8 This is the README file for StatusNet, the Open Source social
9 networking platform. It includes general information about the
10 software and the project.
12 Some other files to review:
14 - INSTALL: instructions on how to install the software.
15 - UPGRADE: upgrading from earlier versions
16 - CONFIGURE: configuration options in gruesome detail.
17 - PLUGINS.txt: how to install and configure plugins.
18 - EVENTS.txt: events supported by the plugin system
19 - COPYING: full text of the software license
21 Information on using StatusNet can be found in the "doc" subdirectory
22 or in the "help" section on-line.
27 StatusNet is a Free and Open Source social networking platform. It
28 helps people in a community, company or group to exchange short status
29 updates, do polls, announce events, or other social activities (and
30 you can add more!). Users can choose which people to "follow" and
31 receive only their friends' or colleagues' status messages. It
32 provides a similar service to sites like Twitter, Google+, Facebook or
33 Yammer, but is much more awesome.
35 With a little work, status messages can be sent to mobile phones,
36 instant messenger programs (GTalk/Jabber), and specially-designed
37 desktop clients that support the Twitter API.
39 StatusNet supports an open standard called OStatus
40 <http://ostatus.org/> that lets users in different networks follow
41 each other. It enables a distributed social network spread all across
44 StatusNet was originally developed for the Open Software Service,
45 Identi.ca <http://identi.ca/>. It is shared with you in hope that you
46 too make an Open Software Service available to your users. To learn
47 more, please see the Open Software Service Definition 1.1:
49 http://www.opendefinition.org/ossd
51 StatusNet, Inc. <http://status.net/> also offers this software as a
52 Web service, requiring no installation on your part. See
53 <http://status.net/signup> for details. The software run
54 on status.net is identical to the software available for download, so
55 you can move back and forth between a hosted version or a version
56 installed on your own servers.
58 A commercial software subscription is available from StatusNet Inc. It
59 includes 24-hour technical support and developer support. More
60 information at http://status.net/contact or email sales@status.net.
65 This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
66 it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as
67 published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the
68 License, or (at your option) any later version.
70 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
71 WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
72 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
73 Affero General Public License for more details.
75 You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public
76 License along with this program, in the file "COPYING". If not, see
77 <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
79 IMPORTANT NOTE: The GNU Affero General Public License (AGPL) has
80 *different requirements* from the "regular" GPL. In particular, if
81 you make modifications to the StatusNet source code on your server,
82 you *MUST MAKE AVAILABLE* the modified version of the source code
83 to your users under the same license. This is a legal requirement
84 of using the software, and if you do not wish to share your
85 modifications, *YOU MAY NOT INSTALL STATUSNET*.
87 Documentation in the /doc-src/ directory is available under the
88 Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license, with attribution to
89 "StatusNet". See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ for details.
91 CSS and images in the /theme/ directory are available under the
92 Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license, with attribution to
93 "StatusNet". See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ for details.
95 Our understanding and intention is that if you add your own theme that
96 uses only CSS and images, those files are not subject to the copyleft
97 requirements of the Affero General Public License 3.0. See
98 http://wordpress.org/news/2009/07/themes-are-gpl-too/ . This is not
99 legal advice; consult your lawyer.
101 Additional library software has been made available in the 'extlib'
102 directory. All of it is Free Software and can be distributed under
103 liberal terms, but those terms may differ in detail from the AGPL's
104 particulars. See each package's license file in the extlib directory
105 for additional terms.
110 This is a minor bug fix and feature release since 1.0.1, released 3
111 October 2011. (Because the plugin interface has changed in an upwardly
112 compatible way, we've incremented the minor version number. See
113 http://semver.org/ for the semantic versioning scheme we follow.)
115 It includes the following changes:
117 - ActivitySpam plugin to check updates against spamicity.info
118 - Options to hide users who've been silenced or have posted spammy updates.
119 - OfflineBackup experimental plugin.
120 - Fixes for TwitterBridge to correctly handle replies through the bridge.
121 - Improvements in ActivityStreams JSON output to better match 1.0 spec.
122 - Console scripts for managing groups.
123 - Bug fix for conversation counts in conversation streams.
124 - Rights for moderators to manage spam.
126 A full changelog is available at http://status.net/wiki/StatusNet_1.1.0.
131 The primary output for StatusNet is syslog, unless you configured a
132 separate logfile. This is probably the first place to look if you're
133 getting weird behaviour from StatusNet.
135 If you're tracking the unstable version of StatusNet in the git
136 repository (see below), and you get a compilation error ("unexpected
137 T_STRING") in the browser, check to see that you don't have any
138 conflicts in your code.
143 If you're adventurous or impatient, you may want to install the
144 development version of StatusNet. To get it, use the git version
145 control tool <http://git-scm.com/> like so:
147 git clone git@gitorious.org:statusnet/mainline.git
149 This is the version of the software that runs on Identi.ca and the
150 status.net hosted service. Using it is a mixed bag. On the positive
151 side, it usually includes the latest security and bug fix patches. On
152 the downside, it may also include changes that require admin
153 intervention (like running a script or even raw SQL!) that may not be
154 documented yet. It may be a good idea to test this version before
155 installing it on your production machines.
157 To keep it up-to-date, use 'git pull'. Watch for conflicts!
162 There are several ways to get more information about StatusNet.
164 * There is a mailing list for StatusNet developers and admins at
165 http://mail.status.net/mailman/listinfo/statusnet-dev
166 * The #statusnet IRC channel on freenode.net <http://www.freenode.net/>.
167 * The StatusNet wiki, http://status.net/wiki/
168 * The StatusNet blog, http://status.net/blog/
169 * The StatusNet status update, <http://status.status.net/> (!)
174 * Messages to http://support.status.net/ are very welcome.
175 * The group http://identi.ca/group/statusnet is a good
176 place to discuss the software.
177 * StatusNet has a bug tracker for any defects you may find, or ideas for
178 making things better. http://status.net/open-source/issues
179 * The StatusNet forum is at http://forum.status.net/.
184 The following is an incomplete list of developers who've worked on
185 StatusNet. Apologies for any oversight; please let evan@status.net know
186 if anyone's been overlooked in error.
188 * Evan Prodromou, founder and lead developer, StatusNet, Inc.
189 * Zach Copley, StatusNet, Inc.
190 * Earle Martin, StatusNet, Inc.
191 * Marie-Claude Doyon, designer, StatusNet, Inc.
192 * Sarven Capadisli, StatusNet, Inc.
193 * Robin Millette, StatusNet, Inc.
204 * Tryggvi Björgvinsson
208 * Ken Sheppardson (Trac server, man-about-town)
209 * Tiago 'gouki' Faria (i18n manager)
211 * Leslie Michael Orchard
226 * Siebrand Mazeland and the amazing volunteer translators at translatewiki.net
227 * Brion Vibber, StatusNet, Inc.
228 * James Walker, StatusNet, Inc.
229 * Samantha Doherty, designer, StatusNet, Inc.
231 Thanks also to the developers of our upstream library code and to the
232 thousands of people who have tried out Identi.ca, installed StatusNet,
233 told their friends, and built the Open Microblogging network to what