snac2

how do I can clean #snac2 media?

Anyone have experience using #Snac2 for a small activitypub instance? Currently I use #gotosocial which is great but I'm curious about other options. Running a second instance with a different domain for friends or a second account is appealing to me.

#selfhosting #activitypub

I've been testing #snac2 for a few days now, more specificly I want to see if it can replace my #friendica installation that I have been using since 2019. This will be a somewhat longer piece that is also meant to see how Snac copes with longer Markdown formatted text.

Friendica

First things first. Friendica is awesome. It is the everything and the kitchen sink of the Fediverse and does a lot of things right. The only downside I see is the reason why I am looking for an alterantive though. Over time it has become harder and harder to host Friendica on my vserver with 8GB of RAM. I could of course opt for a bigger server, but honestly I am only using a fraction of Friendica's features and would prefer something less demanding.

Snac

Snac is lightweight, easiy to install, uses no database and does not even require coockies or Javascript in its Web-UI. I mean, how cool ist that!

Compared to Friendica, its featureset is basic at best. But compared to other Fediverse tools like #mastodon it does not fare so bad. But how usable is it as an alternative to my peronal Friendica use.

The good stuff

Setup is really easy for anyone who has self-hosted any services before. The documentation in manpage format might be old school but it is very complete - read it. If you're on Debian you can even use the package from trixie-backports which is kept very current!

It shows the timeline chronologically but with nested threads. This is the only way that makes sense to me and is exactly what I use in Friendica (where different settings are available). This means every new activity on a thread brings it up again (partly collapsed) so you always see the necessary context to follow conversations. For me this is the most important feature, I would not even have continued testing without it. Snac just does it right!

It has the looks! Well at least after applying some stylesheets. Calling the vanilla install basic would already be an overstatement. But have a look at the styles that are linked from snac's Reaedme. I chose the next.css style and have attached an image of how it looks below. The screenshot is from an Android phone and this works remarkably well, even on mobile (some caveats below)!

It's compatible with Mastodon apps. I have only tested #Fedilab because I use it for other stuff too. Everything just works as expected. Although I have to admit, I like the native Web-UI (next.css) even more.

Long Text with Markdown formatting. 500 character per Toot - No thank you, I am not chatting here!

What is missing (or is it?)

There is only the timeline and you can follow Hashtags, that's it. No Channels, no groups, no theme-specific timelines. But honestly, I did not use any of that on Friendica, mainly for performance reasons. So this is a non-issue for me personally.

Following RSS feeds. This feature I will really miss. In Friendica I could direclty follow Feeds and interact with them from my timeline exactly like with ActivityPub Notes or Articles. I will have to use an external translation service or write my own for that (having written an ActivityPub related tool with tootgroup.py before.)

Message formatting is somewhat less flexible but this post shows what is possible still. Sometimes I like to put images in between paragraphs but not having that is also not a big deal.

Event Calendar. This is not a feature I expect Snac to support but I do use it on Friendica and will have to think about how to replace it.

What could be improved

I love that snac works without Javascript and cookies - that's exactly how I still build my webpages. But there is one usecase where a bit of one or the other would make life much easier - when using the Web-UI on mobile platforms.

I have already stated how great the mobile experience is when using the next.css stylesheet. The only downside is that I have to login with username/password again and again, every time the mobile browser is sent to sleep by Android.

Optionally enabling the use of a login cookie would make life much easier. Even better would be enabling Snac to be installed as a Progressive Web App, but I have to admit, I'm not sure how hard or feasible this would be.

Overall, I do not see many shortcomings with Snac. Obviously it offers less features than Friendica, but what it does, it does very well and at least in my view, the important stuff is exactly where it needs to be.

Conclusion

I am pretty impressed with snac. I'll be running my test server for a little bit longer but I do expect replace my Friendica install in the not too distant future.

Adding [email protected] because maybe you're interested. Please don't treat this as a feature-request or even critizism. It's mostly meant as info for people who have not tried snac yet.

finalized my patch for #snac2 for users to be able to moderate their own timelines with muted words

https://codeberg.org/grunfink/snac2/pulls/518

Reazioni su #Snac2
Quasi come un *key! 😅

anyone successfully added relays to own #snac2 instance? i couldn't. user.json of main user gets corrupted 😭

$ snac adduser data relay
$ snac follow data relay https://.../actor

The Tuba client for Linux does very well with #snac2

https://tuba.geopjr.dev/

Do we still have to call them "toot" even if we are using #Snac2 instead of #Mastodon?

I'd say: no ..

I've just updated my #Snac instance to stable version 2.89 👍 🎉
You don't know Snac? But you should: https://codeberg.org/grunfink/snac2
A simple, minimalistic and well documented #ActivityPub instance server written in C, no database needed, totally JavaScript-free, no cookies either, not much bullshit.
From release notes: "New command-line option 'refresh', to refresh all follower." Do you feel refreshed my friends? 😉

#snac2 #fediverse #frugalfediverse

I will need to get some CSS (download or create it myself) for my user pages that isn't a total mess. Everthing you need for _doing the fedithing_ is there in #snac2, but with tiny hardly recognizable links and tiny form fields. #snac

I've just updated my #Snac instance to stable version 2.88 👍 🎉
You don't know Snac? But you should: https://codeberg.org/grunfink/snac2
A simple, minimalistic and well documented #ActivityPub instance server written in C, no database needed, totally JavaScript-free, no cookies either, not much bullshit.
A lot of new great stuff in version 2.88, changes that make our Fediverse life easier, "muted words" ... whaaaaaaaat!!? Yes! 🤩

#snac2 #fediverse #frugalfediverse

#snac2 2.84 with visibility scopes has been released!!

there’s also this thing that narrowly missed a release window if anyone wants an option to change it in reply -
https://codeberg.org/grunfink/snac2/pulls/493

tested on my instance and should be generally working

Interesting facts of nature:

Did you ever know that you can store 4 #snac2 releases in a 3.5 inches floppy disk?

That's pretty cool ...

Ich liebe es, dass snac2 jetzt auch reactions kann.
Die habe ich mir schon lange gewünscht für eine kurze aber differenziere Rückmeldung zu etwas das ich gesehen habe.
Nur schade das Mastodon das nicht sehen kann, deren Nutzer sind die deutliche Mehrheit in meiner Bubble.

#Mastoson #Snac #Snac2 #reaction #emoji #emojireactions #acticitypub #fediverse

Hey Fedi :3

It is my 3rd month of running #snac #snac2 instance. I wanted to share a few words about how awesome this software is.

Few points that make snac icredibly good for my usecase are:

No database needed - means easy migration for me

No javascript - not a big fan of JS

No cookies - so users are not tracked

It only stores locally data about users on the local instance it doesnt download stuff from instances it federates with

Extremely low resource usage

Basically you compile snac you get a executable program that you can run as a deamon, you just need to point it to data directory in which all data is stored, it puts out HTTP on which web ui is visible, you can proxy it and that's all.

After 3 month of posting (2 active users and 3 semi active users) my data dir is ~500MB and memory usage is ~200MB
it means i can keep running it on my infrastructure without even thinking too much about load

@grunfink thanks for such a awesome piece of software 🩷🩷🩷

Checking on markdown in the Tusky client on #snac2

Is anyone else using #snac / #snac2 seeing 401s when trying to follow #gotosocial accounts, or is it my own configuration?

First I thought it was some rejection of my instance since I changed server, but since I've noticed it happens even with instances I hadn't seen before.

Sat down to play some games and record gameplay for my YouTube channel, but got happily distracted by all the wonderful discussions on the Fediverse about books, watches, movies, privacy and games. The Fediverse is awesome and it's because of all you awesome folks on the Fediverse! Thanks y'all.

#mastodon #snac2 #fediverse #books #watches #privacy #games #youtube

Update: all the FediMeteo instances have been upgraded to #snac 2.90

#snac2 #FediMeteo #FediMeteoUpdates

Sorry to keep saying this, but #snac2 is pretty awesome. Thanks to @stefano (aka @stesnac) for this instance, and thanks to all the BSD users who have been posting about it over the past many months.

After quite some time, I’m finally ready to share this.

MastoBlaster is now available in public testing on TestFlight.

It is a lightweight, privacy-first Fediverse client for iOS, built around a simple idea: fast, small, predictable behavior, and first-class support for snac.

What makes it different:
• snac-first by design, not "compatible by accident"
• Works with all Mastodon API compatible software, including Mastodon, snac, GoToSocial, Akkoma, and others
• EXIF stripping on upload (HDR and orientation preserved)
• Optional on-device alt text generation via Apple Intelligence for your uploads and for images in your timeline
• Markdown posting for snac
• Granular notifications, grouping, multi-account
• Blocking and moderation tools
• Very small footprint, very low RAM usage

Alt text generation happens entirely on device via Apple APIs on supported hardware. Nothing is sent to external services.

It is built around my own workflow and priorities. It may not be for everyone, and that is perfectly fine.

Important note:
MastoBlaster will always be free for BSD Cafe users, illumos Cafe users, and for anyone connecting to a snac instance, including self-hosted ones.

The app is already usable, but this is still a test phase. I am looking for feedback, bug reports, and real-world usage insights.

TestFlight link:
https://testflight.apple.com/join/Pkxa5R1k

Stay tuned.

#MastoBlaster #iOS #Fediverse #Mastodon #snac #snac2 #Akkoma #GoToSocial #ActivityPub #OwnYourData

Hello from an old year 1997 Machine!
This snac server is now running on a Micronics Spitfire with 2x Pentium II @ 233MHz and 512MB SD-RAM. Operating System is NetBSD 10.1, installed on a 120GB SSD (SATA->IDE converter)

OpenBSD wasn't able to run snac stable on this machine, it crashed after a few requests with "illegal instruction".

#snac #snac2 #fediverse #activitypub #NetBSD #OpenBSD #retrocomputing #retroserver #retrohardware #pentiumii #pentium2 #oldhardware

The official #snac achivements list (so far).

ft. big update - over 100 new achievements!

https://qum.cz/snac_achievements/

#snac2 #fediverse @grunfink

Ich hab den Code für den @umstritten Bot mal auf Codeberg gepackt:

https://codeberg.org/marcr/umstritten

Ist im Prinzip nur ein kurzes Shellscript, das #snac2 als Instanz, bzw. ActivityPub Gateway verwendet.

There is a person I've been helping for a while who runs two instances, one #GoToSocial and one #snac.

Yesterday, they suffered severe file system corruption on their device, and I lent them a hand with the recovery. For GoToSocial, they restored the DB from the previous backup and got it running again. For snac, although a few files were lost, no action was necessary... it just started back up and did what it had to do, bringing the instance back to full operation.

This goes to show that when software is well-designed and intentionally kept simple, it's also easier to get back up and running when something goes wrong. In this case, snac's "files-only" approach demonstrated excellent resilience.

Thanks, @grunfink !

#snac2 #snac #ThankYouTuesday #Efficiency #IT #SysAdmin #OwnYourData