Minds Community Open Source Initiative - 2021

2020 has been undeniably a challenging and difficult year. However despite the turbulence, Minds has seen several major changes. Over the course of 2020, we have seen a new interface being implemented within the browser session, improvements within monetisation services (changes to the Mind+ and Minds Pay, which was formerly called “Wire”, as well as the introduction of Minds Pro), changes to both the Blog editor, Reminds and several other changes (please refer to the official “Minds 2020 review and roadmap” blog article for further information about the changes).

Minds Community Open Source Initiative (MCOSI) has also been busy in 2020 with actively providing help and support to the wider community, logging bug reports and reviewing various issues. Over this time, the MCOSI has been reviewing the following points and MCOSI members have been providing further information to the wider community.

Minds User Interface / User Experience Changes
Back in early 2020, a senior Minds staff member asked Mark Edworthy (@Medworthy) to review the browser user interface changes and after a thorough review, as well as several discussions with both the other members of the MCOSI team and several other community members, @medworthy published the “Minds new interface” blog article in May and also published the “further review of Minds new interface” article in early June. These articles were then followed up with several bug reports being submitted to the Minds Gitlab bug ticketing and project management facility.

Upcoming Messenger Changes
As many community members are aware, up until April 2020, the MCOSI was holding meetings in which community members could view. While due to various issues, the MCOSI suspended these meetings with the last one being held in March. It is the intention of the MCOSI team to restart the public viewable meetings within the next couple months (further information will be provided within both the MCOSI group and channel once the MCOSI team have clarified the next agenda). These meeting have been conducted using the Element platform (formally known as “Riot”), which uses the Matrix protocol.

Partially due to these meeting in which several Minds staff members have attended, Minds has decided to use the Matrix protocol as part of the upcoming Messenger changes and possibly within a future update to the Conversations (the group side-bar chat) facility.

After several internal conversations, @Mindsgaming has recently published a blog article (entitled “exploring the Matrix Messenger“) which examines the concept of using the Matrix protocol within the upcoming new version of the Messenger facility (for further details, please also refer to roadmap epic: #84).

Two Factor Authentication
Community members who have been following the official Minds Help and Support group over the last several years have probably seen many enquiries in which members have been reporting issues in relation to the Two Factor Authentication (2FA) facility. 

This is mainly due to several community members not having stable connection to their mobile phone carrier (due to weak or intermittent phone signal) which causes text messages (ie. SMS / Short Messaging Service based messages) to not be immediately transmitted to their phones. Which in turn, causes issues for community members that are trying to login to their Minds accounts.

For the last two years, @Medworthy with the support of other MCOSI members has been advocating for the removal of the SMS based 2FA facility and replacing it with a more accessible Time-based One-Time Password (TOTP) 2FA facility. During the last year, the MCOSI team has been supporting the Mind staff in regards to finding a suitable alternative solution (for further information, please refer to Gitlab issue: engine#274 and roadmap epic: #51, as well as @Medworthy’s comments within the following Help and Support enquiry).

Tokens And Uniswap
Uniswap is a decentralised crypto currency exchange which allows users to transact between crypto currency tokens on the Ethereum blockchain. During 2020, Minds staff have been considering incorporating the Uniswap protocol into the next version of the token facility and while the Uniswap protocol was in a beta stage (didn’t become production ready / stable) until May 2020, the MCOSI team has been following Uniswap’s progress since August 2019 (for further information, please refer to @Mindsgaming’s “a unicorn coming to Minds” blog article and roadmap epic: #101, as well as Gitlab issues: front#4198 and front#3802).

Over the course of 2020, Minds has seen some huge changes and with the support of the community, Minds Community Open Source Initiative has been busy throughout 2020, reviewing various issues, aiding in the resolution of bugs, as well as helping and supporting the Minds community within both the Minds Gitlab facility, the official Minds Help and Support group, Minds User Group and the MCOSI group. 

The MCOSI hopes to provide continued help and support to the wider community, as well as encouraging further collaboration between the community and Minds.com.

Minds Community Open Source Initiative welcomes feedback, comments and participation from the wider Minds.com community, and expects 2021 to be yet another exciting year for the Minds open source social media platform.
 

References & Other Resources:

* Minds Community Open Source Initiative

* Minds User Group (Community Provided Support)

* Minds Help And Support (Official Minds Support Group)

* Minds Community Open Source Initiative Meetings (Element)

* Minds Gitlab Bug Tracking And Project Management Facility

* Minds 2020 Review And Roadmap (Official Minds Blog Article)
 

Minds User Interface / User Experience Changes

* Minds New Interface (Blog Article Courteous Of @Medworthy)

* Further Review Of Minds New Interface (Blog Article Courteous Of @Medworthy)
 

Upcoming Messenger Changes

* Messenger 2.0 (Gitlab Roadmap Epic: #84)

* Exploring The Matrix Messenger (Blog Article Courteous Of @Mindsgaming)

* Element

* Matrix
 

Two Factor Authentication

* Two Factor Authentication Help And Support Enquiry (Explanation Provided By @Medworthy)

* Secure Auth (Gitlab Roadmap Epic: #51)

* TOTP Authentication For User Login (Gitlab Issue: Engine#274)
 

Tokens And Uniswap

* A Unicorn Coming To Minds (Blog Article Courteous Of @Mindsgaming)

* Token Economics 2.0 (Gitlab Roadmap Epic: #101)

* Implement Public Global Token Dashboard (Gitlab Issue: Front#3802)

* Earn Modal Updates (Gitlab Issue: Front#4198)

* Uniswap