11 years ago today, Ryan Barrett (https://snarfed.org/ @schnarfed) launched Bridgy (https://brid.gy/) to copy #socialmedia replies as comments on original blog posts.

This meant those of us building #IndieWeb sites could use a service for that functionality, instead of having to write code ourselves, for each proprietary API.

When a few of us originally started syndicating to silos (https://indieweb.org/POSSE), and sometimes reverse-syndicating replies (https://indieweb.org/backfeed), we had to write custom code to do so, calling each social media API (like Twitter) both ways.

Bridgy alleviated some of that burden, and over time added support for more silos, sometimes dropping support when they were shutdown (Google+, Buzz) or scuttled their APIs (Facebook).

While Bridgy started only with backfeed as a service, it eventually added publishing support, POSSE as a service.

Even though I already had code working to POSSE text notes to Twitter, when I added photo posting support to my site, rather than write more code to call Twitter’s API, I started conditionally using Bridgy Publish to POSSE my photo (and video) posts.

In 2017, Ryan launched Bridgy Fed (https://fed.brid.gy) which he has substantially improved in the past few months.

I and many others now use Bridgy Fed to broadcast to & interact with Mastodon (and other ActivityPub) servers, without having to write any ActivityPub, Webfinger etc. code ourselves.

https://tantek.com/2022/301/t1/twittermigration-bridgyfed-mastodon-indieweb

Every user of Bridgy Fed gets a nice dashboard for notifications and activity. Here’s mine: https://fed.brid.gy/user/tantek.com

Bridgy is a great example of a project that was started to fulfill a personal need (https://indieweb.org/make_what_you_need), growing to support broader community needs.

Read more about Bridgy & Bridgy Fed:
* https://indieweb.org/Bridgy (including Publish)
* https://indieweb.org/Bridgy_Fed
* Launch post: https://snarfed.org/2012-01-08_bridgy_launched

It’s this hybrid of encouraging personally relevant work and community contributions that makes the #IndieWeb community special.

Yes there is a focus on greater independence with your personal website. However we can all do more by working together.

We achieve more independence, more quickly, by collaborating in community.

This is day 8 of #100DaysOfIndieWeb #100Days.

← Day 7: https://tantek.com/2023/007/t2/more-100daysofindieweb-projects
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