Patchwork is a little like a classic lego kit - a lot of pieces that can be arranged in various ways to produce unique outcomes. But there are themes throughout all the technology - community, connectivity & safety.

Patchwork can be deployed by anyone - organisations, groups or individuals - if they’re new to the Fediverse or old hands. Below, we outline how the different lego bricks can fit together in ways that can work for you.

Organisations

Patchwork is built with organisations in mind. We’re committed to developing tools to help socially beneficial organisations to reap the unique opportunities of the open social web and break free from enclosed, toxic platforms.

We want to work together with organisations to create tools that work for them. So if something is missing, let us know and we can build it together.

A Patchwork server is flexible and can be deployed in different contexts for different purposes but the fundamentally, Patchwork offers:

• Control - A space under your control and networked with the wider social web. You control your website, why let Big Tech control your relationships?

• Features - A rich, sophisticated social experience for your people whoever they are - teams, collaborators, subscribers, supporters, readers, volunteers, activists, and more.

• Community - Tools to cultivate and grow community connections both on your server and in the wider social web.

• Fine tuning - Advanced controls to fine tune and manage your server, including what66

• Discovery - Make content streams from your server highly discoverable on Mastodon, Bluesky, Threads and beyond, while allowing your people to explore the network with ease.

Journalists & media

Take control of distribution back from Big Tech. Tell your stories your way and turn readers into subscribers by growing your community.

Example use - turn readers into subscribers with tiers of access:

Broadcast - Patchwork offers an easy way to establish yourself in a growing and dynamic market - the social web - and helps you to broadcast your message to Mastodon, Threads, Bluesky & beyond by creating a Channel.

Community - Channels offer new ways to bring a high-engagement audience closer into your orbit. You can bring your readers and writers together in one social space, offering exclusive content, customisable permissions and new ways to get involved.

Amplify - The Amplifier Hub gives your team member’s profiles tags that increases their search visibility in the social web so news junkies can find journalists quickly and get reliable information easily.

Scalable - In the future, Patchwork will be deployable as a live blog and capable of supporting online and in person events.

Use case:

Academic institutions

Build a collegiate environment with dedicated spaces for teams, collaboration with outside partners, conference networking and information feeds.

Example use - Build support networks among early career researchers:

Community - Bring PhD students and postdocs together in communal, interdisciplinary & specialised environments, all in the same platform, to support each other and improve the resilience of your research community.

Share - Create opportunities to raise the profile of your hubs and clusters by sharing the dynamism of your researchers through Channels.

Connect - Link your server to other institutions, and create opportunities for spontaneous breakthrough and insight through peer to peer knowledge sharing.

Amplify - The Amplifier Hub gives your team member’s profiles tags that increases their visibility in the social web so their expertise and voices are given a boost.

Use case:

I run a Mastodon or Fediverse server for others

Patchwork offers a great set of building blocks for you to set up a new server or upgrade your existing one more powerful. These tools will help:

• Improve user retention & engagement
• Enrich your user’s experience
• Foster greater community and togetherness on your server

Example use - Server for individuals around the world with a common interest to network and share:

Customise - Tailor your space to your community’s needs - With or without Bluesky or Threads; explicit or SFW; Fight spam more effectively.

Features - Long posts, local posts, draft, schedule, markdown, your users can have a richer experience.

A lab for exploration - Users on your server can browse, follow and join Channels and Lists from the Fediverse, helping them join communities across the social web.

Boost your server’s discoverability - Curate and share content streams from your server with the rest of the network as Channels or Lists, with options for people on other servers to join the conversation.

Keep what works - Hooks make it easy for any app to become compatible with a Patchwork server and access all the unique features on offer. This means your users can keep using their preferred gateway to the Fediverse and not change a thing.

Connect with your users - Improve user retainment with onboarding emails; Update your community with regular newsletters; Use analytics to identify patterns and trends to improve your community’s experience.

Use case:

I run a Mastodon / Fediverse server just for me

Patchwork offers a great set of building blocks for you to set up a new server or make your existing one more powerful. These tools will help you:

• Make your space the way you want it.
• Control how you posts are shared with the Fediverse and social web.
• Turn your server into a lab for discovery and exploration.

Example use - Individual who uses Mastodon to gather information and share their blog.

Get your space just right - With or without Bluesky or Threads; explicit or SFW; Block spam more effectively.

More ways to post - With long posts, local posts, draft, scheduling, and markdown, you can craft your posts with precision and blog directly from your server.

A lab for exploration - Browse, follow and join Channels and Lists from the Fediverse, and join communities across the social web.

Boost your discoverability - Share dedicated content streams like updates or blogs with the whole social web through Channels or Lists, with options for people on other servers to engage.

Keep what works - Use your app of choice and still get everything Patchwork has to offer. Hooks make it easy for app developers to bring Patchwork’s features into their UI.