#akkomane — Public Fediverse posts

I think we're back to the "where to move this account" question. (and I have yet to find an answer.)

- First, when Firefish died, I thought the answer was going to be the new #Iceshrimp, but it's been more than a year and I'm not sure it's going to be a thing ever. (And I never fully liked Sharkey, for reasons)

- Next, I tried #Akkomane. I thought it was going to be the place, but a few things were deal breakers (I forgot which ones, whoops... but they did greatly bother me at the time)

- Then came #Wafrn. Despite the unpractical name, I love the idea (it uses both ActivityPub and ATProtocol natively), but the UI is just not for me.

- I've been waiting for #Ghost 6.0 release for a little while now. It's imminent. However, it doesn't seem that they will release a full #microblogging platform. I doubt that it'll be much different from the beta (which is great, but can't replace a full-blown platform)

- And I'm extremely interested in #Bonfire, but it won't be ready for users like me for another few months I believe...

Meanwhile, my feed hasn't been working for weeks on my account's #Firefish page, and now, the notifications have stopped working with #Phanpy (I've used this account, partly with the native UI and partly with Phanpy for a little while).

I guess a temporary #Mastodon account will have to be it until something that can replace it comes along (I'm confident that Bonfire will be the one, but I was confident Iceshrimp and Akkomane were going to be the ones too... So... 🤷)

You say this like it's a bad thing.

Wouldn't Mastodon would be better if it specialised in developing apps, and outsourced the server side to people who know how to do back-end engineering?

#SpaceHost provides fully-managed hosting for the Fediverse.

For Mastodon as well as other Fediverse software, such as Akkoma (Akkomane = Akkoma + Mangane), Castopod, Friendica, Iceshrimp, Lemmy, Pixelfed, Pleroma, Sharkey, and more.

(As well as some other non-Fediverse DeSo, too. Ex: Matrix, etc.)

https://spacehost.one/

#DeSo #Fediverse #Akkoma #Akkomane #Castopod #Friendica #Iceshrimp #Lemmy #Mangane #Mastodon #Pixelfed #Pleroma #Sharkey

This is also why I find the western Misskey forks' desire to pander to mobile users by trying to function with existing Mastodon Clients so counterproductive - the Mastodon Clients often just don't care. They really only are for Mastodon and everything else is "good luck have fun".

Frontless servers to me are a bad idea, as things stand - despite the appeal in speeding up initial development.

Remember a few weeks ago, I tested a few Fediverse services to see what to do with this account (to move or not to move?)

Here are some "results":

- IceShrimp: not different enough from Firefish to justify a move (but I warmly advise if you want to move away from Mastodon to something with more features)

- Sharkey: I haven't tested enough, but very probably the same conclusion as with IceShrimp.

- I didn't mention it previously, but I also briefly tested Friendica. The number of features is quite amazing and a move there was tempting but... the learning curve is steeper than anywhere else, mostly because the UI is just not that good (but it can be used with many apps for basic use). One big issue, it doesn't seem possible to migrate an account there from another platform. So, that's a no.

- Akkomane: I really like it, it's just a better Mastodon and if I were to choose between Mastodon and Akkomane, it'd be a no-brainer. However, while it offers things Firefish doesn't, the opposite is also true.
And to make things more complicated, while I like the mobile experience with Akkomane better (it also can use lots of different apps, and the mobile experience with Firefish really is its weakest point), I still think that the desktop experience on Firefish is the best of all the platforms I know (those plugins, I'm telling you, difficult to live without them now).
And because I'm old school, I mostly use social media on my computer (even more so now that I need glasses to read and write, and I rarely have them on my nose when I have a phone in my hand, but that's another topic - if you think I make a lot of typos at times, you know why).

So as a conclusion. I still don't know what to do... 🤷‍♂️
Which means this account will stay on Firefish for now. But I'd like to keep on using Akkomane. But I can't justify having three active micro-blogging accounts on the Fediverse (my Mastodon account stays where it is, this whole thing doesn't concern it). What would I talk about on that third account that I don't already talk about here or on Mastodon?

🤔

#fediverse #Firefish #IceShrimp #Mastodon #Friendica #Akkoma #Akkomane

Testing #Akkomane and #Iceshrimp :

After a couple of days trying both, one thing that's obvious right away is that Iceshrimp is just too similar to Firefish to justify a move there. I'm hearing there's a major overhaul coming. I'll check it out then, but right now, there is no point (actually, I am becoming a fan of Firefish's new feature: an auto-switch for language, very useful for people like me who post in several languages)

I really like Akkomane so far, but I don't love it.
As far as I know, the only features it has that #Firefish doesn't have are the ability to use different clients (especially useful on mobile, the mobile experience with Firefish is not the best) and the ability to follow hashtags (something sorely missing in the Misskey-verse - yes, I know there are antennas, but I want followed hashtags in my main feed, not on a separate one).
Is it enough to justify a move (and leave the Misskey-verse and its amazing desktop UI - I have become a huge fan of the widgets)? I do not know.
Also, I'm not a big fan of replies not being threaded.

Okay, that's all for now. I'll keep testing Akkomane, but right now, I'm unsure if I should move.
And what about having one more Fediverse account? Hmmm... I already have my Mastodon account (and this one is not going anywhere), I'm not sure if it's a good idea to have three active accounts (unless I separate French and English content like I used to do on Twitter? Well, I stopped doing this for a reason)

#Fediverse

No, I don't have doppelgangers, nor a multiple personality disorder (that I know of) but I guess the best way to know if I should move to #Akkomane or #Iceshrimp (or stay on #Firefish) is to actually use them.

(in my previous post on the topic, I also mentioned #Sharkey but I'm leaving it aside for now. While the UI is very similar to IceShrimp's, the latter feels nicer and smoother. Hard to explain.)

So, over the next few days, I'll be juggling three accounts (crossposting and/or boosting). The current one as well as @[email protected] and @[email protected]


Feel free to follow them. I'll also very likely export my follow list over there to populate timelines.

Stay tuned for the mess that's going to happen in the next few days, and hopefully some conclusions in a week or two???

Oh, another con against Firefish: it turns out that 3,000 characters is sometimes too short...

So, after typing this (to get your ideas if you have any, but also to sort mine) it seems that #Akkoma / #Akkomane is calling me, right?
Yes, but I also love the MissKey forks, they're such an amazing and original way to use the #Fediverse.

Hmmm.... Any informed opinion from people who know those platforms well, even possibly have followed a similar path?


Tagging a few people whose opinions on such issues have always been a great help (you all basically taught me everything about the #fediverse beyond Mastodon): @reiver @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected]

(2/2)

Maybe, it's time to leave #Firefish after all (a couple of weeks ago, it seemed alive and well, but a few bugs are showing up more and more often. Now, it's the search bar that is acting up.

Now the question is where to move? (and this is where my chronic indecisiveness is kicking in)

I have a few options.

1. Stay on Firefish after all.

- Pros: That will save me time and energy. I have a wonderful admin on my instance.
If it's actually actively maintained by the new owners, maybe nice things will come out of it (the automatic language selector seems new and unique to Firefish, right?)

- Cons: There have been bugs appearing lately and they give me bad flashbacks from last year when firefish.social imploded.
A feeling of hanging on to a sinking ship (a sunken ship?)


2. Another #Misskey fork, either #IceShrimp or #Sharkey.

- Pros: Similar to Firefish but more alive I could move all my old posts to the new platform.

- Cons: Well, first, the fact that they're hard to tell apart from each other doesn't help making a choice.
Do I really need that many customization options?

Regarding the question above, one reason I'd like to stick with a Misskey fork is the "channels" function. It's basically a mini-private forum on the instance. And I have the crazy dream of bringing my non-terminally-online friends to the #Fediverse, and that would be awesome if we all shared the same instance, and also have a private section but... And that's a big "but." I tried and I have yet to convince a single one of them to give a shot to this idea. So maybe I'm wasting my hopes with this pipe dream.

Another con for the Misskey forks is that you can't follow hashtags, which is one of my favorite functions on #Mastodon and that is sorely missing on Firefish, IceShrimp, and Sharkey.


3. #Akkoma, especially #Akkomane

- Pros: It's lightweight, it's sleek, and it allows long posts, and following hashtags too.
You can use it with Elk and Phanpy and probably most Fediverse apps (which is not the case for the MissKey forks).
If I want to self-host a solo instance, it's also the cheapest option (it matters, I'm poor these days and with the state of the Japanese economy, I doubt it'll change anytime soon) - of course, I don't have to have a solo instance.

- Cons:
I'd lose all my old posts. Not a terrible issue, but still a negative.
It's a platform I'm not too familiar with, which is only a problem for the short term, and it seems stable and reliable long term.
Also, it's silly, but I really dislike the default color of the UI (light magenta?) and I don't think I can change it. Of course, I don't have to use the default UI as I can use another app with it, but for some reason, I tend to like using the default interface when I use it on my computer (which remains the place where I use social media the most).


(1/2)

Trying out a self-hosted #Akkomane instance using #SpaceHost and think I’ve found the first missing feature coming from #Mastodon: I’m not able to hide posts from accounts I put into lists from my home feed.

I use this quite a bit for creating news lists and those accounts can be pretty chatty so I don’t want it all over my home feed. Mastodon is able to do this, so I assume this is a limitation of Akkoma.

You know why I write long single posts instead of multiple posts of a thread containing 500 character posts each that are replies to each other?

Because people don’t actually read threads. Instead, they read one post in the thread, make a reply – completely oblivious to the context of the thread.

This is why my #Akkomane server has a 5,000 character limit default. I make good use of those characters too.

Sure, sometimes people occasionally complain because my posts are long. However, the amount of bad replies I receive have gone down significantly.

For that reason, I sure love more characters. I’m using 669 of them on this very post! It’s fantastic!

Any guides for how to deploy a selfhosted #akkomane? I deploy applications using docker, but I'm not quite sure how that would work between two applications.

Just an update: akkomane.social is successfully hosting 34 total users.

With 1vCPU and 2GB of RAM, performance has been stable and I’ve encountered few errors.

I’ve heard from other #Akkomane admins that 2GB of RAM can handle 50 active accounts, but we’ll see!

@polotek Just curious: have you checked out #akkomane at all? @atomicpoet has been doing some evangelizing, and it sounds like it might have lots of advantages for the self-hosters...

Can't figure out how make mangane work.. (Using Caddy)

Edit: Pleroma-Fe is working with this Caddy config. Don't know how to configure Mangane.

Edit: Finally figured it out !

#caddy #nginx #akkoma #akkomane #mangane #soapbox

@christophertrottier I want to run a #Akkomane instance. Where is the repo ?

#Threads gets a lot of blowback for making federation opt-in on their service.

But from an admin perspective, thank God they’re doing that because if 120 million accounts suddenly joined the #Fediverse, this could kill many servers.

Meta might have the resources to send messages from that many accounts, but many Fediverse servers don’t have the resources to receive all of them.

This is why resource efficiency is such an important concern for the Fediverse at large. Hence why I’m interested in building a community of #Akkomane enthusiasts.

And by the way, I’ve thrown the kitchen sink at #Akkomane to see how robust it is. It can stand up to a lot of traffic thrown at it!

To give you a general idea at how well akkomane.social scales, it’s currently running on 1vCPU with 2GB of RAM. With these resources, it’s able to host 25 users – and things are humming along quite smoothly.

In contrast, the minimum RAM I’d use for a Mastodon server is 4GB. And that’s only if I posted a few times a day and had an account with less than 100 followers.

So really, if you’re concerned about managing scale, then #Akkomane is a pretty good option for you.

The reason I’m excited about #Akkomane has less to do with whiz bang features, and more to do with scalability of the service.

With typical #Fediverse services, it takes a lot of resources to run them. And the more your server federates with others and redistributes messages, the more of a toll it takes on CPU and RAM.

More than one Fediverse server has closed because server admins simply didn’t have enough money or resources to keep them operating.

Both Akkoma is great for low spec servers. This is why so many single-user servers use Akkoma. Unfortunately, the default UI/UX isn’t so user friendly.

However, I’ve discovered that an alternative front-end, Mangane, offers a UI/UX that is both familiar to most people, and offers lots of bells and whistles – such as quote posts, post scheduling, Markdown, etc.

Akkomane offers the best of both worlds: server stability and a friendly UI/UX.

@atomicpoet

FYI, for those #akkoma / #akkomane users interested ...

phanpy (eg, phanpy.social) seems to work well with akkomane / akkoma.

It provides deck/columns and picks up on the longer post length too.

No separate post editing view though ... but you can pop it out into a separate window.

No awareness of the local only visibility, which reveals how dire mastodon's influence over that feature has become IMO.

And the wonderful catch-up feature seems to work too!