**Fediverse Report ā #141**
Mastodon is working towards making one of the longstanding pain points of the fediverse a thing of the past, with the new ability to show all replies to a post. Bonfire is making strides with their Open Science Network platform, and Ghost is now the most popular server software on the fediverse.##
The News
Mastodon is [talking about their latest 4.5 update]( ) and what that means for developers. One important feature is for Mastodon servers to find missing replies, one of the longstanding pain points of the fediverse. When you view a conversation on Mastodon, you donāt always see all the responses because posts are unevenly spread across different servers.Mastodon 4.5 tackles the missing replies problem with an automatic background fetch system. The feature was introduced in 4.4 but is now enabled by default with UI support. Since this background process takes time, Mastodon introduces a new feature for developers called AsyncRefresh. This tells apps that the server is still gathering replies, and apps can then refresh the conversation once everythingās loaded.
The [Bonfire project]( ) allows for various types of fediverse platforms to be build. Bonfire can be used to build social platforms, this is called the Bonfire Social part. But Bonfire is also working towards an Open Science version of the platform, called [Open Science Network](
). The platform connects to various scientific integrations, such as persistent researcher identifiers (ORCID), archival repositories and DOIs, and federated open-science infrastructure so discussion can become formalised, creditable and preserved. A demo video of what that looks like can be seen [here](
). Bonfire says they expect to have a 1.0 release candidate ready before the end of the year. In other science-to-fediverse connections: [Encyclia]( ) is a bridge that connects ORCID records to the fediverse, and they started [bridging](
) the first few researchers ORCIDās accounts to the fediverse.
In the three months since Ghost has launched their fediverse integration, around [10k Ghost servers](
) have turned on federation. This makes Ghost now the most popular server software on the fediverse, if youāre counting the number of servers, with around 30% of total fediverse servers now Ghost servers. In terms of server software is long-form writing highly popular in general, the second most popular software is WordPress , with 28% of servers running the WordPress. When it comes to active accounts it is quite a different story however, with Mastodon, Pixelfed and Lemmy together making up 90% of active accounts on the network.
A new [research paper](https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3757688 ) that looks at how people on Mastodon curate their feeds. They write: āIn summary, we found that while most participants clearly preferred chronologically ordered feeds, they were not completely against algorithms. In fact, we learned that people find chronological ordering most valuable when they check their feeds frequently, as it provides a timely overview of activities during their absence. However, they identified some scenarios in which algorithm intervention can be useful. For example, when they havenāt checked their feeds for longer, they express a desire for algorithmic recommendations to highlight missed content tailored to their interests. They disliked the machine learning algorithmic recommendations due to the lack of agency and transparency.ā To me there is a large space for the fediverse to further evolve regarding feeds. While it largely depends on a single chronological following feed, even within that space there is lots of room for innovation and new ideas (see Phanpyās Catchup). It feels to me that many people are placing value on only having a chronological following feed due to their bad experiences with algorithmic recommendation feeds. While the harms of these kinds of algorithmic feeds are clear, there seems to be little interest in the fediverse to explore what other versions of healthy feeds would look like.
IFTASās Jaz-Michael King [writes](https://jaz.co.uk/2025/10/30/there-is-one-fediverse-there-are-a-million-pickleball-courts/ ) about the fediverse and how we can create better social networking places. King: āThatās why the fediverse shouldnāt be chasing migrations. We donāt need to become the next Twitter. We need to be the first of something else.Growth will come, but not by chasing the habits of a declining model. Growth will come when we fully embrace what makes the fediverse distinct.ā
Loops is continuing to get closer to being a fully federated short-forum video platform. The loops.video flagship server is now [federating]( ) with the rest of the network. However, the Loops apps for Android and iOS can are still incompatible with this latest version, so for now the Loops.video server cannot be used via the apps. Creator Daniel Supernault [says]( ) that these updates will be āsoonā, a term for which he holds a fairly wide definition of, historically.
Hilda Bastian wrote a blog about how ā[A Mastodon Migration From Bluesky Would Be Differentā](
), that got popular on the fediverse. Many people highlighted the quote āāIām going back to the Fediverse. Back to Mastodon. To the nerds, the hobbyists, the idealists. The people who donāt talk about reach, but about relevance. To those who understand that decentralization isnāt nostalgic, itās the future. That digital sovereignty isnāt a gimmick, itās a survival strategy. Yes, the Fediverse is sometimes clunky, nerdy, uncomfortable. But it belongs to us. Itās not over-regulated, not driven by capital, not buggered up by algorithms. Itās what social media once aspired to be: A network of people, not brands.ā
What I find interesting about the quote is that it describes the self-identification of the fediverse very well. The fediverse is indeed clunky and nerdy, operated by hobbyists and idealists. Itās one of the main powers that allows the network to sustain itself for so long. But I do feel that people who highlight this in an approving manner do not really grapple with the extent these same characteristics interfere with goals to make the fediverse a mainstream platform. What makes the fediverse appealing for itās current user base is not what makes it appealing to a wide audience. Thereās an uncomfortable tension here: growth and mainstream appeal of the fediverse might just make it lose what people enjoy. Or even stronger: these same characteristics of nerdy clunkiness is also what it prevents from mainstream growth.##
The Links<li>A <a href="https://community.hachyderm.io/blog/2025/10/27/a-minute-from-the-moderators/">blog post</a> by the Hachderm.io server moderators on āHow can you use mental health to protect yourself online?ā as a fediverse moderator.</li><li>Fediverse marketplace platform Flohmarket is <a href="https://mastodon.xyz/@Profpatsch/115453765333062690">working</a> on the ability to log into the platform with any fediverse account.</li><li><a href="https://framapiaf.org/@peertube/115457577086395939">PeerTube is now 10 years old!</a></li><li><a href="https://mitra.social/objects/019a17cf-e370-2278-c196-713c73e5cdea">This weekās fediverse software updates.</a></li><li>A <a href="https://furry.engineer/@soatok/115429079922221582">currently-in-development project</a> to add E2EE to the fediverse.</li>#nlnet
Mastodon Blog
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A federated social network for individuals and communities to design, operate and control their own digital lives.
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Attached: 1 video
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Registration is open, and now instant š„³
https://loops.video
#...
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Mastodon is working towards making one of the longstanding pain points of the fediverse a thing of the past, with the new ability to show all repli...
