Madiator2011

This sub got moved to !askmadiator@px.madiator.com

My friend is working on adding ActivityPub support to his blog platform (BDServer) so people can follow/comment from Mastodon, Lemmy, etc.

Current status: Lemmy and Misskey can find and follow his account (@blenderdumbass@blenderdumbass.org), but Mastodon can't find it at all, even though he sees proper ActivityPub requests hitting his server.

The technical details are pretty gnarly - RSA signature verification, HTTP header recreation, multi-threading issues. He wrote up the full journey here: Please Help Me With Activity Pub

If anyone has ActivityPub experience or wants to take a look at the code (Python), we have a Matrix room for BDServer development. Any insights on why different platforms behave differently would be super helpful.

https://matrix.to/#/#bdserver:tchncs.de

Source code: ActivityPub.py

Been helping my friend test their blog server project and figured some of you might find it useful. It's called BDServer and it's basically what blog engine written in pure python.

The cool part is it's just Python files - no compilation, no massive dependencies and the best part is 0 JavaScript. Every aspect is customizable via plugins system. My friend runs their blog on it https://blenderdumbass.org/ and I've been running mine at https://blog.madiator.com/ (in my case I made some own plugins as not liked orginal design)

Some features included:

• Built-in analytics that don't phone home to Google
• Markdown files for posts (but you can embed HTML if needed)
• Plugin system so you can add weird features without breaking updates
• Currently we working on fully adding Activity Pub support

Source is on Codeberg: https://codeberg.org/blenderdumbass/BDServer

License: AGPL version 3 or later

We hang out on Matrix if anyone wants to chat about it or needs help: https://matrix.to/#/#bdserver:tchncs.de

I'm currently self-hosting several services and looking to harden my setup. I already use Nginx Proxy Manager (NPM) with wildcard Let's Encrypt certs, but I'm thinking of moving to something more robust with:

A proper WAF (Web Application Firewall)

Deep network monitoring (ideally per-container or per-service)

Possibly some bot protection and anomaly detection (ai scrapping is annoying)

I've looked into Traefik, BunkerWeb, and Pangolin. Each has pros and cons, BunkerWeb seems WAF-ready, but has some limitations (SSL setup is nightmare). Traefik is very flexible, but I’d need to add middleware myself (also runing non docker services). Pangolin looks great but werent able to get it work in my setup.

Main goals:

Secure exposure of HTTP(S) services (wildcard certs with Cloudlfare)

Easy rules for blocking bad IPs or patterns

Optional: rate-limiting, automatic fail2ban-style bans

Bonus: nice dashboard or at least logs that make sense

I also have a mix of Docker and bare metal services, so proxying non-container stuff cleanly is important.

My final goal is setup like this: OVH (Reverse Proxy - Firewall) - Tailscale - Hetzner Server)

Hot take: Most PeerTube instances shouldn’t just hand out accounts to anyone—and here’s the reality check. Running a PeerTube server isn’t like YouTube. There’s no trillion-dollar corporation footing the bill. Instead, small community admins juggle:

The major points are:

• Storage costs (video files add up fast!)
• Moderation work (spam, trolls, and legal risks)
• Bandwidth limits
• Abuse handling (because yes, people will test boundaries) Yet, a lot of sign-up requests sound like (at least from what I see on my instance):

"I wanna upload videos." "I’m starting a Roblox channel."

Sorry, but that’s not enough. Admins aren’t obligated to give free hosting to strangers. A good admin looks for people who:

• Fit the community’s vibe (e.g., a coding-focused instance won’t host gaming streams).
• Show effort—like sharing a portfolio or explaining why their content adds value.

Example: If you applied with a sample of your work or a clear plan? Hell yes, I’d consider you. But if your pitch is just "I want free hosting," why should the community foot the bill?

TL;DR: PeerTube isn’t a free-for-all. "I just wanna upload stuff" isn’t a good reason. Bring something to the table.

What I need:

• Simple modern UI
• easy way to create invoice and auto generate pdf file for me
• allow to make me invoice template so I can put like additional info like bank details
• have nice dashboard so I can see my income What I want to avoid:
• too complex system
• lack of docker support
• software with paywalls for functions

Hope you can help me find something.

I’m opening this post to allow users to report instances that have NSFW content or for suggestion for instances to block. Feel free to reach me if you find any instance being bad.