What it offers#

The list of services is here:

https://disroot.org/en/services

Currently, it offers these:

• Email, accessible via webmail or IMAP clients
• Cloud, based on Nextcloud, for syncing files, calendars, and contacts
• XMPP Chat, a decentralized chat protocol
• Pads, online collaborative documents
• PrivateBin, encrypted pastebin
• Upload, temporary file sharing
• Forgejo, code hosting
• CryptPad, a privacy-focused online document suite
• FEDIsroot, at fe.disroot.org, an Akkoma-based ActivityPub / Fediverse microblogging service, compatible with Mastodon API
• LibreTranslate, translation service
• Vault, password management related service

If you want to compare other public-benefit or community-maintained services, you can check out the Network & Services category in the Resource Navigation. This section continuously collects entries actually mentioned in articles and that have undergone basic checks.

You don’t necessarily have to use every single one.

But that’s where its charm lies: you register one account, and you can enjoy so many open-source services.

For someone like me, who loves tinkering with personal websites, servers, and open-source services, this is truly appealing, and a senior example worth learning from.

The Registration Question is a Bit Peculiar#

The registration entry is here:

https://user.disroot.org/pwm/public/newuser/

The registration question I saw this time was: What do you like to do before bed?

And it requires more than 50 words.

This question is quite clever.

You can first write a thoughtful paragraph in Chinese or another language, then translate it into English.

For example, you could write about reading before bed, organizing tomorrow’s tasks, listening to music, browsing some open-source community updates, or simply putting your phone away to get to sleep earlier.

How I’d Use It#

Currently, I’ve registered an account, but for me, only the email service is particularly interesting right now. After all, I’ve registered so many accounts and communities, accumulating a pile of unique domain-based emails, plus my own self-hosted temporary and domain emails.

Although it offers a public-benefit Vaultwarden service, I already self-host my own, so I don’t really need this kind of thing.

Moreover, Disroot isn’t a free tier from a big tech company; it survives on community and donations. Being able to use it when needed is already great.

It Also Made Me Re-evaluate My Own Services#

After seeing the list of services collected by Disroot and Riseup, my first reaction was also to keep adding things to sayori.org, wanting to live up to the .org name.

However, my personal capacity is limited. After consulting with GPT, it helped me create a public services list, which is available here: https://sayori.org/zh/services/

Currently, what’s truly open to the public are mainly GeoScore, blog posts, RSS, whiteboards, and feedback. Search Gateway remains open source, but the online instance is only for my own sites and maintenance tasks.

Instead of continuously piling on new services, I’d rather first try a few very small-scope directions: performing website health checks for personal blogs, helping non-commercial static sites go live, providing a small quota for search evidence, and low-frequency RSS-to-email or Webhook notifications.

None of these will start as anonymous public platforms; instead, they’ll begin with invitations, quotas, and manual processing. If there’s no demand, they’ll stop; if maintenance costs exceed my capacity, they’ll also stop.

I’m now more inclined to call say