Notice: We are currently in the process of changing the project name from Peaches 'n' Stink to Comment Castles.

Comment Castles

Comment Castles is a distributed link aggregation internet forum with an emphasis on non-engagement and privacy. Users write posts and nested comments. Users must follow other users in order to see their content. There are instances running at peachesnstink.com and yourfamous.net!

Other features:

• REST API
• Public and Private Groups
• High Eternal September resistance
• Censorship buffer
• Instruction Manual
• Adminless

Install

Install one of the tagged releases, preferably the most recent.

Create a PostgreSQL 11 database and execute all the code in doc-commit/structure.sql. This will create all the database tables, triggers, etc. PostgreSQL 11+ is probably fine.

Install Redis. This is only for the session store. Redis versions 2 and 6 worked for us, so most versions are probably fine.

Make sure you have Node.js installed. We have only used Node.js v10.

Run npm install to download all the Node.js dependencies that are listed in package.json.

Set the following environment variables:

• PGHOST: PostgreSQL host (usually localhost)
• PGUSER: PostgreSQL username
• PGDATABASE: PostgreSQL database name
• PGPASSWORD: PostgreSQL password
• PGPORT: PostgreSQL port
• HTTP_PORT: Port this app will use
• REDIS_PORT: Redis port
• IS_PROD: This is a redundant production flag (there's already the built-in NODE_ENV) that must be set. If NODE_ENV is "production" then set this flag to 1, otherwise use 0.
• SESSION_NAME: express-session name
• SESSION_SECRET: express-session secret
• NODE_ENV: built-in node environment flag

On Windows you can use a .env and npm start to set the environment variables. Here's a sample .env:

PGHOST=localhost
PGUSER=postgres
PGDATABASE=mydb
PGPASSWORD=123abc
PGPORT=5432
HTTP_PORT=80
REDIS_PORT=6379
IS_PROD=1
SESSION_NAME=mysesh
SESSION_SECRET=wOgw3oQpmbYbie7V
NODE_ENV=production

On Linux we used an ecosystem.config.js and pm2 start ecosystem.config.js to set the environment variables. Here is a sample ecosystem.config.js:

module.exports = {
    apps : [{
        name: "myappid",
        script: "./app.js",
        env: {
            PGHOST: "localhost",
            PGUSER: "postgres",
            PGDATABASE: "mydb",
            PGPASSWORD: "123abc",
            PGPORT: 5432,
            HTTP_PORT: 80,
            REDIS_PORT: 6379,
            IS_PROD: 1,
            SESSION_NAME: "mysesh",
            SESSION_SECRET: "wOgw3oQpmbYbie7V",
            NODE_ENV: "production",
        }
    }]
}

There must exist a user with a user_id of 1 and a username of stink. These two values are currently hardcoded into the application and serve as the default user whitelist. So after an instance of this application is launched, you should immediately sign up as the user stink. Also set is_eyes to true for stink in the tuser database table.

On the API page, a post ID and comment ID are used in URLs on the page. If you want these links to work, you must create a post and comment and then set their IDs to match the ones used on the page.

Update

When you deploy new commits to your instance of this app that is already running, make sure to also execute any new commands that are in doc-commit/since-github.sql.

If you deployed your instance before commit 46d52bff7765b250317ee297d570800447cb4afa, then you need to run scripts/gen-user-public-ids.js in order to generate public IDs for users that are already in the database.

If you deployed your instance before commit c88bb90499aa616cd4f1d2b777d21e9a90d470c4, then you need to run scripts/populate-domain-names.js.

If you deployed your instance before commit 90b98831eeb5785391b371cf46712f1a0b4a0e47, then you need to run scripts/set-last-comment-times.js.