The origins of GNU MediaGoblin date back to 2008, when a gathering was held at the Free Software Foundation in order to discuss the path that Internet communities should take. The answer was that restrictive and centralized structures were both technically and ethically doubtful, and may harm the typical fairness and availability of the Internet. Since then, a number of projects have appeared to prevent this; including Identi.ca, Libre.fm, Diaspora, among others. The coding of MediaGoblin started in March 2011, still being under active development.
2012-08-24 – version 0.3.1 released, with theming support
2012-12-20 – version 0.3.2 released, with support for 3D models, collections, and API.
2013-03-12 – version 0.3.3 released, with interface and API enhancements, and avoiding unneeded processing of some videos.
2013-06-17 – version 0.4.0 released. New plugin system, support for PDF and Open Document Format through PDF.js and LibreOffice respectively. Experimental implementation of the Piwigo API.
2013-09-05 – version 0.5.0 released, with a pluggable authentication system, pluggable media handling and comment notifications.
2013-12-03 – version 0.6.0 released, web-based administration for user permissions, media complaint handling, non-interactive uploads, authentication via LDAP and user-specific Disk quota.
2014-08-26 – version 0.7.0 released, base Pump.io API implemented, incorporated Skeleton for a more responsive layout, introduced the Sandy Seventies Speedboat theme, command line batch uploading, experimental 'blog' media type and a metadata plugin.
2015-06-04 – version 0.8.0 released, client to server API improved
2016-03-26 – version 0.9.0 released, Python 3 support. Improved OAuth security. Internal improvements for federation. Improved the way collections are handled. Bugfixes.
2020-05-01 – version 0.10.0 released, a new plugin for displaying video subtitles and support for transcoding and displaying video in multiple resolutions.
Design and features
MediaGoblin is part of GNU, and its code is released under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License; meaning that it adheres to the principles of free and open-source software. The copyright on everything else is given to the public domain. Christopher Lemmer Webber, the core developer, came up with the name "MediaGoblin" which also makes a pun with the pronunciation of "gobbling". The main page displays an upper banner with MediaGoblin's typeface and an authentication section for users. The remaining space is left to show thumbnails of the latest posted works. Each user owns a personal profile comprised by two vertical sections - one for uploads arranged as a gallery and another with a customizable text box. For displaying media, the platform focuses on the work itself rather than overstocking with options and buttons; nonetheless, comments can be added under the artwork description. Some other features like tags, metadata, theming, Creative Commons licensing and GPS support can be enabled as separate plug-ins to enrich the usage of GNU MediaGoblin. . The platform successfully hosts and displays many sorts of media:
As of version 0.3.1 it includes support for plain text, images.
HTML5 capabilities are widely used to play video and/or audio contained in WebM format; while FLAC, WAV and MP3 uploads are automatically transcoded to Vorbis audio and then encapsulated into WebM.
3D models support was added on 22 October 2012 and is achieved by means of HTML5 Canvas, Thingiview, WebGL and Blender.
Mascot
The project mascot is a purple goblin called Gavroche wearing clothing that resembles a stereotypical artist costume.
