GitHub - spacebarchat/spacebarchat: š¬ Spacebar is a free open source selfhostable discord compatible communication platform
(github.com)
from moonpiedumplings@programming.dev to selfhosted@lemmy.world on 10 Feb 19:48
https://programming.dev/post/45559495
from moonpiedumplings@programming.dev to selfhosted@lemmy.world on 10 Feb 19:48
https://programming.dev/post/45559495
Has anyone tried this? Itās discord reverse engineered.
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Interesting, seems like this has been around for a while but I havenāt heard of it until now. With how much Discordās shitting the fan and becoming (well, always has been) a privacy nightmare, this seems worth a try. The alternatives out there either need time to mature (Stoat) or donāt really fill the same role (Matrix).
Never heard of it either. Will check out cuz initially sounded like some vibecode app to quickly replace Discord since the news.
Itās been around a few years. I investigated it last year. It had a name change some times ago.
I canāt vouch for the code quality, but itās too old to be slop.
Spacebar was called Fosscord before. Maybe you have heard of that.
Huh, like a more disastrous and direct combo-approach. I like it.
You know I didnāt even realize I said this and Iām gonna start using this one LMFAO
HHhhmmā¦ Do container/docker install option. This is why itās probably stagnated in adoption from the selfhosted community.
It needs a container based install, no one likes installing dependencies and crud onto their pristine environments any longer.
Itās weird that the server has a .dockerignore file without a Dockerfile.
Seems like theyāre working on Docker build actions right now according to some other comments
Itās just not mentioned prominently github.com/spacebarchat/docker
last commit 3yrs agoā¦ seems unmaintained
Docker composeās donāt really need to be maintained though. As long as the app doesnāt need new components old docker composes should work.
EDIT: Oops, it does look like spacebarchatās docker images have last been updated over 2 years ago:
hub.docker.com/r/spacebarchat/server
EDIT2: Although this is outdated, I think their github repo has an action to autobuild docker images on pushes. Still investigating.
EDIT3: Okay, they donāt seem to be actually ran.
But using nix to build a docker image is pretty cool.
EDIT4: Oh shit, the docker image build workflows were added just 2 hours ago. Of course they havenāt been ran!
Docker support soon, probably.
EDIT5: the workflow ran, but it looks like itās private for now.
Perhaps more relevantly, the Docker image itself has not been updated in over 2 years: hub.docker.com/r/spacebarchat/server
Faster than my edits, I see.
You got my heart racing with the twists!
Right? Reading that was like watching an action movie!
It just depends, however, containers sure do make things a lot cleaner.
I do. I just completed pulling the core piped components (piped-backend, -frontend and -prox as well as -html-proxy) from Docker to native installs from the AUR, as well as installing searxng without a venv. Spacebar (the server and client) even have AUR pkgs, but theyāre unmaintainedā¦ Iām gonna change that.
There is a direct server though, is it federated? The readme doesnāt say itās federated at all
Itās not federated, just easy to self host and point custom clients at.
Are you sure? Because they also seem to be behind Fermi which sounds federated
Fermi is just a custom client for discord/spacebar. Itās not federated.
Thatās too bad, thatās a hard line for me, it has to have the option of federation.
Also, so itās a direct server, so it is centralized, thereās nothing decentralized about it
It is decentralized in the respect that communities run their own servers, in comparison to discord where there is an overarching corporation managing everything
But thatās not decentralized. Itās the same as discord, only instead of a corporation now you have a server admin.
I set this container up yesterday. Technically itās running. But all the settings are in the fucking sql db, and I know fuck all about sql other than drop tables is funny meme from xkcd. But also, ignoring the settings, I would like to point out that there is effectively no client. I mean, there are two official ones - the depreciated one, and the alpha one, and the alpha one has a total of 4 releases with the newest being two years ago. How do you deprecate a client when the server is still in alpha? What the fuck? And on all pages it screams āthis is alpha testing software, do not use as a dailyā. Also the docs are, uhhā¦ rough. If rough was falling 4 stories into a bed of poisonous cacti. It took me 3 hours to get the container running properly and finally poking at the db. Itās as organized as my bedroom (āitās somewhere in this dresser, I thinkā¦ā).
The idea, the potential, is brilliant. Literally everything about getting it working thoughā¦
Lots of great software ideas out there. Itās always the execution, availability of resources, and the reality of capitalism getting in the way.
Until I get in the way of capitalism (with a shotgun)
You can use the WebCord app for Spacebar.
I donāt see any options or mention of changing instances, beyond discord canary and public testingā¦? I might be blind
Containers = Yet Another Attack Surface.
Eh, containers are fine if you know what youāre doing. Just run them in a VM if you want more isolation.
Definitely not for the average user though.
I mean, thatās true regardless of how it is running. If the service is externally available, it will be probed for vulnerabilities. At least with a container, you can ward off what files it has access to, so an attacker canāt just ransomware your entire NAS with a single vulnerable service.
And thaaaatās why itās head/tailscale or nothing for me. Iām smart enough to know I donāt know enough to be absolutely confident I wonāt get SHODANād and end up crying over a home network catastrophe, never feeling truly secure ever again.
Every now and then itās tempting to get those fun features in containers like Nextcloud, like public links and federation, but itās not worth the risk IMHO. Not when thereās state-class adversarial bots written by stupidly smart people roaming the landscape. <_<
So youāre offering to manage my ~40 services, and make sure that all the dependencies are met - and none conflictā¦?
I mean, I enjoy hosting things myself, but Iām not going to invite issues that have been resolved by simple solutions. Iāve been around the block with dependency hell, fuck all of that. Now if I was getting paid like 6 figures instead of zero, sure boss, whatever the fuck you say boss, job security all day long. But unless youāre offering, Iām sticking with the easy way.
Doesnāt seem terribly well-maintained.
EDIT>> As was properly pointed out to me, I was judging based on the wrong repo. The server repo indeed has work being done on it, so it looks like this is getting updates and moving forward.
The Spacebar alternative client, Fermi, is more actively maintained from my understanding
fermi.chat github.com/MathMan05/Fermi
This is just a link to the branding repo. There isnt much to maintain in there.
I see, thank you. I withdraw my comment since the server repo certainly looks more maintained. The client repo seems stale, but the software does seem to be getting work on it, so thatās great!
3 years of abandonment? Absolutely not.
Where are you getting three years of abandonment from? The branding repo OP linked was last updated 10 months ago, while the server repo appears to have had pretty steady development for the last month at least (as far back as I bothered checking on mobile)
This wont go anywhere until they have an app that is easy to download. And then everyone says Revolt/Stoat but that doesnt even fucking work cause their verification system is ass (probably because they use gen AI to code) and also is difficult to download the mobile app
Stoat has 3rd party clients that are easy to install, I already got the Clerotri app downloaded directly from Accrescent on GrapheneOS (although I believe they have an F-Droid release).
Still has AI generated code. I tried setting up an account and despite it saying the email to verify your account would take up to 10 minutes, it actually would take hours. And I canāt sign up with my proton email (managed to get it to work with my gmail), while my friend cant get it to verify with their gmail.
Edit: Also have I have not found clients on fdroid or aurora store. I could only find the old Revolt app by adding its own fdroid repository and it hasnt been updated in years
Ah on the storefront side, sorry. I made an educated guess, but I guess itās not a good one XD.
Here is the Stoat/Revolt wiki with a complete list of clients (official and 3rd party) that you can check btw: wiki.rvlt.gg/index.php/Stoat_Clients
I wasnāt aware of the AI-generated code part, Iāll take a look at source to verify.
Does any of that actually indicate AI generated code, or was that just unrelated/speculation?
I feel I canāt really blame them for having horribly delayed verification, thanks to the sudden influx of users. I signed up nearly a year ago and it was normal then.
Their verification system has been my boss fight the last 48 hours. I want to get off of discord. PLEASE LET ME!
Why would one use this rather than just using something like Matrix or self-hosted Stoat? Iām not sure what it being āDiscord compatibleā really gets this project. Bot compatibility is nice, but arenāt most Discord bots closed source anyway?
Well, Stoat sucks and has no vision or history of reasonably paced development. So, itās more of a vaporware wish then actual software.
Because Stoat is also riddled with problems and Matrix is a dysfunctional hot mess.
How is Matrix dysfunctional?
Where do I even startā¦
I really tried to like it, I even attempted to move a community over, attempted to self-host, all the jazz. Itās a steaming mess for years now with no end in sight, and literally everyone who tried it eventually left disenchanted. Donāt even bother trying it.
This was my experience. Every time people suggest it as a Discord alternative Iām like, have you actually tried it? I hate Discord as much as the next guy but Matrix doesnāt get anywhere close. I tried really hard to like it and give it a chance, but no.
They mock people for not self-hosting it, calling it a āskill issue.ā I mean, not everyone has the time and energy to deal with that level of friction.
In the proper timeline the superior proprietary platform Axon beat out Discord.
The cumulative hours weāve lost screwing around with the manual placement spacial audio on Axonā¦ When it went tits up we switched to Mumble tho
I mean, if you want Matrix AND that it works, you just install ejabberd or prosody and go on with your life. But then thereās nothing fancy to report or brag about, it just works.
So is IRC and Matrix.