Experimental support for multiple users landed with Ktistec release v2.4.15. "Experimental" means that it works for me, but hasn't seen enough testing for me to call it "ready for production". With that said, it's unlikely you'll lose your data.

There are lots of intentional design decisions that fit my vision for Ktistec but may surprise you. Here they are:

Every user is an administrator. That doesn't mean users have access to each other's posts and data, but it does mean all users have access to the shared parts of the site—they can change the site description, for example—and they can add new users. So only add people you trust.

If you want to add another user, create an account for them and give them their username and password.  There is no self-registration. There are no invitations.

Beyond adding a user, there is no support for user management. You can't even boot a user from your site. Users can delete themselves, however.

There is no support for content moderation. Only add people you trust.

TL;DR Multi-user support in Ktistec is suitable for small teams, families (biological or chosen), and your personal avatars. There are better tools for online communities.

Here's the full set of changes:

Added

• Add support for multiple user accounts.

Fixed

• Hide attachments behind the summary. (fixes #125)
• Mark actors as up after refreshing their profile.

#ktistec #fediverse #activitypub #crystallang

With the addition of the @ktistec account, Ktistec (the server) now supports multiple users.

I still have a few rough edges to fix, but there's a good chance official multi-user support will be included in the next release.

#ktistec #fediverse #activitypub #crystallang

Release v2.4.14 of Ktistec is small in terms of features and fixes, but it improves in two areas where I thought Ktistec was weak: light/dark mode support and autosave.

I'm not hardcore dark mode, but I do prefer it in some cases. Ktistec selects light or dark mode based on the browser or system setting—there is currently no means to select the mode directly. A nice side effect of light/dark mode support is that custom theming support comes nearly for free.

Ktistec was meant for writing. I post my fair share of one-line bits of wisdom, but I started building Ktistec because I wanted a space to write long form, and existing Fediverse platforms were more for social interaction. When writing long form, autosaving is an essential feature. Ktistec will now autosave draft posts and replies. If you navigate away before publishing, you can always find the incomplete draft in the Drafts collection which is accessible from your timeline page.

Added

• Add design system page for previewing UI elements.
• Support custom themes with automatic light/dark mode switching.
• Add autosave functionality for new posts, draft posts, and replies.

Changed

• Add external link indicators.

#ktistec #fediverse #activitypub #crystallang

I was planning on adding support for custom themes in release v2.4.13 of Ktistec. That turned out to be difficult, so I implemented post visibility instead—which then also turned out to be difficult. C'est la vie.

The editor now includes radio buttons for controlling post distribution and visibility. In particular, you can now send messages directly to mentioned users without sending them to all of your followers.

You can also mark posts as sensitive using the content warning checkbox in the editor. Sensitive posts are hidden behind a summary that readers can click to reveal the content.

This release of Ktistec includes RSS feeds and RSS feed discovery. RSS feeds are currently available for the site home page and account pages.

Here's the full changelog:

Added

• Support RSS feeds on the home page and account pages. (fixes #14)
• Hide sensitive content, spoilers, etc. with content warnings.
• Support direct messages with proper visibility controls.

Changed

• Switch from calendar-based periods to duration-based periods in charts.

Fixed

• Track and federate object updates.
• Fix object visibility bugs in object replies and threads.

#ktistec #fediverse #activitypub #crystallang

The biggest changes in release v2.4.12 of Ktistec are the UI/UX enhancements. The mobile profile, in particular, felt like an afterthought—which it was. The changes make the mobile experience much more pleasant and ergonomic. All of the credit for this work goes to @jayvii.

This release also now refuses to deserialize and use embedded ActivityPub objects from hosts other than the host of the embedding object. While I haven't encountered any problems with the previous implementation in practice, this fix closes a gap that could be exploited by a bad actor to spoof or change content.

Added

• Add follow request status to the actor panel.
• Compute and cache monthly active accounts.

Changed

• (Internal) Only consider properties with changed values as "changed".
• (Internal) Only deserialize embedded ActivityPub objects if hosts match.

Fixed

• Remove line breaks in Turbo Stream output.

#ktistec #fediverse #activitypub #crystallang

Ktistec is taking steps toward supporting multiple users. The first (small) step removes the actor panel from the unauthenticated home page and replaces it with a site description. You can see this in action at epiktistes.com. The site description is managed on the settings page using the same rich text editor used to edit posts. See the README for more information.

Other changes in this release:

Added

• Support a "site description" on the unauthenticated home page.
• Support autofocus on onboarding and authentication forms.
• Add trix_editor view helper.

Changed

• Remove accounts from unauthenticated home page.
• Persist timeline filters in session.

Fixed

• Exclude abstract classes from all_types output. (fixes #104)
• Work around bug in at_beginning_of_week. (see crystal-lang/crystal#16112)

Other

• Disable streaming updates on pages other than the first. (fixes #118)
• Pin Crystal version at 1.16.3 in Docker build. (see libxml_ext#1)

#ktistec #fediverse #activitypub #crystallang