I'm Hampus Kraft [1], a 22-year-old software developer nearing completion of my BSc in Computer Engineering at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden. I've been working on Fluxer on and off for about 5 years, but recently decided to work on it full-time and see how far it could take me.
Fluxer is an open source [2] communication platform for friends, groups, and communities (text, voice, and video). It aims for "modern chat app" feature coverage with a familiar UX, while being developed in the open and staying FOSS (AGPLv3). The codebase is largely written in TypeScript and Erlang.
Try it now (no email or password required): https://fluxer.gg/fluxer-hq – this creates an "unclaimed account" (date of birth only) so you can explore the platform. Unclaimed accounts can create/join communities but have some limitations. You can claim your account with email + password later if you want.
I've developed this solo, with limited capital from some early supporters and testers. Please keep this in mind if you find what I offer today lacking; I know it is! I'm sharing this now to find contributors and early supporters who want to help shape this into the chat app you actually want.
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Fluxer is not currently end-to-end encrypted, nor is it decentralised or federated. I'm open to implementing E2EE and federation in the future, but they're complex features, and I didn't want to end up like other community chat apps [3] that get criticised for broken core functionality and missing expected features while chasing those goals.
I'm most confident on the backend and web app, so that's where I've focused. After some frustrating attempts with React Native, I'm sticking with a mobile PWA for now (including push notification support) while looking into Skip [4] for a true native app. If someone with more experience in native dev has any thoughts, let me know!
Many tech-related communities that would benefit from not locking information into walled gardens still choose Discord or Slack over forum software because of the convenience these platforms bring, a choice that is often criticised [5][6][7]. I will not only work on adding forums and threads, but also enable opt-in publishing of forums to the open web, including RSS/Atom feeds, to give you the best of both worlds.
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I don't intend to license any part of the software under anything but the AGPLv3, limit the number of messages [8], or have an SSO tax [9]. Business-oriented features like SSO will be prioritised on the roadmap with your support. You'd only pay for support and optionally for sponsored features or fixes you'd like prioritised. I don't currently plan on SaaS, but I'm open to support and maintenance contracts.
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I want Fluxer to become an easy-to-deploy, fully FOSS Discord/Slack-like platform for companies, communities, and individuals who want to own their chat infrastructure, or who wish to support an independent and bootstrapped hosted alternative. But I need early adopters and financial support to keep working on it full-time.
I'm also very interested in code contributors since this is a challenging project to work on solo. My email is hampus@fluxer.app.
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There’s a lot more to be said; I’ll be around in the comments to answer questions and fix things quickly if you run into issues. Thank you, and wishing you all the best in the new year!
[1] https://www.linkedin.com/in/hampuskraft
[2] https://github.com/fluxerapp/fluxer
[3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46376201
[5] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40533484
[6] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37502258
[7] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39569843
[8] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46383675
[9] https://sso.tax/
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