Advisory: Please do not harass anybody who was involved in Artemis, no matter what. Everyone’s got their own lives going on and nobody knows the full extent behind actions or lack thereof. If any does occur, we vehemently condemn it without question.

Let’s get straight to the point: @Lilkev and I (@w8l) are formally stepping down as moderators of the Artemis app communities (Discord, Matrix, and kbin), due to a lack of communication from project lead and founder @hariette.

Many people in the Artemis community have been patient and understanding of the lack of activity, ever since a prior period of radio silence was justified by Hariette saying that she was recovering from chronic pain. However, this has gone on for long enough that the official Artemis Camp instance has failed over and never recovered. This is a problem for Artemis app users, since it is the only instance that is supported. We are also unable to continue performing our duties as moderators in the Camp instance as a result. This effectively means that the entire project is dead.

We also want to deeply apologise for not pushing open-sourcing the application code sooner. The original rationale for not doing so immediately (according to Hariette) was a fear of showing poor quality code in public. In hindsight, bad quality code in the open would’ve been preferable to nothing at all; this would’ve allowed the app to continue in some form in an event like this. And even if the project remained active, the code quality would’ve likely improved with contributions anyways.

Multiple attempts at communication from us and the rest of the OG squad, both publicly and privately, have occurred with the founder to no avail.

We advise moving to directly using kbin or mbin on web, using Lemmy with its many clients, or supporting Lunar for iOS. Lunar is a Lemmy client currently in the process of implementing support for the kbin/mbin API and is already open-source, so it is considerably less likely to meet the same fate as Artemis. There is a kbin community for Lunar at m/lunar on the main kbin instance.

The journey was great while it lasted, but all journeys come to an end. We hope to see you all somewhere else, on some other day…

Overall no problems found yet. This will be rather useful for faster testing, along with tablet UI testing later on.

Hi there, the Artemis private beta rollout has just started! @hariette will be emailing 50 signup sheet users, while @lilkev will be adding 50 users from Artemis Discord. The order will be based on the submissions to the private beta signup form, as well as general activity within the Artemis community.

Submitting for TestFlight on iOS will take some review time (a day or two). Beta testers will be able to install the APK already, with the Play Store beta testing coming tomorrow.

And now a message from @hariette:

> > > Lot of work leading up to this. And just wanna give thanks to: @Lilkev, @lavender, @klin, @w8l, @RheingoldRiver and countless others from the alpha-squad. Y'all are AMAZING and I love that I ended up getting so much support in my journey to build a threadiverse app ❤️ > >

Frequently Asked Questions about Artemis ==========

Technical details ----------

What is Artemis using for building its user interface?

> > > The Artemis UI is built with React Native + Typescript. > >

How does Artemis work with kbin?

> > > Artemis uses its own API which scrapes kbin. This is only temporary until an official kbin API is available. > >

Will Artemis work with Lemmy instances?

> > > While Artemis is primarily meant for kbin instances, it will eventually also work with Lemmy instances too. > >

Is Artemis open-source?

> > > Artemis is currently not open-source yet, however it is planned in the future. > >

What mobile platforms is Artemis available on?

> > > Artemis is available for iOS and Android. > >

How will testers get the app?

> > > Internal Testers receive test releases first from expo.dev links, while Beta Testers will get releases from TestFlight (iOS) and Google Play Testing (Android). > >

How is login information stored within the app?

> > > Login credentials are stored locally on your device and are fully encrypted. > >

Will Artemis support Linux\* phones?

> > > There are currently not any plans to support Linux devices, sorry! > >

> > > \*non-Android > >

Will microblogging work while logged into a Lemmy instance?

> > > No, the microblogging feed will be hidden unless you are logged in with a kbin instance account. > >

Will there be any monetisation?

> > > Yes, however the core functionality will be free forever. Special features that might need server upcosts (none at the moment) or "premium" skins will be monetised, primarily leaning on donations. > >

Roadmap ----------

When will I have access to the beta?

> > > Now. > > > > * Public Beta (0.2.0) release - Limited to the Artemis instance for new users until the official kbin API rolls out elsewhere > * Public Beta (0.2.1) release - Lemmy API support > >

What key features will Artemis have?

> > > Disclaimer: These are subject to change. > > > > * Collapsible comments and posts > * Haptic feedback on vote, refresh, etc. > * Seamless navigation with swipe gestures > * Swipe voting on comments and posts > * Easily distinguish users and posts not from your instance via the globe next to their name > >

Suggestions from us to the community ----------

• We encourage you to take a look at the Github milestones to see what features are planned to be implemented with each release.
• Check out the roadmap that @hariette is keeping updated on Google Docs.
• Go to the Artemis repo, parse the README, then take a look at the issue tracker to see if any bugs you've seen have already been reported

Red Hat's Mike McGrath (VP of Core Platforms Engineering) responds to the backlash from closing RHEL public source code access