gnu-social/README

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README
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StatusNet 1.0.0beta4
16 September 2011

This is the README file for StatusNet, the Open Source social
networking platform. It includes installation instructions,
descriptions of options you can set, warnings, tips, and general info
for administrators. 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 (140
characters, by default) messages over the Web. 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 Buzz, or Yammer.

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 security release since version 0.9.7 released on 11 March
2011. It fixes security bug #3260. All sites running version 0.9.7 or
below are recommended to upgrade to 0.9.9 immediately.

Notable changes this version:

- Fix bug #3260, a cross-site scripting (XSS) bug that allows an
  attacker to inject JavaScript into a page with a carefully structured URL.
- Updated code for Google Analytics to reflect new API.
- Various fixes for Bookmark plugin.
- Updates to reCAPTCHA plugin based on changes to API.
- New plugin to move the site notice to the sidebar.
- Add rss.me to notice source list.
- Updates to data backup/restore.
- Correct use of "likes" in Facebook plugin.
- Ignore failures in Twitter plugin.

A full changelog is available at http://status.net/wiki/StatusNet_0.9.9.

NOTE: The short-lived StatusNet 0.9.8 ("Letter Never Sent") did not
adequately fix bug #3260 as originally thought; thus this new release.

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.

If you upgraded to StatusNet 0.9.x without reading the "Notice
inboxes" section above, and all your users' 'Personal' tabs are empty,
read the "Notice inboxes" section above.

Myths
=====

These are some myths you may see on the Web about StatusNet.
Documentation from the core team about StatusNet has been pretty
sparse, so some backtracking and guesswork resulted in some incorrect
assumptions.

- "Set $config['db']['debug'] = 5 to debug the database." This is an
  extremely bad idea. It's a tool built into DB_DataObject that will
  emit oodles of print lines directly to the browser of your users.
  Among these lines will be your database username and password. Do
  not enable this option on a production Web site for any reason.

- "Edit dataobject.ini with the following settings..." dataobject.ini
  is a development file for the DB_DataObject framework and is not
  used by the running software. It was removed from the StatusNet
  distribution because its presence was confusing. Do not bother
  configuring dataobject.ini, and do not put your database username
  and password into the file on a production Web server; unscrupulous
  persons may try to read it to get your passwords.

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/bugs

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.