DevLog 1: Initial commit

I am starting the project Ownet as of August 1, 2025. Ownet is a template to help people create their own websites easily that also works as a social network.

By implementing the IndieWeb protocols, websites can talk with each other just as easy as any other social network, while keeping the flexibility of owning a website.

Unlike traditional social networks, when in IndieWeb, you are not constrained by how you post, the character count per post, or even the types of posts.

Ownet is a basic framework using the Rocket framework for rust. I used the Rocket framework before for my website CodingOtaku.com, it’s fun and easy to use. Rocket is still under heavy development, but releases are a bit slow and well tested.

The templates are written using tera, though it’s still new, I wanted to give it a try.

The database is PostgreSQL, I chose this because I am familiar with it. I am using SQLx for DB queries, this choice is also due to familiarity. For the database migrations, at the moment, I use diesel since it’s well-supported by the community.

All the IndieWeb protocols will be implemented from scratch to make it integrate well with Ownet.

As Ownet is still in the early stage, I am going to keep the source code hidden. It will be public using a GPL compatible licence once I consider it ready.

At the moment you can do the following:

• Create/register user, login, view all users
• Create and manage categories
• Create basic posts using markdown in any category
• Upload files and images