SoMe Taxonomy

What are we talking about when we say "Social Media"?

MakerFLOSS · May 2026

Why a Taxonomy?

"Social Media" is a catch-all term that hides very different tools:

  • A group chat is not a blog
  • A wiki is not a forum
  • A video platform is not a microblog

Understanding the categories helps us:

  • Choose the right tool for the job
  • Find FLOSS alternatives in each category

The Categories

Category Purpose
Messaging 1:1 and group real-time chat
Microblogging Short public posts, feeds
Forums Threaded discussions, Q&A
Wikis Collaborative knowledge bases
Media Sharing Photos, videos, audio
Professional Networks Career, business connections
Collaboration Team workspaces, documents

Messaging

Real-time 1:1 and group communication

Platform Owner FLOSS Alternative
WhatsApp Meta Signal, Matrix
Messenger Meta Matrix, XMPP
iMessage Apple Signal
Google Messages Google Matrix
Telegram Telegram Matrix, Signal
Teams Chat Microsoft Mattermost, Rocket.Chat
Slack Salesforce Mattermost, Zulip

Microblogging

Short posts, public feeds, social networking

Platform Owner FLOSS Alternative
Twitter/X X Corp Mastodon, Pleroma
Threads Meta Mastodon
Bluesky Bluesky Mastodon (federated)

All FLOSS alternatives use ActivityPub or similar federation protocols.

Forums & Discussion

Threaded discussions, communities, Q&A

Platform Owner FLOSS Alternative
Reddit Reddit Inc Lemmy, Kbin
Facebook Groups Meta Discourse, Lemmy
Stack Overflow Stack Exchange Discourse
Quora Quora Inc Discourse

Wikis & Knowledge Bases

Collaborative documentation and knowledge sharing

Platform Owner FLOSS Alternative
Wikipedia Wikimedia MediaWiki (same!)
Notion Notion Labs Wiki.js, BookStack
Confluence Atlassian Wiki.js, XWiki
Google Docs (collab) Google Etherpad, HedgeDoc

Media Sharing

Photos, videos, audio, streaming

Platform Type FLOSS Alternative
YouTube Video PeerTube
Instagram Photos Pixelfed
TikTok Short video PeerTube
Spotify Audio Funkwhale
Twitch Live stream Owncast
Flickr Photos Pixelfed

Professional Networks

Career networking, business connections

Platform Owner FLOSS Alternative
LinkedIn Microsoft OpenSocialLinked?
Xing New Work SE (no clear alternative)

This category has the weakest FLOSS alternatives — network effects are hard to overcome.

Collaboration & Productivity

Team workspaces, project management

Platform Owner FLOSS Alternative
Microsoft Teams Microsoft Mattermost, Rocket.Chat
Slack Salesforce Mattermost, Zulip
Trello Atlassian Wekan, Kanboard
Asana Asana OpenProject
Google Workspace Google Nextcloud

Legacy / Classic

Still around, still relevant

Platform Type Notes
Email Messaging The original! Federated by design
NetNews (NNTP) Forums Usenet — the original Reddit
IRC Messaging Still used by many FLOSS projects
Mailing Lists Forums Listserv, Mailman — still going strong
RSS Feeds Subscribe to anything

The Big Picture

Messaging Microblog Forums Media
WhatsApp Twitter/X Reddit YouTube
Messenger Threads FB Groups Instagram
Signal Mastodon Lemmy PeerTube
Matrix Bluesky Discourse Pixelfed
Wikis Professional Collaboration Legacy
Wikipedia LinkedIn Teams/Slack Email
Notion Xing Mattermost IRC
Wiki.js Nextcloud NetNews

Key Takeaways

  1. "Social Media" is not one thing — it's many categories
  2. Each category has FLOSS alternatives — some better than others
  3. Federation is the key — ActivityPub, Matrix, Email
  4. Network effects are the barrier — the tech exists, adoption is hard
  5. Legacy protocols still work — Email, IRC, RSS are battle-tested

Questions?

Slides made with Marp