Nice things about PieFed:
- Written in a common programming language that many developers understand and which has a bright future ahead of it. Python, of course! This will enable more contributions from a wider range of people than if it was made with Erlang, Ruby, Rust or PHP, for example.
- Constructed in a simple and straightforward manner that new contributors can come to grips with quickly. No fancy algorithms, special design patterns, fragile build process, or front-end framework. Just Flask with sprinklings of vanilla JS and htmx.
- Keep third party dependencies to an absolute minimum, to make server administration easier. Python + database (PostgreSQL) and you’re good to go! Redis optional.
- Consume few resources, to make it cheap to run. Many examples of federated software are bloated Rube Goldberg machines that require hefty servers and serious server administration skills, making money a constant problem. PieFed instances will be small and nimble.
- Emphasise trust, safety and happiness, drawing inspiration from the Mastodon Covenant.
- Built to last using tried and true technology that will still work decades from now.
There are two other options for reddit-style federated forums, Lemmy and Kbin (recently forked to Mbin, which shows some promise). Having used them both extensively I came away unsatisfied, for a variety of reasons. It is unlikely that their trajectory will change in future, either. However we all owe those projects a huge debt for the path they forged and the kernel of the community they started. Without their initial experiments we would not have their shoulders to stand on.
Differences between Lemmy and PieFed
Community Organization & Discovery
Categories & Topics – Communities can be grouped into customizable, shareable categories and broader topics (example).
Feeds – Similar to multireddits, allowing users to bundle multiple communities into one view (example).
Local-only Communities – Some communities can be set to not federate.
Tiled/Masonry View – For image-heavy communities (example).
Community Wikis – Each community has its own wiki page.
Posting & Content
Consolidated Comments – View all comments from multiple related posts on one page (example).
Post & User Flairs – Both posts and users can have flairs.
Spoiler Tags – Built-in spoiler support for posts.
Polls – Native polling system.
Hashtags – Fully supported.
Alt Text on Images – Improves accessibility.
Keyword Filter – Hide all posts containing specified words.
NSFL Filter & Icon – Separate from NSFW.
4chan Filter – Flags content from 4chan for review.
Domain Blocking – Block specific domains (separate from instance blocking).
Bot Filter – Hide posts from all bots with a single checkbox.
Piped Video Integration – Watch videos without YouTube tracking. Also paywalled articles have an archive.ph link automatically.
More Efficient Federation – votes are sent in batches.
Move Communities To Another Instance
Translate Posts – LibreTranslate integration
Moderation & Safety
Better Moderation & Reporting Tools – More robust admin/mod utilities. Video tour
Proper Instance Blocking – Actually hides all content from blocked instances.
User IP Bans – Prevents repeat offenders.
Image hash-based blocking – video demo
Authoritarian Inoculation – Feature to reduce the impact of authoritarian propaganda.
Default Blocks – Lemmygrad, Hexbear, and Nazi instances are blocked out of the box.
Staff and Admin Users – Clear admin role separation.
Cannot Use “password” as a Password – Basic account security enforcement.
User Experience
Keyboard Shortcuts – For faster navigation.
Low Bandwidth Mode – For slow connections.
Voting Privacy – Votes can be private (not federated); in meme communities, upvotes don’t affect reputation (optional).
Improved Ranking Algorithm – Hotness ranking tuned for better content surfacing (subjective).
Better UI Design – Cleaner interface (subjective).
Default Comment Collapsing – Comments at -10 score or below are collapsed automatically.
Low Reputation Indicator – Identifies consistently downvoted users.
New Account Icon – Marks accounts that are new.
Privacy Policy – Clearly available.
Proper Chat – Built-in real-time chat.
Why the name “PieFed”?
Python + Federation. Get it?
Oh ho ho.