Yonle

when we use something like mastodon, pleroma, akkoma, snac, gotosocial, or misskey, these are actually software suites that's used for microblogging that then can talk to each other via activitypub protocol. as they can talk to each other regardless the software suites being used, here comes a network for it called “fediverse”.

since i have hosted various fedi server for like 3 years, i think it's about the time i discuss about the experience when i host it. please note, on this blog, i won't really tell which one is better and the entire resource usage in a specific number as these number will became irrelevant as the older this blog has become. i will only mention what they can do, and what they can't do so you can judge it yourself.

akkoma

this one, is, obvious already. akkoma is basically a hardfork of pleroma with different mindsets in mind. basically same heart, different director. since it's pleroma-based, it can handle a lot of users pretty decently light on server without needing a lot of server resources.

this is basically the first fedi software that i use to host my first server, at fedi.lecturify.net. the reason of why i pick this is, for one, MFM and the akkoma-fe.

what it can do: – react like misskey – post like misskey with MFM – MastoAPI – serve for (lot) of active users in small amount of resources. – bubble timeline (curated timeline of post coming from several instances that admin picked)

what it can't do: – 1:1 compatible with the og MFM – algorithm / trending post timeline – have avatar decoration like misskey

honk

this is the second software that i try as a test because i'm bored. to begin with, this is a fedi server software written by Ted Unangst, an author of doas and several other OpenBSD components. it focused for small system resource & single user. it can be used for multi users, but it's mostly suited well for single user as far as i've tried.

what it can do: – post. – anti distraction. – sqlite3

what it can't do: – MastoAPI – your posts are not entirely preserved. it's designed for noisy and limited system resource, remember? – be sane (you and the people that you follow avatar's are not their avatars. it's a hex pixel avatar generated randomly per user) – react and post like misskey. you can adjust reaction by changing the default so it's beyond other than [star], but still limited regardless – no stat report. you don't know whose following you, whenever your post is liked or reposted, it's anti mainstream. good for people to avoid distraction. – you can only upload videos in the form of “memes” where you need to upload the video to the server and put it in memes folder. – sqlite3

pleroma

again, this is obvious. but anyway, pleroma is a software written by lain, or also known as lambadalambada. it's initial purpose is basically to replace gnu/social.

anyway, as previously said, it can handle a lot of users pretty decently light on server without needing a lot of server resources.

what it can do: – react like misskey – [soon]post like misskey with MFM – MastoAPI – serve for (lot) of active users in small amount of resources.

what it can't do: – algorithm / trending post timeline – have avatar decoration like misskey – have a lightweight web client.

snac2

at the time when i hear this, snac2 is still really new. like really new.

like honk, it's focused to be as lightweight as possible and focused for small system resource.

what it can do: – MastoAPI – react like misskey (new thing. cool) – run in toaster that's running netBSD – run in a hacked 4G alibaba modem dongle running debian – run in a hacked chinese wireless CCTV – run in a hacked wii – run in literally everything that can connect to internet – run in less than 500 MB of RAM

what it can't do: – managing database manually like the most solutions that's using sql. but it's pretty solid. – mfm – s3

misskey

misskey is basically written by a Japanese high school student back then, named Syuilo. It got several inspiration from various platform like discord.

i won't really talk about the forks out here since core wise, it's computational power needed will be pretty much the same (2c vCPU minimal, 4c vCPU recommended).

what it can do: – mfm – customize profile – manage storage limit per user – bunch of features

what it can't do: – run in less than 2 GB of RAM even for just 3 users. – MastoAPI (forks can do) – edit (forks can do)

note: rough maintenance (nodejs must be match to the version it require to run, must be glibc system)

gotosocial

basically a “small” and “lightweight” fedi server. i haven't tried much, but i only tried for brief moment when i test mostr.pub federation with gotosocial

what it can do: – MastoAPI

what it can't do: – algorithm / trending post timeline – anything misskey related – have a web client built in. – have a proper activitypub compatibility (last time it clashed with snac2. turns out one AP object field can be either string or array. but the question is, why this way?)

note: comparably as big as akkoma/pleroma. just go host akkoma/pleroma already tbh. it's not even as small as snac2 or even honk compared.

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alright. i think that's all.