socialweb

SNS, Social Media Terminologies Explained

Explaining each and every social network terms.

JC John Sese Cuneta 사요한 謝雪矢 @sera.is.youronly.one

Feb 12, 2026 · 10 min read

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Have you come across terms like "Social Web", "Mycelial Web", "Fediverse", "Threadiverse", "Mycelium network", "Nostr", "ATproto", "ActivityPub", and "DDFON"? They can sound quite techie and confusing, why don't we demystify them!

Last update: 2026-02-12 08:15 UTC+8

(in alphabetical order)

ActivityPub (AP): The protocol behind the Fediverse network, recommended by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) since 2018–01–13.
ATmosphere: A friendly name for the entire network built on top of ATproto. ¹ ²
ATproto: The protocol that powers the ATmosphere network, often incorrectly referred to as Bluesky.
Blockchain: A cryptographic ledger, popularized by cryptocurrencies, and also used in DDFON SNS like Audius (music), Hive (content), and Verasity (video).
Bluesky: The first public server powered by the ATproto protocol, commonly but inaccurately used to refer to the entire ATmosphere network. Bluesky is only one of many ATproto servers. (see also: ATmosphere)
DDFON: Stands for “Decentralised, Distributed, Federated, Open Network” ﹘ a term I coined in 2011, ³ ⁴ also known as "mycelial web".
diaspora*: The name of the protocol that powers The Federation network.
DID: The "Decentralised IDentity" is a permanent, digital "serial number" that is unique per user, it acts as a universal identifier that remains the same even if a user moves to a different service.
Fediverse: The friendly name for the network using the ActivityPub protocol and its predecessors (OStatus (2010–2020), OpenMicroBlogging (2008–2010)). Coined by Mark Eckenwiler in 2012-05-25 and by Marjolein Katsma in 2013-01-24. ⁵ ⁶ ⁷
Handle: A friendly username that serves as an easy-to-remember nickname online instead of a complex ID. In other networks, like the ATmosphere, a handle can be updated anytime as an account is associated with its permanent DID, not the handle.
Identiverse: The original name for the Fediverse network, coined by Luke Slater in 2010-03-14. ⁸ ⁹
Jabber: A federated instant messaging network, the first DDFON. The name was dropped in favour of the term XMPP.
Mastodon®: A Fediverse software using the ActivityPub protocol, incorrectly used to refer to the entire Fediverse network. It is a registered trademark that should only be used within the context of the Mastodon® software.
Matrix: An IRC-like federated messaging platform similar to XMPP, serving as both the protocol and the network name.
Mycelium [network]: A network of fungal threads in nature, applied to tech networks like the Fediverse, ATmosphere, and Nostr networks. Originally suggested to replace the term Fediverse but redefined in 2022.
Mycelial Web: Multiple networks of fungal threads (mycelium) is called mycelia or mycelial. In tech, mycelial is the umbrella term for mycelium networks like XMPP, Fediverse, Matrix, Nostr, and ATmosphere; a friendly name for DDFON.
Nostr: It is a protocol that powers the NOSTRich network.; The name stands for Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays.
NOSTRich: The friendly name of the network powered by the Nostr protocol.
OpenMicroBlogging: The first protocol of the Fediverse from 2008–2010.
OStatus: The Fediverse protocol, active from 2010–2020. ¹⁰
PDS: "Personal Digital Store", a system for capturing a lifetime of personal documents and media. First described by Bell and Gemmell for the MyLifeBits project at Microsoft Research. ¹¹; "Personal Data Store", a citizen-empowering personal data infrastructure—defined by Mydex in their September 2010 white paper ¹², and established as a global standard by the World Economic Forum ¹³. Project Danube was a reference implementation of a PDS while also federated to the Fediverse network (2010–2013). ¹⁴; The ATproto "Personal Data Server", is a modern implementation of a PDS specific for the protocol.
Secure Scuttlebutt (SSB): A cryptographic network where content is shared only with followers.
Semantic Web: One of the original meanings of Web3.0, where the web becomes capable of analyzing all the data on the Web—the content, links, and transactions between people and computers through W3C standards.
SNS (Social Networking Service): The original term for social media, still commonly used in Korea and the Asia-Pacific region.
Social Media: The term for SNS in English-speaking countries.
Social Web: Also known as Web3 or Web3.0, it promotes an open, interoperable web instead of closed silos. It is about building platforms that interoperate through federation and bridges, while ensuring resiliency through distribution and decentralization. ¹⁵ ¹⁶ ¹⁷ ¹⁸ It is the same as "Open Social Web" and "Open Social", and is a very broad term that goes beyond DDFON. ¹⁹ ²⁰ ²¹ ²²
The Federation: The name of the network running on the diaspora* protocol.
Threadiverse: Refers to threaded Fediverse platforms like Lemmy, Kbin, and Mbin.; In Korea, it refers specifically to Meta's Threads platform with Fediverse integration. ²³
Web3.0: Refers to Semantic Web as coined by Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee in 2006. ²⁴; Also refers to the social web Le Web3 conference in France in 2007 and earlier. ¹⁶ ¹⁷ ¹⁸; It was also later used to refer to blockchain technology ²⁵ as defined by Gavin Wood in 2014. ²⁶
Web3: Initially coined for the social web conference in 2007 by Loic Le Meur. ¹⁶¹⁷¹⁸; It was also later used for blockchain technology ²⁵ as defined by Gavin Wood in 2014. ²⁶
XMPP (eXtensible Messaging and Presence Protocol): The first federated instant messaging platform, originally named Jabber.

Cover image: "People Network" by liftarn; Openclipart Public Domain.

Mycelial Web chat image: To the extent possible under law, I'M YourOnly.One has waived all copyright and related or neighbouring rights to Mycelial Web in action. This work is published from Philippines.

«SNS, Social Media Terminologies Explained» was first published on techmagus on 2024-06-10 at 00:25 UTC+8; and first written on 2024-06-05 at 08:28 UTC+8.

«Guhit Dalisay (구힛 달리사이): The Wayfarer's Frozen Codex» © 2026 Yohan Yukiya Sese Cuneta.
License: Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC-BY-SA-4.0), except otherwise noted.

Footnotes

Kuba Suder: There’s also the unofficial name “Atmosphere” or “ATmosphere” that some people use for the whole network built on top of ATProto (published: 2024-06-10) (archived 2024-06-10: 1 2) ↩
Paul “Frazee”: from:pfrazee.com atmosphere (archived 2024-06-10: 1 2) ↩
Yahuhanan Yukiya Sese Cuneta: Maybe this map can be useful to the #DDFON community? Initial target market perhaps? (published: 2011–10–15) (archived 2024–06–09: 1 2) ↩
Yahuhanan Yukiya Sese Cuneta: And good night Decentralized, Distributed, Federated, Open, Network! (published: 2011–11–10) (archived 2024–06–09: 1 2) ↩
Mark Eckenwiler: Fully accessible from my part of the fediverse (published: 2012–05–25) (archived: 1 2) ↩
Marjolein Katsma: good morning / #tzag #identiverse / fediverse :) (published: 2013–01–24) (archived: 1) ↩
Twitter search: (fediverse) until:2013–01–31 since:2006–01–01 (archived: 1 2) ↩
Luke Slater: Time for bed. Goodnight Identiverse. Thank you for existing! (published: 2010–03–14) (archived: 1) ↩
identi.ca: Notices tagged with identiverse (archived: 1) ↩
Pleroma: Releasing Pleroma 2.0.0 (published: 2020-03-08) (archived: 1 2) ↩
Communications of the ACM: A personal digital store ↩
Mydex: The case for personal information empowerment - the rise of the personal data store - A Mydex white paper September 2010 ↩
World Economic Forum: Personal Data: The Emergence of a New Asset Class ↩
W3C: Project Danube (via wakest) ↩
Jesse Stay: Just finished blogging about "the Social Web" (aka Web 3.0): http://tinyurl.com/yv7qs5 (published: 2007–05–31) (archived 2024–06–07: 1 2) ↩
Loic Le Meur: merci pour le post sur les tarifs du Web3... faudra que je fasse un podcast la dessus un de ces 4 (published: 2007–09–20) (archived 2024–06–07: 1 2) ↩ ↩² ↩³
Loic Le Meur: going to bed with my 400 000 euros budget proposal for Le Web3 wifi proposal from one of a top wifi netwoks... can't believe it (published: 2007–10–26) (archived 2024–06–07: 1 2) ↩ ↩² ↩³
Loic Le Meur: made Le Web3 wiki up at http://leweb3events.pbwiki.com/ (published: 2007–12–10) (archived 2024–06–07: 1 2) ↩ ↩² ↩³
Wikipedia: OpenSocial ↩
W3C: OpenSocial Foundation Moves Standards Work to W3C Social Web Activity ↩
W3C: W3C Launches Push for Social Web Application Interoperability ↩
W3C: Social Web Working Group ↩
앱타쿠: The word 'Threadiverse' I think korean users in fediverse use this word very popular. What you talked to me like Kbin, lemmy, mbin etc are very unpopular in korea( cause we already have too many major bulletin board websites) and that's why 'Threads + Fediverse = Threadiverse' is popular in korea (published: 2024–06–05) (archived 2024–06–07: 1 2) ↩
New York Times: A 'more revolutionary' Web (published: 2006–05–23) (archived 2024–06–07: 1 2) ↩
W3C: Design Issues (published: 2017-10-31) (archived 2024-09-27: 1) ↩ ↩²
Wikipedia: Web3 (published: 2024–05–25) (archived 2024–06–07: 1 2) ↩ ↩²

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