Customisable themes. It doesn't have to look bland.
-
Does not require much RAM, either on server or client.
-
Suitable for installation on single board computers.
-
No timeline algorithms.
-
No javascript.
-
No database. Data stored as ordinary files.
-
No fashionable web frameworks. "Boring by design".
-
No blockchain or AI garbage.
-
Written in Python, with few dependencies.
-
Can also federate on Tor, i2p, and yggdrasil.
-
AGPL license, which big tech hates.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
Epicyon is an ActivityPub server for people who are tired of Big Tech social media and want something simpler which they can self host on minimal hardware. Connect with friends instead of getting mired in horrible and irrelevant business models.
+
+
Key features:
+
+
Open standards: HTML, CSS, ActivityPub S2S and C2S, RSS, CalDAV.
Customisable themes. It doesn't have to look bland.
+
Does not require much RAM, either on server or client.
+
Suitable for installation on single board computers.
+
No timeline algorithms.
+
No javascript.
+
No database. Data stored as ordinary files.
+
No fashionable web frameworks. "Boring by design".
+
No blockchain or AI garbage.
+
Written in Python, with few dependencies.
+
Can also federate on Tor, i2p, and yggdrasil.
+
AGPL license, which Big Tech hates.
-
-
-
Epicyon is for people who are tired of enshittified Big Tech garbage and just want to DIY their online social experience without much fuss or expense. Think water cooler discussions rather than doomscrolling and shouting into the void, in which you're mainly just reading and responding to the posts of people that you're following.
-
-
An Internet of People, Not Corporate Manipulation
-
-Ever feel like corporate social media is deliberately pressing your buttons or grinding your gears, leaving you stressed and angry? On the open web there is no pressure to perform the way a timeline algorithm wants you to. Experience the astonishingly novel concept of just hanging out with friends, without any artificial agendas.
+
An Internet of People, Not Corporate Manipulation
+
+ Ever feel like corporate social media is leaving you stressed and angry? Tired of adverts and bizarre agendas which you have no interest in? On the open web there is no pressure to perform for an algorithm or play to an audience. Experience the astonishingly novel concept of just hanging out with friends.
-
Small Tech Design
-
- Epicyon is written in Python with a HTML+CSS web interface and uses no javascript which makes display in a web browser very lightweight. It can run as a Progressive Web App on mobile.
+
Small Tech Design
+
+ Epicyon is written in Python with a HTML+CSS web interface and uses no javascript which makes display in a web browser very lightweight. It can run as a Progressive Web App on mobile.
- Emojis, hashtags, photos, video and audio attachments, instance and account level blocking controls, moderation functions and reports are all supported. Build the community you want and avoid the stuff you don't. No ads. No blockchains or other Silicon Valley garbage.
-
-
-
Community not Audience
-
- Corporate social media gives you an audience, with reach, celebrity, spectacle, lack of control, professional influencers, anxiety, alienation and competition. It's designed for fast growth regardless of social consequences, often where the contents of your feed or timeline is rigged rather than having anything to do with what you are interested in. Epicyon is designed for community, in which you have more control over who you're associating with. The community approach is the better way to build a habitable internet for the long term.
-
-
-
Message Scopes
-
- Define the scope of your messages to reach the right people.
-
-
-
-
Scheduled Posts
-
- Schedule posts to be published at some time in the future. This can be useful for reminding yourself to do things (send your future self a direct message) or for creating a series of posts promoting some event, such as a festival or wedding.
-
-
-
Text Search
-
- Want to be reminded about what you said about a topic a month ago? The search screen allows you to do full text search on your own posts. Search on other posts can be done via the use of hashtags.
-
-
-
Federated Blogging
-
-
- You don't need a separate blog system. Blog posts can be added and edited, and are federated as ActivityPub articles. They also have RSS version 2.0 feeds. People can comment on blog posts, but unlike other systems the moderation settings apply just the same as they do for any other fediverse post arriving at your server. This makes blog spam much easier to keep control over. You can subscribe to other people's blogs and they will appear in the right hand newswire column.
-
-
-
International and Customizable
-
- Epicyon supports many languages. Translations and emoji can easily be added. Alter the logo, backgrounds, terms of service and style to create a unique personality for your instance. Choose from a few different themes, or make a new one.
-
-
-
-
Calendar Events
-
- When creating a new post you can optionally also add a date, time and place. This will show up on the calendars of your followers, and makes organizing meetups or other community events simple. You can use message scopes to set up public events or private ones. To create reminders you can send yourself a DM with an event and it will appear on only your calendar.
-
-
-
-
Noone Left Behind
-
- Epicyon's absence of javascript makes it much more usable in shell based web browsers such as Lynx. As new web systems are deployed we should not be leaving anyone with minority use cases behind.
-
-
-
-
-
Media Timeline
-
- Some posts contain images and some don't. The media timeline enables you to view all your pet photos in one place.
-
-
-
-
- If you want your instance to be primarily about posting and interacting with media then you can also enable the media instance option.
-
-
Genuine Sharing Economy
-
- Barter and gift physical items or services with other people on your instance. Search for shared items which you might want or post items you no longer have a use for. Promote ride shares or available accomodation without any unnecessary companies in the middle. Pool resources between trusted friends to build solidarity and have fun.
-
-
-
Promote Your Skills and Build Teams
-
- Define a set of skills in your profile and search for other people who have the skills you need. Organize teams who can get things done!
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Bookmarks
-
- Want to remember a particular link or reply to something later? Bookmark your favorite posts and view them on the Saves timeline.
-
-
-
-
Hashtags
-
- Stay informed about the topics which people that you follow are highlighting. On the search screen there is a hashtag swarm.
-
-
-
-
News integration
-
- Want to read the news from an RSS feed, or run your own Independent Media Center producing news and federating it through the network? Both of those are possible. The newswire gives you the capability of collectively moderating news as it arrives, and publishing your own articles. The administrator can assign moderator and editor roles to other users on an instance. Organize your community to overcome the limitations of corporate media.
-
-
-
Install
-
-
This describes how to install on the clearnet. For other networks see the section below.
- The following instructions install Epicyon to the /opt directory. It's not essential that it be installed there, and it could be in any other preferred directory.
-
-
-
- Clone the repo, or if you downloaded the tarball then extract it into the /opt directory.
-
- Now you can navigate to your domain and register an account. The first account becomes the administrator.
-
-
-
-
Installing on Onion, i2p, or yggdrasil addresses
-
- If you don't have access to the clearnet, or prefer not to use it, then it's possible to run an Epicyon instance easily from your laptop. There are scripts within the deploy directory which can be used to install an instance on a Debian or Arch/Parabola operating system. With some modification of package names they could be also used with other distros.
-
-
-Please be aware that such installations will not federate with ordinary fediverse instances on the clearnet, unless those instances have been specially modified to do so. But onion instances will federate with other onion instances, i2p instances with other i2p instances, etc.
-
-
-
-
- To install a Tor instance onto a Debian based system:
-
-
-
- cd deploy
- sudo ./onion
-
-
-
- To install an i2p instance onto a Debian based system:
-
-
-
- cd deploy
- sudo ./i2p
-
-
-
- To install a yggdrasil instance onto a Debian based system:
-