Notices by Bonfire (bonfire@bonfire.cafe)

Bonfire Social 1.0.5 is out! 🔥

Archipelago mode means instead of open federation (connect to everyone, then play whack-a-mole blocking bad actors), you can now choose to federate *only* with a hand-picked allow-list of trusted people or servers. Communities can link up into an "archipelago" of like-minded "islands" with shared rules, ideal for tight-knit groups, neighbourhoods, assemblies, co-ops, or orgs that want to connect with each other but not necessarily the whole internet.

We also added new admin throughput controls as our latest take on "calm empowerment": simple defaults first, curated overrides next, and full advanced control behind an explicit gesture. In practice, you can keep a busy instance responsive by picking a speed preset, prioritising certain kinds of activity, or fine-tuning each background task queue, no config files or restarts needed.

Also new in 1.0.5:

• Faster search, now powered by Sonic
• Broadcast announcements to everyone on your instance
• Embeddable widgets: put your pinned posts on any website
• PGP-encrypted system emails
• Plus lots of improvements and fixes (federation, polls, media, accessibility, mobile)

Blog post and changelog: bonfirenetworks.org/posts/bo...

🔥 The Bonfire Social 1.0.5 release candidate is out!

This one brings archipelago mode (opt-in, allow-list federation for tightly-knit communities and networks), a more lightweight search backend (see changelog for migration steps), broadcasting announcements, another embeddable widget, PGP-encrypted emails, and many UX improvements and fixes.

If you're running an instance and want to give it a go, please let us know if you run into any issues.

Full changelog: docs.bonfirenetworks.org/cha...

Hi everyone! We’re excited to share some updates:

Bonfire 1.0.1 is out! 🎉
This release is all about making your social web experience livelier, more connected, and truly yours. It brings features like following hashtags, scheduled posts, dashboard widgets, and more. This is the very first delivery from the maintenance work funded by your incredible support. Thank you for helping us reach this milestone and keep Bonfire thriving!

For details about the release see our latest blog post: Bonfire 1.0.1: Building Momentum

What’s next for crowdfunding?

If you're an existing backer, the pledge manager is now open. Please keep an eye out for updates there so we can start preparing rewards for you.

The campaign is open again for the next month. With core maintenance funded, every new pledge (or increased pledge from existing backers) now goes directly toward our first stretch goal: federated groups. Support or share our extended campaign to help fund community-owned, cross-instance spaces for real collaboration and self-governance.

Bonus good news: Thanks to a new grant, end-to-end encrypted messaging in Bonfire is now funded and in development!

Thank you once again for being part of the Bonfire movement! Your feedback, support, and community spirit make all of this possible. If you have questions or want to get involved, reach out or come say hello at FOSDEM if you’re in Brussels at the end of January!

With gratitude,
The Bonfire Team