This might be a bit of a niche thought, but I’ve been wondering: is it just me, or has anyone else ever thought about how cool (and possibly important) it would be to have a federated alternative to platforms like Giphy and Tenor?

These platforms are everywhere—embedded into our keyboards, messaging apps, social media tools—but they’re centralized, proprietary, and often raise questions around privacy, data mining, and corporate consolidation of internet culture.

In the age of the Fediverse, where we’re seeing federated replacements for Twitter (Mastodon), Reddit (Lemmy), YouTube (PeerTube), Instagram (Pixelfed), etc., it seems like the next logical step would be a federated GIF repository and search engine.

Imagine a platform where communities could host and share GIFs in a decentralized way. Artists could upload and tag their own content, instances could have their own moderation rules, and apps could tap into the federation to serve GIFs without relying on corporate APIs.

It could even potentially extend beyond GIFs into stickers, short looping videos, meme formats, etc.

That said—I’d absolutely love to attempt something like this, but I’ll be honest: I just don’t currently have the knowledge, time, or energy to build such a project myself.

Still, I can’t shake the feeling that this could be a valuable addition to the wider Fediverse ecosystem.

So I wanted to put this out there and ask:

Has anyone ever considered/already started working on something like this?

Are there any existing tools or protocols that could make this easier to develop?

What kind of features would you want to see in a federated GIF platform?

Curious to hear your thoughts.

  • catloaf@lemm.eeEnglish
    0·
    18 hours ago

    What is the point of repeatedly making these posts, when you have no intention of actually doing any work to implement them, and hardly even engage with people who reply? I feel like all you’re doing is sapping the time from people who do engage.

    • Teknevra@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      0·
      17 hours ago

      I do engage.

      I just happen to have a busy life.

      I just like to toss out ideas that I think of for other users/potential developers to potentially use, if they wish to.

      • catloaf@lemm.eeEnglish
        0·
        17 hours ago

        Ideas are cheap. “(site) but federated” isn’t novel, and in a lot of cases you don’t really even explain what that looks like, and I can’t make it make sense either.

        We all live busy lives. I wrote the last comment on the bus, I’m writing this one from the toilet. If you want to contribute to the fediverse, great! Set aside time and contribute to a project, either by extending existing ones or starting your own. There are plenty of minor bugs that need fixing, and if you are proficient in any languages, translations are always needed, no coding skill required.