Ugh, I really tried to stay out of #fediverse drama but I guess I have to say a few things. Most of you know me as a #firefish core team member, so I think I owe it to the admins of almost 500 firefish servers out there and to the almost 5000 members of firefish.social.
So, yeah, if you haven’t noticed, things aren’t looking good for firefish. Its owner, Kainoa, has practically abandoned the project, which had its last stable release out on July. My last message to them was a week ago, and I haven’t heard back since. Firefish.social, besides the other severe technical problems it’s had due to mismanagement in the last few months, now also has serious federation issues. I hope Kainoa is well irl, but this is irresponsible and unacceptable.
I hear some of you saying “but you’re in the core team too, don’t try to put the blame elsewhere!”. So I have to explain what being a core team member in firefish meant. Kainoa invited me, Namekuji and a few others to be part of the “core team”, but kept all decisions and responsibilities. We didn’t co-own this. We never shared donations. We were just volunteers, who were honestly trying to make it a great project. This didn’t work well due to concentration of power to one person, who didn’t keep their promises. I don’t mean to be harsh to Kainoa, I mean we knew they were only 19 when they started the project. Still, it’s a bummer to anyone who chose to trust and support Firefish. This includes myself.
I don’t know if it’s early to consider firefish a dead project, but it sure seems like that for a few months now. Maybe it can be resurrected, idk. It’s all up to Kainoa.
In the meantime, Namekuji and I are starting #Catodon, which will have some differences with Firefish, and will include many changes I had discussed with Kainoa but were never implemented. If you decide to stick with us, we promise to be serious about this. I strongly believe in the fediverse and its potential, and I want to build a great platform for it. This was my goal when I chose to be involved in Calckey/Firefish. It’s still my goal with Catodon, only this time I can stand behind it 100%, as the project will be co-managed by Namekuji and me. If Firefish left you with a bitter aftertaste, we hope we can build a better relationship and prove ourselves worthy of your trust. Catodon will go public in a matter of days, possibly even hours. We’ll have more to say about its direction then.
In the meantime, I just wanted to share my apologies for any inconvenience regarding Firefish, as I’m still technically a core team member, whatever that means. But frankly, I tried so hard to make things go differently – but there’s only so much you can do when it’s someone else’s project. I’m really sorry for how things went.
But this is not the end of the fedi journey for me. I’m super excited about the chance to do some things right this time with Catodon. Life goes on, I guess! Hope to see you soon on our #codeberg repo, so we can start a new creative adventure together =)
:catodon: xx
OK, since this post exploded (which means there is a lot of interest in #Firefish!), and since some people might have misinterpreted some of the things I said, let me point out a few things:
I am NOT saying that Firefish is necessarily dead. I hope that this post works as a wake up call for Kainoa – whenever he sees it. If nothing changes (either Kainoa getting more involved again or sharing responsibilities or whatever), yes, it will be dead. Really hope something changes drastically, a lot of people love this project.
I am also NOT saying that #catodon is a continuation of firefish, but a different project. Honestly, if that’s all you’re looking for, there are other project which might be more suitable – we don’t want to mislead anyone. We will gradually change quite a few things, the goal is to make it a great and easier to understand all-around software for fedi communities, so for example some of the misskey-specific features will go. In a way, it will sit somewhere between Mastodon and Misskey. So our goal is NOT to replace/continue firefish but to find our people, who will be interested in what we -and not firefish- are trying to do with the platform, and maybe do it together.
Hope this clears everything up.
:catodon: CATODON IS LIVE!
We have now opened registrations at https://catodon.social – you can now have your own catodon.social account and use a fully functionyal pre-release version of Catodon!
Please keep in mind that this is still beta, you will notice some changes compared to #Firefish but more things will change! This isn’t even our finyal form ?
Also please be patient if there are delays due to increased traffic. There shouldn’t be, but if there are, we’ll sort them out.
This means that our repo on #codeberg is also now public!
Learn all about #Catodon, the ideas behind this new #fediverse project, our mewssion, and the first changes we’re doing in our first blog post:
Delayed #caturday surprise! Meet Catodon, an upcoming #fediverse platform, based on #firefish – but trying to make things a little simpler and a little more focused on online communities. Catodon.social is not open to registrations just yet, but will be soon enough. Follow this account for more info, when we’re ready!
The cat’s out of the bag.
(sorry about that – we had to! ?)
#catodon
This is the official #Catodon logo, made by the amazing @safespace@electricrequiem.com. Contact her if you’re in need of a great graphics designer (or if you’re in Athens and want a tattoo!). Meow!
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