Gregory's Server🚨BIG NEWS🚨
Buffer just added Mastodon as one of its supported social networks!
Amongst social media professionals this is HUGE!
See screenshots!
 100 comments
Big thanks to @henshaw for breaking this story. Also, did you manage to get any Pixelfed or Peertube accounts to work with Buffer? Buffer adding Mastodon is just another example of the momentum that the Fediverse now has amongst developers -- and how this is going to push adoption forward. This is the *real* story about Mastodon's growth during the past three months. Yes, the first wave of Fediverse adoption came from people looking for a Twitter replacement. But the next wave of adoption is going to come from an ecosystem of apps. Why? Because some of those Twitter migrants were developers. And once they played around with the code, they all remembered how nice it is to build something on an open protocol. Why are developers supporting the Fediverse even though the Fediverse "only" has 10 million accounts? Because the Fediverse offers something developers crave: stability. As Twitter already demonstrated, they can remove API access from developers for many bullshit reasons -- with no explanation. No company should ever depend on Twitter's API -- or any Big Social API for that matter. But ActivityPub is a W3C-backed web standard. It is an open protocol. Unlike Twitter, it is more trustworthy. No, the story about the Fediverse's growth isn't about MAUs -- not that MAUs can be calculated precisely anyway. The *real* story -- the one that the tech press should be writing about -- is the growth in: 1. Posts This is the beginning of a paradigm shift in social media and how it works. Look, if I'm a social media app developer, I'm going to look for something that offers me two things: 1. Network effect - something people actively use This means the Fediverse. Once developers en masse start developing for a platform, that's when the fun starts. The iPhone didn't get interesting until developers made apps for it. Ditto with the web. We haven't even scratched the full potential for ActivityPub. Last week, I said that Twitter would regret screwing over developers. In fact, this is a colossal screw-up by inestimable orders of magnitude. This will be apparent when all those former Twitter developers start releasing Fediverse apps. It's not just going to happen -- it's happening! @atomicpoet Humans quickly forget and accept the easy way. Aren't the journalists starting to go back? @DarkWraithLord The only journalists who adopted the Fediverse en masse were adjacent to tech culture. And most of them just lurked a day then returned to Twitter. These folks are followers, not early adopters.  @ianbetteridge @DarkWraithLord Well, don't get me wrong. A minority of journalists aren't so willing to suck on Twitter's teat. @atomicpoet @ianbetteridge @DarkWraithLord I do not understand the Twitter Journalist. If the object is to get your work read, you establish yourself on all the platforms. You expand your reach. I don't understand 1/20th of whys of the fediverse, but I did this: it will get your work to a larger audience than if you post exclusively on Twitter.  @atomicpoet "Twitter no longer supports extenal applications, including this one. Would you like our help to migrate to Mastodon?"  @atomicpoet It's like building your castle on quicksand. BTW that does not apply only to Web API. Think how many times Android or ios changed what is allowed. And if your use case does not fit the new rules your feudal overlord decreed, though luck.  @atomicpoet Companies like Buffer using the Mastodon API. ActivityPub is used by Mastodon for network federation. The majority of devs using the Mastodon API not the ActivityPub protocol. @jan You can't exactly de-couple the Mastodon API from ActivityPub protocol. No matter, the Mastodon API is also open source. Other apps, like Pixelfed, use the Mastodon API. @atomicpoet You can use the Mastodon API without knowing anything about the ActivityPub protocol. That makes life easy for all developers. No, Pixelfed uses the ActivityPub protocol, not the Mastodon API :) @jan Pixelfed uses both ActivityPub protocol and Mastodon's API -- although it has recently diverged. See attached screenshot. @atomicpoet Where can I find the source code of the Pixelfed app? The Pixelfed repo on Github uses the AP protocol. @atomicpoet @jan there are plenty of platforms that use ActivityPub but not the Mastodon API. AcrivityPub is how all the servers talk to each other. The Mastodon API is one of many ways they can talk to client-side apps. @atomicpoet @KelsonV The purpose of an API is to abstract complexity like ActivityPub. You can use the Mastodon API without knowing anything about ActivityPub: https://docs.joinmastodon.org/client/intro/ For what reason? Simple to publish posts, to read your timeline, etc.  @atomicpoet What would be really interesting to see is if other social media platforms build their own ActivityPub handlers. It would be pretty wild to be able to follow a subreddits or Tumblr groups from a Mastodon app. @atomicpoet indeed, it is about developer mind share and where people who collaborate want to be.  @atomicpoet I've been testing the Buffer integration as well. Pretty smooth like other networks. And yes, I agree. This opens the door - good or bad - to the bigger players as part of an overall messaging mix. The next step after that would probably be analytics/metrics, I'd guess. @atomicpoet been a longtime buffer user. Was considering dropping since I don’t do much outside the fediverse. Now will give it a try when I comes out of beta.
@atomicpoet kudos to the developer who added the 4 extra lines in the backend to do this!* *I'm joking, but accessing Mastodon from a 3rd party source is SO MUCH EASIER than Twitter etc @atomicpoet I could write some code from an "F12" JavaScript console within a few minutes to post toots saying anything I wanted. It practically (somewhat literally) writes itself. IMO the trickiest part that you saw there is actually the visual side, where they show you 5 instances and let you choose your own. The rest of it -- the authentication token, the API -- is really dead simple. Kudos to Mastodon for making it that way. @atomicpoet I wonder what type of content will get posted as a result of this tool. Do you think more big businesses are actually going to start posting on Mastodon? Or will this be more useful for the average user who wants to schedule posts?  @atomicpoet as you and all us Fedi cheerleaders have been saying: the apps and toolmakers are coming. And sooner than many think. They will inevitably bring brands and the opportunity to reinvent sponsorship and advertising in community-sensitive ways. They don't have to generate the kinds of absurd ad dollars the old ways did. I believe in the end they will make more. cc @mmasnick @evan @jeffjarvis @dangillmor @anildash @KevinMarks @tchambers @Green_Footballs @elipariser   @atomicpoet @cliffwade I'm on the beta and tried @buffer earlier today. Worked great! I gotta get some things written into the queue, but I'm hopeful it works as well on Mastodon as well as it does for Twitter and LinkedIn. @Aaron @atomicpoet @buffer I've never really used Buffer to be honest. Isn't it for auto posting things to platforms such as Mastodon, Twitter or whatever? @cliffwade @atomicpoet @buffer Yup! It's nice to schedule stuff, especially at times when I'm close to publishing a new TimeMachiner edition. Not that I do lots of marketing stuff, but it's nice to try to keep getting the word out there at times. @Aaron Maybe I should start using it for certain posts of mine. My question is, does it work well with attaching images or links and stuff like that and then having it post automatically here? @cliffwade Yup. You can attach images and also links. I haven't tried it for Mastodon specifically (I only enabled it today) but it's always worked for Tw and LI when I've posted there.  It’s so hilarious that Mastodon CAN schedule posts but only through the API. Every other Fediverse software allows you to schedule posts, but Mastodon requires you to use third party services! That’s really funny ^ ^   @atomicpoet sorry, I didn't mean you, but the article you shared says that! cc/ @jon @atomicpoet "mastodon" doesn't have any advertising "thus far", lets change that! So, any way for a user to block the "buffer" client identifier or do we have to ask an admin to zap the useragent? @atomicpoet I don't know what you're looking at but it's not one of the supported channels yet for me. I'll wait until it's done. @atomicpoet there’s a non-zero chance Twitter revokes the API tokens of any platform that supports Mastodon. @atomicpoet @atomicpoet @atomicpoet Woot!! Immediately swapping out my #FoulFowl account with my Mastodon account! @fredvanzwieten If you're seeing spam, don't just block that shit, report it to the offending instance admin. And if the instance admin approves of spam, block the instance.  @atomicpoet Is there any news yet on whether Buffer for Mastodon will support:  @atomicpoet Buffer is also a really terrific company in many ways, so it really makes sense they’d do this   @atomicpoet @jon This makes my entire year! Important question: Do you know if Buffer can/will provide any analytics for organizations? (For example, I manage @thunderbird, and while I loathe engagement metrics for my personal accounts, for organizations they're pretty important.) @atomicpoet I have no idea what this means. Just tell me it’s bad for Twitter and I’m happy 😃  @atomicpoet A big thank you to buffer for this. @atomicpoet  @atomicpoet they also had it easy as unlike most social media services, mastodon has a post scheduling API. |
@atomicpoet HELL YEAH!!!!!