16 ms·

Soapbox 3.0 – Web UI for the Fediverse

76 points by knewter 4y ago

knewter 4y ago
Soapbox's latest release is incredibly nice, bringing support for a ton of great features to an already-great Fediverse UI: Quote Posts, Edit Post, Events, slicker Chat, and some other stuff. They also cleaned up the codebase further still (if you haven't looked, it's an excellent React codebase).
- trynewideas 4y ago
  Yeah, but the even temporary loss of backup/export is a significant adoption blocker.
  - knewter 4y ago
    I run my instance so I hadn't even noticed
- tbonesteaks 4y ago
  Yeah, it’s really well done. I haven’t ever kept my instance up because I get tired of the hassle, but when I run one, user experience is great.
- snapplebobapple 4y ago
  can it thread comments properly( like hacker news does) yet? That's my biggest complaint about my experience with the fediverse (and twitter) and it keeps me from using them much because every time I wade back in I get frustrated trying to follow the conversation as it splits off in a million directions.
dd_bo_ow 4y ago
What's that thing? > Powering the future of social media. Doesn't tell much. Nothing really.
- SpaceL10n 4y ago
  What is Soapbox? Soapbox is a UI for the Fediverse. You can use it to replace Mastodon's UI...
jacooper 4y ago
The problem with rebased/pleroma is mobile app support, its pretty limited.
- wut42 4y ago
  There was a some efforts to bring Pleroma-specific features to apps but that went down the drain. Some apps do (Fedilab comes to my mind, IIRC). Given it clones the Mastodon API- all clients should work with Pleroma, minus the small Pleroma-specific features.
  - jacooper 4y ago
    From my experience that isn't true, most apps crash when using a Pleroma server.
scq 4y ago
Wow, that UI is pretty much a 1:1 copy of Twitter, even down to the messages flyout.
breck 4y ago
> a young man in Poland Who is this young man in Poland and how can I buy him a pierogi? +1 for the TLD and the footer "♡2023. Copying is an act of love. Please copy and share."
wut42 4y ago
For context and history about Soapbox: it originated from the Gab.com's frontend, and is developed by Alex Gleason, an infamous transphobe/alt-right dude. His involvement in Pleroma made many of its developers leave the project, e.g.: https://hacktivis.me/articles/Update%20on%20Pleroma%20Maintainance https://hacktivis.me/articles/Update%20on%20Pleroma%20Mainta... & he excessively whined about it: https://blog.alexgleason.me/pleroma-is-dead/ https://blog.alexgleason.me/pleroma-is-dead/
- rglullis 4y ago
  I thought that (A)GPL only requested you to redistribute source code changes. I wasn't aware that it forced you to sympathize with the ideology of the main developer, or even to care about the political inclinations or beliefs of all random contributors.
  - dividedbyzero 4y ago
    Why would you think it does?
  - despera 4y ago
    Oh come on it's not such a big brain moment the fact that there are more quality elements involved for projects beyond a license that someone would take in account. I'm pretty sure you can think many just by yourself but elude you at this moment for "reasons" that have exactly to do with sympathizing with the main developer or contributors.
  - Fnoord 4y ago
    True, I mean ESR is known for being pro gun, and a lot of people here in Europe would not agree with that. However, if you don't agree with the primary developer on something as fundamental as your being, chances are you don't want to collaborate with them, do PRs, or give them feedback. On top of that, the person has caused drama, which is a sign of instability to a FOSS project (just take a look at all the drama TdR (or lets call him deraadt@) caused over the years...). Given how easy it is to obfuscate a vulnerability in code I would not want to run code programmed primarily by someone who has a peculiar world view (except in a sandbox). At least its a yellow flag to audit it well (but that is no guarantee). With regards to FOSS projects its just a time bomb till some nefarious actor (Russian, Chinese, North Korean, Iranian, etc) does something bad to a popular FOSS project. But the worries are the same when the author is unknown (TrueCrypt, for example), and some people have been paranoid about SELinux ever since. Taking above into account IMO the heads up is fair. And with all that, you're still free to make up your own mind. Nobody is telling you that you should avoid the project. They're suggesting you look into it.
marban 4y ago
Often imitated, never duplicated...
Vosporos 4y ago
[flagged]
_cenw 4y ago
Can we not turn every single goddamn post that involves a trans person or transphobe into a collection of performatively transphobic statements, with a few people going off to fighting windmills? It's not a fun discussion to have, nobody approaches it open minded, nobody wants to be convinced beyond their surface level gut reaction. I'd rather we put a boundary at "is it okay to use or promote software from people that many are ethically opposed".
- laserdancepony 4y ago
  [flagged]
  - pxeger1 4y ago
    Both. The point is, this is a list about a software release. I don't want this kind of argument.
    - wut42 4y ago
      In current times you cannot really forget/ignore the background of projects. Like some parts of the fedi are quite agressive at it e.g., auto-banning instances using Soapbox. One may want to know this background while reading a software release.
  - _cenw 4y ago
    Pro what? Someone explained why people aren't using Soapbox more widely and that using it could be considered a faux pas. In fact the developers of gotofedi actively joke about autobanning instances that use it. That by itself is not a "pro trans" statement. Yet all the responses are "hating the transes is not a crime tho!" level declarations of solidarity for a person you barely know. (fun fact: Alex is pretty toxic sans transphobia too.)
    - wut42 4y ago
      I kinda regret putting "transphobic" in my own comment tbh- it may have been better to just say at "toxic personality". My intention when raising that fact was just to add color to the thread, not really to start a flame war, but I guess I should have expected this :)
ThrowawayTestr 4y ago
Anything to make twitter alternatives more accessible to regular people, the better.

76 points by knewter 4y ago

Soapbox's latest release is incredibly nice, bringing support for a ton of great features to an already-great Fediverse UI: Quote Posts, Edit Post, Events, slicker Chat, and some other stuff. They also cleaned up the codebase further still (if you haven't looked, it's an excellent React codebase).

trynewideas 4y ago
Yeah, but the even temporary loss of backup/export is a significant adoption blocker.
- knewter 4y ago
  I run my instance so I hadn't even noticed
tbonesteaks 4y ago
Yeah, it’s really well done. I haven’t ever kept my instance up because I get tired of the hassle, but when I run one, user experience is great.
snapplebobapple 4y ago
can it thread comments properly( like hacker news does) yet? That's my biggest complaint about my experience with the fediverse (and twitter) and it keeps me from using them much because every time I wade back in I get frustrated trying to follow the conversation as it splits off in a million directions.

dd_bo_ow 4y ago

What's that thing? > Powering the future of social media. Doesn't tell much. Nothing really.

SpaceL10n 4y ago
What is Soapbox? Soapbox is a UI for the Fediverse. You can use it to replace Mastodon's UI...

jacooper 4y ago

The problem with rebased/pleroma is mobile app support, its pretty limited.

wut42 4y ago
There was a some efforts to bring Pleroma-specific features to apps but that went down the drain. Some apps do (Fedilab comes to my mind, IIRC). Given it clones the Mastodon API- all clients should work with Pleroma, minus the small Pleroma-specific features.
- jacooper 4y ago
  From my experience that isn't true, most apps crash when using a Pleroma server.

scq 4y ago

Wow, that UI is pretty much a 1:1 copy of Twitter, even down to the messages flyout.

breck 4y ago

> a young man in Poland Who is this young man in Poland and how can I buy him a pierogi? +1 for the TLD and the footer "♡2023. Copying is an act of love. Please copy and share."

wut42 4y ago

For context and history about Soapbox: it originated from the Gab.com's frontend, and is developed by Alex Gleason, an infamous transphobe/alt-right dude. His involvement in Pleroma made many of its developers leave the project, e.g.: https://hacktivis.me/articles/Update%20on%20Pleroma%20Maintainance https://hacktivis.me/articles/Update%20on%20Pleroma%20Mainta... & he excessively whined about it: https://blog.alexgleason.me/pleroma-is-dead/ https://blog.alexgleason.me/pleroma-is-dead/

rglullis 4y ago
I thought that (A)GPL only requested you to redistribute source code changes. I wasn't aware that it forced you to sympathize with the ideology of the main developer, or even to care about the political inclinations or beliefs of all random contributors.
- dividedbyzero 4y ago
  Why would you think it does?
- despera 4y ago
  Oh come on it's not such a big brain moment the fact that there are more quality elements involved for projects beyond a license that someone would take in account. I'm pretty sure you can think many just by yourself but elude you at this moment for "reasons" that have exactly to do with sympathizing with the main developer or contributors.
- Fnoord 4y ago
  True, I mean ESR is known for being pro gun, and a lot of people here in Europe would not agree with that. However, if you don't agree with the primary developer on something as fundamental as your being, chances are you don't want to collaborate with them, do PRs, or give them feedback. On top of that, the person has caused drama, which is a sign of instability to a FOSS project (just take a look at all the drama TdR (or lets call him deraadt@) caused over the years...). Given how easy it is to obfuscate a vulnerability in code I would not want to run code programmed primarily by someone who has a peculiar world view (except in a sandbox). At least its a yellow flag to audit it well (but that is no guarantee). With regards to FOSS projects its just a time bomb till some nefarious actor (Russian, Chinese, North Korean, Iranian, etc) does something bad to a popular FOSS project. But the worries are the same when the author is unknown (TrueCrypt, for example), and some people have been paranoid about SELinux ever since. Taking above into account IMO the heads up is fair. And with all that, you're still free to make up your own mind. Nobody is telling you that you should avoid the project. They're suggesting you look into it.

marban 4y ago

Often imitated, never duplicated...

Vosporos 4y ago

[flagged]

_cenw 4y ago

Can we not turn every single goddamn post that involves a trans person or transphobe into a collection of performatively transphobic statements, with a few people going off to fighting windmills? It's not a fun discussion to have, nobody approaches it open minded, nobody wants to be convinced beyond their surface level gut reaction. I'd rather we put a boundary at "is it okay to use or promote software from people that many are ethically opposed".

laserdancepony 4y ago
[flagged]
- pxeger1 4y ago
  Both. The point is, this is a list about a software release. I don't want this kind of argument.
  - wut42 4y ago
    In current times you cannot really forget/ignore the background of projects. Like some parts of the fedi are quite agressive at it e.g., auto-banning instances using Soapbox. One may want to know this background while reading a software release.
- _cenw 4y ago
  Pro what? Someone explained why people aren't using Soapbox more widely and that using it could be considered a faux pas. In fact the developers of gotofedi actively joke about autobanning instances that use it. That by itself is not a "pro trans" statement. Yet all the responses are "hating the transes is not a crime tho!" level declarations of solidarity for a person you barely know. (fun fact: Alex is pretty toxic sans transphobia too.)
  - wut42 4y ago
    I kinda regret putting "transphobic" in my own comment tbh- it may have been better to just say at "toxic personality". My intention when raising that fact was just to add color to the thread, not really to start a flame war, but I guess I should have expected this :)

ThrowawayTestr 4y ago

Anything to make twitter alternatives more accessible to regular people, the better.