= Options for GNU Social server setup =

Related discussion: https://quitter.se/conversation/2262019

Below GS refers to GNU Social

== Plain GNU Social ==
Just a custom theme

Pros:
- updates and maintenance easy since we are working straight from
  upstream
- all GS features work as designed, e.g. polls, groups etc
Cons:
- no auto-updates

== GNU Social + meteor ==

Pros:
- we are still pretty close to upstream, just using meteor service
  in addition
- auto-updating UI
- GS features such as polls etc should work 
Cons:
- some users don't like auto-updating, and some claimed it to be a
  bit "messy" (see quitter discussion above)
- having the additional meteor service has some extra maintenance
  overhead, although from my own experience setting it up for dev.social it doesn't seem so bad

=== tech notes ===
Some helpful links from @vinz

http://www.verbosity.ca/statusnet-identica-ostatus-microblogging/getting-real-time-updates-statusnet

http://whird.jpope.org/my-statusnet-meteor-and-realtime-setup/

https://github.com/vinzv/gnusocial/tree/master/meteor

== GNU Social + qvitter plugin ==
I'm not very familiar with the details of this one.

Pros:
- nice-looking interface which reminds of Twitter (easy to attract
  user of that service)
- it handles auto-updates in a manner which some people prefer to
  meteor, i.e. it just displays e.g. "3 new posts" instead of
  disrupting the time-line
- from discussions with @hannes2peer@quitter.se I have the
  understanding that auto-updates are just the JavaScript client
  polling, so no additional service (such as meteor) is needed

Cons:
- AFAIK the qvitter UI does not yet implement all GNU Social
  features, and at least on Quitter.se you sometimes have to
  fall-back to the old UI, this is ugly and confusing for new users

== GNU Social + chimo's updater ==

chimo says it's experimental and not well tested

https://github.com/chimo/gs-wsRealtime

Pros:
- looks like a really neat WebSockets-based system, i.e. real-time,
  not polling

Cons:
- setup and dependencies looks pretty heavy (although I'm not very
  familiar with PHP dependency management)
- "Ratchet doesn't support SSL. One work-around is to use nginx to
  proxy those requests."