gemini://gemini.hitchhiker-linux.org/gemlog/fedi_server

I have gotten some good feedback on my post about recent happenings in the Fediverse, and wanted to update on my current thinking in regards to setting up a Fedi server.

It has been suggested that Pleroma has some image issues due to many of it's instances being lax on moderation or just not sharing the values that most of the FediVerse seem to have in common. I should also note that what I have read about Pleroma vs Mastodon performance is that Pleroma loses it's edge as the scale increases. I'm still evaluating Pleroma and have a test account on a certain instance, which I'm fairly positive about so far, but I am still looking at other alternatives as well.

Another suggestion that I received was to look at Bonfire, which is also written in Elixr and is currently in Alpha stage. I have checked it out and while the basics seem to be there and the interface looks nice, I'm getting the impression based on the behavior I'm seeing so far that the timelines aren't being fetched asynchronously. When you click on the button for the local timeline you get a nice binfire animation that displays for at least a few seconds before any posts appear. The project may have promise, but I think the UX is currently lacking and this lagginess in display is probably going to be offputting for a lot of people. Bonfire does have some features that seem quite nice that allow you to limit a post to a certain group of people, just this instance, only certain instances etc. I do like that.

The one I'm a bit more excited about is GoToSocial. I've heard the name but silly me, I didn't realize what it was until a certain person mentioned it and I looked it up. This one is a backend only, so a frontend must be provided, but it is known to work with Pinafore on the web and Tusky on mobile. It's also written in Go and so potentially might be able to wring out a lot better performance once it's past it's current Alpha state. Beta is expected to be reached around the middle of next year at the current development pace. Like Bonfire there are features which allow some more granularity on how public your posts are, which is another plus.

As I stated earlier, I'm still evaluating software options. However I'm planning on moving forward at some point - and probably sooner than later.

Fedi Server Update

2022-11-09

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