ssbc/patchwork

Private messages are end-to-end encrypted, always.
You have to follow somebody to get messages from them, so you won't get spammed.
Your mail can be public broadcasts or private, and you'll only see replies by people you follow.
The datastructure is a global mesh of append-only logs, which can support new types of data (not just “mail”).
Users are not bound to one server/host (what we call “Pubs”) and do not have to trust the servers.
It's very easy to setup and maintain your own Pub.

It's better than Twitter and Facebook because:

Private messages are end-to-end encrypted, always.
The software runs on your device, so there's nobody tracking your browsing.
The application code is FOSS, so you're free to fork or write new applications without a gatekeeper setting terms.
Data is saved to your disk, and so the application works offline.
You can sync directly with friends over Wi-Fi.

Pubs

In order to gossip outside your local network, you'll need to connect to a Pub.

You can find an invite to an available pub at the Pub servers registry.

Get an invite, then in patchwork: click “+ Join Pub” and paste the invite code.

This will cause you to follow the Pub and vice versa. If you haven't synchronized to this social network yet, prepare to wait a few minutes while your local server synchronizes.

Install

Download installers for Windows, macOS and Linux

See patchwork/releases

Or build from source

With node (>= 4) and npm (>= 3) installed:

t clone https://github.com/ssbc/patchwork
 patchwork
m install
m start

You'll need some more dependencies to build.

On Debian Linux:

 apt-get install g++ m4 libtool automake libgconf-2-4   # build tools
 apt-get install libxext-dev libxtst-dev libxkbfile-dev # spellchecker headers

On Fedora Linux:

 dnf install libXext-devel libXtst-devel libxkbfile-devel gcc-c++ m4 automake libtool

On macOS:

 install libtool automake # build tools

Code of conduct

Please note that this project is released with a Contributor Code of Conduct. By participating in this project you agree to abide by its terms.

Contributing

Please read the Patchwork Contribution Guidelines before opening a pull request.

Docs

This work is supported by the National Institutes of Health's National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, Grant Number U24TR002306. This work is solely the responsibility of the creators and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.