# Friendica Bridging the Fediverse Since 2010 > [! note]- > The content of this page is generated by audio/video transcription and text transformation from the content and links of this source. Source: [https://fosdem.org/2025/schedule/event/fosdem-2025-5289-friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010/](https://fosdem.org/2025/schedule/event/fosdem-2025-5289-friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010/) <video src="https://video.fosdem.org/2025/ud2208/fosdem-2025-5289-friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010.av1.webm" controls></video> ## Summary & Highlights: Friendica is a decentralized social network platform that has been part of the Fediverse since 2010. It connects various social media services, allowing users to interact across different platforms. The session highlights Friendica's history, its unique features like multi-protocol support, and its role in the Fediverse. **Introduction to Friendica** Friendica is a social networking platform that has been connecting decentralized networks since 2010. It allows users to bridge different social media platforms, making it a unique player in the Fediverse. The session introduces the project, its history, and its core features. **Features and Functionality** Friendica supports long-form blogging, photo galleries, event organization, and more. It is extensible through add-ons and offers robust access control and moderation tools. The platform's compatibility with various protocols and services, including ActivityPub, allows seamless interaction across different networks. **Technical Aspects and Community Involvement** The platform is built on PHP and MariaDB, and its source code is available on GitHub. Friendica encourages community contributions, especially in frontend development and translations. The session also discusses the need for improved moderation tools and accessibility features. **Challenges and Future Directions** While Friendica has been successful in bridging different networks, it faces challenges such as the need for better frontend design and moderation tools. The session calls for contributions from developers and designers to enhance the platform's usability and accessibility. ## Importance for an eco-social transformation Friendica plays a significant role in promoting decentralized and community-oriented social networking, which aligns with eco-social transformation goals. It empowers users to connect across different platforms without relying on centralized services, promoting digital sovereignty and privacy. Eco-social designers can leverage Friendica's open-source nature to create inclusive and accessible social media experiences. Challenges include enhancing moderation tools and user interfaces to ensure a safe and user-friendly environment. ## Slides: | | | | --- | --- | | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010/preview_001.jpg\|300]] | The first slide introduces Friendica, a decentralized social communication platform part of the Fediverse since 2010. It highlights the session's presenters, Tobias Diekershoff and Michael Vogel, and sets the stage for exploring Friendica's journey and contributions to the Fediverse. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010/preview_002.jpg\|300]] | This slide provides contact information for the core developers of Friendica, Tobias Diekershoff and Michael Vogel. It outlines their roles in backend development, translations, and release management, emphasizing the collaborative nature of the Friendica project. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010/preview_003.jpg\|300]] | Friendica is described as a decentralized social communication platform linking various independent social and corporate services. Established in 2010, it is part of the Fediverse and the Federation, with its core repository on GitHub and add-ons on git.friendi.ca, using PHP and MariaDB. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010/preview_004.jpg\|300]] | The slide explains the concept of the Fediverse as a collection of social networking services that communicate using a common protocol. It emphasizes the independence of communities operating their social media platforms and the ability for users to interact across different services. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010/preview_005.jpg\|300]] | Friendica was founded by Mike Macgirvin in 2010. The slide highlights the small core team behind Friendica and invites discussion about its development in the Friendica Development Group forum. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010/preview_006.jpg\|300]] | This slide continues to focus on the team behind Friendica, emphasizing the collaborative efforts and the ongoing development of the platform within the community. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010/preview_007.jpg\|300]] | The history of Friendica is detailed, from its initial commit in 2010 to the implementation of federation with various protocols and services, including ActivityPub. The slide also notes the removal of certain connectors over the years. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010/preview_008.jpg\|300]] | Friendica is presented as a 'polyglot' platform, capable of communicating with multiple protocols and services within and outside the Fediverse, highlighting its versatility and connectivity. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010/preview_009.jpg\|300]] | The slide continues to emphasize Friendica's ability to interact with multiple protocols and services, reinforcing its position as a bridge within the Fediverse. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010/preview_010.jpg\|300]] | Friendica's integration with the Fediverse and the Federation is reiterated, showcasing its bidirectional connectors and its role in facilitating communication across different platforms. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010/preview_011.jpg\|300]] | Friendica's bidirectional connectors to services like Bluesky, Tumblr, and IMAP/Discourse are highlighted, demonstrating its ability to facilitate seamless communication across various platforms. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010/preview_012.jpg\|300]] | Friendica's capabilities are expanded upon, showing its ability to post to various platforms like X, Libertree, and blogs, further illustrating its versatility in connecting different social networks. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010/preview_013.jpg\|300]] | The slide highlights Friendica's ability to fetch RSS feeds, adding another layer of connectivity and content aggregation to its feature set, enhancing user experience. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010/preview_014.jpg\|300]] | Friendica's integration with Bluesky is showcased, highlighting how users can interact with Bluesky content directly from Friendica, maintaining a consistent user experience. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010/preview_015.jpg\|300]] | Friendica's desktop interface is introduced, providing users with a glimpse of the platform's design and functionality on desktop environments. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010/preview_016.jpg\|300]] | The desktop interface of Friendica is further explored, emphasizing its usability and the features it offers to desktop users. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010/preview_017.jpg\|300]] | Continued exploration of Friendica's desktop interface, focusing on user experience and the platform's capabilities in a desktop setting. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010/preview_018.jpg\|300]] | Friendica's mobile capabilities are discussed, with a focus on its compatibility with various mobile operating systems and apps, including Mastodon-compatible apps, enhancing accessibility for mobile users. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010/preview_019.jpg\|300]] | Friendica's client compatibility is detailed, highlighting its support for StatusNet and Mastodon APIs, allowing users to access Friendica through various clients like Sengi. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010/preview_020.jpg\|300]] | Friendica's extensive feature set is outlined, including long-form blogging, photo galleries, event organization, and more, showcasing its versatility as a social networking platform. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010/preview_021.jpg\|300]] | The slide continues to detail Friendica's features, emphasizing its extensibility through add-ons and robust access control, enhancing user experience and customization. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010/preview_022.jpg\|300]] | Friendica's feature set is further explored, highlighting its capabilities in scheduling posts, direct messaging, and moderation, providing users with a comprehensive social networking experience. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010/preview_023.jpg\|300]] | Friendica's features are reiterated, showcasing its ability to support long-form blogging, event organization, and more, while emphasizing its extensibility and customization options. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010/preview_024.jpg\|300]] | The slide continues to highlight Friendica's features, focusing on its support for rich text, embedded media, and its moderation tools, enhancing user interaction and content management. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010/preview_025.jpg\|300]] | Friendica's comprehensive feature set is summarized, emphasizing its versatility in supporting various forms of content and interaction, making it a robust social networking platform. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010/preview_026.jpg\|300]] | Friendica's features are detailed, showcasing its capabilities in long-form blogging, event organization, and more, while emphasizing its extensibility through add-ons. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010/preview_027.jpg\|300]] | The slide summarizes Friendica's features, highlighting its support for rich text, embedded media, and its moderation capabilities, enhancing user experience and content management. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010/preview_028.jpg\|300]] | Friendica's features are reiterated, focusing on its ability to support various forms of content and interaction, making it a versatile social networking platform. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010/preview_029.jpg\|300]] | Friendica's features are detailed, highlighting its capabilities in long-form blogging, event organization, and more, emphasizing its extensibility through add-ons and user-defined access control. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010/preview_030.jpg\|300]] | The slide focuses on Friendica's scheduling capabilities, allowing users to plan future posts or import old content, enhancing content management and user interaction. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010/preview_031.jpg\|300]] | Friendica's direct messaging capabilities are highlighted, showcasing its support for 1:1 threads with mutual contacts and detection of Mastodon-style DMs. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010/preview_032.jpg\|300]] | Friendica's moderation tools are detailed, emphasizing server-wide and user-specific controls, enhancing user experience and community management. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010/preview_033.jpg\|300]] | Friendica's timeline features are introduced, showcasing its ability to filter and organize content for users, enhancing user interaction and content discovery. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010/preview_034.jpg\|300]] | The slide continues to explore Friendica's timeline features, focusing on content filtering and organization, enhancing user experience and interaction. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010/preview_035.jpg\|300]] | Friendica's timeline features are further detailed, highlighting its ability to filter and organize content, enhancing user interaction and content discovery. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010/preview_036.jpg\|300]] | Friendica's user circles feature is introduced, allowing users to define groups for filtering network streams and enhancing access control and interaction. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010/preview_037.jpg\|300]] | User channels in Friendica are explored, showcasing user-defined algorithms for content display, enhancing personalization and content discovery. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010/preview_038.jpg\|300]] | Friendica's support for ActivityPub relays is detailed, showcasing its ability to distribute public postings and configure content scope, enhancing network connectivity. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010/preview_039.jpg\|300]] | The slide continues to explore Friendica's support for ActivityPub relays, emphasizing content distribution and configuration, enhancing network connectivity. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010/preview_040.jpg\|300]] | Friendica's group account capabilities are highlighted, showcasing its ability to operate public and private discussion groups, enhancing community interaction. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010/preview_041.jpg\|300]] | The slide details Friendica's support for Federation Enhancement Proposals (FEPs), showcasing its commitment to interoperability and community standards. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010/preview_042.jpg\|300]] | Friendica's contribution opportunities are outlined, inviting developers and community members to enhance the platform's accessibility, moderation, and translation capabilities. | ![[FOSDEM 2025/assets/Friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010/preview_043.jpg\|300]] | The slide provides background information on decentralized networks and credits for graphics and screenshots, emphasizing the collaborative nature of the presentation. ## Links [Slides of the presentation](https://fosdem.org/2025/events/attachments/fosdem-2025-5289-friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010/slides/238113/20240201-_HbDiFtV.pdf) [Video recording (AV1/WebM)](https://video.fosdem.org/2025/ud2208/fosdem-2025-5289-friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010.av1.webm) [Video recording (MP4)](https://video.fosdem.org/2025/ud2208/fosdem-2025-5289-friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010.av1.mp4) [Video recording subtitle file (VTT)](https://video.fosdem.org/2025/ud2208/fosdem-2025-5289-friendica-under-the-radar-since-2010.vtt)