Today, I am happy to announce that my blog has finally joined the fediverse! I have installed a brand-new ActivityPub plug-in that was just made available today for hosted, WordPress.com blogs like this one (it’s been available for self-hosted, WordPress.org blogs for a while now).
I’m going to let the developer, Matthias Pfefferle, do the explaining (here’s his full post):
Exciting times are here for all WordPress.com users! The revolutionary ActivityPub feature is now available across all WordPress.com plans, unlocking a world of engagement and interaction for your blog. Your blogs can now be part of the rapidly expanding fediverse, which enables you to connect with a broader audience and attract more followers.
Let’s dive into what this means for all WordPress.com blogs.
The fediverse consists of federated platforms like Mastodon, which are networks of independent websites or servers that can communicate with each other while still operating individually. It’s much like email; you can send emails to users with accounts on different services (like Gmail, Yahoo, etc.), yet all of them can interact seamlessly. Similarly, federated platforms enable users to follow, share, and interact with content across different services in a unified network.
ActivityPub is a WordPress plugin that facilitates seamless integration between your blog and a host of federated platforms, including Mastodon, Pleroma, Friendica, and more [see the diagram at the top of this blogpost]. This plugin empowers your readers to follow your blog posts on these platforms.
In addition, replies to your posts from these platforms are automatically turned into comments on your WordPress blog, creating a more interactive and dynamic conversation around your content. Synchronicity for the win!
So, if you (like me) are on Mastodon, you can now choose to follow my blog in exactly the same way that you would follow any other Mastodon user! My blog’s username is:
@ryanschultz@ryanschultz.com
And the URL to my blog’s profile is:
https://ryanschultz.com/@ryanschultz
Matthias goes on to say:
Your WordPress blog can now become a profile for the fediverse. This means your readers can follow you and receive all the latest posts from your blog directly on their preferred platform. More so, they can engage in enriching conversations by replying to your posts, with their replies reflecting as comments on your blog post, creating a synchronized and interactive experience.
Now, this is all very new to me, so I’m probably still going to have to work out a few kinks in the system, but I’m actually pretty excited! For now, I have decided to keep the older WordPress plugin that I was using to automatically post my blogposts to my personal Mastodon account, which is:
@ryanschultz@mastodon.social
or, if you prefer the URL to my personal profile:
https://mastodon.social/@ryanschultz
You may notice that I have also upgraded my social media icons in the left-hand menu of the RyanSchultz.com blog (under the option to subscribe via email to my blog), adding a much better-looking Mastodon icon, which links directly to my personal Mastodon profile above. I still have to figure out the best way to integrate what are now two Mastodon profiles—one for my personal account, and one for my blog! For the moment, I will continue with both.
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