Has anyone ever considered attempting a potential federated alternative to the major witchcraft and coven websites and communities?
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I’ve noticed that most online spaces for witches and covens—like:
Witchcraft Academy Coven (Patreon),
Various Discord/Facebook groups,
etc.
—are centralized or rely on closed platforms.
Even the more “community” oriented ones, such as WitchBook or PaganSquare, are siloed and not interoperable with each other.
Given the rise of the Fediverse and its ability to host decentralized, community-driven platforms (Mastodon for microblogging, Pleroma for lightweight social feeds, PixelFed for image sharing, Lemmy for Reddit, PeerTube for video, etc.), has anyone ever thought about potentially attempting a federated network specifically for witches, covens, and pagan practitioners?
Some possible use cases:
Federated coven “instances” where each group can moderate its own space but still connect with others
Resource sharing (spells, rituals, book clubs, event calendars) via ActivityPub
Privacy and inclusion features for marginalized practitioners
Integration with platforms like PixelFed for sharing altar photos, PeerTube for ritual videos, and Mastodon/Pleroma for discussions and announcements
Does anyone know of any ongoing projects like this, or have thoughts on how such a network could be structured?
What challenges do you foresee (moderation, privacy, drama, etc.), and what features would be most valuable to the witch/pagan community?
I’d love to try building or contributing to something like this, but unfortunately I lack the ability and energy.
Still, I think the idea is worth discussing.
-
I’ve noticed that most online spaces for witches and covens—like:
Witchcraft Academy Coven (Patreon),
Various Discord/Facebook groups,
etc.
—are centralized or rely on closed platforms.
Even the more “community” oriented ones, such as WitchBook or PaganSquare, are siloed and not interoperable with each other.
Given the rise of the Fediverse and its ability to host decentralized, community-driven platforms (Mastodon for microblogging, Pleroma for lightweight social feeds, PixelFed for image sharing, Lemmy for Reddit, PeerTube for video, etc.), has anyone ever thought about potentially attempting a federated network specifically for witches, covens, and pagan practitioners?
Some possible use cases:
Federated coven “instances” where each group can moderate its own space but still connect with others
Resource sharing (spells, rituals, book clubs, event calendars) via ActivityPub
Privacy and inclusion features for marginalized practitioners
Integration with platforms like PixelFed for sharing altar photos, PeerTube for ritual videos, and Mastodon/Pleroma for discussions and announcements
Does anyone know of any ongoing projects like this, or have thoughts on how such a network could be structured?
What challenges do you foresee (moderation, privacy, drama, etc.), and what features would be most valuable to the witch/pagan community?
I’d love to try building or contributing to something like this, but unfortunately I lack the ability and energy.
Still, I think the idea is worth discussing.
online spaces for witches and covens
Dare I ask what this means? Is it a LARP thing? Assuming you just want a social community tool then what's wrong with the existing options? If you want it private then something like revolt or matrix; and if you want it public then something like lemmy or mastodon, maybe with a defederate-by-default attitude so you're only connecting to other similarly-focused instances.
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online spaces for witches and covens
Dare I ask what this means? Is it a LARP thing? Assuming you just want a social community tool then what's wrong with the existing options? If you want it private then something like revolt or matrix; and if you want it public then something like lemmy or mastodon, maybe with a defederate-by-default attitude so you're only connecting to other similarly-focused instances.
I added links to the spaces.
But, basically, they're spaces for Pagans, Wiccans, Witches, etc.
Places where they can practice their beliefs/religions, sell items (i.e homemade clothing, soap, ritual items, herbs, jewlery, etc.), without abuse, harassment, people attempting to proslytize to them, etc.
-
I’ve noticed that most online spaces for witches and covens—like:
Witchcraft Academy Coven (Patreon),
Various Discord/Facebook groups,
etc.
—are centralized or rely on closed platforms.
Even the more “community” oriented ones, such as WitchBook or PaganSquare, are siloed and not interoperable with each other.
Given the rise of the Fediverse and its ability to host decentralized, community-driven platforms (Mastodon for microblogging, Pleroma for lightweight social feeds, PixelFed for image sharing, Lemmy for Reddit, PeerTube for video, etc.), has anyone ever thought about potentially attempting a federated network specifically for witches, covens, and pagan practitioners?
Some possible use cases:
Federated coven “instances” where each group can moderate its own space but still connect with others
Resource sharing (spells, rituals, book clubs, event calendars) via ActivityPub
Privacy and inclusion features for marginalized practitioners
Integration with platforms like PixelFed for sharing altar photos, PeerTube for ritual videos, and Mastodon/Pleroma for discussions and announcements
Does anyone know of any ongoing projects like this, or have thoughts on how such a network could be structured?
What challenges do you foresee (moderation, privacy, drama, etc.), and what features would be most valuable to the witch/pagan community?
I’d love to try building or contributing to something like this, but unfortunately I lack the ability and energy.
Still, I think the idea is worth discussing.
I think independent social media like the Fediverse has uses with any group who would appreciate local control and free expression. I think the witchy community would fit that bill. I am unaware of any projects about it. At a certain point of users it would be inevitable just need someone connected enough to get it started.
Unrelated but I figured at a some point sex workers would flock here. Locally controlled by sex workers for sex workers would be a huge sell because they can't be kicked off by arbitrary rules.
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online spaces for witches and covens
Dare I ask what this means? Is it a LARP thing? Assuming you just want a social community tool then what's wrong with the existing options? If you want it private then something like revolt or matrix; and if you want it public then something like lemmy or mastodon, maybe with a defederate-by-default attitude so you're only connecting to other similarly-focused instances.
Wicca, witchcraft, and similar are generally are types of legitimate religions. I personally belong to a coven despite the fact that I'm atheist. These types of groups are generally focused more on community and connecting with the natural world than the supernatural or gods like modern monotheistic religions. Though many practice spells and other supernaturally rooted ceremonies similar to how many Christians prey, use rosaries, or take communion which are all types of supernatural ceremonies. And most have a huge amount of traditions from "pagan" religions to choose from to practice and have very little strict dogma forcing them to be prejudiced or exclusionary, so they tend to attract a wide variety of interesting people and thus have to be very welcoming of those who are less conformant like neurodivergent people, LGBTQ+ people, ethically non-monogamous people, etc. Many of whom are excluded from most modern monotheistic religious communities.
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I think independent social media like the Fediverse has uses with any group who would appreciate local control and free expression. I think the witchy community would fit that bill. I am unaware of any projects about it. At a certain point of users it would be inevitable just need someone connected enough to get it started.
Unrelated but I figured at a some point sex workers would flock here. Locally controlled by sex workers for sex workers would be a huge sell because they can't be kicked off by arbitrary rules.
Frankly, I don't think the privacy model of the fediverse is workable at all and it doesn't seem to be developed and maintained by people who understand or care about safety. The centralized systems are much safer for users because you only have to trust the admins of the centralized servers.
Fediverse's Achilles heel is trust and all the convo and discussion about it is extremely dismissive and superficial about the realities of how the centralized systems became they way they are--much safer against stalking and mobs. Fediverse mostly gets away with this by being small and fringe.
The fundamental flaw is laid bare every time a site defederates another about because of safety issues. It's a tacit concession that the federation model and implementation is not safe. If you have to defederate everyone to ensure user safety, then why bother with the fediverse in the first place? This is the core problem with the fediverse as it exists today.
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