Everything Mastodon lacks: Firefish in Fediverse with tens additional functions
The number of Twitter alternatives is growing and growing. While most of them pretty much replicate the original, there are also attempts to think ahead.
(Bild: joinfirefish.org)
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Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter has brought Mastodon in particular strong growth, but there is much more software in the Fediverse for networking. One of the most exciting at the moment is the microblogging service Firefish (formerly known as Calckey), which stands out from Mastodon with many useful additional features. These include tools that newcomers to Mastodon from Twitter have been bemoaning the lack of for months. If one uses the software, which has only been developed for a year by a core team of about five people, it not only appears remarkably finished, but also shows where microblogging could develop if one breaks away from the eternal role model Twitter.
So much to discover
Firefish is a fork of the microblogging software Misskey, which is especially popular in Japan. Like all parts of Fediverse, the software understands ActivityPub, so you can network with accounts on Mastodon from there, share their posts and comment on them. As with Mastodon, the network of Firefish consists of several hundred servers, but so far only a few thousand users are active. Because of the variety of functions and the countless setting options, getting started seems challenging. But you don't need to know much to get started right away. The more you know, the more you learn to appreciate the many and sometimes hidden functions.
Newcomers to Mastodon will especially notice the much more helpful search on Firefish. It searches the entire Fediverse and delivers many more results for common keywords. Accounts are also found in the whole Fediverse. As on Mastodon, you can also subscribe to hashtags on Firefish. Combinations are also possible here, and terms can be excluded on top of that. This allows you to find specific posts in the Fediverse that are of interest. Once you have discovered them, you can not only share and like them, Firefish also supports reactions in emojis. In addition, there are the quoted posts that are so passionately missed on Mastodon.
Firefish (8 Bilder)
Customizable down to the CSS
Thus, Firefish not only delivers functions that are missing on the Twitter alternative of the hour. The home page can also be customized to a degree not seen on any social network. A view with several columns (model Tweetdeck) is still quite common - even if the columns can be customized much more. You can also change which tools are displayed in which order in the navigation bar, and there is space for widgets on the opposite side. You can even add your own ads to them. And if that's not enough, you can further customize the entire view with your own CSS snippets. And then there's MFM, a markup language for animations directly in posts.
You can try it out on one of the more than 400 Firefish servers, there is a list on joinfirefish.org. All of them are connected to each other, but also to Mastodon and other parts of Fediverse. If you want, you can move your account from Mastodon and take your followers with you. Currently, however, the servers are once again groaning under the load, especially when there are waves of new registrations, like last weekend. What is missing so far is a larger selection of apps, but the popular Mastodon application Fedilab also understands Firefish. In addition, a PWA can be generated from the website. Firefish is constantly being developed further, and there are constant updates. A roadmap is to follow soon. All in all, the software shows what is possible when you break away from the example of Twitter.
(mho)
