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Welcome back! We've been on a break for the past few months, but with the new year, we're doubling down on our efforts to keep the Fediverse informed on the latest developments of the space. We've got a lot of exciting things in store for you, so buckle up.

Fediverse

As always, there's a whirlwind of development happening around this space, even if it's not immediately obvious. Apps and platforms are being developed, organizations are renewing commitments to improve the network, and people are sharing all kinds of resources on how to get involved.

Apps and Updates

Loops is Now on the App StoreWe did it. After months of building, testing, and countless late nights, Loops is officially available on the App Store. It’s been quite a ride since October. We shipped OAuth support, launched the mobile beta, built a whole new project website, and kept adding features people actually wanted. The ForLoops Official BlogDaniel Supernault

Loops, the open source, federated alternative to Tiktok, has now landed on the Apple App Store. Finally, the app is available to the general public on both iOS and Android. Check out the Community Roadmap to see where future development is heading!

Publish your videos with PeerTube for mobile! | JoinPeerTubeThe PeerTube mobile app continues to grow and now includes a creator mode! Let’s take this opportunity to review the latest developments and the impro…JoinPeerTube

Recently, PeerTube updated their mobile app to include publishing capabilities, so now mobile users can upload videos directly from their phones!

Launch: Domain BlocklistsIn November last year, we began developing additional user-facing moderation features for Bridgy Fed users. While blocking users across the bridge was always possible via DMs, we knew it would be easier for users to manage their lists on the Bridgy Fed settings page, and it would also enable usA New SocialAnuj Ahooja

A New Social has announced a new feature for their Bridgy Fed project, which now makes it possible to block domain names across the bridge. This is a solid quality-of-life improvement, and we can't wait to see what A New Social does next!

Bonfire 1.0.1: Building MomentumWe’re back with an update focused on making your social web experience livelier, more connected, and truly yours. Plus updates on the crowdfunding campaign and what’s next.

Bonfire is already back with a 1.0.1 update, adding loads of new features like hashtag following, post scheduling, support for the Mastodon API, and lots of other things. This release has tons of features, fixes, and improvements, which you can read about in the changelog. Also, Bonfire's crowdfunding campaign is still open for late pledges.

Bandwagon.fm - December 2025December 2025

Bandwagon is a music service for the Fediverse, and has been doing amazing work over the past 12 months. Ben Pate reflects on what has happened over the past year, and teases a preview roadmap of what's happening in 2026.

Protocol and Ecosystem

New Social Web Working Group at W3CToday the W3C standards organization announced a new working group to advance the ActivityPub and Activity Streams standards. The Social Web Foundation, as a W3C member organization, will be partic…Social Web Foundation

The Social Web Foundation has announced an official Social Web Working Group at the W3C. The group is chartered through January 31st, 2028, and will "...maintain the ActivityPub, WebSub, Activity Streams, Activity Vocabulary,
MicroPub, Linked Data Notifications, and Webmention specifications, as
well as related Notes."

The Fediverse ExperimentExperimenting with a new internetSearch Engine with PJ VogtPJ Vogt

Earlier this month, the Search Engine podcast announced a new Mastodon instance called "The Forkiverse". The effort is a collaboration with Hard Fork's Kevin Roose and Casey Newton. Since its initial announcement, instance has grown to 9,500 user accounts.

There Is One Fediverse. There Are A Thousand Ways To Join It.When I showed my sister-in-law my toot.wales feed, she gave the response I believe most people genuinely feel: “It’s lovely! If only there was an app.” She doesn’t want a pr…jaz-michael king's blogFollow this Blog on Fediverse

Jaz-Michael King from IFTAS has published a really nice overview of how he worked with the Newsmast Foundation to produce a special app for his instance, toot.wales. He also shares some of the tools he's been specifically building for his community to make users lives easier.

Arts and Music

The Indie Beat TelevisionA consent driven live stream of indie music videos and animation from artists across the Fediverse. See Now Playing info at https://mastodon.social/@tibtvnowplayingbot - Fediwall at https://shorturl.at/CrWD3 - Submit your videos at https://theindiebeat.fm/the-indie-beat-tv/ - CAUTION: Many videos have flashing lights!The Indie Beat Television

Popular Fediverse radio streaming service The Indie Beat FM has opened up an MTV-like 24/7 live stream featuring original Fediverse content and programming. The service provides a variety of shows, including music videos, podcasts, and interviews.

NHAM Update Opus 12 (Fedi MTV Edition)NHAM Update Opus 12 (Fedi MTV Edition) by @sknob@mamot.fr It’s been a while, hasn’t it? No comment. Ahem. Let me jump right in! The Indie Beat Television The big fedi-music-related event since the last Opus post was of course the launch of The Indie Beat Television (@TIBtv@tv.theindiebeat.fm). To say that it went well would be [...]NHAMFollow

Our friends over at NHAM are creating videos and media for The Indie Beat TV. Here, they reflect on their individual efforts and what they're making.

Randy AKA Lime Bar - Building IndieBeat TV and Making Federated Music - The Lorenzo’s Music Podcast - The Lorenzo’s Music PodcastThis episode of the podcast, I meet musician Randy AKA Lime Bar who built the new IndieBeat TV music video networkTom RayTom Ray

Lorenzo's Music Podcast sits down to interview Limebar about his involvement with the TheIndieBeatTV project. It's a great discussion, and goes to show how connected the music community is within the Fediverse right now.

From Around the Network

X Is a Power Problem, Not a Platform ProblemFediverse Report #148: X is not a just platform problem anymore, it’s a power problem, and why you cannot compete as platforms with power.connectedplaces.onlineLaurens Hof

Laurens Hof from Connected Places wrote a really great piece analyzing the underlying problems that plague social networks like X and Facebook. The underlying issues highlighted involve power structures within the United States, and how they interact with X operationally.

A newbie’s guide to self-hosting with YunoHost. Part 3: Let’s install NextCloudA step-by-step visual guide for self-hosting newbies that shows off how to install NextCloud via the YunoHost systemElena RossiniElena Rossini

Elena Rossini has published her third installment in her YunoHost series, which focuses on easy-to-use tools for self-hosting. This one focuses on Nextcloud, the open source federated cloud system. Check out Part 1 and Part 2 as well!

Fediverse: An overview for community organizers | Stefan BohacekFediverse as a tool for communities and community organizers.Stefan BohacekStefan Bohacek

Stefan Bohacek put out a comprehensive guide for community organizers making the case for why the Fediverse is worth using for the purpose of building communities, and provides information to tools and moderation resources for first-time instance admins.

IFTAS Response to the European Commission’s Call for Evidence “Towards European open digital ecosystems”IFTAS welcomes this initiative and strongly supports the Commission’s recognition of open-source software as a strategic component of digital sovereignty, security, and innovation. The EU open-sour…IFTASFollow

Here, IFTAS commends the EU on embracing open source technology as a key to digital independence from Silicon Valley, and sheds some insight into the growing pains networks such as the Fediverse has had, particularly when it comes to funding developers and bolstering community-based moderation.

Growing the open social web: case studies from Newsmast - SFSCONSFSCON TalkSFSCON

Our friends over at Newsmast Foundation gave a great presentation at the South Tyrol Free Software Conference (SFSCON). Michael Foster and Saskia Welch talk about some of the challenges of running a nonprofit organization, doing advocacy for the Open Social Web, and some of the things their organization has been up to.

Bluesky

FR#150 – On ICE, Verification, and Presence As HarmBluesky built a verification system designed to distribute trust, and then didn’t use it when it mattered.connectedplaces.onlineLaurens Hof

Bluesky is currently in hot water for verifying the official Immigration and Customs Enforcement government account on their network. The backlash has created several discussions about the role of a social networking company or organization has when it comes to government compliance and protecting users.

Money for mutual resilience: Introducing Blacksky CashMutual aid has always been about more than money. But money, shared intentionally, can be a powerful expression of solidarity. This is us building toward that future.Blacksky AlgorithmsMarisa Rando

Blacksky Algorithms has announced an amazing new initiative to support mutual aid called BlackSky Cash. It's a thought-provoking effort with impressive goals, and it's exciting to see what's coming here.

Rudy wants revolution. (@rude1.blacksky.team)Any blacksky.app users who get banned from bsky should try logging into the staging.blacksky.community website. Looking to get feedback + identify any lingering bugs. Email support@blacksky.app with those. Missing data from non-Blacksky hosted accounts + older posts is expected https://staging.blacksky.communityBluesky Social

Speaking about Blacksky for a minute, it's worth bringing up the fact that the project is running a full infrastructure stack at this point. Their efforts have allowed Blacksky to run independently from Bluesky, while remaining interoperable with it.

Introducing Osprey V1.0: Open Source Infrastructure for Real-Time Abuse MitigationRobust Open Online Safety Tools or ROOST is a new non-profit entity designed to address the urgent need for accessible, high-quality safety tools in the rapidly evolving digital landscape.

Roost has announced a 1.0 release of Osprey, an open source tool for managing spam, harassment, and illegal content. It's used by Bluesky, Matrix, and Discord for rapid response to all kinds of incidents, and provides tools for investigation and management.

That's all for this edition! Stay tuned in the comings weeks for more stories and updates from our newsletter, and our main site at wedistribute.org!

Before you go!

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Please take a look at our OpenCollective Campaign, and consider how you might help compensate the volunteers that help keep We Distribute going.

This article looks at Techno Anarchist and Open Media Network tools that would boost efficiency and productivity in Bonfire workflows. And I will be paraphrasing heavily.

As mentioned in a previous TPF post, I plan to experiment with Bonfire and have taken notes for a series of articles.

This is the second one. The first is here if you inexplicably missed it. 😉

I have even reserved the domain manade.org to possibly run subdomains off of for various communities I am part of once I retire in France this spring. For now building a test instance is a priority.

And I have also built a new website for that project on the subdomain, http://site.manade.org. In fact it is so new, the hosting company still hasn't sorted the SSL certificate out. Hence the http. Sorry. 🤦🏽‍♂️

Anyway, while I explore the Bonfire documentation, I have concurrently been exploring and thinking about potential tools to use in building Bonfire communities.

And of course being who we are, they should be open source. And preferably based in the last bastion of democracy, the European Union.

So, let’s start a fire. 🔥

General Tools

Framatoolbox

Framasoft is one of several open source online services hosted with a strong commitment to the goal of decentralization.

So, using Framatoolbox is a big step on the road to your digital autonomy.

Framatoolbox is also a political proposal. It's exploring an alternative to surveillance capitalism by experimenting with the contribution society.

By offering uses, feedback and contributions to OmniTools ⬇️, Framasoft participates in maintaining a common resource.

OmniTools

You can boost your productivity with OmniTools. It's also the toolbox that make's you more efficient. Access thousands of user-friendly utilities to edit images, text, lists and data. And do so in your browser.

• Image Tools
• PDF Tools
• Text Tools
• JSON Tools
• CSV Tools
• XML Tools?

Vert

• File Converter Tools

Vert's image, audio, and document processing is done on your device. Videos are converted on their servers. So, no file size limit, no ads, and completely open source.

Writing

Markdown

Markdown helps you write for your website content, programming documentation, wiki, and project management. You are probably familiar with it and it's becoming standard.

Joplin

Joplin is an open source markdown note-taking app. You can capture your idea and access them from any device. You can even extend it with plugins and integrations.

I wrote this article on a tablet and laptop with it.

Creative

GIMP

If your requirements can’t be handled by OmniTools, GIMP is an open source image editor comparable to Photoshop.

Programming

Docker Desktop?

You can install Bonfire via Docker. But, I am not sure you can use Docker Desktop. I hope so, because as a half-ass frontend developer it’s the only hope in hell I have for doing this myself. 😈

A quick aside, if I can't get it going on my own, it may be in the summer before the Bonfire test instance will be done.

As this is likely, I will be looking for help setting up the instance. Someone near Toulouse, France with Bonfire experience would be great. Or I guess I could hire the Bonfire team as a last resort. Provided they give large discounts to journalists promoting the platform. 🤨

In any event, Docker Desktop simplifies the process of building, sharing, and running applications in containers, ensuring consistency across different environments.

And obviously, you can use regular Docker.

Mosaic

If you read our first article, you will be familiar with Mosaic. And it will be a major tool used to build Bonfire communities. It's Bonfire's tool after all.

It bridges to third-party tools that:

• import data from your existing tools
• transform that data into rich ActivityPub activities for federation
• enable meaningful, two-way interactions
• respect your privacy boundaries and governance needs

JSON

JSON is used in JSON Activity Streams with ActivityPub. The docs note:

"In the most basic sense, an "Activity" is a semantic description of an action. It is the goal of this specification to provide a JSON-based syntax that is sufficient to express metadata about activities in a rich, human-friendly but machine-processable and extensible manner."

ActivityPub

Social Docs

Social Docs is third-party documentation for ActivityPub, Mastodon, and the Fediverse.

ActivityPub Fuzzer?

Fuzzer is a small program to help build social media software on the Fediverse. It emulates known Fediverse software, helping solve the problem where developers have to manually test compatibility with dozens of other projects.

I am not sure if Bonfire is one of them, But, if it's not let's hope it will be soon.

Another quick aside peeps, get the fuck off GitHub.

ActivityPub Book

Written by Evan Prodromou, the coauthor of the ActivityPub protocol and the Activity Streams 2.0 data format, this is the ActivityPub handbook that every social software hacker needs.

I have it and am slowly reading it.

ActivityPub Rocks

ActivityPub Rocks is an informative site maintained by the current steward of the ActivityPub stack of standards.

Team Tools

Codeberg

Codeberg is a community-led effort that provides Git hosting for free/open source projects. It features: no tracking, no third-party cookies, and no profiteering. Everything runs on their servers in Europe. Your data is not for sale.

Forgejo

If you want to roll your own Git solution, Forgejo is the way to go. It's a self-hosted lightweight software forge. Being easy to install and low maintenance, it gets the job done.

OpenProject

OpenProject is open source project management software for open source developers. It gives you classic, agile, or hybrid project management in a secure environment.

For my test instance I will use something simpler. Probably NextCloud’s Deck tool.

XWiki

XWiki innovates with "Structured Wiki" and delivers high knowledge features.

Again for my test instance I will use something simpler. Maybe Zim.

Elixir

Backend

Bonfire is implemented with its own dialect of the Elixir language. Like me if you had not heard of it before, Elixir is similar to Ruby on Rails or Python.

It runs on the Erlang VM. And it's capable of web programming, embedding software, machine learning, data pipelines, and processing multimedia. So, it's mega flexible and functional.

I know nothing about it, but I researched tools and found these.

Elixir Tools Suite

elixir-tools is a suite of developer tooling and packages for Elixir developers. Their goal is to provide tooling good enough that you think they're part of the core language project.

Testing Tool

ExUnit

One of the testing frameworks for Elixir is ExUnit. It is built-into the Elixir language and is a simple and intuitive tool for writing tests.

ExUnit follows the xUnit style, which will be familiar to developers who have worked with other testing frameworks. It provides everything they need to write comprehensive tests for their Elixir applications.

Database Tool

Ecto

Ecto is a popular Elixir database library providing a high-level and composable query interface for interacting with databases. You can define schemas, perform complex queries, and manage database transactions. Ecto also offers built-in support for database migrations, making it easy to evolve your database schema over time.

Elixir School

The previous tools have lessons in Elixir School which appears to be an excellent resource.

Frontend

Phoenix

Phoenix let's you build web applications quickly, with less code and fewer moving parts. It also runs on the Erlang VM with the ability to handle millions of WebSocket connections alongside Elixir's tooling for building robust systems. You can also deploy it with Docker.

LiveView

LiveView's main contributor wanted to create dynamic server-rendered applications without writing JavaScript. He was tired of the inevitable ballooning complexity that it brings (amen). He built LiveView to fix it.

Surface UI

Surface UI is a server-side rendering component library for Phoenix. It let's you start building rich interactive user-interfaces while writing minimal custom Javascript.

That sound perfect to me.

Liveview Native

If you are building Native apps Liveview Native is a framework extends Phoenix LiveView to native platforms, enabling real-time, interactive native applications with a unified codebase.

Wrapping it up

And that is enough for now. As I am slowly learning about Bonfire, I think the tools above would fit well in Bonfire workflows.

In this article we explored:

• general productivity tools
• writing tools
• creative tools
• general programming tools
• ActivityPub tools
• Mosaic
• Elixir backend tools
• and Elixir frontend tools

Have I missed anything? As mentioned in my previous article, this is all new to me. And I've only gone through about 20 percent of the Bonfire documentation. So, let me know what to add, correct, update, etc. This request is especially sincere if you’re working on a Bonfire project now.

Together, let’s build something for our communities with Bonfire! 🔥