multichan, or
multiple channels[1], is a novel
decentralized platform for conversations. Unlike other social media platforms,
a) registration is not necessary to participate in conversation;
b) the conversations are not "owned" or controlled by any single
entity;
c) manipulative algorithms and annoying advertisements
are not included in the software.
People wishing to participate in the greater community can connect to any
website running our software that is choosing to participate in our
decentralization features. Simply put, our conversations are shared
between any computers that want to help keep the discussion going.
Connecting to one website will let you see conversations from other websites,
and posting your messages to one website triggers a domino effect that pushes
your messages to other websites.
This decentralization might sound like an unusual concept to base a
chat software around, but the author of the software thinks that it's worth
investigating because it eliminates many of the problems associated with
running group chats in an elegant way. Anyone with a desktop computer is able
to grow the network, making censorship more difficult.
Decentralizing a
network also reduces the overall cost of maintaining the platform. If you
choose to help run the network with us, you likely won't even see your electric
bill increase; you can also manage the content on your server entirely as you
like. Be warned, however, that unpopular moderation decisions might drive users
away from your server, or influence other server operators to ignore output
from your server, limiting the outreach of content your users provide.
Read the Multichan document for
more information.
Formatting and Easter eggs
- The captcha must be solved before you can
start new discussions or reply to existing ones.
- Atom feeds let you easily subscribe to Multichan
from desktop, mobile, and chatrooms. Read more about Atom feeds on
Wikipedia.
- Hackers may enjoy the public /api/ directory.
- If a friends list shows the "image:" link at the
top of the page, the first image URL from that host in a post will show
up as an attachment at the bottom of the post. This pseudo-upload mode
will be tweaked more in the future.
- If a friends list says Boards Enabled,
go to /b/ to get the board list, /b/board/ to see the board "/board/",
and /b/board/password to either claim "/board/" with password, or
login to the admin panel for "/board/" with password. (You may need
to refresh after claiming a board to login)
- Tags should be lowercase and only letters, numbers, or "_"
- Tags at the top of the tags list in bold are the admin's favorite tags.
These are suggested topics if you don't know what to write a new post
about.
- Tag views can be combined using the "+"; example:
http://0chan.vip/tags/meta+tech/ <-- view "meta" and "tech"
- A comment can be linked to or replied to by clicking on its number.
For comments from the site that created the discussion, replies
are formatted like >>1 >>2 >>3 >>4 .
- Replies from other sites are referenced by their URL and reply number
in that site's reply list. This can be a little confusing to figure
out, so just click the comment number to let multichan figure it out
for you. An example may look like >>http://0chan.vip/3
- A tripcode can be entered by following your name with the "#"
sign followed by a password (up to 8 characters).
(example) name#test -> name !.CzKQna1OU
(example) dev#Multich -> dev !g4hkX2f/2g
Do you see the colored code next to the name? Your password will
be translated to a "hash" using a public method. Only someone who knows
the same password can post using the same tripcode. This form of
pseudo-registration can be used on most textboards and imageboards,
not just multichan.
- You can test your tripcode before you use it,
to see how it'll show up on the board.
- A secure tripcode can be generated that (theoretically) is
unique to your current site, by mixing your password with either a
consistent secret "salt" password known only by the admin, or by
using an alternative "hashing" method that makes it very difficult
for the public to reverse engineer your password to make posts
imitating you.
[1] - The name is a reference to "second channel" (2ch), a popular discussion
website that has some features that resemble those in multich.
