It is a lightweight, privacy-first Fediverse client for iOS, built around a simple idea: fast, small, predictable behavior, and first-class support for snac.

What makes it different:

• snac-first by design, not "compatible by accident"
• Works with all Mastodon API compatible software, including Mastodon, snac, GoToSocial, Akkoma, and others
• EXIF stripping on upload (HDR and orientation preserved)
• Optional on-device alt text generation via Apple Intelligence for your uploads and for images in your timeline
• Markdown posting for snac
• Granular notifications, grouping, multi-account
• Blocking and moderation tools
• Very small footprint, very low RAM usage

Alt text generation happens entirely on device via Apple APIs on supported hardware. Nothing is sent to external services.

It is built around my own workflow and priorities. It may not be for everyone, and that is perfectly fine.

Important note:
MastoBlaster will always be free for BSD Cafe users, illumos Cafe users, and for anyone connecting to a snac instance, including self-hosted ones.

The app is already usable, but this is still a test phase. I am looking for feedback, bug reports, and real-world usage insights.

TestFlight link:
https://testflight.apple.com/join/Pkxa5R1k

Stay tuned.

#MastoBlaster #iOS #Apple #Fediverse #Mastodon #snac #GoToSocial #Akkoma #ActivityPub

#MastoBlaster has its own #Fediverse account - powered by #snac

Follow @mastoblaster to receive all the updates, insights, etc.

#iOS #Fediverse #Mastodon #snac #GoToSocial #ActivityPub

https://testflight.apple.com/join/Pkxa5R1k

#apple #ios #app #snac

OpenBSD wasn't able to run snac stable on this machine, it crashed after a few requests with "illegal instruction".

#snac #snac2 #fediverse #activitypub #NetBSD #OpenBSD #retrocomputing #retroserver #retrohardware #pentiumii #pentium2 #oldhardware

Alt...

Open 19" 90's rack Case with a green motherboard in it and old grey ribbon cables connected to a dvd drive and a ssd. there are two addon cards in the pci slots and two slot 1 pentium ii cpus with fans installed. The 4:3 screen shows a fastfetch output giving stats of the machine , an htop screen with two cpu usage graphs and snac log

Alt...

green motherboard with two pentium ii slot 1 cpus

Sin entrar en muchos detalles:
0. Elegir un nombre de dominio que os haga únicos: carnecruda.radio o carnecrudaradio.es o ... lo que sea.
1. Contrata un servidor en la red donde instalar el servidor ActivityPub (el protocolo base sobre el que funciona Mastodon); a vosotros os vendría muy bien tener otros servicios que funcionan como él porque no sois una mera red social. Asignáis el dominio al servidor y ...
2. Diseña cómo quieres la arquitectura: una cuenta única es buena sólo para primeros contactos o para anuncios. En vuestro caso una cuenta por cada uno de los que tenéis allí, que puedan expresarse sobre lo que sean y, dado que el límite de cuentas es muy lejano, una por cada sección o por cada invitado más o menos regular.
3. Migráis los seguidores y seguidos de la cuenta de ahora en mastodon.online @carnecrudaradio@mastodon.online a la cuenta base como @carnecruda@carnecruda.radio o cualquier cosa sencilla de recordar.
4. Comenzáis a publicar y a seguir (y tal vez a bloquear) a personas de otras servidores.
5. Y ya, lo demás es ponerse a construir una red y dejar que crezca y crezca y vaya por ahí haciendo cosas.

Sigue consultando porque aquí hay personal muy válido para estos detalles.

Y, ojo, esto sin saber si tenéis más contenido. Los podcasts, se me ocurre, pueden estar alojados en funkwhale, otro software libre y del fediverso con el que conectar. Hay muchas más opciones pero yo diría que lo principal es el dominio y luego el servidor. Y de ahí a las estrellas. 🙂

#fediverse

EDIT: Build 68 should also run on iOS 18.x but it currently crashes. I'll see if I can fix it.

After quite some time, I’m finally ready to share this.

MastoBlaster is now available in public testing on TestFlight.

It is a lightweight, privacy-first Fediverse client for iOS, built around a simple idea: fast, small, predictable behavior, and first-class support for snac.

What makes it different:
• snac-first by design, not "compatible by accident"
• Works with all Mastodon API compatible software, including Mastodon, snac, GoToSocial, Akkoma, and others
• EXIF stripping on upload (HDR and orientation preserved)
• Optional on-device alt text generation via Apple Intelligence for your uploads and for images in your timeline
• Markdown posting for snac
• Granular notifications, grouping, multi-account
• Blocking and moderation tools
• Very small footprint, very low RAM usage

Alt text generation happens entirely on device via Apple APIs on supported hardware. Nothing is sent to external services.

It is built around my own workflow and priorities. It may not be for everyone, and that is perfectly fine.

Important note:
MastoBlaster will always be free for BSD Cafe users, illumos Cafe users, and for anyone connecting to a snac instance, including self-hosted ones.

The app is already usable, but this is still a test phase. I am looking for feedback, bug reports, and real-world usage insights.

TestFlight link:
https://testflight.apple.com/join/Pkxa5R1k

Stay tuned.

#MastoBlaster #iOS #Fediverse #Mastodon #snac #snac2 #Akkoma #GoToSocial #ActivityPub #OwnYourData

Also, thanks to: byte, dandelions, oxzi, davidrv00, ag-eitilt, pmjv, zen, daltux and anyone else I may have missed for contributing to this release!

I submitted a Pull Request to update MacPorts' snac to 2.90 here:

https://github.com/macports/macports-ports/pull/31230

1 of 3 GitHub Continuous Integration checks completed successfully.

Fingers crossed the other two go off without a hitch. If so, it's up to someone else with commit access to merge it.

#snac #MacPorts #OpenSource #ActivityPub #Mastodon #NoDatabaseNeeded
#NoJavaScript #NoCookiesEither #NotMuchBullShit #snacAnnounces

#snac2 #fediverse #frugalfediverse

Hi @grunfink,
where does one typically serve non-css assets for a #snac #theme?
https://comam.es/snac-doc/snac.8.html doesn't mention.

Minor tweak to improve signature key retrieving for some Wordpress configurations.

Fixed web UI incorrect links to actor public pages for some configurations.

Fixed mismatch in the accounts being followed number in the public and people pages.

Notifications can be filtered by category (contributed by byte).

Dates are shown adjusted to the account's time zone (contributed by dandelions).

Configurable limit for poll items (contributed by dandelions).

Fixed incorrect scope when editing a post (contributed by dandelions).

Change the strip_exif logic to work with the already existing OpenBSD sandbox (contributed by oxzi).

Mastodon API: Add poll creation (contributed by davidrv00), fixed a voting bug (contributed by davidrv00), added a fix to verify_credentials (contributed by ag-eitilt).

Updated Czech, German, Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish translations (contributed by pmjv, zen, daltux).

https://comam.es/what-is-snac

If you find #snac useful, please consider buying grunfink a coffee or contributing via LiberaPay.

#snacAnnounces #FrugalFediverse

Regarding an OpenBSD package, I'm sure it would be very easy to do. OpenBSD for me is first class, and #snac works great there.

https://fedi-relay.gyptazy.com is a tech related relay instance that connects over 100 instances, focussing on things like #FreeBSD, #BGP, #IPv6, #Proxmox, #Homelab, #Linux and many other things! You can easily add a really when using #snac / #snac2, #mastodon, #pleroma and many other ones!

#community #activitypub #socialmedia #fedi #fediwall #relay #opensource #tech #federated #social

Alt...

Overview of the fedi-relay gyptazy instance for the Fediverse

Of course I'm using #snac on my blog posting bot. Still the best software to self host :)

CC: @xz@ebadf.port0.org

Got bored with digital ocean last year and trashed all my test instances (had four or five at one point and degraded down to two). Starting again with #snac on ionos, using #caddy instead of nginx. This was handy

https://ffuentes.sdf.org/communication/2025/08/23/my-snac-config-activitypub-instance-with-caddy.html

#snac #snac2 #fediverse

I would even host it at home, but it seems like huge parts of the Fediverse are IPv4-only, and #ActivityPub behind Dual-Stack Lite doesn't sound like fun.

Next up in a new #FediMerch store is #snac merchandise! I had to grab my own set of stickers for this one, the artwork is so cool!

You've got Susie, snac's default icon embedded in a QR code. And then this ridiculously amazing artwork from @prahou that is just a must have for your sticker collection - or on a shirt - or mug. Just get it!

https://www.redbubble.com/people/analognowhere/shop?artistUserName=analognowhere&asc=u&collections=4443355

Alt...

An alien with a wig and makeup on, with the words "SINCE YOU LEFT ME, I'VE BEEN SNACPILLED" with a website address for the snac platform. The client is holding a small Susie avatar.

Alt...

The default snac user avatar, Susie, black and white, embedded in a QR code sticker.

The time is probably right.

Back in 2022, when I was still using iOS, I wasn’t completely happy with the Fediverse apps that were available. I was mostly using Akkoma, and the interface I liked the most was actually its web UI, even on mobile. So I started playing with Xcode and put together the foundations of an app tailored to my needs.

A lot has changed since then and today we have great alternatives like IceCubes, Mona, Ivory, etc. Each one has strengths and weaknesses though, so I picked up my old project again and kept pushing it forward.

So I’m happy to announce that my app will finally see the light: I’ve been using it for the past few days and, in my spare time, I’m fixing bugs and adding missing features. I’m building it around my own needs, so it doesn’t have to “appeal to everyone”. I wouldn’t call it opinionated, but it’s definitely targeted.

The app will have one key trait: #snac2 support will be a first-class feature, not an incidental one. Many apps, especially on iOS, support snac as a side effect, but the experience is often not optimal. In this case, the choice is deliberate and it strictly follows the Mastodon API support implemented by snac. So snac will work properly (within the limits of the platform, of course).

Among the features already implemented: the app is minimal and lightweight (under 10 MB, including debug code), easy on RAM, and privacy-first (for example it strips EXIF data from media before posting, so the server will never see it). On snac it also cleans up the "Boosted by Aoderelay" messages that appear when using a relay, removes the character limit, and supports posting in Markdown.

I also added support for Apple Intelligence to generate alt text, both for the media I post and for media posted by others that is missing alt text.

Everything is processed locally through Apple APIs and only on supported devices. The results aren't amazing, Apple Intelligence is extremely limited, but in my opinion it's the only privacy-friendly and ethical way to approach it. And of course, you can disable it.

On Mastodon it supports all the main features: lists, quote posts, granular notifications (you can choose what you want for each category), notification grouping, multi-account support, and it works.

It's still missing a few things (block, etc.) and has some bugs, which I’m spotting as I keep using it.
As soon as it's stable enough, I'll invite a few people to test it. I still haven't fully decided how I'll distribute it: an Apple Developer account has a yearly cost, and I hope to reuse it for other projects too. So this app might be paid, with a trial period, but if possible (I still need to check what’s feasible) I'd like it to be free if you connect to one of the BSD Cafe instances, illumos Cafe, or any snac instance, including your own.

I don't know how long it will take before it's ready... but I can already tell you what it will be called.
It already has a name, and it's... MastoBlaster.

This name was chosen for personal reasons, and also because of its similarity to Master Blaster by Stevie Wonder, which even today feels relevant and fitting for the Fediverse.

Stay tuned!

#MastoBlaster #Fediverse #Mastodon #iOS #FediverseApp #Announcement #Apple #snac #snac2 #BSDCafe #illumosCafe

Alt...

MastoBlaster, showing my profile on my phone

Get snac'd up (not just) for #fosdem !

You can now purchase #snac propaganda stickers and apparel to show your allegiance or to wage war with.

https://www.redbubble.com/people/analognowhere/shop?artistUserName=analognowhere&asc=u&collections=4443355&iaCode=all-departments&sortOrder=top%20selling

Blessed be the hacker @grunfink for they can C.

#snac2 #runbsd #linux #unix_surrealism #fediverse

Alt...

snac's suzie qr, points to comam.es/what-is-snac

Alt...

snac alien SINCE YOU LEFT ME IVE BEEN SNACPILLED comam.es/what-is-snac

#snac2 #fediverse #frugalfediverse

Two Fediverse clients I like are Elk and Phanpy, but both had the same issue: the inability to filter "replies" and "boosts" from the timeline. For me this is essential. I can't keep up with my timeline, and if I also see replies to posts unrelated to what I follow, it just becomes chaos. So I tried to implement these filters and opened a PR.

The Elk developers have already merged it into the main branch, so we should soon see the two hide options appear in Elk. Hopefully the same will happen in Phanpy as well, because this greatly improves the experience on two excellent Fediverse tools, which are also compatible with snac.

https://github.com/elk-zone/elk/pull/3482

https://github.com/cheeaun/phanpy/pull/1400

#Fediverse #snac #Mastodon #elk #phanpy

@grunfink #snac

Alt...

SINCE YOU LEFT ME I'VE BEEN SNACPILLED comam.es/what-is-snac

#fediverse #activitypub

My friends, I'm so excited and happy to introduce a new project: the illumos Cafe!

The positive and constructive spirit of the BSD Cafe, created and maintained by all the friends who participated from day one in building a strong and friendly community, deserves to spread to other operating systems. Because there are other OSes that deserve attention, certainly more than they're getting right now.

Operating systems based on illumos (like SmartOS, OmniOS, Tribblix, OpenIndiana, etc.) are mature, stable, secure, and perfectly usable for a wide range of tasks. ZFS is native, zones are an excellent method for containerization, and bhyve and kvm coexist beautifully - and so much more, too much to list in a single post.

So from today, the illumos Cafe will stand alongside the BSD Cafe in creating a positive, respectful, and growth-oriented (but also relaxing!) environment, starting right here in the Fediverse with a Mastodon instance and a snac one.

I've written an introductory article about the project, including some technical details. I invite everyone interested to read it: https://it-notes.dragas.net/2025/08/18/introducing-the-illumos-cafe/

Choose your table, take a seat and enjoy your time at the illumos Cafe!

#SysAdmin #IT #BSDCafe #illumosCafe #Community #OpenSource #OSS #illumos #SmartOS #OpenIndiana #ZFS #bhyve #kvm #Fediverse #Mastodon #snac #ITNotes

https://relay.fedi.buzz/

Con el software de ActivityPub que uso (#snac) es muy fácil montar cosas de estas.

FediMeteo: How a Tiny €4 FreeBSD VPS Became a Global Weather Service for Thousands

https://it-notes.dragas.net/2025/02/26/fedimeteo-how-a-tiny-freebsd-vps-became-a-global-weather-service-for-thousands/

#Fediverse #FreeBSD #RunBSD #Hosting #ITNotes #Networking #NoteHUB #Server #Snac #Snac2 #Social #Web

It gives a daily report of those asteroids with a reasonable probability of crashing into Earth, in case you are not already afraid enough of the future. Of course, using #snac, what else.

It takes its data from a very cool NASA site, so (again) in these days of uncertanty, I'm not sure how long will it work.

Everyone, take care, and have a great week.

https://it-notes.dragas.net/2025/02/08/caching-snac-proxied-media-with-nginx/

#Data #Fediverse #Hosting #ITNotes #Networking #Nginx #NoteHUB #Ownyourdata #Server #Snac #Snac2 #Social #Tipsandtricks #Tutorial #Web

Some technical details for those interested:
The entire FediMeteo setup runs on a FreeBSD VM costing around 4 euros per month. It supports almost all major EU countries (plus the UK), with just a few left to complete. Currently, there are 25 separate jails, each running its own instance of snac, totaling 25 instances. The VM load typically stays around 10%, which increases to 30% when updates are published for countries with larger numbers of cities (currently Germany and Italy). The only time the load spikes is when new countries are announced; during that time, all remote instances connect to all cities to download their details.
As for RAM usage, excluding the ZFS cache, it's currently a total of 213 MB. Yes, MB.

#FreeBSD #FediMeteo #snac #Fediverse #Efficiency #RunBSD

#CrazyFediverseAnalogies

Added support for subscribing to LitePub (Pleroma-style) Fediverse Relays like e.g. https://fedi-relay.gyptazy.com to improve federation. See snac(8) (the Administrator Manual) for more information on how to use this feature.

Added support for following hashtags. This is only useful if your instance is subscribed to relays (see above).

Added support for a Mastodon-like /authorize_interaction webpoint entry, that allows following, liking and boosting from another account's Mastodon public web interface. To be able to use it, you must reconfigure your https proxy to redirect /authorize_interaction to snac (see snac(8)).

Some fixes to accept Event objects properly (like those coming from implementations like https://gancio.org/ or https://mobilizon.fr).

Added some caching for local Actor objects.

Hashtags that are not explicitly linked in a post's content are shown below it.

Fixed broken NetBSD build (missing dependency in Makefile.NetBSD).

The user profile can now include longitude and latitude data for your current location.

Mastodon API: implemented limit= on notification fetches (contributed by nowster), implemented faster min_id handling (contributed by nowster), obey the quiet public visibility set for posts, other timeline improvements (contributed by nowster).

Reduced RSA key size for new users from 4096 to 2048. This will be friendlier to smaller machines, and everybody else out there is using 2048.

If the SNAC_BASEDIR environment variable is defined and set to the base directory of your installation, you don't have to include the base directory in the command line.

Fixed a bug in the generation of the top page (contributed by an-im-dugud).

Added support for Markdown headers and underlining (contributed by an-im-dugud).

https://comam.es/what-is-snac

If you find #snac useful, please consider contributing via LiberaPay: https://liberapay.com/grunfink/

#snacAnnounces

This release has been inspired by the song Nine Hundred Miles by #BarbaraDane.

CC: @troed@sangberg.se

https://codeberg.org/grunfink/snac2

#snac #ThankYou

Announcing FediMeteo – Weather in the Fediverse!

UPDATE: I have created an account for updates and other information on FediMeteo - follow the account @admin to stay updated!

UPDATE: Ireland, Poland, Portugal and Switzerland have just been added

Weather has always influenced our lives: from agriculture to outdoor activities, to extreme events that, thanks to modern technology, can now be predicted with greater reliability. Personally, weather plays a significant role in my daily decisions, which is why I decided to create a service tailored for the Fediverse.

FediMeteo uses Open-Meteo data to publish updates every 6 hours, including current weather conditions, forecasts for the next 12 hours, and predictions for the upcoming days. Each country is served by its own dedicated instance (e.g., it.fedimeteo.com for Italy), managed through snac to ensure simplicity and efficiency in publishing.

You can follow FediMeteo directly in the Fediverse (on Mastodon and compatible platforms), via RSS, or by visiting the dedicated page for your city (e.g., fr.fedimeteo.com/paris).

Currently supported countries include:
Austria, Germany, France, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, – with many more regions coming soon!

FediMeteo is hosted on a FreeBSD-based VPS, with each country isolated in its own jail to ensure security and scalability.

Visit the main site to explore the national instances and start following your local weather updates today:
https://fedimeteo.com

Happy weather monitoring to all! 🌦️

FediMeteo is dedicated to my grandfather, who every evening would give me the weather forecast based on TV, radio, and his personal experience. He would convince me that the weather would be bad, so he had an excuse to accompany me to school instead of me going alone.

#FediMeteo #Announcements #FreeBSD #FediMeteo #WeatherForecasts #Weather #Meteo #snac #Fediverse #Mastodon

Más tarde me he dado cuenta de que empleando el correo electrónico las discusiones no tienen sentido y que más allá del duelo al amanecer no merece la pena discutir con gente que se ha construido un personaje público y saca sus garbanzos de ahí. Entre eso y los palmeros, a los que el tuitstar SÍ responde por que necesita tenerles en cuenta, es difícil estar a gusto; de hecho el término "pocosfollower" es el indicativo de una época.

Pero sí que he pasado mucho tiempo allí obteniendo enlaces y enterándome de polémicas para pasar el rato y olvidar cómo estoy y quién soy así que tampoco es que lo haya dejado hasta el sábado. Una vez que tengo mi servidor en el fediverso (con #snac) tengo siempre un lugar que considero mío. Por esa parte estoy cubierto.

Ahora estoy intentando ver qué aparece en BlueSky y de momento están todos con una limpia tremenda de nazis y demás chusma que está funcionando al parecer. También cuentas estupendas que estaban permanentemente candadas en twitter ahora actúan en abierto y son una delicia de seguir. Pero el lugar sigue siendo extraño, como un barrio bajo asedio, y quiero ver dónde terminará cuando los dueños empiecen a monetizar.

#snac #fediverse

Right so my personal #snac instance seems to be working ok and I have managed to import all of the accounts I follow here on bsd.cafe . I'll still be using this account but will try and see how I get on with snac. You may notice that it always shows that I have no followers and that I'm not following anyone. This is intentional by the author of #snac as they feel numbers should not matter which is quite true. Feel free to follow me over there if you haven't already and hello to any new followers.
@justine@snac.smithies.me.uk
All of this is hosted in my #HomeLab on a #FreeBSd server jail running over my home FTTP connection. I'm impressed I've gotten this far. Next I'll be doing some html and css customisation's to theme it a little.

After getting to try the #Snac activity pub server developed by @grunfink on bsd.cafe thanks @stefano , I'm kind of tempted to spin up my own instance. Anyone here other than Stefano that runs their own instance ? Please share you pro's and con's plus any workarounds you have come up with.
Also how are you viewing / posting on mobile ? Are you just sticking with web or using the likes of #Tusky ?
#Fediverse #ActivityPub

https://codeberg.org/grunfink/snac2

https://comam.es/what-is-snac

https://mastodon.bsd.cafe/users/release_candidate/statuses/112140845317198247

I find these "popularity contests" pointless, ridiculous and inherently toxic, and a signature of private social networks where the goal is not to help people communicate between each other.

This is the reason why #snac does not propagate how many followers nor likes a person have.

#snac2 #snac #BSDCafe #BSDCafeServices #FreedomOfChoice