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2025-01-25 17:44:19

DavidNason@caneandable.social

Forgive the possibly stupid question, but… If I were to join #PixelFed, is that a totally separate account to this #Mastodon account? And then what is #Loops? #fediverse #Fedi #FediHelp

show all 8 comments

2025-01-25 18:43:31

Oblomov

oblomov@sociale.network

@DavidNason you can interact (follow/like/boost/comment) with PixelFed accounts without a new account, but if you want to join a PixelFed instance that'll be a separate account.

2025-01-25 18:51:28

FoolishOwl

foolishowl@social.coop

@oblomov @DavidNason As I understand it -- and from my experience with Bookwyrm -- you can follow a Pixelfed account on Mastodon, or vice versa. But there's no single sign-on.

2025-01-25 19:21:05

Mark Stosberg

markstos@urbanists.social

@foolishowl @oblomov @DavidNason Using these services from a single account could be made to work in the future, but doesn’t now. For example, it’s already possible for post and comment on Lemmy using a Mastodon account.

More interoperability can be expected over time.

2025-01-26 01:06:34

Jupiter Rowland

jupiter_rowland@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

@David Nason Pixelfed is wholly separate software from Mastodon on wholly separate servers with wholly separate owners. So yes, you need a separate Pixelfed account. It's a bit easier on Pixelfed if you're already on Mastodon: Pixelfed lets you automatically create a new user account by "logging in" with your Mastodon login credentials. But only Pixelfed has this as far as I know.

Loops is wholly separate again, but there's only one instance so far because it's too unfinished to even be open-source. So you'll need a Loops account next to your Mastodon account and your Pixelfed account.

Also, you'll have different followers on Mastodon, on Pixelfed and on Loops. But what you could do if you want your followers on Mastodon to see your Pixelfed posts is: Follow your own Pixelfed account from Mastodon. And then, whenever you post something interesting on Pixelfed, wait for it to arrive on your Mastodon timeline, and then boost it.

@Mark Stosberg There's one thing that exists already now: OpenWebAuth magic single sign-on. But it's only available on Hubzilla, (streams) and Forte and partially on Friendica.

What it does is recognise your login on another instance, even on an instance of another server application. Hubzilla, (streams) and Forte recognise logins from Friendica, Hubzilla, (streams) and Forte, but Friendica can't recognise logins.

However, this is only used by the permissions system. For example, someone whom I'm connected to could have made their profile only visible to a certain subset of their connections, including myself. If you visit their profile, you won't see anything. If I visit their profile, their home instance recognises my Hubzilla login, and I can see the profile.

What it does not do is give you the same full-blown rights as a user with a local account. I can't just, like, go to some (streams) instance and post away as, what, jupiter_rowland@rumbly.net or go to a Hubzilla hub where I don't have an account and create a webpage or a wiki or a CalDAV calendar right away without logging in. That's not how it works.

By the way, client-side OpenWebAuth support (= your login is recognised on Hubzilla, (streams) and Forte) was proposed and actually developed to the point of a pull request for Mastodon. As far as I know, it was rejected. OpenWebAuth won't come to Mastodon.

CC: @FoolishOwl @Oblomov

#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #Fediverse #Mastodon #Pixelfed #Loops #Friendica #Hubzilla #Streams #(streams) #Forte #OpenWebAuth #SingleSignOn

2025-01-26 05:58:30

crowdotblack

crowdotblack@pdx.social

@jupiter_rowland @markstos I've read all of this and am still confused 🤔

2025-01-26 09:23:57

Jupiter Rowland

jupiter_rowland@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

@crowdotblack Unless you need a Facebook replacement, unless you plan to use Friendica or Hubzilla or (streams) or Forte, only the first three paragraphs are of interest for you.

Basically, all Fediverse instances are separate websites. If you want to use one of them like you use pdx.social, you need an account on that instance. Your account on pdx.social won't do. It doesn't matter if that instance is a Pixelfed instance or a Loops instance or a PeerTube instance or a Misskey instance or an Akkoma instance or whatever.

So, no, with your Mastodon login, you can't just simply use Pixelfed or Loops or PeerTube. If you want to use Pixelfed (= post pictures), you need an account on a Pixelfed instance. If you want to use Loops (= upload videos), you need an account on the currently only Loops instance. If you want to use PeerTube (= upload videos), you need an account on a PeerTube instance.

Got that so far?

But, and this is something that even many Twitter refugees from 2022 haven't understood yet: Mastodon and Pixelfed and Loops and PeerTube and Misskey and Sharkey and Akkoma and Friendica etc. etc. aren't walled off from one another.

You can be on Mastodon, but you can follow Pixelfed accounts from Mastodon. And you can follow Loops accounts from Mastodon. And you can follow PeerTube channels from Mastodon. And so forth. Just like you can follow accounts on other Mastodon instances from your Mastodon account on pdx.social. Just like you already do.

By the way: Right now, you do not only follow Mastodon accounts. I've looked through those you follow. There's one Neil E. Hodges (@tk@f.kawa-kun.com). Scroll down the list of those whom you follow. When you find him, look at his profile. Okay, now look at his profile at its source. Safari (or whatever is your default Web browser) will open. And you'll see this.

This is not a Mastodon account on a Mastodon instance with a weird UI. This is an account on Friendica. A Facebook alternative from 2010 which is not Mastodon, which has never been Mastodon, which is developed completely independently from Mastodon, which is very different from Mastodon, and which is over five years older than Mastodon.

But: Just like Mastodon, Friendica is part of the Fediverse. And it has been federated with Mastodon since Mastodon was created. This means: Since Mastodon was created, it has been possible for Mastodon users to follow Friendica accounts from their Mastodon accounts. And vice versa, it has been possible for Friendica users to follow Mastodon accounts from their Friendica accounts.

You yourself are right now following someone who is on something that is not Mastodon. Very much not Mastodon, in fact.

This is the Fediverse.

#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #Fediverse #Mastodon #Pixelfed #Loops #PeerTube #Friendica #Federation

2025-01-26 18:16:07

crowdotblack

crowdotblack@pdx.social

@jupiter_rowland Funnily enough none of what you just said is new to me, just the way it's been laid out in the prior conversation was confusing. Basically the login with mastodon button on pixelfed is my main point of confusion.

It creates an account on that instance when you do that and you're in and good to go or is it doing something else?

2025-01-26 18:56:46

Jupiter Rowland

jupiter_rowland@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

@crowdotblack It's a kind of trickery to make things easier for rookie Mastodon users.

It's basically a "create account" form masking as a "log in with existing login credentials" form. It gives the appearance that you can actually log into Pixelfed with a Mastodon account. And newbies who don't know anything about the Fediverse yet buy it.

The intended effect may be to fool newbies into thinking that they can log into any Pixelfed instance with their Mastodon credentials just like so, and that it makes Pixelfed outstandingly easy for Mastodon users. The actual effect is that newbies misunderstand the Fediverse as being able to log into 20,000+ non-Mastodon instances and maybe also all other Mastodon instances with the some login credentials and use them with one Mastodon account just like you could use them with a local account.

It's quite understandable that they're irritated to find out this is not the case.

#Long #LongPost #CWLong #CWLongPost #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #Fediverse #Mastodon #Pixelfed