Have you ever been scrolling through, you know, your social feed or maybe trying to
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organize something for a community online?
I just felt...
Yeah.
Frustrated.
Oh, definitely.
Like, you're constantly battling the platform itself.
Exactly.
Not just trying to connect with people, but just to, like, exist authentically
online.
And maybe you felt like your data's being scooped up or your interactions are being
nudged in certain directions.
That feeling of being less like a user and more like, well, the product.
Right.
And today, we're kind of lighting a fire under that whole feeling.
We are diving into Bonfire.
It's this really exciting open-source project, and it offers a totally different
way of thinking
about our digital lives.
It really does.
A different vision.
So our mission for this deep dive is pretty straightforward.
Yeah.
We want to unpack Bonfire for you.
What is it?
How does it actually work?
And, you know, why might it be a glimpse into the future for online communities?
Yeah.
Let's explore how it's aiming to put the power back where it belongs in your hands.
Letting you shape your own digital spaces with what they call agency, care, and
flexibility
right at the core.
So this is really for anyone who's ever thought, I wish I could build my own
digital home,
not just rent a room somewhere.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Build it yourself.
But before we jump right into the building part, just a quick word from our
supporter.
This deep dive is made possible by Safe Server.
They're your partner in digital transformation.
Safe Server handles the hosting for software like this, and they support you every
step
of the way.
So if you're thinking about hosting your own digital commons, maybe like a Bonfire
instance,
or you just need reliable infrastructure for your projects, you can learn more
about how
they can help you at www.safeserver.de.
That's www.safeserver.de.
Okay, so let's get into the heart of it.
The problem Bonfire is really trying to tackle, and this is where it gets, I think,
really
interesting.
It's a little bit on those huge online platforms, right?
The ones built for massive scale above everything else.
Absolutely.
Designed to connect millions, yeah, but often something gets lost.
Exactly.
Things like genuine community care, or even just individual agency.
Our sources kept bringing up this feeling of being erased by online platforms in
their
race to scale.
It's a strong phrase, but it resonates.
They often just don't provide the right tools for, say, intentional smaller scale
community
building.
It's all about broadcast.
Right.
And what's really fascinating here is that Bonfire isn't setting out to be just
another
social network.
It's built on this fundamental critique of how things are now, where platforms
often
work like an extraction economy, pulling data, attention, value from you.
Bonfire challenges that.
It proposes that digital spaces should be more like a commons.
A commons, like a shared resource.
Exactly.
Not a product somebody sells, but something shared.
Like maybe a community garden versus a huge private farm.
Okay, I like that analogy.
It's a place where communities can gather, they can co-create, build something
lasting.
And the focus is explicitly on giving you more agency, care, and flexibility.
It's about empowering you to, well, reclaim your data and resist that manipulation
that's
become so common.
That distinction, product versus commons, that's really powerful.
It makes you stop and think about how much we've just accepted the way things are.
So how does Bonfire actually do that?
How does it make this vision happen?
You said it's open source.
Right.
At its core, Bonfire is an open source, AGPL3 licensed ecosystem.
Okay.
Break that down a bit for beginners.
Open source means?
It means the code, the blueprint, isn't locked away.
It's public.
Anyone can look at it, use it, change it, even help build it.
So transparency, no hidden stuff working against you.
Exactly.
That's fundamental for user control.
And the AGPL3 license, that's a specific type of open source license that kind of
goes
a step further.
It ensures this freedom stick around even if someone builds, say, a commercial
service
using it.
It fosters this really collaborative community-driven way of building things for
the long haul.
Got it.
So it's not just code.
It's like a toolkit, a framework.
Yeah, exactly.
Think of it as a modular toolkit and a flexible framework.
It lets communities design, operate, and really control their own digital lives.
Okay.
Modular, flexible.
And if we step back a bit, look at the bigger picture, the way they describe it is
built
by communities for communities rooted in autonomy, mutual care, and collective
power.
That's a strong statement.
It is.
And that modular design you mentioned, that's absolutely critical.
I mean, it's not rigid, not one size fits all.
It's a flexible foundation you can build on, adapt, extend.
And we're already seeing the first result of that, the Bonfire Social 1.0 Release
Candidate.
That's the first app built using this framework.
It shows off the social networking core.
Right.
So a practical example.
Yeah.
And Sam Lubuskin had a great way of putting it, described it as sort of like
WordPress
for the Fediverse.
Oh.
Okay.
That clicks.
WordPress for the Fediverse.
Yeah.
It's a fantastic analogy, right?
It makes it relatable.
Think how WordPress made website building accessible to way more people.
Democratized it.
Bonfire kind of aims to do something similar, but for these federated social
networks, making
it much easier for community leaders to create and manage their own spaces, not
just use someone
else's.
That WordPress analogy really works.
It makes Bonfire feel tangible.
Like yeah, building a website, but for a whole social space, it's giving you the
tools to
be the architect.
Precisely.
The architect of your own digital space.
So Bonfire puts you in like unprecedented control, shaping your experience right
down
to the details, adding features, removing them, changing how things look and behave,
tuning algorithms, swapping them out, even turning them off entirely.
It's way beyond just picking a color scheme.
Oh yeah.
It's choosing the actual skeleton and muscles of your platform.
So let's look at the four ways it delivers on this.
These pillars of agency they talk about.
First one, configure.
And this isn't just picking a theme, though you can do that.
It means you can really configure your favorite features, settings, and theme
deeply.
Can you give us a really concrete example, something surprising maybe, that a
community
could configure on Bonfire that you just absolutely cannot do on, say, Facebook or
Reddit today?
That's a great question because yeah, configuration often just means skins or basic
settings.
Here it's about fundamental power.
Power over your data, your interactions, the actual functionality.
For instance, maybe a community decides they need a specific integrated polling
system
just for making group decisions, but critically only for verified members and maybe
only for
certain topics.
Oh, okay.
Very specific rules.
Exactly.
Or maybe they want a unique way to filter content that prioritizes, say, local
environmental
discussions over random global news.
On a big platform, you're stuck with their features, their algorithms.
Right.
Take it or leave it.
With Bonfire, you choose which functional modules like voting or a shared calendar
are
even available to your community and how they work.
You're shaping the purpose of the space, not just tweaking the appearance.
That's a massive difference, building the function for your community's specific
purpose.
Okay.
So then how does Interact build on that deep configuration?
Right.
So the second pillar is Interact.
It's about connecting, sharing, engaging, but with purpose.
With purpose.
Okay.
Because you've already configured the platform the way you need it, you then get to
decide
exactly who sees what you publish, who sees your activities, and crucially, how
people
can interact with you.
More control over the conversation.
Yeah.
It moves away from that sort of public by default, noisy environment we see
everywhere
else.
Imagine setting up a group where maybe only members can comment, or where certain
sensitive
topics automatically trigger a higher level of moderation review.
It ensures more relevant, meaningful interactions.
Fostering an environment where interactions feel intentional, not just shouting
into the
void.
Precisely.
That granularity, that control over how you interact, that's crucial.
But it brings up a big question.
Once you've set up your ideal space, set the rules, how do you keep the
interactions inside
it healthy and safe?
Because even with good intentions, online spaces face challenges.
You hit on a really critical point, and that's exactly where the third pillar,
moderate,
comes in.
And Bonfire has some really interesting, innovative ideas here.
Okay, more than just ban hammers.
Definitely more.
I mean, yes, it has the standard tools flagging, removing problematic content, both
users and
moderators can do that.
You can silence people, ghost them, block users, or even block entire other
instances if they're
causing problems.
Right, standard stuff.
What's innovative?
What's really groundbreaking is the ability to use custom roles to decentralize
power,
moving away from that traditional model where one or two admins hold all the keys.
Decentralized moderation.
How does that work?
It means the community members themselves can collectively manage their space.
Either they rotate moderation duties or create specific roles like someone
dedicated to welcoming
new members or another focus on conflict resolution.
Interesting.
It shifts the burden from just one person, who's often overwhelmed, especially in
volunteer
communities, to the whole group.
Foster shared responsibility makes it more resilient.
This is huge for smaller groups without a dedicated tech team, but who still need
good
ways to keep things healthy.
That idea, decentralized moderation, that sounds much more sustainable.
Community driven.
Okay.
So that's configure, interact, moderate.
The fourth pillar is federate.
This takes bonfire beyond just one isolated group, right?
What does federation really mean for the average person and why is it important?
Right.
So for anyone new to the term, the Fediverse is basically a network of independent
social
platforms that can all talk to each other.
Like email?
Exactly like email.
That's the perfect analogy.
You can send an email from Gmail to Yahoo, right?
Even though they're different companies, they use shared protocols.
The Fediverse uses protocols, Activity Pub is the main one, to do something similar
for
social stuff, but with richer content posts, shares, follows, etc.
So embracing federation means your bonfire instance isn't an island.
It can connect with users on Mastodon or PeerTube or other platforms in the wider
Fediverse.
So you broaden your reach, break down those platform walls.
Nicely.
You're not siloed.
It's all about giving you the power to, like they say, self-host your online
community
and shape your experience on your terms, but still be connected to this much larger,
diverse
digital world.
Okay, so this really isn't just about building a slightly better Facebook clone.
It's foundational tech for potentially whole new kinds of online interaction.
Absolutely.
The vision is incredibly ambitious.
It looks way beyond just social feeds.
As Lynn Foster put it really well, said something like, the most exciting thing
about Bonfire
is that they've set the stage to add all kinds of features integrated with the
social
networking core.
Yeah, I remember that quote.
Circles and groups to start, offers once.
Someday, whole social economic networks and ecosystems.
That paints a picture of something really vibrant, interconnected, where the tools
actually
serve us.
And what's really fascinating now is seeing how different experts are already
picking
up on that potential.
It shows just how flexible and adaptable this foundation is.
Like who?
What are they seeing?
Well, Jorge Saterno, for example.
He highlights the modular design will facilitate the creation of applications for
all kind
of purposes.
He even sees it becoming a potential backbone for things like open knowledge
sharing or
science communication.
Wow.
Okay.
So like a dedicated scientific community running on Bonfire.
And that fully self-governed collaborating sharing research in a space they built
specifically
for that purpose.
It's moving beyond just social into facilitating actual work and knowledge creation.
That's powerful.
Then you've got folks like Bob Haugen, who's looking into community economic
systems where
the future bonfire could be the main coordination medium.
Community economic systems.
What does that mean?
It hints at using bonfire to support alternative community driven economies, groups
managing
shared resources, maybe sharing skills, even trading goods or services within their
own
digital commons, using bonfire to coordinate it all.
Okay.
That's thinking way outside the box.
And Angel from the Weathermakers, they're exploring moving their tools into bonfire.
They liked the access to the Fediverse and to all the blocks, seeing it as really
promising
for quickly developing community driven processes.
So it's seen as more than just social media.
It's a building block itself.
Exactly.
And for the tech folks listening, it's worth noting their activity pub library.
That's the bit that handles federation.
Isn't just baked in.
It's a modular component itself, meaning developers could potentially swap it out
or
adapt it later.
It gives us incredible flexibility right down at the protocol level, ensuring bonfire
can
evolve as the decentralized web evolves.
You can literally see this modularity if you peek at their code repositories on
GitHub.
There are separate extensions for identity, main extension, for economic stuff,
value
flows, economic extension.
It's all designed to be pieced together like, well, digital Lego.
Digital Lego.
I love it.
A customizable foundation they can grow into anything from science collaboration to
new
economies.
So the great news here is bonfire isn't just some far off dream.
It's real.
It's developing actively and you can actually explore it now.
Yeah, the bonfire social 1.0 release candidate is ready.
That's a big milestone.
Which means you can jump in.
You can set up a new instance for your own community.
If you're technically inclined, you can run bonfire on your server for total
control.
Or even if you're adventurous, build an extension and help shape its future.
Get involved basically.
Yeah.
There's comprehensive documentation available if you want to dive into using or
building
on bonfire.
And there's a community around it, places to ask questions, collaborate, learn.
It really embodies that buy people for people idea.
Participation is key.
Absolutely.
Your participation is what helps it grow and evolve.
And if we connect this all back to that core idea, reclaiming our digital agency,
bonfire
really offers this, um, this tangible glimpse into a different future, a future
where our
online spaces are genuinely ours.
Shaped by our values, controlled by our community.
Built for the long haul.
Yeah.
Free from the whims of corporate algorithms changing things under our feet.
Which leads to, I think, an important question for you listening right now.
Okay.
If you could design your ideal online community today, completely free from
corporate influence,
built with that agency, care, and flexibility right at the heart of it, what would
it actually
look like?
What unique features or rays of interacting would you prioritize to make it truly
yours?
That's a great question to ponder.
What would your ideal digital commons look like?
And that wraps up our deep dive into bonfire for today.
A really fascinating project.
Julius offers a different, more empowering path for how we live online.
We really hope this sparks some ideas for you about how you might engage with
communities
differently, more autonomously, maybe more caringly, definitely more intentionally,
moving
beyond the frustrations we all feel sometimes with the big platforms, and a huge
thank you
once again to Safe Server for supporting this deep dive.
Yeah, thanks Safe Server.
Whether you're inspired to build your own digital commons now, or you're
transforming
your business with resilient, open-source tools, Safe Server provides the hosting
and
the support you need every step of the way.
You can find out more at www.neseafserver.de.
That's www.safeserver.de.
Until next time, keep digging, keep learning.
And keep asking those big questions.
Keep challenging the status quo.
Keep challenging the status quo.