Loops became Open Source!
-
Building an app like this for 100 people, sure. Making something handle smooth, affordable video delivery at scale. That's a spicy meatball.
The front-end is a mess for testing but doable. Then if you do live, you've got proxies and stream copies.
I host stuff at great scale, it's a different beast.
-
He stirs a lot of shit on his Mastodon account and gets into spats with other fedi devs. Just the other day he got into a one-sided spat with the GtS dev because the GtS dev implemented a feature to randomise the number of active users, which led to goblin.technology topping pixelfed.social in the FediDB charts. He then accused them of doing this to undermine him specifically, of wanting to 'de-legitimize Pixelfeds growth', despite it being explicitly a privacy feature.
My favourite part about this is that Pixelfed has been misreporting stats for years, and still is.
-
Good ideas absolutely do die all the time even in open source. If the original dev doesn't want to play nice, it's actually pretty difficult to create a new fork that everyone will agree on. Hopefully these federated apps have enough inertia to prevent the userbase from splintering when the original devs move on.
What's a good idea I'm open source that did die? I'm sure you can find a GitHub project and be like "I like this idea and it's dead" fine. But these projects are so used and popular... they aren't going anywhere. That's the context of this discussion. These apps are fine if the dev leaves because they are open source now. The right people will continue the work of this guy goes I think.
-
Remember it's a solo dev still. I guess a nice weekend project would be to create a new material3 app for it
-
Remember it's a solo dev still. I guess a nice weekend project would be to create a new material3 app for it
Of course, my problem is just that he isn't being transparent, and is dishonest. If he actually made the code open source, and did not get himself into controversy all time i wouldn't mind him being a solo dev
-
For following through?
-
Yeah "open source"...
The app doesn't even have the source code... -
New to open source? Good ideas don't really die in open source. If loops.video or Pixelfed are good ideas, open source will just do its thing because no one owns the idea once it goes open source
Isn't the point of this thread that the code isn't actually open source - that the released code isn't anything substantial?
-
Isn't the point of this thread that the code isn't actually open source - that the released code isn't anything substantial?
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
-
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
-
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
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.
-
My fear with pixelfed and loops is the single dev seemingly more interested in money and clout than in building something long lasting for the community. I don't expect it to last long, but my friends really crave an app to exchange reels in and so we're hoping loops will be sufficient until something more stable comes around.
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.
-
Of course, my problem is just that he isn't being transparent, and is dishonest. If he actually made the code open source, and did not get himself into controversy all time i wouldn't mind him being a solo dev
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! -
Yeah man what an arsehole giving away free things, spending time making free things for everyone to use for free.
If he wants to keep his code private until he's ready to release it - that's somewhat up to him. The repo is a step in the right direction, just give it some time.
Looking through the git repo the ignore is lopping off quite a number of files too (server) however I'm not sure how much of those are things like secrets, cache, other scripts and so forth.
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.
-
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!wtf? Thanks for sharing this, i didn't know.
-
Not sure you can trust him at this point.
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.
-
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.
Nah. He could sabotage documentation efforts. Loads of orgs use Foss licenses and aren't trustworthy
-
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.
Does the grant apply to just pixelfed, or loops as well?
