whilo/topiq

Topiq is a social network designed for discussions that stays in sync across everyone using it without needing a central server. Think of it like a group chat or forum, except instead of relying on one company's servers to keep everyone's data, the app syncs conversation threads directly between the people participating in them. If you go offline, your changes get saved locally, and when you reconnect, everything automatically catches up. The key difference from most social networks is how it handles data. Rather than storing everything on one server, Topiq uses what's called peer-to-peer replication with CRDTs, essentially a system where every participant keeps a copy of the conversation, and the app is smart enough to merge different versions of the same thread without losing anyone's contributions, even if two people edit at the same time. You run the app in your browser, and all your posts and changes sync automatically when you're online or when you reconnect after being offline. You'd use Topiq if you want to have serious discussions or share funny topics with friends or communities, but without trusting your data to a single company. It's particularly useful for groups that care about privacy or want their conversations to work even if the main servers are down. The project is still experimental, the README mentions it's being tested at topiq.es, and the developers note that they're still figuring out things like how to handle search, messaging between friends, and better editing tools. If you want to run your own instance, you can deploy it yourself by downloading the code, configuring a few settings (mainly an email server for authentication), and running the application. The project is open source and welcomes people to join the test network and help develop it further.