tchncs

(streams)

a non-commercial social network



Introduction

Although it's my favorite social network, it's also possible to say that (streams) isn't a social network – that it's software can be used as a social network and/or various other things. Technically, “streams” is the name of a software repository that has been placed in the public domain and can be used by developers to turbocharge their social networks or to create other networks from it. Its developer describes (streams) as a “Consent based public domain federated communications server”. (streams) is part of what is known as the fediverse and uses the ActivityPub, Nomad and Zot6 communication protocols.

In this presentation (to the general public) of the (streams) social network, I think it's important to start by informing you that, having appeared in July 2022, (streams) actually represents the continuity of a software developer's thinking and vision over more than a decade. Yes, because in 2010 Mike Macgirvin created the Mistpark social network, renamed in 2012 as Friendica; in 2015 he created the Hubzilla network; in 2022 he created the (streams) network; and currently (May/2025), as well as continuing to develop (streams), he also develops a new network, Forte.

So the first thing to note is MacGirvin's particular way of working: instead of – as other software developers do – continuing to develop the same project over the years, keeping the same name and transforming it, MacGirvin apparently prefers to end a certain cycle of interest in the field of social networking software development, hand the completed project over to another developer (and the community of users), and then set off to explore other possibilities, perspectives and resources in a new software project. Naturally, this temporal sequence of software has similarities between them, existing as a lineage of software. Thus, today, the Friendica and Hubzilla networks are developed and maintained independently by other people, who are sometimes interested in incorporating some of the innovations that MacGirvin introduces in (streams).

In the field of non-commercial social networks, several of the networks that have emerged have taken a well-known commercial network as their initial reference and then, in addition to eliminating commercial features from the projects, they have created functionalities that did not exist in those networks (which were the initial references). The social networks built since 2010 by MacGirvin had Facebook – and not Twitter – as their initial reference. When we say this, we are referring both to the amount of resources and the ways of dealing with files, as well as the way in which the “conversations” that take place on the basis of a particular post (in its comments) are set up and run.

MacGirvin has chosen to make some peculiar – some would say radical – moves with (streams):

1) (streams) has no name or brand (or mascot). The software is generally referred to by its participants as “(streams)” simply because “streams” is the name of the repository in which it is located – but not the formal name of the software or the social network. 2) The software does not has markers that make it possible to know how many instances of (streams) there are and how many participants there are. 3) (streams) does not has an official (“flagship”) instance under the management of its developer; nor does it have a website – there is only the software repository. 4) The social network software has been placed in the public domain.

This set of actions underlines the non-commercial nature of the project in a way that we haven't seen in any other project in the field of non-commercial social networks.

Central to the functioning of (streams) and the modulation of the relationships established through this social network is the concept of consent. MacGirvin even defines (streams) as “consent-based” software (“consent based public domain federated communications server”). In practice, this means that when you have a channel on the (streams) network, all forms of interaction between other people and you only happen according to the way in which you previously consented (defined) that they could happen. This applies to receiving comments and likes on your posts, approving comments on your posts (when they are allowed), receiving direct messages (DMs), accessing (viewing) certain posts or files or photos. This makes (streams) a virtually spam-proof, harassment-proof and stalking-proof network – thus solving the inconveniences that so trouble users of commercial social networks (and also some non-commercial networks). An important element of this vision is the concept of the post as a conversation container: when you make a post, you not only define exactly which people will be able to see it, but which people will be able to interact with it (either directly or moderated by you). What's more, the participants in the conversation (the “commenters” on the post) will have access to the full conversation, i.e. the comments of everyone who comments on that post – something that doesn't happen on many networks, such as Twitter/X, Mastodon and other networks that only use the ActivityPub protocol.


Features and resources

The social network (streams) is not a company, it has no profit motive or even an owner. It respects your privacy by not collecting personal data or tracking you; there is no advertising, there are no unknown algorithms determining what you see on your timeline (you define exactly what you see there), there are no strategies to hijack your attention or get you hooked on the platform (these things are known because its software, free and in the public domain, is available in its entirety on the Internet). (streams) is not a commercial social network.

In fact, (streams) is a flexible and customizable social communication software. You can use it as a social network (this text focuses on this use); but, if you're not interested in that, you can use it in other ways – among them: as a personal or professional website; as the website of a group or organization; as an artist's fan page, as a discussion group, etc.

Some characteristics of the network (streams).

1. Free software – the social network software is made available in its entirety on the Internet for examination by anyone interested (professional programmers, amateurs and auditing organizations); anyone can also use, copy, modify and redistribute the modified software.)

2. Decentralization – the social network does not have a single or central site and its general operation is not determined by a single person, but, in a diverse and heterogeneous way, by many people, each of whom independently manages and customizes a site (or instance) of the network. This means that you can independently open and manage a network instance (streams) – (more on this later).

3. Federation – the network (streams) uses communication protocols (ActivityPub / Nomad / Zot6) that enable it to communicate with other networks that use the same (or compatible) protocols, such as the Hubzilla network (and many others).

On the network (streams), when you make a post, in addition to features common on other social networks, you can also:

There is no character limit for posts. The visibility of the post can be set to: a) public; b) to all your contacts (Connections); c) to any of the contact lists you have created; d) to a customized selection of contacts; e) just to you.

To share – files, photos, videos, web pages, maps, phone numbers – you can drag and drop these things into the post writing window.

You can also:

Create photo albums;

Make comments on your public posts visible only to your contacts;

Register events in the calendar and mark your presence at them. (For your friends who also use the calendar, it offers birthday notifications with automatic time zone adjustment).

Create and name lists with your connections, for which you can then write specific posts.

Set permissions that define which people can access specific posts, photos or files in your account.

Store files in your account's cloud – a feature integrated with access permissions for your contacts.

Use Friend Zoom to register your degree of closeness to each contact, and then, by accessing the timeline (stream), you can zoom in or zoom out to filter the posts, showing, for example, the posts of close friends or acquaintances.

Create a Guest Pass to give access to specific things in your account (folders, files, photos, posts, etc.) to people who are not your contacts or even people who don't use any social network. You choose what to share, to which person(s) and for how long.

You can modify or extend your channel's features by installing (easily and very quickly) a series of apps (available in the apps section of the channel menu). These are apps from the network itself; when you create the channel, several of them are already installed, and several others are not. You only install them if you want to use the feature the app offers. (For example, Friend Zoom and Guest Pass are two of these apps that are optional to install – as is Future Posting, which allows you to schedule the publication of a post for a future date and time). At the moment (03/Jan/2024), there are 41 apps available.

NSFW (Not Safe For Work) – Does not show posts on your timeline that have keywords that you have previously registered.

Content filter – Allows you to filter (not show in your timeline) posts from your contacts according to various criteria (such as hashtags, categories, keywords, etc.).

Note: The focus of (streams) is on different secure forms of social interaction and not on additional forms of online publishing, which is why MacGirvin did not keep the features for creating wikis and webpages (present in the Hubzilla network).

Open more than one channel. When you open an account, you create and set up a channel. After that, if you want, you can open another channel or channels. These channels will be independent of each other. You can, for example, create a first personal channel, for your personal social relationships. Then you might want to create a second channel for your professional profile – or, related in some way to your professional activity. Then you might want to create a third channel, dedicated, for example, to some hobby or activism (social, environmental, etc.). Then you might want to have a pseudonymous channel; that would be the fourth. You can access all your channels by logging into your account. The channels are not necessarily – if you create some of them with nicknames or pseudonyms – identifiable by your contacts or other people as your channels – unless you inform them that a new channel is also yours or there is something on the channel (or in your posts) that refers to the identity of one of your other channels.

Opening a channel as a group. When you create a channel (the first or any other) – you can choose to open a “social” type channel, to correspond to some kind of personal profile, or you can choose to create a “group” type channel, to function as a forum for conversations or discussion. In this case, you have to choose between four types of group: normal, limited, moderate and restricted – depending on how you want the dynamics of the conversations to take place. These groups also allow people to participate who have accounts on other social networks with which the network (streams) connects (networks that use the ActivityPub, Nomad and Zot6 protocols).

You can clone your channel (or channels) (with settings, contacts and posts) to other instances (streams), and thus automatically synchronize to the other instances any change or action on your channel made on any of the instances. So, if your original instance stops working for some reason (temporarily or permanently), you can continue using your channel as normal by logging into one of the other instances where the channel is cloned. (This channel cloning feature only exists on one other network: Hubzilla). You can also easily make backups of your channels (with settings, contacts and posts) on your computer.

Privacy: in addition to the various features already mentioned relating to privacy, you can also hide your contacts (their numbers and names) – even from your own contacts.

The public timeline (Public Stream) is disabled by default. The administrator of each instance can, if they wish, enable a Public Stream of only their own instance or a federated Public Stream (which will also show posts made on other instances). When Public Stream is not enabled, you only see your contacts' posts.

You can find and connect with other people by looking at the participants in your instance's directory, in the directories of other instances (streams) and in the directories of instances of other networks with which (streams) you connect, as well as by looking at the comments on your contacts' posts, and by searching for people's names or the names of their channels.

To see what the “face” of the network (streams) looks like – or rather, one of the faces – go to these channels: waterlily tea Biophilic Network

What's it like using the (streams) network? The experience of using the network (streams) is similar to that of using the Hubzilla network, but there are optimizations regarding the settings panels, the design, and there are additional features. You'll get a pretty good idea of this experience by reading the text “What's it like to use the Hubzilla network?”.

To create an instance (streams) – for one or several accounts/people

A person with an account on an instance can connect to people who have accounts on the same or other instances on the network; as well as to people on networks they connect to (streams).

You will need technical knowledge of computers and the Internet (including the Linux terminal) to create your instance.

Access the network's software repository, where you will find the guidelines for installing the software on a server, thus creating your instance.

Maintaining an instance involves costs. There's the annual cost of the webhosting service – from US$ 43. And then there's the annual cost of the domain name (URL address) of the instance – starting at US$ 14.

(Note: There is another way to create your (streams) instance, which requires less technical knowledge: through YunoHost).

Note: In the second half of 2024, Mike MacGirvin announced in a public post that he was retiring from developing decentralised social networking software. However, after a few weeks, he continued to develop (streams) and also reported news about the development of the new Forte network – at the same time as he reported that he was still retired. In a post from May 13, 2025, he wrote:

It's been a wild ride and technically I'm retired — but if you think that this “alternative fediverse” is going away any time soon, you must be new here.

To learn more about (streams):

README – Mike Macgirvin (developer presentation). (streams) – Jupiter Rowland Comparison between Mastodon, Friendica, Hubzilla and (streams) – Jupiter Rowland

CC0 1.0

January, 2024. Updated: May 31, 2025.

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