The federated SNS timeline (a fediverse history) avatar
Yohan Yukiya Sese-Cuneta
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In a fast-paced world like what we have today, recording events is often forgotten. This is especially true in the digital era, wherein we assume that every piece of information will remain available indefinitely, and archived somewhere. Unfortunately, that is not the case at all. Sites, portals, databases, even software repositories, all come and go. If no one kept a copy, the information is gone forever.

It proved this when I started this project. There were countless information which are now gone forever, and in an age where words of individuals no longer hold any weight—unless they are a personality—a source is often expected, if not demanded.

My desire to change that resulted in the creation of The Federated SNS Timeline. A list of the Federated Social Network history, gathered on this page, with links to sources scattered everywhere.


UPDATE 2024-09-05: The most up-to-date version is located at the DDFON, Open Social Web, Fediverse, Mycelial Web SNS Historical Timeline repository.


The Fediverse Historical Timeline

The Federated SNS (social network service/system) timeline is a simple list of its history. To put it another way, it is a record of how the Fediverse came to be. This is only one part of the larger Federated Social Web. For this list, we defined SNS as services meant for posting updates (microblogging, macro-blogging, blogging), uploading images, leaving comments, re-sharing, and liking; or simply, the Fediverse.

Protocols and services like XMPP and Matrix are part of the Federated Chat grouping. While there is an overlap with the XMPP protocol when it comes to SNS, these platforms/software were not (yet) included (e.g. Juick, Movim, Buddycloud, Jappix, and OneSocialWeb).

Focus

The focus of this list is on information with sources. If the original sources are no longer available, there should be an archive via archive.org or archive.ph.

For example. There is some information I remember about the Federated Social Web. However, since this information is no longer available (sites went offline and there are no archives elsewhere), I did not include these in the timeline.

There are also no personal opinions on this list, and no endorsements. This list is a plain record of dates with a link to sources.

License

Creative Commons-Attribution-ShareAlike (CC-BY-SA) 4.0 International License

  • Feel free to translate this work. Please share the link of your translation in the comments.
  • Feel free to build upon this work. Share the link to your derivates in the comments!

As long as the conditions of CC-BY-SA 4.0 International License are met.


UPDATE 2024-09-05: The most up-to-date version is located at the DDFON, Open Social Web, Fediverse, Mycelial Web SNS Historical Timeline repository.


Without further ado, here is the timeline for the Federated SNS. Enjoy!

Timeline

2008

  • 2008-05-18

    • First post in the Fediverse was made by Evan Prodromou: “This is my first post.” 1 2
  • 2008-07-02

    • Protocol: OpenMicroBlogging 3 4

    • Software: Laconica was released by Evan Prodromou 5 6 7

      • Protocol (first release): OpenMicroBlogging
    • Instance: Identi.ca 5 6 7

      • Software: Laconica
  • 2008 sometime

    • Instance: The TWiT Army Canteen

      • Software: Laconica
    • Software: OpenMicroBlogger was released 8

      • Protocol (first release): OpenMicroBlogging
    • Instance: OpenMicroBlogger.com

      • Software: OpenMicroBlogger

2009

  • 2009-08-28
    • Laconica software was renamed to StatusNet 9

2010

  • 2010-02-22

    • Instance: Mozilla was launched 10
      • Software: StatusNet
  • 2010-03-04

    • OStatus protocol replaced the OpenMicroBlogging protocol 11 12 4
    • StatusNet 0.9.0 switched to OStatus protocol 13
  • 2010-03-09

    • StatusNet Cloud Service was released in beta. The first managed instance service. 14
  • 2010-03-14

    • “identiverse” first coined by Luke Slater 15 16
  • 2010-07-02

    • Protocol: DFRN (Distributed Friends and Relations Network) 17 18

    • Software: Mistpark was released by Mike Macgirvin 17 18

      • Protocol (first release): DFRN
  • 2010-08-17

    • Mistpark added DFRN protocol federation 17 19
  • 2010-09-09

    • Mistpark added OpenMicroBlogging protocol federation 17 20
  • 2010-10-13

    • Mistpark added OStatus protocol federation 21 22
  • 2010-11-03

    • Mistpark was renamed to Friendika 23
  • 2010-11-23

    • Protocol: Diaspora Federation

      • Network name: The Federation
    • Software: diaspora* was released by Dan Grippi, Ilya Zhitomirskiy, Raphael Sofaer, and Maxwell Salzberg 24

      • Protocol (first release): Diaspora Federation
    • Instance: joindiaspora.com

      • Software: diaspora*

2011

  • 2011-03-19

    • Friendika added Diaspora Federation protocol support 25 26 22
  • 2011-05-01

    • Mozilla instance was renamed to Social@Mozilla 10
  • 2011-11-12

    • Friendika was renamed to Friendica 27

2012

  • 2012-05-25

    • “fediverse” was first coined by Mark Eckenwiler 28 29
  • 2012-07

    • Protocol: Zot 17

      • First decentralised and identity-aware (Nomadic identity) protocol 17
    • Software: red | Redmatrix was released by Mike Macgirvin 17

      • Protocol (first release): Zot, Diaspora Federation 22
  • 2012-08-27

    • diaspora* becomes a community-managed project 30
  • 2012-10-04

    • Protocol: ActivityPump 31 4

    • Software: pump.io was released by Evan Prodromou 32

      • Protocol (first release): ActivityPump

2013

  • 2013-01-24

    • “fediverse” second (archived) usage by Marjolein Katsma 33 29
      • no other archived copies found before 2013-01-24 other than 2012-05-25 (see above)
  • 2013-06-08

    • StatusNet and Free Social were merged with GNU Social 34 22 4
      • GNU Social is the surviving software name.
  • 2013-07-12

    • Identi.ca switched from StatusNet to pump.io software. 6 4
  • 2013-11-20

    • Social@Mozilla instance was shutdown 10

2014

  • 2014-09-06
    • W3C work on ActivityPub started 35
      • Based on the ActivityPump protocol.

2015

  • 2015 early
    • Redmatrix was renamed Hubzilla 17
      • Protocol (first release): Zot, Diaspora Federation

2016

  • 2016-03-16

    • Software: Mastodon was released by Eugen Rochko 36
      • Protocol (first release): OStatus 22
  • 2016-08-16

    • Diaspora Federation protocol becomes available as a Ruby library 30 37
  • 2016-10-26

    • Software: Pleroma was released by Lain 38 39
      • Protocol (first release): OStatus

2017

  • 2017-07-18

    • Hubzilla added ActivityPub protocol federation 40 41
  • 2017-07-27

    • Software: Socialhome was released by Jason Robinson 42
      • Protocol (first release): Diaspora Federation 22
  • 2017-09-03

    • Mastodon added ActivityPub protocol federation 43 22

2018

  • 2018-01-23

    • ActivityPub became an official W3C Recommendation (web standard) 44
  • 2018-03-20

    • Software: PeerTube was released by Chocobozzz 45
      • Protocol (first release): ActivityPub
  • 2018-04-19

    • Software: Misskey was released by Syuilo 46
      • Protocol (first release): ActivityPub
  • 2018-08-17

    • Protocol: Zot6 47 48

    • Software: Zap was released by Mike Macgirvin 47 48

      • Protocol (first release): Zot6
  • 2018-08-23

    • Software: Osada was released by Mike Macgirvin 49 50
      • Protocol (first release): Zot6, ActivityPub
  • 2018-11-03

    • Software: PixelFed was released by Daniel Supernault 51
      • Protocol (first release): ActivityPub
  • 2018-11-10

    • Software: WriteFreely was released by Matt Baer 52
      • Protocol (first release): ActivityPub
  • 2018-11-18

    • Friendica added ActivityPub protocol federation 53 22

2019

  • 2019-02-20

    • Hubzilla upgraded Zot to Zot6 protocol 54
  • 2019-05-06

    • Software: Lemmy was released 55
      • Protocol (first release): ActivityPub
  • 2019-08-20

    • Software: Hometown was released by Darius Kazemi 56
      • Protocol (first release): ActivityPub
  • 2019-09-22

    • Osada was discontinued 57
  • 2019-09-22

    • Zap added ActivityPub protocol federation 58
  • 2019-10-04

    • Mastodon dropped OStatus protocol federation 59
  • 2019-10-06

    • Socialhome added ActivityPub protocol federation 60

2020

  • 2020-03-08

    • Pleroma dropped OStatus protocol federation 61
  • 2020-12-31

    • Software: BookWyrm was released by Mouse Reeve 62
      • Protocol (first release): ActivityPub

2021

  • 2021-05-11

    • Software: Rebased was released by Alex Gleason 63
      • Protocol (first release): ActivityPub
  • 2021-07-18

    • GNU Social added ActivityPub protocol federation 64
  • 2021-11-07

    • Software: Guppe Groups was released Will Murphy 65
      • Protocol (first release): ActivityPub

2022

  • 2022-01-29

    • Software: Akkoma was released by floatingghost 66
      • Protocol (first release): ActivityPub
  • 2022-07-19

    • Software: Firefish (f. Calckey) was released by Kainoa Kanter 67
      • Protocol (first release): ActivityPub
  • 2022-08-05

    • Software: Foundkey was released by Norm 68
      • Protocol (first release): ActivityPub
  • 2022-10-30

    • Software: Kbin initial release by Ernest Wiśniewski 69 70
      • Protocol (first release): ActivityPub
  • 2022-11-13

    • Instance: Vivaldi Social was launched 71
      • Software: Mastodon
  • 2022-11-21

    • Software: AP Groups was released by Michael Puckett 72
      • Protocol (first release): ActivityPub
  • 2022-11-24

    • Software: Takahē was released Andrew Godwin 73
      • Protocol (first release): ActivityPub
  • 2022-12-03

    • Software: Streams was released by Mike Macgirvin 74
      • Protocol (first release): Nomad Communications, ActivityPub 75

2023

  • 2023-05-04
    • Instance: Mozilla.social entered private beta 76 77
      • Software: Mastodon

On updates

This is a living project. I will update it depending on the new information and my available time. If you have information available, kindly provide the relevant links for verification. If I can verify (rel=me; keyoxide; GPG; and other ways to verify your identity) that you are the developer of a protocol, standard, platform/software, a link is no longer needed (though still preferable).

Corrections would have to be clarified. Like, how is the correction more accurate than the currently sourced information? Or, how can we reconcile the correction with the currently sourced information? Of course, if you are the developer, and I can verify your identity, your information holds more weight (e.g. you prefer your software’s release date to be later than the current information).

Submit your information in the issues section.


UPDATE 2024-09-05: The most up-to-date version is located at the DDFON, Open Social Web, Fediverse, Mycelial Web SNS Historical Timeline repository.




  1. Laconica: Evan Prodromou, “This is my first post.” (published: 2008-05-18) (archived: 1↩︎

  2. Pump.io: Even Prodromou, “This is my first post.” (published: 2008-05-18) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  3. Wikipedia: OpenMicroBlogging ↩︎

  4. Disintermedia: A Brief History of the GNU Social Fediverse and ‘The Federation’ (published: 2017-04-01) (archived: 1 2 3↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  5. Ross Mayfield’s Weblog: Identi.ca Launches, an Open Source Twitter (published: 2008-07-02) (archived: 1 2↩︎ ↩︎

  6. Wikipedia: identi.ca ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  7. louisgray.com: Identi.ca and the Power of Microbranded Communities (published: 2008-08-12) (archived: 1 2 3↩︎ ↩︎

  8. W3C: OpenMicroBlogging (published: 2008-09; 2008-11-20) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  9. status.net: Laconica is now StatusNet (published: 2009-08-28) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  10. DDFON: Ticket #3 ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  11. ostatus.org: It’s started! (published: 2010-03-04) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  12. status.net: Understanding OStatus (published: 2010-03-07) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  13. status.net: StatusNet 0.9.0 Released (published: 2010-03-04) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  14. Black Web: StatusNet Cloud Service Opens To The Public (published: 2010-03-09) (archived: 1↩︎

  15. Luke Slater: Time for bed. Goodnight Identiverse. Thank you for existing! (published: 2010-03-14) (archived: 1↩︎

  16. identi.ca: Notices tagged with identiverse (archived: 1↩︎

  17. talkplus: The history of Hubzilla (published: 2016-10) (archived: 1 2↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  18. Mistpark: Initial checkin (published: 2010-07-02) (archived: 1 2↩︎ ↩︎

  19. Mistpark: prepare for federation (published: 2010-08-17) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  20. Mistpark: mistpark 2.0 infrastructure lands (published: 2010-09-09) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  21. Mistpark: Provide the ability to subscribe to our user from other federated sites (published: 2010-10-13) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  22. Sean Tilley: A quick guide to The Free Network (published: 2017-09-24) (archived: 1 2↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  23. Mistpark: project rename (published: 2010-11-03) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  24. Diaspora*: Private Alpha Invites Going Out Today (published: 2010-11-23) (archived: 1↩︎

  25. Friendika: stuff to make connecting to diaspora profiles easier (published: 2011-03-19) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  26. Friendika: pull in new ‘writable’ dfrn flag (published: 2011-04-11) (archived: 1↩︎

  27. Friendica: rename (published: 2011-11-12) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  28. Mark Eckenwiler: Fully accessible from my part of the fediverse (published: 2012-05-25) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  29. Twitter search: (fediverse) until:2013-01-31 since:2006-01-01 (archived: 1 2↩︎ ↩︎

  30. Diaspora developer: Fla (published: 2022-12-13) (archived: 1 2↩︎ ↩︎

  31. pump.io repo: v0.1.0 (published: 2012-10-04) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  32. pump.io site: Version 0.1.0 (published: 2012-10-04) (archived: 1↩︎

  33. Marjolein Katsma: good morning / #tzag #identiverse / fediverse :) (published: 2013-01-24) (archived: 1↩︎

  34. GNU.org: Merge (published: 2013-06-08) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  35. W3C: First draft (published: 2014-09-06) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  36. Mastodon repo: v0.1.0 (published: 2016-03-16) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  37. Diaspora Federation protocol: Ruby library (archived: 1 2↩︎

  38. Pleroma repo: pleroma_fe (published: 2016-10-26) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  39. Pleroma: Pleroma’s First Release! 0.9.9 (published: 2019-02-22) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  40. Hubzilla repo: provide content-type matching ability for activitypub (published: 2017-07-18) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  41. Hacker News: zotlabs (published: 2018-03-28) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  42. socialhome repo: 0.1.0 (published: 2017-07-27) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  43. Mastodon repo: v1.6.0rc1 (published: 2017-03-09) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  44. W3C: ActivityPub (published: 2018-01-23) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  45. PeerTube: v1.0.0-beta.1 (published: 2018-03-20) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  46. Misskey repo: 0.0.5018 (published: 2018-04-19) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  47. Zap repo: 57e75d9332 (published: 2018-08-17) (archived: 1 2↩︎ ↩︎

  48. Zap repo: 57e75d9332: boot.php (published: 2018-08-17) (archived: 1 2↩︎ ↩︎

  49. Osada repo: 9ce94bd414 (published: 2018-08-23) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  50. Osada repo: 9ce94bd414: boot.php (published: 2018-08-23) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  51. Pixelfed repo: v0.1.9 (published: 2018-11-03) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  52. WriteFreely repo: v0.1 (published: 2018-11-10) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  53. Friendica: ActivityPub support in Friendica (published: 2018-11-18) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  54. Hubzilla: Hubzilla 4.0 (published: 2019-02-20) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  55. Lemmy v0.0.5 (published: 2019-05-06) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  56. Hometown repo: Hometown v1.0.0 (Mastodon 2.9.3) (published: 2019-08-20) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  57. Zotlabs.org: Osada has been discontinued (published: 2019-09-22) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  58. Zotlabs.org: Supports Zap and ActivityPub (published: 2019-09-22) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  59. Mastodon repo: v3.0.0 (published: 2019-10-04) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  60. socialhome repo: 0.10.0 (published: 2019-10-06) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  61. Pleroma: Releasing Pleroma 2.0.0 (published: 2020-03-08) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  62. PeerTube: v0.0.1 (published: 2020-12-31) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  63. Rebased repo: soapbox-v1.0.0: Merge branch ‘release-1.0’ into ‘develop’ (published: 2021-05-11) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  64. GNU Social repo: v2.0.0beta (published: 2021-07-18) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  65. Guppe Groups repo: First Major Release (published: 2021-11-07) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  66. Akkoma repo: akkoma as it was before rebasing onto the fork (published: 2022-01-29) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  67. Firefish repo: Firefish release! (published: 2022-07-19) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  68. Foundkey repo: 13.0.0-preview1 (published: 2022-08-05) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  69. First instance: karab.in (published: 2022-10-30) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  70. First instance: karab.in (published: 2022-10-30) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  71. DDFON: Ticket #5 ↩︎

  72. AP Groups (first mention): developer update (published: 2022-11-21) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  73. Takahē repo: 0.3.0 (published: 2022-11-24) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  74. Mike Macgirvin: Streams (published: 2022-12-03) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  75. Streams: repo (published: 2022-12-03) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  76. Mozilla: @[email protected] (published: 2023-05-04) (archived: 1 2↩︎

  77. dist://ed: The internet deserves a better answer to social (published: 2023-05-04) (archived: 1 2↩︎

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Yohan Yukiya Sese-Cunetaㆍ사요한・謝雪矢·ᜌᜓᜃᜒIf this is not the end of oblivion, then I shall live everyday as if my life were to end this very day.

The YOOki Chronicles

The YOOki Chronicles is Yohan Yukiya Sese-Cuneta’s return into casual and personal blogging. The name “YOOki” is a mash-up of the acronym of YourOnly.One and my nickname ᜌᜓᜃᜒ (Yuki・雪矢).

Interestingly, according to Chinese legend, (YOO) is an ancient Chinese surname. The ancestors of the surname were closely linked with the ancient sage-king named Yu Shun. In Korea, the (YU) lineage traces to the Xia, Han, and Joseon dynasties. Holders of the surname Yu or Yoo had a reputation for charity and diligence.1

It is also the word for “willow” or the “willow tree” which means graceful or slender; and a tree growing near a body of water which provide continuous nourishment and resources for everyone. It can also mean to exist, an oil (anointment(?)), and simply as “U” (you).

The Hanzi (ki) character means to record, be disciplined, provide order. While the Hangeul equivalent, (ki), means energy, spirit, a banner, and a period of time; and is also a suffix used to make a gerund or an infinitive.

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