Unifying the Fediverse

Why are there so many separate platforms in the Fediverse like Mastodon, Lemmy, PixelFed, and PeerTube? It feels like they could all be part of one unified platform.

Posts

Text, images, and videos could just be treated as posts, all with comments enabled.

• Servers that don’t want to host videos could just have a setting to turn off video uploads.
  • That would let PeerTube function like Mastodon when video support isn't needed.

Lemmy + Mastodon + PixelFed

They all do basically the same thing — let people post stuff. So why split them up?

Forums can still work like Lemmy. If you want your post in a forum, cool. If not, that’s fine too.

Matrix + Posts

• As for messaging, I think Matrix could benefit from Signal-style encryption. Each message should be encrypted with a unique key, just like Signal does.

• Add a button like “See recent posts by this user” on profiles.
  • This would make it easier for people to switch over from Instagram or Facebook.

plugin-based development

I also think the Fediverse could grow faster if it were plugin-based, kind of like how Obsidian handles plugins. Development would be more modular and flexible.

• Servers could choose which plugins to enable.

• Devs could collaborate instead of reinventing the wheel across platforms like Mastodon, Lemmy, PixelFed, PeerTube, etc.
• This would create a richer, more customizable ecosystem that evolves together.

Questions

Also, just a question from someone who’s not a coder:

Why not just copy Signal’s encryption model?

Summarize

Each user can create posts (with or without a forum), follow forums, follow other users, have private chats, and join encrypted rooms.

This is just some personal rambling, so feel free to ignore it. But if any of it sounds useful, please share it with other people, especially the developers.