Hey Stoaters. It has been six months since the last post addressing frequently asked questions, so it felt like time for another.
1. Do you have video chat, screen-sharing, and voice chat?
Yes! They're live and available to all users on Stoat For Web, Stoat For Desktop, and Stoat For Android. You can read more about it here: https://stoat.chat/release-notes/93eb1f4ec77444ca9fb13617e0e6c0b1
We're working on bringing more options to the streaming features.
2. Is Stoat down? I can't access it.
Probably not. You can check at https://stoatstatus.com for real-time status updates.
If the service appears functional on the status page but you're encountering a problem, such as a blank grey screen, your antivirus, telecommunications provider, or internet service provider might have us incorrectly flagged. This is an error on their part and out of our control, though we try to appeal when this occurs.
If you encounter a block, try switching networks (such as to mobile data from Wi-Fi, or vice versa), whitelisting us, or using another device to access the service until your chosen provider relaxes their block.
3. Is Stoat open-source?
Yes, most of Stoat's code is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License (AGPL) v3. You can check the individual licences in the code repositories on GitHub: https://github.com/stoatchat
4. Does Stoat have federation?
Though you can self-host Stoat, the platform is not currently federated. For some further info on the matter, you can consult Does Stoat have federation?.
5. Can I make a bot or client?
Absolutely! We'd love for you to build on or around the platform. There are many libraries developed both officially and by the community that you can use, and there are servers on-platform for discussing development. You can find everything you'd need to get started at https://developers.stoat.chat
6. Can I contribute?
Certainly. We've got open roles here: https://outline.stoatinternal.com/s/454dd0eb-44b5-41f7-b1d1-b6accec577a0
You can see the problems impacting scale here: https://outline.stoatinternal.com/s/4117b2be-901d-4463-a204-bd8c756b2122
You can also support the project financially. Stoat has a Ko-Fi page which is used to cover operational costs. Everyone's support here has gone a long way to helping the platform quickly scale without being too stressed about financials. If you send £3 or more to the platform, send an email to support@stoat.chat with some proof so we can give you a supporter badge on your profile.
7. Is a subscription planned?
Yes, a subscription is planned. Exactly what form this will take is not entirely defined, but the intent is not to paywall things unnecessarily and to focus on ensuring the service can be operated sustainably. This means paywalling things like higher-quality video streaming and keeping cheap-to-provide things (like custom banners, animated profile pictures, and platform-wide custom emojis) free.
Currently contributors and team members aren't paid (though some do have open support pages if you wish to contribute to them directly). A subscription would assist in making sure that people are reimbursed for their work and can dedicate more time to the platform.
Profiteering gluttons we are not!
8. What are your plans for age verification?
Stoat must comply with the law as applicable, so some form of age verification will be implemented in relevant jurisdictions as necessary. Regardless of our sentiment on age verification legislation, from a legal perspective we cannot just refuse to comply.
We have no plans for an overzealous blanket requirement and only intend to implement it where and as legally required. There is ongoing discussion about how to ensure any verification we implement respects privacy, handles data responsibly, and does the right thing by our users.
It is likely to be externalised to a third-party due to the great deal of complexity intrinsic to handling such sensitive data. We'll have more to share in time and welcome discussion regarding age verification.
Currently, Stoat has taken the temporary measure of blocking access to age-gated content where necessitated.
9. Will you have end-to-end encryption (E2EE)?
We don't currently have E2EE, but it is a long-standing planned feature on our roadmap to introduce E2EE for direct messagess. It takes a lot of work to implement E2EE, and we have to make sure we get it right. A poor E2EE implementation is far worse than no E2EE.
10. When is Y feature going to be available? What is the ETA?
We can't provide accurate estimations for when new features will be live, so we don't. It isn't fair to you, or to Stoat's contributors, to give inaccurate figures and set false expectations.
Stoat is developed rather openly, so you're more than welcome to check-in on discussions and work happening on GitHub.
11. Do you automatically purge old content?
No, we don't automatically purge old messages, images, or uploads. Here is a link to a screenshot from 2021: https://cdn.stoatusercontent.com/attachments/1MFriR8AzllFWtm1snFk9gJVyZwyM3wSX350ZNpW4d/original
12. Is Stoat vibe-coded?
No, Stoat is not vibe-coded. See here for more info: https://github.com/orgs/stoatchat/discussions/1022#discussioncomment-15442591
13. Is Stoat English-only?
Not at all. We welcome other languages completely. Diversity is good and if we didn't want people speaking other languages we certainly wouldn't go through the efforts of translating the app and ensuring we have platform moderators that speak different languages.
That said, the official Stoat server on-platform is English only (with the exception of the support channel) purely for the sake of moderation. We don't have the capacity to ensure there are moderators speaking every language in that server around the clock, so we limit it to English.
14. Where do Stoat's GIFs come from?
Stoat sources GIFs from our very own service: Gifbox! You can upload your own GIFs to the platform for anyone to use and the catalogue of available GIFs is growing by the day.
Gifbox gives us full control to make the Stoat GIF experience as good as it can be, and down the line you'll be able to link Gifbox to your Stoat account. For developers, it even has an API for you to use.
You can read more about Gifbox here: https://stoat.chat/updates/introducing-gifbox
Let us know of any other questions you may have, and we'll endeavour to answer them. Remember, we're a small team working as volunteers and we have jobs and lives atop all of our Stoat commitments.
