Dev: @v0idist@szmer.info

Hey fellow FOSS folks!

For past few weeks I’ve been working on a passion project called Openwrite — a minimalist, open-source blogging platform focused on privacy, simplicity, and full user control. It’s built with Flask and released under the AGPL license. Inspired by platforms like WriteFreely, but with a few twists.

What it offers right now:

Multiple blogs per user (or single-blog mode, ideal for self-hosting)

  • SQLite & MySQL support
  • Image uploads (local or BunnyCDN)
  • Markdown editor with live preview
  • Custom blog themes (like a 6 now but I upload new regularly)
  • Custom CSS per blog
  • Gemini support – yes, gemini://openwrite.io works!
  • No tracking, hashed IPs only for basic stats
  • Dashboard with view statistics (OS, browser, timelines – all for free)
  • ActivityPub federation (Follow, Like)
  • RSS feeds, optional search engine indexing, and "Discover" section

Oh — and it supports importing posts from XML(wordpress) or CSV.

What makes it different?

I’m trying to build something:

  • FOSS-first (no paid plans, no analytics spyware, no nonsense)
  • Purely optional in hosting: you can run your own instance or use mine
  • Built for people like us — nerds, tinkerers, writers, privacy lovers

Current status

Still in 0.x versions (currently at 0.10.4), but stable and usable. I’d love early feedback, contributors, ideas, testers — anything really. First pull request will make me cry tears of joy.

GitHub: https://github.com/openwriteio/openwrite

Site: https://openwrite.io/

Gemini mirror: gemini://openwrite.io

Thanks for reading — feel free to ask questions, roast my CSS, or suggest features. Let’s keep the open web alive 💜

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[–] 4 points 1 year ago

Looks interesting to me, as a (no-ads, no-tracking) Hugo blogger myself that has been considering trying Gemini too... at least if it means I would be able use it without having to configure Gemini by myself, as if I'm a privacy-aware user I'm also not really much of a geek ;)

May I ask why use the US Microsoft owned Github and not a more privacy respecting FLOSS alternative like, say, the German Codeberg?

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  • [–] -3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

    So basically a playground for those trying to get quick 10-30k followers using only AI and increased success rate due to ActivityPub support? Hmm sounds like a poison to me.

    EDIT: actually I heard about the other Gemini thing but I didn't really know what exactly it is and how it's used so yea.

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    [–] 42 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    For anyone like me that immediately assumed Gemini meant Google's AI model by the same name, fear not, it's a protocol, not an AI model.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Love the Gemini support! Will definitely check this out.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (7 children)

    Markworthy! I love gemini. Im testing it out.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 1 year ago (6 children)
  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (5 children)

    Seems like the webpage is down right now.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    It was, I'm sorry, I was migrating it to another server and something went wrong :) I will try to keep uptime best.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (3 children)

    I'm trying to test the software out on localhost, but I get this message. Are there bugs, or am I setting it up with wrong ip/port/anything?

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 1 year ago (2 children)

    I think you need to change your .env file to make the domain match vhost you're requesting with your browser. In this case, try changing the domain to 127.0.0.1:8081 in .env

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