gnu-social/README

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README
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StatusNet 1.0.0rc1
20 September 2011

This is the README file for StatusNet, the Open Source social
networking platform. It includes general information about the
software and the project.

Some other files to review:

- INSTALL: instructions on how to install the software.
- UPGRADE: upgrading from earlier versions
- CONFIGURE: configuration options in gruesome detail.
- PLUGINS.txt: how to install and configure plugins.
- EVENTS.txt: events supported by the plugin system
- COPYING: full text of the software license

Information on using StatusNet can be found in the "doc" subdirectory
or in the "help" section on-line.

About
=====

StatusNet is a Free and Open Source social networking platform. It
helps people in a community, company or group to exchange short status
updates, do polls, announce events, or other social activities (and
you can add more!). Users can choose which people to "follow" and
receive only their friends' or colleagues' status messages. It
provides a similar service to sites like Twitter, Google+, Facebook or
Yammer, but is much more awesome.

With a little work, status messages can be sent to mobile phones,
instant messenger programs (GTalk/Jabber), and specially-designed
desktop clients that support the Twitter API.

StatusNet supports an open standard called OStatus
<http://ostatus.org/> that lets users in different networks follow
each other. It enables a distributed social network spread all across
the Web.

StatusNet was originally developed for the Open Software Service,
Identi.ca <http://identi.ca/>. It is shared with you in hope that you
too make an Open Software Service available to your users. To learn
more, please see the Open Software Service Definition 1.1:

    http://www.opendefinition.org/ossd

StatusNet, Inc. <http://status.net/> also offers this software as a
Web service, requiring no installation on your part. See
<http://status.net/signup> for details. The software run
on status.net is identical to the software available for download, so
you can move back and forth between a hosted version or a version
installed on your own servers.

A commercial software subscription is available from StatusNet Inc. It
includes 24-hour technical support and developer support. More
information at http://status.net/contact or email sales@status.net.

License
=======

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as
published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the
License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
Affero General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public
License along with this program, in the file "COPYING".  If not, see
<http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

    IMPORTANT NOTE: The GNU Affero General Public License (AGPL) has
    *different requirements* from the "regular" GPL. In particular, if
    you make modifications to the StatusNet source code on your server,
    you *MUST MAKE AVAILABLE* the modified version of the source code
    to your users under the same license. This is a legal requirement
    of using the software, and if you do not wish to share your
    modifications, *YOU MAY NOT INSTALL STATUSNET*.

Documentation in the /doc-src/ directory is available under the
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license, with attribution to
"StatusNet". See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ for details.

CSS and images in the /theme/ directory are available under the
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license, with attribution to
"StatusNet". See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ for details.

Our understanding and intention is that if you add your own theme that
uses only CSS and images, those files are not subject to the copyleft
requirements of the Affero General Public License 3.0. See
http://wordpress.org/news/2009/07/themes-are-gpl-too/ . This is not
legal advice; consult your lawyer.

Additional library software has been made available in the 'extlib'
directory. All of it is Free Software and can be distributed under
liberal terms, but those terms may differ in detail from the AGPL's
particulars. See each package's license file in the extlib directory
for additional terms.

New this version
================

This is a major feature release since 0.9.9, released 2 August
2011. It is the first release of the new branch of StatusNet, and the
first release in the 1.x timeline.

Notable changes this version:

- Support for private updates, including private-to-groups, private
  within a site, and private to followers only.
- Conversation mode in streams; notices appear along with all replies.
- Microapps -- post different types of activities to timelines, with
  interaction. Events, bookmarks, Q&A, and polls included by default.
- New 3-column layout in 'neo' theme by default. Older, 2-column layout
  themes have been removed.
- Alphabetical, searchable user directory.
- Alphabetical, searchable group directory.
- Groups can require all posts to be private ('private groups'), and
  limit members to the group.
- Users can make all posts private to their followers ('private stream'),
  and require authorization to follow.
- General plugin for IM support; added AIM, IRC and MSN to existing
  XMPP code.
- Support for Twitter-like lists, to follow other users without 
  interfering with the home timeline.
- Subscription to searches.
- Subscription to tags.
- Drupal-style schema system ("schemax") allows in-place database
  upgrades from various software versions.
- Fine-grained control of URL shortening, and an internal URL shortener
  available.
- Extended profile for private, enterprise sites.
- sites are private by default.
- Blog plugin for extended posts.
- Plugin to restrict all users of a site to a single email domain.
- Plugin to send a daily email summary to site users.
- Deeper integration with Activity Streams (http://activitystrea.ms) format.
- Automated upgrade script.

A full changelog is available at http://status.net/wiki/StatusNet_1.0.0.

Troubleshooting
===============

The primary output for StatusNet is syslog, unless you configured a
separate logfile. This is probably the first place to look if you're
getting weird behaviour from StatusNet.

If you're tracking the unstable version of StatusNet in the git
repository (see below), and you get a compilation error ("unexpected
T_STRING") in the browser, check to see that you don't have any
conflicts in your code.

Unstable version
================

If you're adventurous or impatient, you may want to install the
development version of StatusNet. To get it, use the git version
control tool <http://git-scm.com/> like so:

    git clone git@gitorious.org:statusnet/mainline.git

This is the version of the software that runs on Identi.ca and the
status.net hosted service. Using it is a mixed bag. On the positive
side, it usually includes the latest security and bug fix patches. On
the downside, it may also include changes that require admin
intervention (like running a script or even raw SQL!) that may not be
documented yet. It may be a good idea to test this version before
installing it on your production machines.

To keep it up-to-date, use 'git pull'. Watch for conflicts!

Further information
===================

There are several ways to get more information about StatusNet.

* There is a mailing list for StatusNet developers and admins at
  http://mail.status.net/mailman/listinfo/statusnet-dev
* The #statusnet IRC channel on freenode.net <http://www.freenode.net/>.
* The StatusNet wiki, http://status.net/wiki/
* The StatusNet blog, http://status.net/blog/
* The StatusNet status update, <http://status.status.net/> (!)

Feedback
========

* Messages to http://support.status.net/ are very welcome.
* The group http://identi.ca/group/statusnet is a good
  place to discuss the software.
* StatusNet has a bug tracker for any defects you may find, or ideas for
  making things better. http://status.net/open-source/issues

Credits
=======

The following is an incomplete list of developers who've worked on
StatusNet. Apologies for any oversight; please let evan@status.net know
if anyone's been overlooked in error.

* Evan Prodromou, founder and lead developer, StatusNet, Inc.
* Zach Copley, StatusNet, Inc.
* Earle Martin, StatusNet, Inc.
* Marie-Claude Doyon, designer, StatusNet, Inc.
* Sarven Capadisli, StatusNet, Inc.
* Robin Millette, StatusNet, Inc.
* Ciaran Gultnieks
* Michael Landers
* Ori Avtalion
* Garret Buell
* Mike Cochrane
* Matthew Gregg
* Florian Biree
* Erik Stambaugh
* 'drry'
* Gina Haeussge
* Tryggvi Björgvinsson
* Adrian Lang
* Ori Avtalion
* Meitar Moscovitz
* Ken Sheppardson (Trac server, man-about-town)
* Tiago 'gouki' Faria (i18n manager)
* Sean Murphy
* Leslie Michael Orchard
* Eric Helgeson
* Ken Sedgwick
* Brian Hendrickson
* Tobias Diekershoff
* Dan Moore
* Fil
* Jeff Mitchell
* Brenda Wallace
* Jeffery To
* Federico Marani
* Craig Andrews
* mEDI
* Brett Taylor
* Brigitte Schuster
* Siebrand Mazeland and the amazing volunteer translators at translatewiki.net
* Brion Vibber, StatusNet, Inc.
* James Walker, StatusNet, Inc.
* Samantha Doherty, designer, StatusNet, Inc.

Thanks also to the developers of our upstream library code and to the
thousands of people who have tried out Identi.ca, installed StatusNet,
told their friends, and built the Open Microblogging network to what
it is today.