I like to post ideas here for potential features to see what the community thinks.
So one I’ve been thinking about recently is fediverse integration. Both WordPress and Ghost are integrating with the ActivityPub protocol which is the underlying technology that powers the fediverse (think Mastodon, Pixelfed, PeerTube, etc.).
A simple example would be publishing a blog article on your website, and then having that article automatically pushed to your fediverse account where people can like, comment, and interact with it, and then that mirrors back to your website.
I think this would be a cool feature to add to RapidWeaver Elements down the road, either built-in or through a third-party plugin/element.
I like supporting the open web and making it easier for people to transition away from these terrible centralized social media platforms. I think it would be cool for RapidWeaver to be apart of that mission.
As a business owner I look at where this is at this point and it’s in time. Then make a decision on R&D of product… The investment here is very niche at this time see link Fediverse Observer | Fediverse
The total amount of users is limited and niche and some of the usage is on a down swing. I would re look at this in a year or two and focus on mainstream things like AI or something that the users are skyrocketing
The indie web supporter in me loves this idea, BUTI’m not convinced that it’s a worthwhile investment, yet (if ever). Mastodon and the Fediverse in general tend to attract very techie/developer centric audiences, and aren’t really something most users are concerned with. Even RSS feeds aren’t something many people are aware of, let alone using today.
I think it would make an interesting update/extension down the road for a niche audience, but things like making web publishing/updating easier (reduce/remove friction re: hosting, deployment, DNS, etc to get started — ahem, Cloudflare or AWS) would be something much more compelling for average users.
Re: the ‘terrible centralized social media platforms’… yeah, I get the frustration, but they also solve(d) the very real problem of how to publish on-line for millions (if not billions) of people around the world. That said, I think more and more folks are looking for alternatives to the platforms, but if the options are too costly, too complex, or aren’t where your audience is, they are a non-starter.
Don’t try to solve all the problems, just focus on the ones you can make a difference with in the short-term. Solve the problems your audience has today, and they’ll tell you where they want to go next—otherwise you run the risk of solving problems nobody really has.
@bryanrieger Exactly. What everyone needs today, I think, is to be able to keep a blog and modify your gallery (photo, video, various files…) without having to go through Elements again, it’s a CMS but This can be done without bringing out the big guns. Although I’m not a fan of PHP (but today I can’t do without it) it allows this quite simply and with sufficient security options once coupled with a well-designed htaccess. Hold! Another basic need: not having to reinvent the powder on each site with Htaccess models offering the protection of a directory, Headers, rewriting for simplified URLs (I’m not a fan either given the problems that that generates), password restriction… From a user perspective, I expect software like Elements to allow me to create beautiful animated layouts without code, whenever I want, and to be able to change/refresh content whenever I want it from my Ipad and my sofa (I know age makes you lazy, but even downloads can be so why not me eh?). Already a long post, I’m stopping here for a Sunday morning and Father’s Day (but where is my family with the surprises??? )
I definitely agree fediverse software such as Mastodon tend to attract more tech-savvy users, but I wouldn’t say it’s just for them or hobbyists. There’s an interesting analytics website here that shows current and active Mastodon users, along with server count. It clearly shows a growing trend. I think that trend will continue.
Also Meta’s Threads platform (Twitter clone) will soon be federating over the ActivityPub protocol, and their user count is currently above 190 million users per this site, so user count is about to get a lot bigger.
One of the things that got me thinking about this is I’ve been reading some articles regarding blogging, and in a couple of them some of the bloggers mentioned that since WordPress started integrating with the fediverse, they were getting more interactions on their published articles than they had been before. One blogger mentioned they rarely ever got comments on their articles, but after they enabled the fediverse integration, they started getting a lot more comments, likes, etc., which is nice for a blogger otherwise they’d feel like they were blogging into the void.
I get it’s a niche feature request though. There are other things to prioritize first. Still I think it would be a cool addition to RapidWeaver down the road, perhaps something a third-party dev might be interested in building.
A user publishes a blog article on their website, and that blog article is automatically pushed to their Mastodon account. When their followers on Mastodon interact with that blog article (comments, likes, etc.), those are mirrored back to the blog article on their website.
A user publishes some photos to a photo gallery on their website. Those images are automatically pushed to their Pixelfed account where their Pixelfed followers can interact with them (comments, likes, etc.).
Basically just a way to drive traffic and interaction between both the user’s website and their fediverse accounts.
Loomly is a Social Media Mamangent tool that does a whole lot of stuff I cant see a use case scenario for it with Rapidweaver other having it manage blogging which is a whole API that would need to be developed on the user side that would allow it to connected also the FB instagram X etc. It’s a whole project in its self.
Loomy is a sort of dashboard. We can schedule the publication of our videos, blogs, podcasts, etc. on multiple social media platforms. It is a paid service but much more efficient than Mastodon. I think that the fediverse is a strategic vision, for an individual it is still too much of a “jungle” to navigate and use it calmly without the help of a third party service. But it’s just my opinion, I don’t use it now but I think it’s for soon. The current evolution is so rapid that it becomes very difficult if not impossible to keep up to date and have the appropriate tools available for our workflow. Relevant information is hidden in the bulk. This is why our forums are an essential resource to avoid missing out on too many things that are essential to us without even knowing that they exist.
The days of sites pushing to social media to improve traffic are gone. These days it works in reverse. And if the full article is pushed to social media, then no one really goes to the site itself. A lot of that has to do with the way sites monetize themselves.
Now if you had said “part is pushed” I might get a little interested, as the “partial paywall” idea is still active and being pursued.
Further to my other comment, you need to connect with Dave Winer, at scripting.com. He was one of the key early developers of RRS, and is currently working on his latest project, Feedland.
True, I believe the WP integration can push the whole article, or just a summary so that people would have to navigate back to the website to read the whole article.
why not me eh?). Already a long post, I’m stopping here for a Sunday morning and Father’s Day (but where is my family with the surprises??? 
)