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Utsukta Hub Documentation

Welcome to Utsukta Hub

You’ve arrived at the official documentation for Utsukta Hub, a Hubzilla-powered community designed to connect people securely and privately. Whether you’re a new user, an administrator, or a developer, this is your one-stop resource for getting started, managing your experience, and diving into the technical details.

What is Hubzilla?

Hubzilla is a decentralised communication network with the aim of providing communication options that circumvent censorship, respect privacy and are therefore free from the restrictions imposed by today's commercial communication giants. These primarily provide spy networks for paying customers of all kinds and monopolise and centralise the entire Internet - which was not originally among the revolutionary goals that led to the World Wide Web.

Hubzilla is free, open source and free of charge. It was developed to run on a Raspberry Pi as well as on the largest AMD and Intel Xeon multiprocessor servers. It can be used for communication between a few individuals or connect many thousands of people and more.

Another goal is to be independent of skills and resources. Hubzilla is as easy to use for the ordinary computer user as it is for system administrators and developers.

Hubzilla is written in PHP, making it easy to install on any of today's hosting platforms, including self-hosting at home, on shared servers or on virtual and dedicated servers.

Hubzilla Timeline and History

15 Years of Innovation

Collaborate, Innovate, and Cross-Pollinate

Hubzilla and its predecessors are pioneers of the fediverse, bringing cutting-edge features and innovation to decentralized social media. This includes tireless work from fediverse pioneer Mike Macgirvin, Hubzilla head developer Mario Vavti, as well as many many other contributors.

Hubzilla traces its roots to 2010 with the release of Mistpark created by Mike Macgirvin, and became an independent project in 2012, being called Red and then Red Matrix before being called Hubzilla. The Hubzilla community took over the project in early 2015, and the Hubzilla Association was created in 2023.

This is a team effort, with lots of contributors, both from within and without Hubzilla. Special thanks to other platforms, such as (streams), Forte, and others who collaborate, innovate, and cross-pollinate.

Major Milestones

  • 15 Year Anniversary

  • Hubzilla 10 released.

    • Implementation of Conversation Containers over ActivityPub, which helps backfill threaded conversations so you see the entire conversation, as well as provide additional moderation tools. Initially released in (streams) and then released in Hubzilla shortly after.5
  • FEP-171b: Conversation Containers and related specifications are submitted as Fediverse Enhancement Proposals (FEPs), special thanks to silverpill.1
  • Hubzilla 9 released.
  • FEP-61cf: The OpenWebAuth Protocol, which provides federated single sign on, was submitted as a Fediverse Enhancement Proposal (FEP), special thanks to FenTiger.1

  • Hubzilla 8.4.2 released.

    • Updated to Bootstrap 5.3.0 (stable version).
  • Hubzilla logo Hubzilla Association established.
  • Hubzilla 8 released.

  • Hubzilla 7.8 released.

    • Update to bootstrap version 5.2 which implements CSS variables
  • The GNU Social addon, which enabled the OStatus protocol, was retired. OStatus is no longer officially supported.
  • Hubzilla 7 released.

  • Hubzilla 6.2 released.

    • Make Hubzilla installable as a Progressive Web App (PWA) in supported browsers.
    • Updated to Bootstrap 5.

  • Hubzilla 6 released.

    • Implemented desktop notifications.
    • Zot no longer supported for backward compatibility. Zot6 must be used instead. ActivityPub, OStatus, and Diaspora continue to be supported.

  • Hubzilla 5 released.

    • Switched to Zot6 as the primary protocol. Zot, ActivityPub, OStatus, and Diaspora continue to be supported as additional protocols.
    • Implemented calendar syncing between clones, using DAV and nomadic identity.
    • Introduced polls.

  • Hubzilla 4 released.

    • Upgraded from Zot to Zot6. Zot is still supported for backwards compatibility.
  • Re-implemented the Zot Protocol to use ActivityStreams2 content.1
  • Zap and Osada are released with Zot6 support.1 Osada and Zap are forks of Hubzilla.5

  • Hubzilla 3.2 released.

    • Upgraded from Bootstrap 4 beta to Bootstrap 4 stable.
  • ActivityPub became an official W3C Recommendation (web standard).1
  • Hubzilla 3 released.

  • Hubzilla 2.8 released.

    • Implemented OpenWebAuth, which replaced Magic Auth.
    • Preparations for upcoming upgrade to Zot6 begin.
  • Magic Auth was separated from Zot and made into its own protocol called OpenWebAuth (OWA) to facilitate adoption by other platforms.4

  • Mastodon added ActivityPub in version 1.6.0 which replaced OStatus as their primary protocol.1

    Hubzilla and Mastodon begin to use ActivityPub to communicate with each other, rather than use OStatus.
  • The PubCrawl addon was created, which adds ActivityPub as an additional protocol.

  • Hubzilla 2.4 released.

    • Support reverse Magic Auth in Oembed requests.
    • Redbasic theme updated to use Bootstrap 4.
  • Mike Macgirvin creates the first ever demonstration of ActivityPub posts and comments federating (NextCloud made these claims, but used ActivityStreams and not actually ActivityPub).1
  • Hubzilla 2 released.
  • Implemented private groups.
  • Mastodon arrived in the fediverse. It federated with Hubzilla using OStatus.1
  • Provided (sanitised) inline SVG support over the fediverse, allowing quick doodles and drawings in posts/comments.

  • Hubzilla 1 released.

    • Initially released with Zot, OStatus, and Diaspora Federation protocols.
  • New features like articles, cards, wikis, webpages, a CalDAV calendar server and a CardDAV addressbook server were planned and then added over time.
  • Hubzilla logo Renamed from Red Matrix to Hubzilla.

  • Mike Macgirvin stepped down as active coordinator for the project in early 2015 and turned management over to the community. Mike continued to contribute to Hubzilla periodically.5

    Mario Vavti becomes the new Head Developer of the project.
  • Implemented dynamic groups. ("Send this post to male German connections only" or "only send to folks who are using the Diaspora protocol")  
  • Browser-to-browser encryption arrives in the fediverse. E2EE framework completed. We don't provide E2EE ourselves because we're not at the endpoint.
  • Red Matrix logo Renamed from Red to Red Matrix.
  • Turned all file storage into access controlled WebDAV nodes so you could upload private media through drag-drop from any device.
  • Created the Zot Protocol to encrypt all fediverse communications over the wire and expose as little meta-data as possible, while fully supporting Nomadic Identity.

  • Red logo Work begins on Red, which means "network" in Spanish.

    This rewrite uses Free Friendika as a base.2 Red is considered to be a fork of the MIT licensed version of Friendika/Friendica.3

    Mike Macgirvin leaves Friendica to devote his time working on Red and the Zot protocol. Red is established as an independent project.
  • The term “fediverse” was first coined by Mark Eckenwiler.1
  • Federated/connected the fediverse and WordPress (posts and comments in both directions).
  • Friendica logo Friendika was renamed Friendica.

  • Free Friendica logo Free Friendika was created.2

    The Friendika project split into two, with an MIT Licensed version and an AGPL licensed version. The MIT licensed version was initially called Free Friendika, and the AGPL version continued to use the name Friendika.2

    The MIT Licensed version of Friendika/Friendica was stored in a separate repository. It had periodic updates, but was not promoted for production use and very few knew it existed.3
  • Started work on fediverse Nomadic Identity after nearly half the known network suddenly vanished in the space of a week when some high profile large sites shut down with little or no warning and with no migration ability. Migration is half the solution - it is still subject to unannounced shutdowns.
  • Brought Facebook (unwillingly) into the fediverse. Shout-out to Tobias for helping with Twitter.
  • Added Diaspora Federation protocol support.
  • Friendica logo Renamed from Mistpark to Friendika.
  • Added OStatus protocol federation.
  • Added OpenMicroBlogging protocol federation.
  • Federated with all the things - including "connections" with RSS and email, Diaspora, StatusNet, and cross-posting to lots of open providers via plugins.
  • Provided access controlled assets and services in the fediverse - including media
  • Created federated single sign-on across decentralised fediverse nodes (providing fully decentralised access control)
  • Brought circles/aspects to the fediverse. (Before Diaspora or Google+).
  • Brought quoted posts to the fediverse.
  • Brought comment controls to the fediverse.
  • Brought directory services to the fediverse.
  • Brought the concepts of permission and consent to the fediverse.
  • Brought direct messages (DMs) and groups to the fediverse. (Prior to this they did not federate).
  • Added DFRN protocol federation.
  • Launched as Mistpark.
  • After leaving Facebook and working on other open source projects, Mike Macgirvin started work on a federated social media server using common server technology.

How to use this documentation?

This guide is organized into several key sections to meet your needs:

  • User Manual: Learn how to sign up, post, connect with others, and use Hubzilla’s features. Perfect for newcomers and everyday users.
  • Admin Manual: Manage your hub with instructions on setup, moderation, and maintenance. For hub administrators.
  • Developer Manual: Extend or customize Hubzilla with code-level insights. For developers and tech enthusiasts.
  • API Section: Interact with Utsukta Hub programmatically via our API. For developers building integrations or tools.
  • About Utsukta Hub: Discover our hub’s mission, policies, rules, and how to get involved.
  • Appendices: Extra resources like glossaries and external links.

Use the navigation bar at the top or the sidebar to jump to any section. Can’t find what you need? Try the search bar or reach out via email.

Quick Start

Get Involved

Join our community, share your feedback, contribute to this documentation or report an issue via our support forum at [https://hub.utsukta.org/channel/admin] or email us at support@utsukta.org. We’re excited to have you here!