this post was submitted on 01 Mar 2026
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118
Introducing Habitat - A Social Platform for Local Communities (feddit.uk)
submitted 2 hours ago by carlnewton@feddit.uk to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
18 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I've been working on Habitat for the past two years. It all stemmed from this idea that I posted in April 2024.

Habitat is a free open-source, self hosted social platform for local communities. It is aimed at fostering local community discussions and discovery of areas of interest. This is why it is built primarily around location. A Habitat instance centers on a specific area, and the local community can make generic posts about that area, or they can make posts about specific locations in that area. More about what I've been building and the future plans here.

Features

  • Habitat specification of location and size - enabling posts related to the local area
  • Home feed - Displays the most recent posts
  • Nearby feed - Displays posts sorted by proximity to the user
  • Create posts - Upload photos, set locations, comments
  • Categories - Location rules
  • Amazon S3 image storage option
  • Personalisation - Overrides Habitat defaults per user: kms/miles, hidden categories
  • Moderation tools - User, post, comment moderation, block email addresses
  • Announcements - Scheduled announcements
  • Public moderation log - Keep moderator actions visible for 30 days

If you're interest in this at all, please give it a spin and let me know how you get on. I'll keep an eye here on Lemmy, but you can also post to the Habitat discussion board on GitHub.

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[–] Pika@sh.itjust.works 4 points 22 minutes ago* (last edited 21 minutes ago)

I lack the use case for this service but, it looks good on paper. Nice!

If I understand the project right, this would be a great opening for non-profit communities to make a page for the town and add the services, instead of the typical static pages

[–] spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works 30 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (3 children)

Even in my relatively liberal U.S. city, Next Door is overrun by Magats who are cheered on and protected by right-wing Magat moderators. It needs to die and this looks like a great replacement.

[–] carlnewton@feddit.uk 16 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

I've built in the ability to hide categories for this kind of reason. I was thinking, for instance, that people who enjoy a good moan can join the "Moaners Club" category, and the rest of us can hide that category from our feeds to get on with the categories we enjoy. Regarding problematic moderators, I have built a moderation log to keep them accountable, and of course, if they don't show themselves to have good intentions, those with good intentions could create their own instance -- I don't know why I'm going into this kind of detail -- you're on Lemmy after all, you know the score!

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 4 points 41 minutes ago

......you want us to get together and moan with each other? Buddy! I didn't know this was that kind of app!

[–] Lonewolfmcquade@lemmy.world 7 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Agreed. Tried NextDoor years ago and found it was primarily a venue for busybodies, nosy neighbors and HOAs to complain and nag people about nonsense. I love the idea of an app like this, but hate the people who use it the most.

[–] spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

It goes deeper with Nextdoor. During Covid someone living next to a local evangelical church posted pictures of a packed event where no one was wearing a mask. Some of those pictures included the backs of a few kid's heads.

The "Good Christian" church members complained that he was a pedophile and Nextdoor deleted his account! This could not be done by moderators and required Nextdoor executive approval.

Nextdoor is a Maggot haven from top to bottom.

[–] irmadlad@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Out in my neck of the woods, NextDoor wouldn't be effective. Lots of acreage between people. We don't take kindly to snoopers and busybodies. We keep an eye on each other, but not in a nosy neighbor kind of way. Now, where my lady friend lives, it's eat up with NextDoor. She showed me her feed once, I was like 'You know, I strongly believe America could solve about 50% of their problems with this one simple trick: Mind Your Own Business!'.

[–] spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works 1 points 57 minutes ago

I found it useful for some things. We have a pack of coyotes in town that preys on dogs and occasionally is spotted in the neighborhood. It was also useful for business & contractor recommendations, but have to otherwise agree with you.

[–] irmadlad@lemmy.world 4 points 1 hour ago

I don't have a use case OP, but the project looks great. Seems like it would be an obvious NextDoor replacement.

[–] jtrek@startrek.website 2 points 50 minutes ago

I like the idea. I don't want to use facebook or similar, but that's where stuff like "BuyNothing" is most active.

Unfortunately, I don't know much about self hosting (beyond what I've picked up working in software development) so I don't see myself running one of these myself. I'd probably use it if it came to my neck of the woods (NYC)

[–] eodur@piefed.social 17 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

I love the sound of this. Kind of a decentralized Next door but better? I've been really wanting a place for some local communities to organize that isn't Facebook. Perhaps I'll spin up an instance and see if I can get some interest.

[–] carlnewton@feddit.uk 3 points 2 hours ago

Awesome! Let me know how you get on!

[–] dangling_cat@piefed.blahaj.zone 9 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

I absolutely love this idea. Does it support ActivityPub? And I would love to see users can set labels on themselves like what expertise they can offer etc.

[–] carlnewton@feddit.uk 5 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Now that's an interesting idea!

This release is step one in the plan. Federation is step two! More information on this here: https://carlnewton.github.io/posts/building-habitat/

I love what activitypub has done for the internet, but I don't think it will be right for this project, but yes to federation -- if there are instances to federate with of course!

[–] ada@piefed.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

It seems to me that activity pub could still be useful for a couple of reasons. If you live in the suburbs of a city, then bring able to also access an instance for your suburb and your city might be useful.

And if you live in multiple locales, or if want to stay connected to your old home town etc

[–] carlnewton@feddit.uk 5 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Please do have a read of this: https://carlnewton.github.io/posts/location-based-social-network/#connecting-instances

I feel quite confident that a gossip protocol approach is the right way to go, but seamless connectivity to other instances is absolutely planned!

[–] ada@piefed.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 hour ago

That was my bad. I was espousing federation, not AP specifically, and I see that federation is built in to the idea

[–] sbv@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 hours ago

That looks neat! Thanks for posting it!