. You have control and safety.

    • MAYEL: offline-only

  • MAYEL: temporary instance. For example, only available during a conference and then archive it. E.g. as in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temporary_Autonomous_Zone

  • MAYEL: offline + temporary: could be used at protest, etc