Identi.ca

Open source social networking and micro-blogging service

identi.ca

Screenshot of identi.ca when logged out

Type of site

| Microblogging and Social network service
Available in| English
Owner| E14N.com
Created by| Evan Prodromou
URL| identi.ca
Commercial| Yes
Registration| Required to post
Launched| July 2, 2008; 16 years ago (2008-07-02)
Current status| New user registration disabled

Content license

| Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
Written in| JavaScript

identi.ca is a free and open-source social networking and blogging service based on the pump.io software, using the Activity Streams protocol. Identi.ca stopped accepting new registrations in 2013, but continues to operate alongside several other pump.io-based hosts provided by E14N which continue to accept new registrations.[1]

## Features

[edit]

Identi.ca is similar to social networking sites like Facebook and Google+, allowing unlimited length status updates, rich text, and images. The Activity Streams protocol supports many kinds of activities such as games. OpenFarmGame is a prototype application for an Activity Streams-based game. Previous features from its StatusNet version such as hashtags, groups, and global search are not supported.

## History

[edit]

### StatusNet

[edit]

The service received more than 8,000 registrations and 19,000 updates within the first 24 hours of publicly launching on July 2, 2008,[2] and reached its 1,000,000th notice on November 4, 2008.[3][4] In January 2009, identi.ca received investment funds from venture capital group Montreal Start Up.[5]

On March 30, 2009, Control Yourself (since renamed StatusNet Inc) announced that Identi.ca was to become part of a hosted microblogging service called status.net to be launched in May 2009. Status.net offers individual microblogs under a subdomain to be chosen by the customer. Identi.ca will remain a free service. All notices will be published under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license by default, but paying customers will be free to choose a different license.[6]

Formerly based on StatusNet, a micro-blogging software package built on the OStatus specification (and earlier based on the OpenMicroBlogging specification), Identi.ca allowed users to send text updates (known as "notices") up to 140 characters long. While similar to Twitter in both concept and operation, Identi.ca/StatusNet provided many features not currently implemented by Twitter, including XMPP support and personal tag clouds. In addition, Identi.ca/StatusNet allowed free export and exchange of personal and "friend" data based on the FOAF standard; therefore, notices could be fed into a Twitter account or other service, and also ported in to a private system similar to Yammer.

### pump.io

[edit]

Developer Evan Prodromou chose to change the site to the pump.io software platform in development, because pump.io offers more features making it technically more advanced.[7][8] Registration on Identi.ca was closed in December 2012 in preparation for the switch to pump.io software (the popularity of Identi.ca and "official" Status.net hosting were considered a hindrance to the creation of a federated social network).[7] The conversion was completed on 12 July 2013.

The 140 character per post limit was removed (in StatusNet, it was a setting, not an inherent limitation); now the blog posts can contain formatting and images. Groups,[9] hashtags,[10] and a page listing popular posts[11] are not yet implemented in pump.io.[12]

## See also

[edit]

* Comparison of microblogging services

## Footnotes

[edit]

1. ^ Evan Prodromou (26 Mar 2013). "No more new registrations on identi.ca". Archived from the original on December 29, 2014. Retrieved 2 Jan 2015.
2. ^ "identi.ca". identi.ca. Archived from the original on July 8, 2008. Retrieved 2008-07-03.
3. ^ identi.ca Archived 2008-11-06 at the Wayback Machine
4. ^ Evan Prodromou (3 Jul 2012). "FOUR MORE YEARS". status.net. Archived from the original on 2013-09-03. Retrieved 8 Aug 2013.
5. ^ Croll, Alastair (15 January 2009). "Identi.ca Gets Funding to Make Open-source Twitter Variant". GigaOM. Archived from the original on 25 February 2019. Retrieved 17 August 2012.
6. ^ "status.net coming soon". controlyourself.ca. March 30, 2009. Archived from the original on April 1, 2009.
7. ^ a b Nathan Willis (March 27, 2013). "StatusNet, Identi.ca, and transitioning to pump.io". LWN.net. Retrieved 2013-05-07.
8. ^ Bryan Behrenshausen (July 15, 2013). "pump.io: the decentralized social network that's really fun". opensource.com. Retrieved 2013-07-15.
9. ^ "Groups". GitHub. Retrieved 2013-09-25.
10. ^ "Automatically link hash tags". GitHub. Retrieved 2013-09-25.
11. ^ "Popular". GitHub. Retrieved 2013-09-25.
12. ^ "pump.io: the decentralized social network that's really fun | Opensource.com". opensource.com.

## References

[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Identi.ca.

* Rosenberg, Dave (July 3, 2008). "Identi.ca--open-source Twitter?". CNET news. Archived from the original on 2013-09-14. Retrieved 2008-07-03.
* Hopkins, Mark (July 2, 2008). "identi.ca: The Force is Strong with This One (But is no Jedi, Yet)". Mashable. Retrieved 2008-07-03.
* Terdiman, Daniel (October 6, 2008). "Taking on Twitter with open-source software". CNET news. Archived from the original on 2012-08-26. Retrieved 2008-10-06.

## External links

[edit]

* Official website

* v
* t
* e

Microblogging

Centralized|

* Facebook
* Fanfou
* Gab
* Gettr
* Hive Social
* LinkedIn
* Myspace
* Pillowfort
* Plurk
* Qzone
* Sina Weibo
* Solaborate
* Truth Social
* Tumblr
* Twitter
* Viadeo
* VK
* XING

Decentralized|

| ActivityPub-compatible|

* Friendica
* GNU social
* Mastodon
* Misskey
* Pleroma
* micro.blog
* Threads

|

* Bluesky
* AT Protocol
* diaspora*
* identi.ca
* pump.io
* Nostr
* OpenMicroBlogging
* OStatus
* Twister

Defunct|

* App.net
* Edmodo
* Google Buzz
* Google+
* Heello
* Jaiku
* Meme
* Me2day
* migme
* Natter
* Parler
* Posterous
* Pownce
* Qaiku
* Tencent Weibo
* Tout

Features|

* Reblogging
* Activity stream
* Lifestreaming
* Hashtag
* Backchannel
* Mention/Replies

Comparison of microblogging services
*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template