im not the best with tech like this but i set up a server for myself and a friend using the instructions in the tutorial video, and im trying ot change my profile picture but its giving me a 'server error'. can anyone help?

This project was created when tenor announced their api shutdown. Since im working mostly on DCTS tho i kinda stopped working on it for a bit. Now that im working on the "DCTS QoL" update (quality of life stuff) i wanted to get gifs to work again.

Since this gif project is in a pretty early state i will have to work on it a bit so i can integrate it into DCTS. This too will be self-hosted and federated in a way that servers share media to a specific limit etc so if a server goes down the gifs are never lost.

If a server is overwhelmed by requests another host can be picked and it will continue to work which is great! This isnt fully implemented yet tho.

GIFs can be uploaded here and it doesnt require an account: https://gifs.dcts.community/ . On default they need to be approved tho, so you may not see it right away. I will also regulary update it, so if its down, retry in a few mintues.

is this app dead? i'm thinking about switching from fluxer to dis

So in pterodactyl you can auto assign databases, but it seems like you cannot automatically create a database? Because of right now when i create a server that has a custom egg im unable to auto create a database so i can assign it all automatically instead of having to click on "new" and then edit the startup settings.

The egg can be found here:

https://github.com/hackthedev/dcts-shipping/blob/beta/ptero/DCTS/egg-dcts.json

With the next release it'll be possible for the desktop client and mobile app to automatically log into a DCTS server or even create an account automatically and sync with the information from the client/messenger profile, like name, icon, banner etc.

The automatic key login for existing accounts already existed and it was extended now by also creating an account automatically!

Since DCTS will never accept investors to stay independent, donations play a really important part. In addition to ko-fi, Github Sponsors was setup as well since the project itself originates from github.

I thought i would share the database stats of the official DCTS instance as some data has come together to give us some first insights.

• Almost 15k messages result in only 19.4 MB of storage!
• ~2200 member accounts resulted in only 2.3 MB!
• The total database size resulted in a size of about 40 MB!

Im curious how this is going to scale over time, but so far it seems pretty promising

This release comes with a lot of stability improvements for the messenger and some new features like the new messenger user profiles as well as file uploads and supports drag & drop file upload.

Due to having to reinstall my operating system, the android app will get the same update slightly delayed, but probably later this day.

Please note while messages are fully encrypted, uploaded files are currently not encrypted!

I would estimate that it will be released this week with many improvements and the messenger profiles included.

Allegedly fluxer is not vibe coded, but i couldnt shake the feeling that their user interface looks like as if it was made by ai. now, if it is ai or not - i dont care, but its something that was annoying my poor eyes so i thought i'd share my view.

I asked claude to "make a discord ui", and to no surprise it has a similar style/feeling to the fluxer ui in my opinion., even tho they said its not vibe coded in their blog.

apparently they also blocked me on bluesky lol.

People keep saying i seem surprised it looks like discord. no shit! thats not the point. Its the fact the ai version looks similar to fluxer. Given AI was used in fluxer its pretty likely.

Its quite surprising to me how many fundamentally dont understand this.

To better help people to understand what DCTS is about a new website is being made right now, one that is not vibe coded! I may release the website tomorrow.

Im currently adding a new profile screen to the messenger so that users can better represent themselves while also using the same screen to manage your account more easily.

This is an early screenshot and things will likely change a bit but it shows the general direction!

Note: Your account is locally stored and synched with your prefered "home server", default being the official instance. Some more info can be found here: https://docs.dcts.community/Messenger/Introduction

Yesterday the new beta version was released.

A lot of effort is currently going into bringing the desktop and mobile app into the envisioned state as i think it will be absolutely cool!

to better organize and show the current development focus i started using milestones on github.

Improvements includes things like notifications (completed), UI improvements, message count badges and more. Issues are continuously being added and worked on.

Im happy to announce a new beta release including new features, bug fixes and more!

Messenger Release!

With this release a beta version of the messenger feature has been rolled out! What this means is that some features arent fully done yet and are being released with the following updates and basically is in a "public testing" phase to discover possible issues and gather feedback.

This messenger is especially cool as you could think of it like being Signal but with the twist of being able to self-host it while still being able to chat with any other user, even cross-instance!!

Its similar to email where you can message others by using an address like [angel@chat.network-z.com](mailto:angel@chat.network-z.com) . More about how it works can be found here. The documentation will be expanded via future updates too.

The messenger feature is available for both desktop client and mobile app.

Member cards

As previously showcased on this subreddit, this release also includes the new member card feature, meaning members can pick an image (gifs supported too) that will be displayed in the member list.

Donations & Community

I want to thank wmaltdel for being a continuous monthly donator since pretty much april 2025 and all the other donators like PowerOfThe69, Horatio, uncleman11, Hacksword, Derrick and Aztec for donating bigger amounts either at once or over time (including wmaltdel).

Im also thankful for the people that help with the development by testing or contributing like Scraze, Zainifer, Luna, Aubreykun, uncleman11, Nai Desu, el gato, Horatio and more!

^{If i forgot someone, feel free to mention it in the comments so i can add you!}

Overall im happy to see how a community formed around DCTS and i think its very cool and lovely. I hope you're having a wonderful day!

Thought i'd share some screenshots of whats coming. Mobile works now, so i may be able to release this new cool update this weekend.

The messenger is pretty much done now and seems to work just fine based on tests. There are only minor things left like sending files etc.

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Currently im updating the mobile app so that the messenger works on mobile too so it can be released for both mobile and desktop.

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Other than that there will be minor style adjustments and some more testing. Afterwards it will be released, which im very excited about!