Zero — Algorithm-Free Social Platform

A clean, chronological social media platform built with Laravel 11 + Inertia.js + Vue 3. No algorithm, no ranked feed, no engagement scores. Posts appear in the order they were written.

Stack

Layer	Technology
Backend	Laravel 13 (PHP 8.4+)
Frontend	Vue 3 (Composition API)
Bridge	Inertia.js v1
Styling	Tailwind CSS v3
Routing (client)	Ziggy (named routes in JS)
Build	Vite 5
Database	MySQL 8+ / PostgreSQL 14+

Features

• Chronological feed — follows + own posts, newest first, always
• Explore — all posts on the platform, chronological
• Status updates — rich text up to 5000 characters
• File uploads — images, videos, PDFs, docs (up to 10MB, 4 per post)
• Likes — optimistic UI via axios, no page reload
• Comments + replies — AJAX, reactive, one level of nesting
• Profile pages — avatar, bio, location, website, follower/following counts
• Follow system — follow users to filter your feed
• No algorithm — ever. The code explicitly orders by created_at DESC.

Installation

# 1. Install PHP dependencies
composer install

# 2. Install JS dependencies
npm install

# 3. Environment setup
cp .env.example .env
php artisan key:generate

# 4. Configure database in .env
# DB_DATABASE=chronicle
# DB_USERNAME=root
# DB_PASSWORD=secret

# 5. Run migrations + seed demo data
php artisan migrate --seed

# 6. Create storage symlink (for uploaded files)
php artisan storage:link

# 7. Build frontend assets
npm run build
# or for development with HMR:
# npm run dev

# 8. Start the server
php artisan serve

Demo credentials (after seeding)

Field	Value
Email	demo@example.com
Password	password

Project structure

app/
  Http/
    Controllers/
      AuthController.php       — login, register, logout (Inertia responses)
      PostController.php       — feed, explore, show, store, destroy
      CommentController.php    — store (JSON), destroy (JSON)
      LikeController.php       — togglePost, toggleComment (JSON)
      FollowController.php     — toggle follow/unfollow
      ProfileController.php    — show, edit, update (Inertia responses)
    Middleware/
      HandleInertiaRequests.php — shares auth.user + flash to all pages
    Requests/
      StorePostRequest.php
      StoreCommentRequest.php
      UpdateProfileRequest.php
  Models/
    User.php        — followers/following relationships, avatarUrl()
    Post.php        — belongsTo user, hasMany comments/attachments/likes
    Comment.php     — parent/replies tree, polymorphic likes
    Like.php        — morphTo (posts + comments)
    Attachment.php  — typeFromMime(), url(), humanSize()
    Follow.php

database/
  migrations/       — users, posts, attachments, comments, likes, follows
  seeders/          — DatabaseSeeder (16 users, posts, likes, follows, comments)
  factories/        — UserFactory, PostFactory

resources/
  js/
    app.js                     — createInertiaApp entry point
    Layouts/
      AppLayout.vue            — nav, toast, compose modal trigger
    Components/
      ComposeModal.vue         — useForm, file previews, forceFormData
      PostCard.vue             — optimistic likes, attachments, delete
      CommentThread.vue        — AJAX comment posting
      CommentItem.vue          — likes, replies, delete
      ProfileHeader.vue        — avatar, stats, follow button
    Pages/
      Auth/
        Login.vue
        Register.vue
      Posts/
        Feed.vue               — chronological feed + who-to-follow sidebar
        Explore.vue            — all posts globally
        Show.vue               — single post permalink
      Profile/
        Show.vue               — user profile + posts
        Edit.vue               — profile settings form
  views/
    app.blade.php              — Inertia root template (only Blade file)

routes/
  web.php                      — all routes; AJAX endpoints return JSON

How "no algorithm" is enforced

In PostController::index() and PostController::explore(), the query is:

->orderBy('created_at', 'desc')   // strict chronological — no score ever

There is no engagement score, no RAND(), no ML model, no recency decay function. The comment in the code is intentional.