We have a five-class Fediverse nowadays.

First class: Mastodon. It's what everyone knows (everyone outside of Lemmy at least). It's what more Mastodon users than not take for the one and only Fediverse and ActivityPub gold standard (while literally nobody outside of Mastodon does, go figure). And it's the only Fediverse server application which many Fedizens take for the entire Fediverse. (Lemmings don't refer to Lemmy as the Fediverse, although many are still completely unaware that Lemmy is connected to anything else.)

Second class: the stuff that looks like add-ons glued onto Mastodon to enhance Mastodon. Pixelfed, an Instagram clone glued to the Twitter clone as an add-on. PeerTube, a YouTube clone glued to the Twitter clone as an add-on. Loops, a TikTok clone glued to the Twitter clone as an add-on. WordPress, a blogging engine and content management system eventually glued to the Twitter clone. I guess you get the idea.

It's only up to the second class that Fediverse server software is generally recognised and accepted from the usual Mastodon-centric point of view.

Third class: other halfway well-known "clones" of or replacements for corporate online platforms that do not look like they're glued onto Mastodon as add-ons. This is limited to the Threadiverse (Lemmy, what's left of /kbin, Mbin, PieFed) as Reddit replacements and Friendica as "the" Facebook replacement.

Fourth class: anything that doesn't fall into the first three classes, but that has enough publicity. Like Bonfire and WriteFreely. Also, minimalist stuff for self-hosters like GoToSocial and snac. Hubzilla is ever so barely teetering on this class, if at all.

Basically, it's only up to the fourth class that Fediverse server software is known at all.

Finally, fifth class: the whole rest. I mean, why is Mastodon known as "the" Twitter alternative in the Fediverse if there are loads of others that are better, more powerful, sometimes even closer to Twitter in certain features? Why is Friendica known as "the" Facebook alternative in the Fediverse if Friendica's own creator has built a whole family tree of successors that outclass Friendica in various ways?

# Long # LongPost # CWLong # CWLongPost # FediMeta # FediverseMeta # CWFediMeta # CWFediverseMeta # Fediverse # Mastodon # Pixelfed # PeerTube # Loops # WordPress # Threadiverse # Lemmy # /kbin # Mbin # PieFed # GoToSocial # snac # Bonfire # WriteFreely # Friendica # Hubzilla # Streams # (streams) # MastodonCentricity # MastodonNormativity