Posts of Mark Purser RSSFri, 13 Jun 2025 07:32:45 GMTNEO is in the final stages of refinement, tweaking the UI, polishing the edges. It's going to cause a small scale revolution in the UNAverse, of the very best kind. In the near future we will have very limited bandwidth for creating your customised UNA solution built on React (think fully featured Native Apps for less than $40K) if you've got a project and a budget, send me a DM, we can make magic happen.

]]>Fri, 13 Jun 2025 07:32:45 GMTMany here have been no doubt watching the evolution of NEO, our React App interface for UNA, with avid interest. As this project comes so very close to its fruition with a number of NEO based apps launching this week it seems timely to reflect on what might be the next steps in the evolution of the UNA-verse...As @Andrey Yasko reflected with me this afternoon, he and a good number of the UNA team have been developing the UNA codebase for 25 years. In any age, that's a long time, in internet years, that's millennia! Across this time, and particularly in that last decade since Dolphin evolved into Trident and then UNA, the UNA team, past and present have assembled an incredible suite of components that can be used to build almost any configuration or social community or membership based site.A Lego Set of Possibilities 🏗️UNA 14 offers an incredible system to build out almost any dream site, with a robust core of system modules, a multitude of performative modules and slick templating system, there is no limitation to what can be built with UNA. UNA has often been described as a Lego set of building blocks that will empower you to build the community site of your dreams, however...The Problem... 🤷‍♂️The challenge with UNA is that it is too good, too sophisticated and 'too much' for most mortals to easily grasp. Make no mistake, there are some incredible sites that have been built on UNA, however most of them have been created by skilled developers, and we have always struggled with what I describe as a 'retail product' something that mere mortals, the dreamers and doers can configure with limited time and resources. There have been significant efforts made to create 'opinionated' templates that give new builders an already evolved starting point, Spacenook being an excellent starting point, however we have known for a long time that we need more.Less is More 🎯One of the great challenges for UNA developers (UNA team included) is switching apps off. Especially with new c... Read more

]]>Tue, 06 May 2025 09:59:41 GMTMany here have been no doubt watching the evolution of NEO, our React App interface for UNA, with avid interest. As this project comes so very close to its fruition with a number of NEO based apps launching this week it seems timely to reflect on what might be the next steps in the evolution of the UNA-verse... As @Andrey Yasko reflected with me this afternoon, he and a good number of the UNA team have been developing the UNA codebase for 25 years. In any age, that's a long time, in internet years, that's millennia! Across this time, and particularly in that last decade since Dolphin evolved into Trident and then UNA, the UNA team, past and present have assembled an incredible suite of components that can be used to build almost any configuration or social community or membership based site. A Lego Set of Possibilities 🏗️UNA 14 offers an incredible system to build out almost any dream site, with a robust core of system modules, a multitude of performative modules and slick templating system, there is no limitation to what can be built with UNA. UNA has often been described as a Lego set of building blocks that will empower you to build the community site of your dreams, however... The Problem... 🙈The challenge with UNA is that it is too good, too sophisticated and 'too much' for most mortals to easily grasp. Make no mistake, there are some incredible sites that have been built on UNA, however most of them have been created by skilled developers, and we have always struggled with what I describe as a 'retail product' something that mere mortals, the dreamers and doers can configure with limited time and resourses. There have been significant efforts made to create 'opinionated' templates that give new builders an already evolved starting point, Spacenook being an excellent starting point, however we have known for a long time that we need more.Less is More 🎯One of the great challenges for UNA developers (UNA team included) is switching apps off. Especially with new... Read more

]]>Mon, 05 May 2025 07:59:09 GMTWhat a journey! Took us well over a year this time. UNA 14 Final is released and now replaces 13.1 as a recommended stable. We call it Sirius - the brightest star.The early days of v14 were very much about compatibility with the new React/ReactNative SDK we developed, focusing on APIs, authentication compatibility, DB performance improvements and all the goodies a CMS needs to perform well as a "headless" application server. Then, AI hype hit and we add Agents, Assistant and created a reference for feeding AI all about UNA alerts and actions. We enabled support for InnoDB, integrated Grapesjs editor, added HTMX routing in tabs, cleaned up the default template and made hundreds of smaller improvements. This is still a very "fresh" release, mind you - it will need a a few iterations to make Agents effective and more tuning for the Assistant.Most importantly, UNA 14 Sirius opens the opportunity to release the React / RN frontend apps. We have them in production on a couple of projects now, and have 3 more scheduled for go-live in the next few weeks. Most of the core modules have been adapted, but we are actively updating them in preparation for public preview. Watch the 14.1 progress - NEO app will be released along with UNA 14.1.Major New FeaturesSubgroupsOne of the most anticipated features in UNA 14.0.0 is the introduction of Subgroups, allowing for more complex organizational structures within your community. This feature enables you to create hierarchical group relationships, making it easier to manage large communities with diverse interests.Timeline EnhancementsThe Timeline module has received substantial improvements:New Timeline Filters panel for better content discoveryEnhanced privacy controls for Timeline contentImproved handling of media content in TimelineBetter management of past events in TimelineFixed issues with followed groups in Timeline blocksAgents AppThe new Agents App introduces AI-powered assistants, automators and helpers to your UNA platform:... Read more

]]>Fri, 11 Apr 2025 06:24:25 GMTWho doesn't love a good whistleblower? Especially when they are spilling the dirt on our mates at Facebook. It is concerning stuff, Haugen’s document dump revealed what many suspected but couldn’t prove: that Facebook created more lenient secret rules for elite users, that Instagram made body issues worse for one in three teen girls, and that Facebook knowingly amped up outrage on its main site through an algorithm change in 2018, potentially leading to the January 6 storming of the US Capitol building. Her suggestion is greater transparency, with external observers and more investment toward internal guidance, looking to minimise harm as a highest priority. 

]]>Tue, 05 Oct 2021 03:33:02 GMTThe news story with an UNA website being mentioned on CNN this morning. It's not the best news for the owners of the website, lots of Australian expats stranded overseas because the Australian government won't let them come home - but it is great to see UNA being used to facilitate giving these people a voice in this difficult time.

]]>Fri, 02 Apr 2021 01:27:41 GMTSomething to consider as your sites grow bigger & get busier, is monitoring the number of notifications that your site is sending to users. This is not a 'set and forget' feature, it is important for site operators to continually monitor all defalut site communications to ensure that we are striking that happy medium between engagement & overwhelm.Too few notifications: users aren't aware of or engaged in your community.Too many notifications: users become overwhelmed, will black list your site or unsubscribe to all notifications.Within UNA it's easy for users to manage their own notifications, but your new & casual users might not know that. And in the early days, it's really important that we keep them engaged, so they don't switch off entirely. Perhaps consider an email to new site users that explains how they can manage their notification preferences within your site.Especially for sites that have native apps - you might want to turn down or off some of your email notifications, there are few thing more annoying than getting multiple notifications about the same piece of content, although this can be a tricky one, just because you have an app published, doesn't mean that your users have it installed... 🤔Remember that UNA offers three ways to manage notifications;The default set to be defined by Operators, managed via Studio (pictured in the header image above.) Each user can define their own preferences.Users can 'Opt out' of all notification, the link to do this is at the bottom of every email (you probably don't want this)Again it is important to note that there is no definitive right or wrong on this topic - it is not a set & forget feature - as site operators you need to take a proactive approach here, don't overwhelm your users, keeping that vital line of receiving notifications open is really important for your site, it's almost impossible to get them to resubscribe if you lose them.Hope this helps, just some insights from my observati... Read more

]]>Fri, 25 Sep 2020 01:32:37 GMTThis is really the film of our time. (The time being NOW).  If you scratch at the surface of any issues within the social fabric of today's society, the big tech & social media companies have a huge part to play in it, a complicit finger in every crisis.This documentary takes a stark view of the current situation, with many Silicon Valley players sharing some cold truths on the modus operandi of Big Tech. I watched it last night, at the recommendation of a few friends, it's a huge wake up call, I'd recommend you watch it if you can.As most of us here using UNA are in some way responding to this monopolisation of playing field and wilful corruption of the social fabric by these players - we no doubt have an interest here, and hopefully a big part to play in rectifying this disturbing imbalance.The Social Dilemma is fairly compelling viewing for anyone in this game. 

]]>Wed, 23 Sep 2020 05:50:01 GMTAs some have noticed, we have Jitsi being tested here on UNA.IO - the feedback is universally positive, it's a great system, using Web RTC protocols to create secure, stable and private P2P connections between browsers. Coming (very) soon to an UNA site near you...This video explores some of privacy concerns with Zoom, and presents Jitsi as a preferred alternative. Being stable, secure and open source made Jitsi a logical choice for integration with UNA.

]]>Thu, 09 Apr 2020 22:18:57 GMTThis is a great post referencing Matt Mullenweg, the man behind the development of Wordpress, on the levels of efficiency within remote work.As a fully remote team, UNA have a lot of experience exploring the possibilities & pitfalls of remote working. I‘d like to think that the UNA Team operate in the upper levels of this paradigm, but certainly there is alwaysHaving superb tools & using them intelligently is fundamental to successful outcomes for a remote workforce. We are steadily building the toolkit for our UNA Workplace Solution, the Wiki was a big one, next comes video conferencing with Jitsi, with a LMS & Task Manager to quickly follow. Whilst we all hope that the clusterf*#k caused by COVID 19 will soon be resolved, it seems fairly certain that many changes within workplace management might be permanent, hopefully in a positive way. It‘s great to hear the experience & insight of others existing in a similar space. Any insights you might have on remote working would be greatly valued, as well as any inclusions you would deem fundamental within a remote work team management & collaboration solution.Let me know your thoughts! 

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