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c/fediverse · by deadsuperhero@lemmy.ml · 344d

Wafrn is for People Who Miss Tumblr’s Chaotic Energy

https://wedistribute.org/2025/10/wafrn-chaotic-good/

For those seeking out a federated and open alternative to Tumblr, Wafrn is looking extremely promising. It can speak both ActivityPub and AT Protocol, offers a ton of interesting features and customization, and focuses on making an incredibly fun experience.

60 points · 14 comments · view on lemmy.world

14 Comments

drspawndisaster@sh.itjust.works · 9 pts · 344d (6 replies)

All I want is to return to Tumblr but without the corpo bullshit

ThorrJo@lemmy.sdf.org · 3 pts · 344d (5 replies)

Did you see Automattic is in the process of rolling out a split from "notes" into likes, reblogs, and comments? 🤢

deadsuperhero@lemmy.ml · 3 pts · 344d (2 replies)

That might be more related to what they're doing with the WordPress-ActivityPub integration, as a way to work around some of the weird limitations WordPress has for representing notifications and activities other than comments. It's fairly standard for Fediverse stuff.

deadsuperhero@lemmy.ml · 3 pts · 344d (1 reply)

Oh, I misunderstood, I didn't realize this related to Tumblr specifically...

Still, it might make some of the dev work easier, if they do end up migrating the backend over to WordPress.

ThorrJo@lemmy.sdf.org · 1 pts · 343d

They could do it on the back end and leave it as "notes" on the front end, though.

Switching out notes for a Twitter-like UI ruins something which made Tumblr Tumblr.

Comments on their post about it are about 99:1 against, but they're not gonna switch back.

railway692@piefed.zip · 3 pts · 344d (1 reply)

Last I heard from Automattic, they were putting the Fediverse conversion on indefinite hiatus.

Is your news saying they're starting up again ?

ThorrJo@lemmy.sdf.org · 1 pts · 343d

No, Wafrn is completely separate from Tumblr. And as far as I know the horrible redesign to make "notes" more like Twitter has nothing to do with the Tumblr-on-Wordpress/ActivityPub migration, which last I knew was indeed shelved.

csolisr@hub.azkware.net · 7 pts · 344d (3 replies)

@deadsuperhero

Two questions: how well does it handle Lemmy groups? And can it follow RSS feeds directly in some way? If so, I'm tempted to move from Friendica to WAFRN

deadsuperhero@lemmy.ml · 7 pts · 344d (2 replies)
  1. From what I can tell, there have been successful tests with posting to the Threadiverse. I'm not sure how good this experience actually is on Wafrn yet, but it's promising: https://community.nodebb.org/topic/5fa12345-e4ff-4da3-8a95-d1ef1c4bd186/wafrn-a-tumblr-clone-that-federates-with-fedi-and-now-also-has-opt-in-native-bluesky/
  2. I don't think it will natively support RSS anytime soon. It's not a bad idea, but I've only seen platforms from the Friendica family tree and maybe Emissary supporting this. That being said, a lot of publications are on the Fediverse or Bluesky, and it's not too complicated to set up an RSS bot?
deadsuperhero@lemmy.ml · 6 pts · 344d (1 reply)

This is what the thread looks like on Wafrn's side: https://app.wafrn.net/fediverse/post/39562254-048e-4224-8445-36bba052ea91

csolisr@hub.azkware.net · 3 pts · 343d

Good to know, but I think I'll need to develop the questions a bit to explain my expectations.

  1. On most of the other Fediverse apps I've used (Mastodon, Akkoma, Iceshrimp), Lemmy threads are not actually threaded on the home timeline, instead showing every single individual reply as a separate repost. Friendica does manage threads properly, showing the original post and its replies as a single group. Does WAFRN do the former or the latter?
  2. I could technically use a RSS-to-AP bridge, but in my particular case it would almost certainly be considered an abuse of the terms of service: I use RSS feeds to follow YouTube channels, over 1500 of them to be exact. Even if I spun my own local bridge server, that would mean 1500 local accounts to manually generate and follow from my main account just for the sake of notifications. Add 1500 more of those if the software doesn't support Bluesky natively and I need to follow their RSS feeds instead.
ArchmageAzor@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 343d

"Stop telling people I'm dead!" - Tumblr, probably

SuperDuperKitten@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 3 pts · 343d

Hope this means we eventually get The Sims modding scene to the Fediverse as dispute them loving Tumblr, I always find it clunky to try find CCs

Battle_Masker@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 0 pts · 344d

not to be pessimistic, but I don't see this working. I've seen several alt socials fizzle out and die cause people who want to come refuse to build it