DisNews 25.08 - Ten years of Disroot

When Disroot began to take shape back in 2015, the world seemed to be heading in a different direction. People were talking about climate agreements, building alternatives... and riding that same wave — almost as a necessary reaction — Disroot was born: our modest but determined attempt to offer digital tools that do not sell our privacy, freedom and choice to the highest bidder. Now 10 years in and looks like the world has gone on the downward spiral. Privacy seems to be a term of the
past. Sponsored content, digital exhibitionism and glorification of fame is the new standard. Short content format has taken over the world. AI slop is slowly taking over the internet. While all this is happening, there is still hope. There are still ton of people working endlessly to create another horizon of possibilities, coding, testing and hosting alternatives that tries to distant itself from the corporate internet most of the world uses on daily basis. We are happy to be a part of
that movement and would like to celebrate with all of you briefly reviewing some of the most important milestones on this journey that began ten years ago.

In 2016, things got more intense. While the UK voted to leave the EU and Trump was getting ready to enter the White House, we took a key step toward real independence. To become trully independent and make a step towards self-sustainability we have decided to run Disroot off of our own hardware. Throughout the year we have been working out basics like ToS, website content as well as setting up infrastructure and adding more and more services to the platform. We also migrated from
OwnCloud to Nextcloud, doubling down on free software. In a world closing in on itself, the project was opening doors.

The following year, 2017, the whole world seemed to be having a nervous breakdown — scandals, protests, the #MeToo movement shaking dusty old structures. Meanwhile, Disroot experienced its first major wave of new users — thanks to the openmailbox-gate — and responded with growth: a new website, the launch of the Howtos and guides site, and perhaps most importantly, becoming a formal foundation. Amid global chaos, the project was digging in for the long haul.

2018 wasn’t any calmer. Devastating wildfires, massive protests, and still, from a quiet corner of the internet, Disroot kept building: Adding extra new servers, shutting down our Matrix instance (a tough but necessary and correct decision), and the birth of the Disroot app, thanks to contribution from one of our disrooters, Massimiliano. It was a year to plant roots.

In 2019, while Notre-Dame burned and millions marched for the climate, the project took a more political turn. It began donating to FLOSS projects, finally published the Mission Statement, and welcomed two key people to the core team: Fede and Meaz. Disroot was no longer just infrastructure — it was a community with a voice.

Then came 2020. What can we say? The pandemic exposed everything. While governments scrambled and Big Tech platforms became ubiquitous, Disroot — like many other grassroots initiatives — became a refuge. We shut down our Diaspora* instance, launched the COVID19 kit, and began working on encrypted email storage. Protecting the word, when everything else was noise.

In 2021, between vaccines, military withdrawals, and a world trying to rebuild itself, Disroot welcomed avg_joe to the core team; Muppeth left his "normal" day job to fully dedicate himself to the project. FE.Disroot (replacement to closed Diaspora) became fully integrated into the Fediverse, and our email encryption project Lacre received funding from NLNET. Disroot wasn’t just reacting anymore — it was building proactively.

2022 was marked by the Russia's invasion of Ukraine, an energy crisis, and the fear of backsliding. And yet, within that climate, Disroot kept refining its ecosystem. We have invested big chunk of donations we have recieved throught the years into brand new servers. We switched webmail software to Roundcube, and have done the first real tests of Lacre (mailbox encryption) on Disroot.org infrastructure. Like someone quietly preparing for the long term.

In 2023, while generative AIs flooded the headlines and public imagination, our project made a small but significant move: we migrated from Gitea to Forgejo, the community-driven fork. Because it’s not enough for code to be open — it matters who’s behind it. Although seeming like less busy year for Disroot, we have focused a lot on internals. Redefining the way we organize our work, but also working on improvements of the infrastructure implementing automations. It is also a turning
point year where Meaz has joined Muppeth in system-administration tasks. No longer we struggle with single point of failure and this addition has boosted our productivty and allowed for more work to be done.

2024, was also pretty intense. We launched several new services. We have provided a Lemmy instance called D·Scribe, link-aggragator and discussion forum similar to reddit, but open source and most importantly federated. We have also deployed Movim a new XMPP webchat, and provided instance of LibreTranslate.
To further improve the way we prepare and deploy updates on Disroot we have setup a staging server which is basically a test server for the entire team emulating our platform, allowing us to double test the updates before they land on it.

That's how we got to 2025. And we are already halfway through another bumpy year. The world remains on edge — Gaza, the climate, looming elections. But Disroot hasn’t stopped. We are more motivated and determined then ever before and will continue to strive for free-open and ethical internet until the last tcp packet!

Ten years.

Ten years in which the world changed — and not always for the better. But also ten years in which something held together, reinvented itself, and was defended with consistency and care. Disroot isn’t perfect. It doesn’t try to be. But it is one of those necessary oddities: a network built from the bottom up, non-profit, ownerless, algorithm-free. And in today’s world, that’s something.

We wish you all the best and we are greatful you decided to trust us and use our platform. We exist thanks to you!

Last but not least, we would like to give special thanks to all the FLOSS developers. It is thanks to you we can enjoy the freedom on the internet. You are the real heroes, we are just monkeys with a wrench! We wish you all the best!

.: Thanks for flying Disroot 👍

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.: Donation :.

User donations is what keeps Disroot afloat. Without constant and reliable
stream of money we won't be able to operate, maintain and expand. Please
consider donating to the project. All the needed information can be found here.
disroot.org/en/donate

• Liberapay - liberapay.com/Disroot/donate
• Patron - https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u�69813
• Paypal - paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=…
• Cryptocurrency - disroot.org/cryptocurrency

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.: Communication & Support :.

• For tutorials on the various services we provide, check howto.disroot.org
• To get in touch with our support team, just write an email to support@disroot.org
• To chat with the awesome community, join our XMPP Chat Room at: disroot@chat.disroot.org
• To find us on fediverse check our mastodon account at: disroot@nixnext.social

To be well informed about issues, scheduled maintenance, downtimes, etc., on our
platform you should consider checking status.disroot.org and subscribe to the news there via RSS
feed. Alternativelly you can use:

• XMPP: state@chat.disroot.org
• Fediverse follow: disroot@nixnet.social
• automatically via Disroot android app

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