Loops became Open Source!
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For following through?
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Yeah "open source"...
The app doesn't even have the source code... -
Isn't the point of this thread that the code isn't actually open source - that the released code isn't anything substantial?
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I see the backend and front end released. The back end is AGPL and the front end does need a license (assumed it had one, my bad). Assuming he puts the same AGPL license on the front end, I don't see anything unsubstantial? The community gets to make squooshloops or whatever name comes up and the backend and front end belongs to them at that point to release on their hardware. It's all ActivityPub, so mastodon users wouldn't miss see a thing go wrong? I'm not seeing a problem honestly
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Huh. Thank you for explaining.
I really don't know what to make of that, I can see why folks would find that really frustrating
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Well that's great news if you're right. It doesn't change that the creator seems to be immature and therefore not the most reliable social media Steward, but if the SW keeps getting developed or a better system comes from the open source nature as you suggest then I'll be happy.
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Yeah, this one guy has been trying to jumpstart so many projects. And that's admirable, but it's also too much for one dude (and I know he's tried to get some other people, but there has been drama around that - by him, I think).
But more to your point - something feels a little off even though I can't confirm anything. It does feel like this guy might just take some money and run if given the chance.
And I don't necessarily blame him for that - I probably would too. I don't want to work, and if I had money I wouldn't.
But there's just this feeling I can't shake about all of it. And I have a Pixelfed and a Loops account. They are both fine, so we'll see, I guess. But I wouldn't be surprised if I end back up with Mastodon being my sole social place for sharing photos, for example.
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A few days ago he posted (then I think deleted) this, which among other things makes me extremely inclined to not believe anything he says:
In March 2019 I teased the Pixelfed mobile app.
The only problem was, I didn't know how to write one.
So just like the original "federated instagram" post, I faked a commercial to build hype.
It was coming along well.
Then in mid 2020, I came out and put the app aside. It wasn't until late 2022 that I found a Pixelfed react native app, and cloned it and tinkered.
In 2023 I released the first Pixelfed app, but it was slow. I rewrote it from scratch in May 2024.
From faking, to making! -
Well, it's kind of up to him. His NLNet grants require it to be open source and dictate what license he uses, but I don't know the details to know if that just means it has to be open sourced in order to receive the grant (awarded upon completion not ahead of time) or right away.
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wtf? Thanks for sharing this, i didn't know.
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Worse case scenario he gathers telemetry and sells your information or gives it to a company that does. Either way, it's gpl so we can clone it and host it ourselves.
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Nah. He could sabotage documentation efforts. Loads of orgs use Foss licenses and aren't trustworthy
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Does the grant apply to just pixelfed, or loops as well?
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true, it doesn't make dansup any less of a badass though
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That’s funny because it’s not difficult at all to build an app like this.
It is a fuckton of unpaid work, it never feels right to talk about donating their time and effort like that.
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For the record was he? Or was he just making a joke that didn't land.
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He is pointing to these apparent offers, likely to gain attention and as a way to pressure people to donate to his kickstarter.
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He has gotten at least three grants in the past that I saw on the NLNet website for Pixelfed, but none were listed as active when I looked. However, since you have to complete your project to get paid out I didn't see a way to know if he actually received any or all of those grants. The current active grant is just for Loops.
Also, as of this morning, he was posting about how in order to make Loops open source and federated he needs to hit $200k on his Kickstarter. However, he was previously challenging people who were claiming it's not currently federated or open sourced. So now the story is that it's not yet and he needs more money to make that happen when previously he was claiming it already was both of those things.
It's...a mess for sure.
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Oh, and he just banned hazel again on loops. https://social.besties.house/@h/113966323700310342
