4.4 KiB
Chinwag Social
Chinwag is a free, open-source social network server based on ActivityPub where users can follow friends and discover new ones. Via Chinwag, users can publish anything they want: links, pictures, text, and video. Chinwag servers can interoperate as a federated network (users on one server can seamlessly communicate with users from another one, including software such as Mastodon that implements ActivityPub!)
Click below to learn more in a video:
Navigation
Features
Part of the Fediverse. Based on open standards, with no vendor lock-in. - the network goes beyond just Mastodon; anything that implements ActivityPub is part of a broader social network known as the Fediverse. You can follow and interact with users on other servers (including those running different software), and they can follow you back.
Real-time, chronological timeline updates - updates of people you're following appear in real-time in the UI.
Media attachments - upload and view images and videos attached to the updates. Videos with no audio track are treated like animated GIFs; normal videos loop continuously.
Safety and moderation tools - Mastodon includes private posts, locked accounts, phrase filtering, muting, blocking, and many other features, along with a reporting and moderation system.
OAuth2 and a straightforward REST API - Mastodon acts as an OAuth2 provider, and third party apps can use the REST and Streaming APIs. This results in a rich app ecosystem with a variety of choices!
Deployment
Tech stack
- Ruby on Rails powers the REST API and other web pages.
- PostgreSQL is the main database.
- Redis and Sidekiq are used for caching and queueing.
- Node.js powers the streaming API.
- React.js and Redux are used for the dynamic parts of the interface.
- BrowserStack supports testing on real devices and browsers. (This project is tested with BrowserStack)
- Chromatic provides visual regression testing. (This project is tested with Chromatic)
Requirements
- Ruby 3.2+
- PostgreSQL 14+
- Redis 7.0+
- Node.js 20+
This repository includes deployment configurations for Docker and docker-compose, as well as for other environments like Heroku and Scalingo. For Helm charts, reference the mastodon/chart repository. A standalone installation guide is available in the main documentation.
Contributing
Chinwag is free, open-source software licensed under AGPLv3.
You can open issues for bugs you've found or features you think are missing. You can also submit pull requests to this repository or translations via Crowdin. To get started, look at the [CONTRIBUTING] and [DEVELOPMENT] guides.
License
Copyright (c) 2016-2025 Eugen Rochko (+ mastodon authors)
Licensed under GNU Affero General Public License as stated in the LICENSE:
Copyright (c) 2016-2025 Eugen Rochko & other Mastodon contributors
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as published by the Free
Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any
later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS
FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU Affero General Public License for more
details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public License along
with this program. If not, see https://www.gnu.org/licenses/