diff --git a/posts/2022-05-13-how-this-site-works.md b/posts/2022-05-13-how-this-site-works.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..29a0622 --- /dev/null +++ b/posts/2022-05-13-how-this-site-works.md @@ -0,0 +1,39 @@ +--- +title: How This Site Works +categories: + - technology +published_date: "2022-05-13 14:22:13 +0000" +layout: default.liquid +is_draft: false +--- +# How This Site Works + +Decided to just make a quick post to go over how this site is made and updated. + +## Technical Stuff + +I've gone through a few iterations, all the previous times I would just hand write HTML and CSS, which worked, but was annoying if I wanted to change stuff. + +So this time I decided to switch to a static site generator, [Cobalt](https://cobalt-org.github.io/). +It's pretty nice, and written in Rust too. + +It was kind of hard to figure out how to do some stuff, since the docs kind of suck. +But eventually I figured it out and now it works well. + +Pages are Liquid templates (kind of like HTML), which I only need to edit if I want to change layout stuff, and I don't do that very often. + +Styling is done with SCSS, which compiles down to plain CSS. It's *really* nice to work with, especially since I can keep stuff separated into different files. + +## Updating + +All the posts & pages are just written in simple Markdown, which makes it nice to write and edit just the content. + +Once I've updated it, I simply run an rsync command to update it on both servers. I have a VPS I use for the main site (owned by one of my partners), and a Raspberry Pi 3 I use for the onion site mirror. + +I also have it stored as a git repository, as a backup, and so that people can look at the code for reference. + +To make a new blog post, I simply run `cobalt new "Name" -f posts`, and cobalt will create a new Markdown file for me, in the posts directory, with all the metadata. + +I then open it up in Neovim, and start writing. At the end I'll enable spellcheck and fix the many mistakes I've made. + +I can then run `cobalt publish posts/Name.md` and it'll rename the file, and add a published date to the metadata. I then just run the rsync command, and it's live on the site! diff --git a/posts/2022-05-14-ssb-overview.md b/posts/2022-05-14-ssb-overview.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..113da16 --- /dev/null +++ b/posts/2022-05-14-ssb-overview.md @@ -0,0 +1,75 @@ +--- +title: A Quick Overview Of SSB +description: My experience with Secure Scuttlebutt as a not-very-technical user +categories: + - scuttlebutt + - technology +published_date: "2022-05-14 20:33:24 +0000" +layout: default.liquid +is_draft: false +--- +# A Quick Overview Of SSB + +[Secure Scuttlebutt](https://scuttlebutt.nz/) (or SSB for short), is a P2P social network. +It works with a gossip protocol, you get new posts from people you follow, or people who those people follow, etc. + +You can connect with users over the internet via servers, either pubs (which store data, and act like users themselves), or rooms (which work more to just connect users). +But you can also connect over bluetooth, or local networks. + +The best way to get connected to the network would be to have someone nearbly that you can meet up with in person, but that's kind of hard to do. +I'd recommend joining a few smaller room/pub servers to get started. + +But since all the data is stored locally on your device first, it works completely offline! +You can read posts, reply to them, make posts, change your profile, and everything, while being fully offline! +The changes are synced next time you go back online. + +The official site explains how the network works with a really cute video! + +Unfortunately, this can cause it to take up quite a bit of space, especially if you follow a lot of users. +My current database takes up about `7.7GB`. + +## Culture +I've tried a few P2P social platforms, but this is the only one I've stuck with. + +The main reason for this is the people on it. + +Most other platforms are filled with cryptobros, blockchain shit, and people throwing slurs around. +Scuttlebutt, on the other hand, is filled with left-leaning solarpunks and queer friendly people. + +It's a really friendly environment. And while a *majority* of posts are about technology, there's lot's of other stuff going on too! +Lot's of people posting about anarchism, their gardens, cool mushrooms they found, and everything else. + +Howver, it does feel fairly slow. I follow quite a few users, but don't get a lot of posts in my feed all that ofter. +This is nice though, I think. It contrasts the high speed of other standard social media. + +## Moderation and Safety +As it is a P2P platform, you are the only moderator of your content. + +Currently the main options are to block a user, and to ignore them, which just hides their posts from your view. +You can see when other users block accounts, so you can copy the blocks of someone you trust. + +I think there are plans to implement better moderation technology, with something like [trustnet](https://cblgh.org/trustnet/). + +However, this hasn't really been much of a problem for me so far. The worst I've seen is some spam, but those people get easily blocked. +I haven't seen any sort of harassment or awfulness like on the Fediverse, or Twitter. +Maybe that's because it's so small, maybe it's because they're just turned off by the culture immediately, or maybe they just haven't made it into my social graph. + +There is no way to delete content at the moment. This is mainly a technical problem, as user feeds are represented as append-only logs, and you'd have to propogate deletion requests to all users, and there would be no way to ensure everyone has deleted it. + +Again, there are plans to implement a way of deleting content however. + +SSB is currently in heavy development, and features are being changed and added all the time. + +## Clients +The way you interact with the SSB network is with one of various clients. There are currently clients for various platforms, including desktop, web, and mobile (iOS & Android). + +The client I'm using at the moment is [Manyverse](https://manyver.se), and it's probably one of the most "modern" ones, currently in active development, working on new features all the time, and it works on both mobile and desktop. + +Some other good clients are [Planetary](https://www.planetary.social/) for iOS, and [oasis](https://github.com/fraction/oasis) for web. +You can find a list of clients [here](https://handbook.scuttlebutt.nz/applications). + +Most of the development is being done with Javascript, and other web technologies, however more recently there is work being done on making native Rust libraries. +There are various plans to try and document more, and make it simpler for people to create clients. Diversity of clients is good! + +I'm currently working on a native Linux client written in Rust, using the GTK4 toolkit. +There's a test site up at the moment [here](https://waterdrinkers.gay).