/channels

Your self-hosted, globally interconnected microblogging community

Primary LanguageRubyGNU Affero General Public License v3.0AGPL-3.0

Overview

Create dedicated spaces on your Patchwork server with curated feeds of content, access permissions under your control and tools to boost & broadcast them around the web.

To enable this plugin please make sure you have set up a Mastodon server and installed the Patchwork Dashboard, with both running correctly.

See the full Patchwork ReadMe here.

Features

Curated feeds

Populate your Channel with curated content from around the social web. Select what conversations you want to populate your Channel using # and following key contributors. You can then refine the content stream by muting specific accounts and applying keyword filters.

Check out the Newsmast app to see curated Channels in action.

Access permissions

Cast a big net or keep the conversation on your Channel focused with access permissions. You can allow users to contribute in several ways:

  • If their account is on your server.
  • If you have enabled "Guest login", allowing anyone with a Mastodon account to sign in to your server.
  • Through the Discovery Hub (see below)
  • If they post on the social web using the Channel's #.

What users can view and how they participate on the Channel is up to you!

Broadcast

Once created and hosted on your server, Channels you can then broadcast channels around the web by making them available in 4 ways:

  1. Discovery Hub - Channels set to public mode can be discovered by other Patchwork enhanced servers. They can then be added to other servers as an additional timeline (like a pinned column) and, if you give permission, users on those servers can even interact

  2. The social web - Channels can function as accounts on the social web, allowing them to be followed & engaged with by anyone on the Fediverse, Bluesky, nostr & more. People can even post to the Channel from the social web by using your chosen channel specific #.

  3. RSS - Your channel can automatically be made available as an RSS feed.#

  4. Web - Channels are hosted on the web and can therefore be accessed directly through any Fediverse platform, app or even website. This means your community can have the ultimate choice of how they want to participate - through Mastodon, Phanpy, Ice Cubes or any front end vendor of their choice.

Installation

Before installing this gem, please make sure that below systems are up and running:

We will update this page and the Patchwork Dashboard Wiki with installation instructions as soon as we can.