Hoot

How come you can self-host an e-mail server but can't self-host a subreddit? Well, now you can. I hear you saying, "But I could always just throw PHPbb on a lamp stack in the corner, there's a REASON I don't do that! People aren't going to make a brand new account and remember to start going to my website every day!"

Well now they don't have to! Using the omni-present and terrifyingly powerful magic contained on the Fediverse, you can not only self-host your own internet community, but do it in a decentralized way that allows ANYONE, from ANYWHERE, to make an account on almost ANY server! With that, they can communicate with people on TOTALLY DIFFERENT servers, without having to mess about with web URLs, and without having to create an account on EVERY server they interact with! You don't bother making a gmail account just to talk to your friend Sally who happens to have a gmail account. You can send Sally a lengthy diatribe on the tactics of couch-surfing from your AOL address. Why should your INTERNET WEB FORUM behave any differently?

The answer is it doesn't have to! Just use Hoot and you'll be able to:

Create an account (fluffy2001@somedomain.example)!
Create a community (flufflovers@somedomain.example)!
Communicate on the community with people on TOTALLY DIFFERENT servers run by TOTALLY DIFFERENT people (jd@goldandblack.xyz)!
Upvote stuff you like!
Ban people you don't!
Argue over minutae without all the tedious mucking about on centralized platforms!

All this and more can be YOURS if you run a Hoot node today!

OK but what is hoot?

Hoot is a software front-end for lotide that provides a clean, modern, and user-friendly interface. Hoot provides a Nuxt.js app, that can be built to use either Server Side Rendering(SSR) or for static file hosting

FAQ

Q: Do I need to self-host in order for me to use hoot? I can't afford computers.

A: You can just create an account on someone else's Hoot server!

Q: Does it have a mobile app?

A: Abso-doodly-utely it has a mobile app!

Q: What else do I need to run Hoot?

A: You need a server running lotide. Hoot is a frontend for lotide, lotide is a backend that handles all the complicated bits and database stuff.

Q: It's great but I want a NEW FEATURE. Do you guys accept pull requests?

A: We would ADORE it if you sent us a pull request.

Prerequisites

A working lotide server.
Node
Yarn
1. Yarn doesn't have to be installed globally, you can use NPX to run yarn commands: npx yarn npx yarn dev etc.

Building

Docker

The docker image only does the SSR build, and PROXY is true by default

this will start the container and map it to port 3000 on your machine:

docker run --name hoot -p 3000:3000 -e LOTIDE=https://lotide-instance.com/api hoot

SSR Build

install dependencies:

yarn

Set your Environment Variables in a .env file or your hosting provider's environment settings

LOTIDE=https://your-lotide-instance.app/api
STATIC=false
# if you're using SSR, proxy should probably be set to `true`
PROXY=true

Build the app

yarn build

Start the app

yarn start

Static Build

install dependencies:

yarn

Set your Environment Variables in a .env file or your hosting provider's environment settings

LOTIDE=https://your-lotide-instance.app/api
STATIC=true
# if you're using the Static Build, proxy won't be applied and doesn't have to be set
PROXY=false

Build the app

yarn build
yarn generate

After the build is completed, the results are output to the dist/ directory. Copy those files to your web root and Hoot should now be accessible.

or you can serve the app with a simple node server with

yarn start

For detailed explanation on how things work, check out the documentation.

Development

Special Directories

You can create the following extra directories, some of which have special behaviors. Only pages is required; you can delete them if you don't want to use their functionality.

`assets`

The assets directory contains your uncompiled assets such as Stylus or Sass files, images, or fonts.