Announcing Elk v1 -- again! 🎉

[ayo-run]

For those who follow our Mastodon account at webtoo.ls you may have seen our announcement about the release of Elk v1. We are quite proud of this moment, and as @shuuji3 remarked to the team: "It has been a long journey." Indeed it has :) and in this post I would like to expand on our short announcement toot.

But before we look back to the long journey that is v1, I want to start by saying: we are not done, and v1 does not mean completion. Feature-parity with Mastodon is still a bigger dream we move to, and there is still a lot of gaps to fill in the larger Social Web space. Elk v1 is just another beginning.

What v1 means

From the early days of Elk, we have been aiming at building a simple and calm experience for the Fediverse. As a guide, we prioritize feature parity with Mastodon while implementing 'popular' patterns that users almost always universally expect: chronological treads, clean layout, multi-account, quote posts (new!), scheduled posts (new!), and others. On top of these, we also bring a few innovation: syntax highlighting for shared code blocks (thanks to Mastodon's adjustable + high character limit!), server-agnostic markdown formatting, and a bunch of wellbeing features!

Looking back to our journey, we are quite happy with what Elk has brought to the Fediverse and, with that, we want to release v1 and officially take Elk out of the looooooong alpha stage :) But why take the time? From my humble perspective, this "simple and calm" ethos required the care and stability.

Arguably, Quote Posts has been the longest, most discussed feature in Mastodon.

I first reported the need for a quote posts feature on Elk in 2022 which was enthusiastically received. However, in parallel, Mastodon users still could not find consensus on the implementation and intention of the feature. Understandably so, as it has been used in toxic ways on *ehem* other platforms *ehem*. I dropped working on a client-side quote-posts-like feature as I felt we should wait for a consensus and see where that goes. So when Mastodon finally released the Quote Posts API late last year (Yay!), we started work on it, and the amazing @shuuji3 pushed the bulk to the finish line. Finally, we moved the infrastructure and upgraded webtoo.ls to confidently test Quote Posts along with the other v1 features.

So, what does V1 Mean?

Elk v1 is a mark of confidence. We have taken the time to build and test, and we feel that our initial aim of bringing "simple and calm" user interface to the Fediverse is at a good enough state to take it out of Alpha.

Elk v1 is a mark of commitment. We want to move Elk to v1 so that from here on we can release new features at a more regular cadence. There are more technical angles we can discuss with regards to versioning, but for Elk, we want v1 to be the landmark where we start releasing new features relatively more frequently in smaller batches.

Elk v1 is a mark of community. We are thankful for the community that has formed around Elk. Your contributions, financial support, feedback, replies... all of us here and on the Fediverse has truly made Elk a community project and v1 is the result of that.

Moving forward

As mentioned earlier: we are not done. Feature parity is still ahead of us, the Social Web is still growing, and there is a lot we want to try. Elk v1 is but a landmark: smaller releases, more often, with the same care that got us here.

If you want to be part of the next chapter: use Elk at elk.zone and give us all the feedback you have. Open an issue or a PR (we are happy to help you find a first one), or support us so Elk can stay alive. Join us on our Chat if you want to hang out. :)

To everyone who filed an issue, translated a string, sent a toot, or simply stuck around through the long alpha: thank you. We are glad you walked this long journey with us.

See you on the Fediverse 🦌