Everything to know about Misskey platform

What is Misskey?

Misskey is an advanced interplanetary microblogging platform where users can write, share attachments, communicate, interact, and connect to other services like Mastodon, Pixelfed, and more. Being a decentralized and open-source platform, Misskey enables users to create independent servers and allows them to manage files in one single place. Misskey features a highly customizable UI that makes the platform way more engaging for the users along with a host of other advanced features like cloud storage, reactions, etcetera.

Misskey enables the server owners to make their instances which enables them to communicate with each other. As per the size of the group, Misskey allows users to create instances. From large instances for masses to smaller ones for a group and from fandoms to subcultures, Misskey encompasses instances apt for communities of any magnitude. Misskey allows users to even create individual instances for family & friends. The main essence of Misskey is to create a community built on sharing ideas and information.

How did Misskey come about?

The development of Misskey started in 2014 by syuilo in Japan. From the very beginning, Misskey aimed to incorporate the latest technologies and provide a unique experience to the users. Being an open-source platform, Misskey is continuously under development. During its inception, the framework of Misskey centered around Bulletin Boards. This feature gained further prominence because of the timeline feature that enables users to post short messages and view them in chronological order. Gradually, the focus shifted to developing this functionality. Initially, when started, Misskey was not a decentralized platform. It was the adoption of ActivityPub in 2018 that enabled the decentralization of Misskey. As of today, there are countless users on the platform, and acknowledged by all. Each of these users can now create their instances and communities based on their shared preferences.

Why do we need a platform like Misskey?

 To understand what sets Misskey apart, let us understand the current scenario of social media platforms and the societal or personal challenges they pose for users.

The existing social media platforms are not neutral exchange platforms, meaning, there is a bias towards the paid users. The corporate social network model prioritizes certain profiles over others, certain ads over others, and certain posts over others. Because the total screening time among the major players is divided, the social media platforms decide which ads you can skip and which ones you cannot. And this is precisely why you never hear of your local charity but there is a flurry of emails regarding the best shopping deal of the day. The “Paid-Preference” model of social media creates a knockout race, fuels attention-seeking commerce, and compromises ethics, emotions, and meaningful networking.

Another glaring issue that is plaguing the existing social media platforms is compromising user privacy. Social media platforms monetize your data and your online behavior. They collect sensitive information like browsing history, location, recent searches, and political affiliations, club them into specific profiles and make these profiles available to advertisers at a premium price empowering them to influence the choices of the users in both subtle and crude ways. Such selfish business motives raise fundamental questions like how do we stop succumbing to such global extremes and how to make social media a place to bring people together in the true sense?

Misskey is the answer to all these challenges.

Hosted on the federated universe, also known as fediverse, Misskey offers social media users a transparent, ethical, and decentralized environment to interact & connect. By hosting a plethora of independent servers either through organizations or individuals around the world, each user can set his/her policy as per their community requirement & reputation. Users can interoperate across communities and customize or innovate as per their predilections. All you need to do is download open-source software and start your personal server. And in case, users dislike any server, they can simply block or unfollow with a single tap of a button.

The fediverse is not – in any way – limited to what one corporation wants to achieve. In terms of technology, ethics, and culture, this entails a wider selection in terms of design, usability, and user experience. Every server is its own fully functional social network, with the ability to communicate with other social networks whenever it chooses. Without worrying about their selling of data or their online behavior profiling, users may utilize the fediverse for traditional social networking as well as link it with other services like online video sharing. By enabling users to comprehend and manage who sees their data, moving from closed social networks to the fediverse promotes privacy and trust. In addition to being more robust than any one network could be, the fediverse is a network of social networks.

What sets Misskey apart?

1.  Open Source: Misskey is an open-source software meaning anyone can contribute to upgrading, innovating, or ramifying the platform. It also enables free access to everyone at anytime and anywhere.
2. Federated: If your friends are not on Misskey, you can still connect with them as Misskey allows interoperability across various platforms. Also, the decentralization of Misskey means that users can connect across communities on different instances.
3. Powerful: Misskey features powerful functionality for advanced users and simple & easy-to-use features for beginners.
4. Customizable: Users can personalize Misskey as per their preferences. With themes, layouts, widgets, and a fully customizable UI, users can make Misskey in their own image.

Features:

Misskey has an array of unmatched features that makes the platform user-friendly.

1. Notes: Notes are synonymous with posts. Reply, add quotes, custom emojis, animated texts, multiple gifs, videos, images & audio clips, or any other form of attachment.
2. Federation: Make friends across platforms, communities, or networks like Mastodon & Pixelfed.
3. Reactions: To keep the conversation fun & immersive, users can add emoji reactions and express how they exactly feel.
4. Drive: It features powerful cloud storage where you can upload and save your files for future reference.
5. Theme: Break out from the monotonous light & dark theme and customize Misskey as per your preference. Choose from an array of colors and special themes and bring life to your conversation.
6. Threads: Threads allow users to post longer formats of content. By default, a thread allows users to send up to 3,000 characters.
7. Charts: It allows users to track and monitor the instances in real-time with highly detailed charts for seamless visualization and analysis.
8. Widgets: It offers a plethora of tools and widgets to help speed up your processes.
9. Flexible Posting Functionality: Users can freely configure character limits for each instance.
10. Text Formatting: Misskey Flavored Markdown (MFM) permits the users to embellish the notes and profile to make them look appealing.

Advantages:

 Being a decentralized platform & open-source software, it offers tons of advantages for its users.

1. Customization: Permits the administrators or server owners to select a theme that suits the topic or the community. Users can also make their servers and design the UI according to the theme of the server.
2. Improvements: Allows anyone to make changes, improvements, or upgrades as they like. Developers can freely participate in the development process. Git manages the source code, and its repository is known as GitHub.
3. Adding features & fixing bugs: Users with programming skills can edit the source code and fix bugs or add features as they desire.
4. Participating in discussion: Discussions held on Forums or GitHub are where users can share their opinions on new or existing features and/or report bugs.
5. Translating Text: Misskey uses Crowdin to manage its translation.
6. Sharing Impressions: Apart from reporting bugs, users can share positive impressions and feedback which acts as a source of motivation for the developers.
7. Growing your community: Invite fellow Misskits (Misskey Users) and grow your community.

Misskey Vs Mastodon:

Misskey & Mastodon are two of the most prominent and popular platforms in the fediverse. Of all the interplanetary microblogging platforms, Misskey & Mastodon are somewhat stalwarts and industry-leaders.

But which one should you opt for?

That will depend on your objective. Nonetheless, we have provided a comprehensive comparison between these two platforms to help pick what suits you the best.

• Platforms Supported:

Mastodon has an edge over Misskey as it is supported on not only SaaS/Web but also on iPhone, iPad, & Android.

• Audience:

Misskey is ideal for business purposes whereas Mastodon is more generalized.

• Activity Pub and Growth

Misskey edges Mastodon in terms of growth as you will find a super-specific and niche oriented audience due to its nature.

Misskey GitHub:

To start contributing on Misskey, you need to first create an account on GitHub. Being a for-profit company, GitHub offers a cloud-based Git repository hosting services. It is a code hosting platform that enables version control and collaboration for users and developers. Extremely efficient for storing, tracking and collaborating on software projects, Misskey with GitHub is a match-made in heaven. It acts as a repository and source-code for the platform to function.

Tech Stack:

Misskey’s tech stack has progressed over time gradually as the platform became increasingly prominent. While in the beginning, it used a combination of MySQL + PHP + jQuery, now it uses an advanced tech stack to complement its performance.

Server-side: Node.js

Database: PostgreSQL, Redis

UI Framework: Vue.js

Programming Language: TypeScript

 Misskey also uses MFM or AiScript.

Misskey: The Next Social Media Revolution

It is a free and non-commercial. It earns through volunteering donations. Depending on the magnitude of the instance and its popularity, advertisements generate a fraction of revenue, but the earnings go to the administrator of the servers and not the developers. It is these donations accepted via Patreon that make it possible for the developers to continue development. By donating a certain amount, users can get their names featured on the About Us page and keep the Misskey ecosystem of server owners and developers functioning.

Misskey is revolutionizing social media & microblogging platforms as we speak, one user at a time. To stay in tune with the latest in Martech, follow this space!