We’ve been working like crazy and we’re back with a version that totally changes the game. Usually, we never communicate about intermediate versions. Because honestly, who cares about the version numbers of a website? Nobody, and that’s perfectly normal. But this 8.5 is a different story because it goes way beyond the simple technical evolution of yet another site among millions. So after giving it some serious thought, we figured it was worth sharing this adventure with you.

NovaFuture is our vision of the free web

People talking about the free web, digital sovereignty, decentralization… there are tons of them. They tweet, they publish op-eds, they give talks… That’s great! But we chose to build and code rather than talk, in order to put an actual working alternative online.

Simply because in the physical world, we’re still very much stuck dealing with capitalism and all of its sneakiest manipulations. But on the web, things are different. On the web, we’re gaining ground. Inch by inch, line of code by line of code. The key is to keep the motivation going. And trust us, we are super motivated!

A site in our black and green colors

With version 8.0, we had laid the visual foundations. A visual identity that clearly says who we are, with no beating around the bush and no ambiguity. Black is the color of enlightened anarchism. A school of thought that rejects all forms of domination but embraces healthy cooperation. And green is the color of ecology as a political science. Not the fake greenwashing nonsense but genuine ecology as a project for society. So we are clearly inclusive and clearly opposed to every form of fascism such as patriarchy and all its offshoots. From now on, our design makes that statement before we’ve even written a single word.

We reinvented the way you sign up on a website

It all started from a simple idea: We wanted an ultra-secure registration system that carries absolutely zero personal data. And that’s when we thought… whoa! Now that’s one hell of a challenge!

But think about it for a second… What do we usually store when someone signs up on a site? An email tied to a username. Like everyone else. Since forever. But does that even make sense anymore?

Because let’s be honest, nowadays anyone can create a throwaway email address in thirty seconds. All you have to do is create a temporary email, validate your account and then it’s a free-for-all to do whatever you want. The so-called security through email is nothing but hot air. A mirage from another era.

And when it comes to actual security? Like every website, we have to deal with malicious bots and now AI-driven intrusion attempts. Overall, we handle it. It’s routine. But it pushed us to ask the real question:

What do we actually want from a registration system?

First, that user privacy is preserved 100%. Second, that their account is secured in the best possible way.

And what do we not want?

No bots. No trolls. No AI.

So, imagining a registration system without email… it feels really weird at first. It’s a whole new paradigm. But when you think about it… an email, what for? Before this version, we never sent any emails outside of essential system messages like for registration, login and a few optional notifications.

And honestly… everyone is already drowning in emails of all kinds. We’re not far from overdose. Personally, on my Mastodon account and the few sites where I’m registered, I turned off all email notifications because they were getting on my nerves. Did that make me stop visiting those sites? Absolutely not! I drop by regularly and check my internal notifications. With that in mind, we thought long and hard about it. And the solution appeared…

We coded a system from scratch. A rock-solid system security-wise, just the way we like them, with the best possible user experience. The result: It takes less than a minute to sign up. And bots and AI head straight to the graveyard we custom-built for them. As for trolls, they last about as long as a soap bubble around here. And we don’t need any AI to handle all of that efficiently. Good code and human management are more than enough.

Now, let’s imagine the worst-case scenario. Let’s say that one day we suffer a data breach… Because on the web, nobody can claim to be 100% bulletproof. Even banks and governments get hacked. So what could skilled hackers get their hands on here? Usernames. Period. Usernames not linked to any email, with no personal data attached whatsoever. That’s completely worthless. Because what can you do with that? Answer: Nothing!

And if on top of that you connect to the site through its .onion address, then we can say you’ve reached the highest possible level of security. Anyway, since there’s nothing to steal… hackers surely have better things to do elsewhere.

The new real social network: NovaFlow version 3.0.2

Up until this version, our social network space NovaFlow was running on an open source engine. It got the job done, so we hadn’t really questioned it. But with the new roadmap for the site, we wanted to optimize and adapt it. Except that once we got our hands in the code, we quickly realized it was all bloated and built on a totally outdated 2010s logic.

So rather than building on a bad foundation, we recoded the whole thing from the ground up to fully integrate our vision of what a real modern social network should be. And the results live up to our expectations: Clean code, super optimized and with zero unnecessary features. But most importantly: No content promotion algorithm whatsoever. Because here, it’s not up to a robot to decide what you should or shouldn’t see.

And that’s not all! NovaFlow is specifically designed to foster in-depth exchanges that last over time. Because it’s absolutely not normal that the lifespan of a quality post is 24 hours or less like on every other network. For us, a good conversation deserves to stick around so it can grow and develop over the long run.

We also took the opportunity to optimize the follow/unfollow system and fine-tune private messages. And since we were already elbow-deep in it, we completely reorganized the NovaFeed section.

The big new thing is that email notifications are completely gone. Instead, we developed a real-time notification system. Someone follows you? You get notified on the site. A user liked your post or one of your articles? You know about it instantly. You just need to be logged in. Everything happens at your own pace without any pressure.

Everything is clear. Everything is readable. And we’re completely stepping away from all the addictive aspects of current social networks because the quality of conversations takes clear priority over their quantity.

Major update for free blog hosting

Here again, we got rid of an open source program that didn’t meet our quality standards and replaced it with an in-house solution. On the public side, no visible difference. But for members using the free blog service, the change is massive. The publishing interface is much clearer, much more intuitive. Everything has become super simple. And the cherry on top: We really optimized the publishing interface so it works perfectly on mobile and tablet. From now on, managing your blog from your phone is a real pleasure. So if you have a blog on some crappy ad-riddled platform, you know what to do 😉

And under the hood… What does this 8.5 Better Kung Fu Edition have to say?

There are of course plenty of other new things at the code level. And some major ones at that. But it’s like at a good restaurant: You don’t need to know the chef’s recipe to enjoy the dish. Overall, everything is more optimized. And therefore faster.

What really changes is mainly what comes next. Because our in-house programs are ten times easier to maintain than external programs with code organized without any logic. So we’re going to save a massive amount of time on technical management. That’s actually why we pushed our update schedule well ahead of time, so we can be comfortable going forward.

Now that everything is squared away on that front, we can finally focus full throttle on the big projects and on publishing content. Some really beautiful things are on the way…

And that’s not all! We’re giving ourselves three months tops to release what we’ve built so it can be useful to others. So that everyone can upgrade their site or create one without falling into a massive technical nightmare. Everyone will be able to benefit from these developments. That will coincide with the release of the upcoming version 9 which is shaping up to be exceptional. We’re already working on it locally.

The traditional music video

As NovaFuture tradition demands, every new version gets celebrated with music. And this 8.5 Better Kung Fu Edition is no exception to the rule. So here’s a beautiful song that we dedicate to all the rude girls and rude boys who have been following us since the beginning of this wonderful adventure called NovaFuture.

Conclusion — 9 months to be born

The site was officially launched on May 1st, 2025. This new version went live on February 26, 2026. It might be a sign, but it took us a little over nine months of gestation to arrive at the architecture we wanted, along with a truly solid foundation.

Why did it take that long? You have to understand one thing. We’re not a startup. That’s deliberate. We have zero financial resources. We make do. So we had to move forward with limited human means only. And behind NovaFuture there are hundreds of hours of work. To compensate, that meant starting with pre-made building blocks that didn’t really match our identity or our open source philosophy. And it also took time to understand what the site’s users actually expected so we could set up the right services. But now, we’re right where we need to be. So stay tuned to the site, because we’re about to drop some seriously heavy stuff real soon 🙂

After all that, if you share our vision of the future and want to support us, it’s not complicated: Spread the word about NovaFuture around you. That’s the best way to get ideas circulating. To follow all our news, we always post on our Mastodon account. All you have to do is follow it.

And of course, we never get tired of saying it: NovaFuture is a participatory site! So if you want to be part of the adventure, just sign up in less than a minute and join the NovaFlow to quickly find your place among us.

In any case, from the bottom of our hearts, more and more of you are following us and a huge thank you for that. It encourages us to work even harder so that another world, one not based on exploitation, becomes a reality. While we wait for that precious moment, the free web is a reality right here. And that’s already something won 🙂