Glossary of terms

Funkwhale glossary

Pod: A pod is an instance of Funkwhale running on a server. Pods can communicate with one another across the Fediverse.
Authenticated: Users who have an account on a Funkwhale pod. These users provide their authentication information when accessing content.
Anonymous: Users who do not have an account on a Funkwhale pod. These users don’t provide any authentication when accessing content.
Permissions: Additional rights that an administrator/moderator can grant to a user. Permissions grant access to menus and actions in Funkwhale.

Available permissions:

Moderation – Grants access to the Moderation menu. Enables the user to moderate users, domains, and the allow-list.
Manage library – Grants access to the Library menu. Enables the user to make changes to library content. This includes deleting local objects and handling edit suggestions.
Manage instance-level settings – Grants access to the Settings menu. Enables the user to make changes to pod-level settings such as security settings and API behavior.

Report categories: The different types of report a person can submit to your pod.

Available categories:

Takedown request – allow users to request content be removed from your pod.
Invalid metadata – allow users to inform moderators about incorrect metadata on content.
Illegal content – allow users to flag content as illegal.
Offensive content – allow users to flag offensive or hurtful content to moderators.
Other – allow users to submit reports that don’t fit into the above categories.

Fediverse: A term used to refer to a collection of federated (interconnected) servers. These servers run software that enables users to publish and host their own content.
Podcatcher: A podcatcher is a piece of software that can read podcast feeds. Podcatchers enable listeners to follow and listen to podcast content.

Plugin: A plugin is a piece of software that extends the functionality of another piece of software.
Scrobbling: Scrobbling is the act of recording listen data. Services use this information to keep track of listening preferences and recommend music.

User: A person with an account on a Funkwhale server or ActivityPub-enabled platform.
Object: A collection of information - formatted as JSON-LD - that represents entities such as content, users, or activities performed in Funkwhale. See the ActivityPub specification for more details.
Activity: A verb that describes an action targeting an Object. This informs the receiving server what it needs to do with the object. For example: Create, Delete, Undo, Follow, Block.
Actor: An ActivityPub object acting on behalf of another object across federated services. See the ActivityPub specification for more details.
Service actor: A special actor that represents a Funkwhale pod. ActivityPub actors can follow this actor to receive updates to public content stored on the pod.
Tombstone: A status that marks an object as deleted but leaves some metadata intact to prevent reuse.