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Fediverse Starter Packs

So it looks like Fediverse got its ‘starter packs’ too, similar to Bluesky’s (thanks to Anže and others).

Starter Packs are curated lists of fediverse (currently only Mastodon) accounts and you can follow them all at once or the selected ones. Like this one (Webcomic Artists):

Screenshot of webcomic artists starter pack

I think starter packs save a lot of time, especially at the start of someone’s fediverse journey. Discovery of account and search is still somehow clunky in 2024. And there is no algorithm on fediverse to suggest you accounts to follow.

Functions I like:

  • anybody can create starter pack
  • you can check if you’re in some starter pack

I’m not sure how consensus work in the starter pack, but as it seems, it uses opt-out principle at the moment.

I quickly created 2 packs:

  1. EU institutions
  2. EU projects

They’re small packs at the moment.

Re: 1. EU institutions had many more accounts half a year ago (until Apr. 2024), but they ‘successfully ended the experiment‘, only a handful of them remained. Nobody wanted to take over the management of the ‘experimental’ servers and the domain (social.network.europa.eu/@XXXX). All 20-30 or so accounts of EU institutions vanished.

Nevertheless, European Commission set-up a new server (xxx.social-network.europa.eu) and it continues its presence on fediverse.

Re: 2. EU projects is a pack of EU funded projects. Currently it includes a few Erasmus+ KA2 projects that I know firsthand.

If you think some accounts should be added to these packs, please contact me.

Wrap-up

‘Fediverse starter pack’ is a very fresh service and I hope it will remain functional and mature over time. I hope it will be integrated in various signup pages like ‘joinmastodon’, to make fediverse experience for new users more frictionless.

Update – Slovenia Starter Pack

Thanks to @jkmcnk, there is also a slovenian starter pack that contains various local obscure celebrities, weirdos, introverted influencers and similar fine people, created approx. 22 min. ago before this blog post:

https://fedidevs.com/s/MTYx

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If you’re reading this on fediverse and the layout (embedded pics) is off or missing, here’s the link to the original blog post.

Comments

7 responses to “Fediverse Starter Packs”

  1. Tom Walker Avatar
    Tom Walker

    @tomi I can understand why the decision here was to request account write access in order to follow accounts, but there's no way I'd trust a random website with that access, sorry

    1. Tomi the Slav and 1024 others Avatar
      Tomi the Slav and 1024 others

      @tomw @tomi You're right, I wasn't even attentive.
      I see there is a debate over it on github: https://github.com/anze3db/fedidevs/issues/50

      1. Tom Walker Avatar
        Tom Walker

        @po3mah @tomi Even if the scope of oauth permissions is lowered it feels like a high risk for me for quite low reward (a "follow all" button)

  2. Jupiter Rowland Avatar
    Jupiter Rowland

    @Tomi Nope. Mastodon got them. They can only be used on Mastodon.

    Worse yet: It’s apparently impossible to add anything that isn’t on Mastodon to a starter pack. Case in point: the starter pack “a selection of non mastodon accounts to follow“. It’s empty. It looks like @wakest ⁂ tried to add non-Mastodon accounts/channels to the list and failed because it’s impossible.

    #FediMeta #FediverseMeta #CWFediMeta #CWFediverseMeta #Fediverse #Mastodon #StarterPack #StarterPacks

    1. Tomi Avatar
      Tomi

      Ok, fair enough. Didn’t try it with accounts from other fedi apps. I’ve only noticed even Mastodon account can’t be added if the profile isn’t set to ‘discoverable’.
      Unrelated: I can see (and reply to) your reply only from WordPress (the origin of this post), but not from Mastodon or Calckey. Which fedi app are you using?

      Reply
    2. wakest ⁂ Avatar
      wakest ⁂

      @jupiter_rowland @tomi yeah this really needs to be worked on, its pretty shamefull to have this hosted on "fedidevs" and then flat out only support accounts on one server software

      1. Tomi the Slav and 1024 others Avatar
        Tomi the Slav and 1024 others

        @liaizon @jupiter_rowland @tomi
        I've tried adding pixelfed, wp and other accounts and it didn't work.
        I've opened a new issue on their github. Maybe it will be fixed sometime.
        The developer is super responsive. For example, I submitted some other minor issue yesterday and today it is already fixed.

        *Update: check the developer's reply: https://github.com/anze3db/fedidevs/issues

        To all who is criticizing: better offer help than snark.

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