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

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

Release v2.4.16 of Ktistec... because I forgot to include some critical code in v2.4.15... namely, the menu.

Changed

Reorganize the admin menu.

If you're not planning on adding additional users, you don't need to update!

#ktistec #fediverse #activitypub #crystallang

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

There are two big features in release v3.1.3 of Ktistec: auto-approve followers and a new image viewer.

Auto-approve followers is conceptually simple ("the server automatically sends an Accept activity when it receives a Follow activity") but it required extensive changes to some of the oldest code in the codebase: the inboxes and outboxes controllers. I refactored inbox and outbox side-effect processing into independent services, which made it possible to support side-effects like auto-approve follow (and also auto-follow back), without having to go through the controllers.

A more significant change for me personally was replacing the lightGallery image gallery (an external dependency) with my own implementation. It's not as slick, and not as full of features—I wrote it in two days—but it is fully free software, and that's important to me.

Added

Add admin page for managing OAuth access tokens.
Add support for auto-approve followers. (fixes #26)
Add support for auto-follow back.

Fixed

Prevent triggering actor refresh when user is anonymous.

Changed

Replace "lightgallery" dependency with custom image viewer.
Set OAuth access token expiry to 30 days (previously expired after 24 hours).
Refactor inbox and outbox processing into dedicated processor services.

The OAuth changes set the groundwork for better support of the Mastodon API and the Fediverse clients that depend on it. Stay tuned!

#ktistec #fediverse #activitypub #crystallang

The major feature in v3.2.0 of Ktistec is thread analysis. The previous release, v3.1.2, added support for viewing threads from Lemmy communities. I follow the Open Source community, which leads to many large threads. The thread on FFMpeg and Google has 112 posts and is still growing.

Thread analysis helps me navigate these extensive conversations. It includes: top contributors, a timeline histogram, and notable branches.

The analysis applies several heuristics to identify interesting branches of the main thread. “Interesting” is subjective, but the algorithm currently looks for sudden bursts of activity and highlights those areas. Ktistec uses this to create a table of contents that links directly to those branches. Clicking on one of these links takes you to a branch-only view that focuses on the selected part of the thread.

It's fast—I anticipated needing to cache analyses, but analyzing a thread with over 400 posts takes only about 50 milliseconds on my production server.

This release also addresses an object visibility regression that was introduced in a previous version.

Full Changelog

Added

Thread analysis that displays key participants, a timeline histogram, and notable branches
New MCP tools: analyze_thread and get_thread
Focal point rendering support for image attachments

Fixed

Regression in object visibility affecting replies to threads

Changed

Enhanced MCP tool details for likes, dislikes, and announces
Improved cookie security.

#ktistec #fediverse #activitypub #crystallang

The big feature in release v3.2.2 of Ktistec is pinned posts with support for the Mastodon Featured Posts collection. Federation works both ways—pin a post on Ktistec and it will show up as a pinned post on Mastodon and vice versa. When you refresh an actor profile, Ktistec also fetches and updates the actor's pinned posts. This is another small step in the direction of supporting all features that Mastodon-compatible client applications expect to access via the API. It's also useful in its own right.

The other major feature, which I posted a short video demonstrating here, is X-Ray Mode. X-Ray Mode is a developer and power-user tool for inspecting ActivityPub JSON-LD representations of actors, objects, and other content. Pressing Ctrl+Shift+X on any page displays the data behind the page—like an x-ray. You can:

Cached Version: View the local JSON-LD representation stored in the Ktistec database
Remote Version: Fetch and view the original JSON-LD representation from the source server
Navigation: Click on any ActivityPub IRI to navigate to that object
History: Use Alt+Left and Alt+Right to navigate through your viewing history

This feature is useful for debugging federation issues, understanding ActivityPub structures, and verifying how content is stored and represented.

Here's the full changelog for the release:

Added

Support for pinned posts and the Mastodon "featured posts" collection.
X-Ray Mode for viewing and navigating JSON-LD resource (actor, object, etc.) representations.
Back links on thread pages for easier navigation. (fixes #1)
License page for LibreJS compliance. (fixes #127)
Highlighting of recently fetched hashtagged posts.

Changed

Improved presentation of audio and video media.
Refactored theming/styling implementation.

The next release will focus on smaller features and bug fixes.

Enjoy!

#ktistec #crystallang #activitypub #fediverse