WriteFreely Files

Major Features

WriteFreely v0.16 is finally here, and it brings a ton of improvements, especially for the fediverse! We've also fixed some long-standing issues, like hashtags on instances backed by MySQL 8.0.4+.

Fediverse Likes

You can now see how many people have "liked" your post from the fediverse! If your blog has federation enabled, readers in the fediverse can "like" your posts, and now they'll show up on WriteFreely as a simple count on your blog post (visible only to you).

Improved Articles in the Fediverse

WriteFreely posts now look even better across the fediverse, especially on microblogging platforms like Mastodon and Threads. Now these platforms (and any others that support the preview or summary fields on long-form Articles) will show an excerpt of your post along with a link to it.

On ActivityPub platforms like Ghost that already support long-form Articles, your WriteFreely posts will come through in their full glory, as always.

Fediverse Creator Tag

We've added support for the fediverse:creator tag, which will show another fediverse profile (such as your Mastodon account) alongside your WriteFreely posts.

To add this tag to your posts, go to your blog's Customize page, and under Verification, re-enter your fediverse handle (e.g. @you@your.instance), and save your changes. Then, on your Mastodon instance, go to Edit Profile > Verification tab, and add your WriteFreely instance domain under the Author Attribution section. Then you're all set!

User-Facing Changes

• Fix broken links in drafts loaded with "load more" (#1054) by @vtyeh in https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely/pull/1103
• Support ActivityPub Likes by @thebaer in https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely/pull/1122, https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely/pull/1459
• Add Archive page by @thebaer in https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely/pull/1128
• Fix edit link missing on mobile browser (#358) by @sahilmulla in https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely/pull/1134
• Fix ActivityPub following from Ghost by @thebaer in https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely/pull/1373
• Fix hashtags on MySQL 8+ (#615) by @thebaer in https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely/pull/1461
• Add preview property to Articles by @thebaer in https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely/pull/1374
• Support exporting email subscribers list by @thebaer in https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely/pull/1258
• Display fediverse:creator header tag on posts by @thebaer in https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely/pull/1253
• Fix post signature showing up on blog's Post Not Found page by @thebaer in https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely/pull/1483
• Fix error when moving publish post to draft (#1166) by @snullp in https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely/pull/1237
• Use official WriteFreely docs for all help links by @thebaer in https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely/pull/1482

Admin-Facing Changes

• Support SMTP email configuration by @thebaer in https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely/pull/1131 and by @jbgi in https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely/pull/1153
• Docker for Production by @leo9800 in https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely/pull/1038
• Fix two error messages: user create and user create --admin by @DonPiotr in https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely/pull/1127
• Fix admin/user pagination (#363) by @snullp in https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely/pull/1165
• Allow sending emails from EU Mailgun domains (fix [#944]) by @freesteph in https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely/pull/1155

Developer-Facing Changes

• Fix WriteFreely build not starting on older OSes (#1064) due to glibc issue by @sahilmulla in https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely/pull/1116
• Fix post update API response in text/plain, rather than JSON (#867), by @Anish-Parkhi in https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely/pull/988
• Add link to the nanos unikernel package repository by @eyberg in https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely/pull/1247
• Fix security context getting removed on AP collection endpoint by @thebaer in https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely/pull/1372
• Add build for macOS arm64 by @thebaer in https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely/pull/1129
• Bump to Go v1.23 by @thebaer in https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely/pull/1458
• Fix builds for v0.16 release by @thebaer in https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely/pull/1460

Dependencies and minor fixes

• Switch to gosimple/slug from writeas/slug by @thebaer in https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely/pull/1047
• Bump golang.org/x/crypto from 0.24.0 to 0.28.0 by @dependabot[bot] in https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely/pull/1062
• Bump golang.org/x/net from 0.26.0 to 0.39.0 by @dependabot[bot] in https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely/pull/1061, https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely/pull/1365
• Bump github.com/fatih/color from 1.16.0 to 1.17.0 by @dependabot[bot] in https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely/pull/1036
• Bump github.com/go-sql-driver/mysql from 1.7.1 to 1.8.1 by @dependabot[bot] in https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely/pull/1034
• Bump github.com/microcosm-cc/bluemonday from 1.0.26 to 1.0.27 by @dependabot[bot] in https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely/pull/1035
• Bump github.com/urfave/cli/v2 from 2.27.4 to 2.27.6 by @dependabot[bot] in https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely/pull/1316
• Bump github.com/mattn/go-sqlite3 from 1.14.21 to 1.14.28 by @dependabot[bot] in https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely/pull/1362

Upgrading from v0.15.x or earlier

1. Download the latest release for your operating system and architecture
2. Stop running your writefreely server
3. Replace all files in your installation (except for the keys directory) with the ones in the archive
4. Update your database by running: writefreely db migrate
5. Start your writefreely server again

If you're upgrading from a much earlier version, follow the instructions in each previous release.

New Contributors

Thank you to all who contributed to this release!

• @leo9800 made their first contribution in https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely/pull/1038
• @sahilmulla made their first contribution in https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely/pull/1116
• @Anish-Parkhi made their first contribution in https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely/pull/988
• @vtyeh made their first contribution in https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely/pull/1103
• @DonPiotr made their first contribution in https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely/pull/1127
• @freesteph made their first contribution in https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely/pull/1155
• @eyberg made their first contribution in https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely/pull/1247
• @jbgi made their first contribution in https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely/pull/1153

Raw Changelog: https://github.com/writefreely/writefreely/compare/v0.15.1...v0.16.0