[HN Gopher] Show HN: Bibliogram - Open-source front-end for Inst...
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Show HN: Bibliogram - Open-source front-end for Instagram
Author : commoner
Score : 91 points
Date : 2021-05-15 18:37 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (bibliogram.art)
(TXT) w3m dump (bibliogram.art)
| mih wrote:
| Instagram/Facebook seems to have blocked loading timelines on the
| profiles. Am able to view only the first page of profiles. Even
| tried running it locally, to the same effect.
| yosito wrote:
| The way that Instagram/Facebook quickly block third party clients
| like this really make it obvious that _they_ control what you see
| and how you use the platform. You do not have control of the
| content you see on Instagram. It is force fed to you to
| manipulate you according to which advertisers have paid for your
| attention.
|
| I really wish the people who invest their time and energy into
| developing third party UIs for Instagram would spend their time
| instead developing UIs and front ends for open source and
| federated software. Someone build "Instagram for Nextcloud",
| please.
| commoner wrote:
| The open source federated equivalent to Instagram is Pixelfed:
|
| https://pixelfed.org
|
| There's an Android app for it called PixelDroid:
| https://gitlab.shinice.net/pixeldroid/PixelDroid
| yosito wrote:
| Pixelfed is the kind of project I'm talking about. It's a
| great start of a project that needs a lot more work to become
| usable as a serious photography platform. I wish more people
| would put their effort into improving projects like Pixelfed
| rather than building front ends for Instagram that get shut
| down.
| pcora wrote:
| How does Pixelfed makes money?
| Jolter wrote:
| Looks like Patreon if you read the web site. And Liberapay,
| I guess. It's an open source "host your own" software, I
| don't think they are trying to monetize beyond paying a
| living wage for the developer.
| messo wrote:
| It is not a company, but a federated network - anyone can
| run their own server and interact with the all other nodes
| (much like email). The software is open source and is a
| community effort, although the lead developer got a grant
| [1] that allows him to spend time to improve the project
| over time.
|
| 1: https://github.com/pixelfed/pixelfed#pixelfed-sponsors
| annadane wrote:
| The next time you hear 'Facebook has purchased...' you know it's
| going to go to hell, Instagram is a prime example. Oh, now you
| need to log in to do anything. Oh, now there's an algorithmic
| feed...
|
| Mark Zuckerberg: not even once
| ojame wrote:
| While I generally agree, pre-acquisition Instagram didn't have
| a web viewer. You could only use it via the app, which required
| you to log in.
| annadane wrote:
| Fair enough
| commoner wrote:
| Instagram has been requiring viewers to sign in after browsing a
| certain number of pages. Bibliogram is a way to bypass this
| registration wall.
|
| List of instances: https://git.sr.ht/~cadence/bibliogram-
| docs/tree/master/docs/...
|
| Source code: https://sr.ht/~cadence/bibliogram/
|
| _Similar services_
|
| Invidious (YouTube):
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21535562
|
| Nitter (Twitter): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21849744
|
| Teddit (Reddit): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25310206
|
| _Related software_
|
| UntrackMe (Android app that converts links from Instagram and
| others to alternative front-ends):
| https://framagit.org/tom79/nitterizeme
|
| Privacy Redirect (browser extension that redirects to these
| front-ends): https://github.com/SimonBrazell/privacy-redirect
|
| Barinsta (open source Instagram client for Android):
| https://github.com/austinhuang0131/barinsta
| 0-_-0 wrote:
| It doesn't work though, and hasn't for a while, and likely
| never will [0]:
|
| _Timeline loading blocked
|
| Instagram is refusing to provide data to this server.
|
| This server will only be able to load the first page of
| timelines.
|
| This error is permanent._
|
| [0]:
| https://proxy.vulpes.one/gemini/cadence.moe/gemlog/2020-12-1...
| matheusmoreira wrote:
| Why not make a free software replacement for the mobile app
| instead? Surely there's no way to block that.
| sodality2 wrote:
| https://github.com/austinhuang0131/barinsta/ is one such
| alternative client
| commoner wrote:
| It worked right before I submitted the link to HN. This may
| be the effect of a temporary traffic surge.
|
| The software is open source, so anyone is able to start a new
| instance, as others did for Invidious and Nitter.
|
| Edit: Added list of instances to GP. For some reason, the
| main instance is still working for me.
| sixhobbits wrote:
| I have tried it locally and various hosted instances
| several times over the last few months and while it
| occasionally works that error is more common than not.
|
| Teddit.net for reddit works amazingly though.
| commoner wrote:
| Thanks, I've added Teddit to the list.
|
| I'm hoping that the attention will help Bibliogram
| improve.
| Rompect wrote:
| Improve how? It was already pretty good. The entire user
| page and even Instagram TV was supported. But the current
| situation is not Bibliogram's fault.
| commoner wrote:
| More attention would encourage people to host new
| instances and help find workarounds for Instagram's rate
| limiting. There are also some features that are being
| worked on, such as a search function:
|
| https://todo.sr.ht/~cadence/bibliogram-issues/6
| sschueller wrote:
| Yeah, I am just starting to see 1 star reviews on my repost
| app (https://github.com/sschueller/easyrepost) . It's totally
| broken now. Good thing I open sourced it and gave up on
| monetization in part to HN horror stories of people building
| business on top of other services like Facebook.
|
| I'm going to abandon this and move on to maybe working on a
| Pixelfed android client instead.
| busymom0 wrote:
| Had a similar experience myself when 3 years ago IG and FB
| blocked all third party access to the API and my "best time
| to post" and scheduler apps all broke.
| sprite wrote:
| Does anyone if there is any case law on this? Are you
| legally allowed to create 3rd party clients for various
| services?
| Bjartr wrote:
| You're generally allowed to create them, and the service
| provider is generally allowed to change their service in
| ways that break them.
| swiley wrote:
| It won't be long before they're just another pintrest.
|
| Facebook is going to need to keep _something_ it bought alive
| or it might struggle to keep the lights on.
| css wrote:
| Projects like this make me sad for what we have lost. All of
| Instagram used to provide open RSS feeds [0]. They also used to
| brag about third parties making interesting things with Instagram
| data [1], [2].
|
| You can see their old blog posts by going to [3], right-clicking
| and copying the link of a post, and appending `/embed` to the
| URL.
|
| [0] https://instagram.tumblr.com/post/8755963247/introducing-
| has...
|
| [1]: https://instagram.tumblr.com/post/8757679335/api-
| highlights-...
|
| [2]: https://instagram.tumblr.com/post/8756150468/a-real-time-
| api...
|
| [3]: https://instagram.tumblr.com/archive/filter-by/text
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(page generated 2021-05-15 23:00 UTC)