this post was submitted on 08 Dec 2025
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I noticed Bonfire is getting a lot of positive attention lately, and I wanted to try it out. They don't have a directory of instances yet. Do you have any instances that you recommend.

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[–] rimu@piefed.social 15 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Not really anything serious.

By poking around https://bonfire.fediverse.observer/list I found two (and only two) with open sign ups that do not say "demo and testing instance":

Try:

https://discussions.sciety.org/

https://bonfire.home.coop/

It's kinda amazing to me how they convinced so many people to give them money when that is all they have. I guess people want to have hope.

[–] wjs018@piefed.social 14 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

€30,000! I was stunned when I just pulled up their crowdfunding campaign. Apparently that is enough money for software "maintenance". I think you have severely underpaid me for my contributions to PieFed if that is the going rate. I was just a sucker doing it for free. 😜

[–] rimu@crust.piefed.social 8 points 1 week ago

I know, right.

After they've finished doing maintenance no one will be able to see any visible difference and will just have to believe them when they ask for more money. They were upfront about that so maybe it'll go ok but yeah seems risky as hell.

[–] Eyekaytee@aussie.zone 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] gigachad@piefed.social 10 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

In open source development it is a lot more than 0€

It's not a very grateful job. Many developers provide an option to make donations, but often don't promote it too hard. So if you do not have a dedicated person organizing a crowdfunding campaign but concentrate on development instead, it's nearly impossible to reach such sums. Often you also get pressured by the community.

Issue 752: WHY DOES FEATURE XYZ NOT WORK??? THIS IS BULLSHIT THE DEVELOPERS DONT CARE

[–] aasatru@kbin.earth 6 points 1 week ago

In other news, PieFed is open for donations here. The price of a coffee every month would constitute a pretty significant increase in donations.

[–] Twoafros@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 week ago

Thank you for sharing the links! I just signed to one of them.

I am also surprised how much money they were able to raise. I hope they deliver on the things they promised

[–] INeedMana@piefed.zip 8 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I read https://bonfirenetworks.org/posts/what-is-bonfire-plural-by-design/ and I still don't understand. What is Bonfire? The instances that Rimu found look just like Mastodon

[–] mrdown@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

What did you not understand? The idea is to have modular features easy to disable and enable.

[–] INeedMana@piefed.zip 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

What features? Do you have an example? The "content" is supposed to be like microblogging posts?

[–] mrdown@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You got flavors which is a set of features pre-selected features. One of them offer microblogging but you can completely disable it or choose another flavor. You can build with bonfire any type of platform like an peer tube and pixeled alternative or even novel applications like a platform for collaborative peer review in science

I think it is a big mistake to have an clone to mastodon as a demo. Instead of promoting the unique capabilities

[–] INeedMana@piefed.zip 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Ah. So it's more like a framework for setting up platforms that also use AP? Now I got it, thanks

[–] Twoafros@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 week ago

I dont fully understand either, thats why I wanted to join an instance to see the difference. So far it looks like Mastadon but you can filter your feed based on "most boosted", "most liked", "most commented", instead of only a chronological feed only. it also has a feature called "circles" which I think is the equivalent of a facebook group but I haven't tried it yet.

[–] Blaze@piefed.zip 3 points 1 week ago
[–] abeorch@friendica.ginestes.es 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

@Twoafros I think there was another platform/software that did events, posts, collaboration for community groups.. I just cant remember the name ...

[–] dissentiate@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 3 hours ago

Hubzilla maybe?

[–] borisentiu@feddit.org 2 points 1 week ago

https://campground.bonfire.cafe/login

is for testing Bonfire Social, the microblogging part. (This one not federated)