feat(river): dedicated /river landing page

[sanity]

Problem

River has no page of its own on freenet.org. It is one section on /apps/ (#river) that links out to the GitHub repo, so the effective landing page for River is a code README. The nav "River" entry just jumps to that anchor.

Approach

A dedicated product landing page at freenet.org/river, structured like a modern messaging-app landing page (Signal / Session pattern) but adapted to River's reality: there is no app-store download, you install Freenet once and rooms open in the browser from an invite link. So the page swaps the usual "Download" row for a plain-language "Wait, no servers?" explainer plus a "nothing to download, get an invite" flow.

Design decisions (as discussed with Ian):

• Top-level /river, not /apps/river — matches the existing /ghostkey precedent of giving a flagship app its own top-level page, keeps a short shareable URL, and avoids restructuring the /apps catalog.
• Keeps the site chrome — standard Freenet dropdown nav and institutional footer are retained. River is a subpage, not a sub-brand, and the Freenet frame is the point (River exists to show off Freenet, and the first step to use it, Install/Quickstart, lives in that nav). Only <main> runs full-bleed, via a river-only baseof; the nav/footer stay in .container like every other page.
• CSS scoped to .river-page and kept in the river baseof, so it loads only on this page and never touches the shared freenet.css.
• Copy adapted heavily from the River README — the "no servers" pitch, the two-shapes explainer, the "why not Matrix/Discord/Signal?" comparison, the feature list, and the privacy model are all lifted from README language rather than invented.
• CTAs point to /quickstart/ (install + live invite button) rather than embedding the invite button, since getting an invite only works after Freenet is installed.

Also repoints the Apps > River nav entry and the /apps catalog card at /river/ (with an /apps/river/ alias for safety).

Testing

• hugo --gc --minify builds clean (117 pages, no errors/warnings).
• Rendered and screenshotted the real built page in light + dark (via prefers-color-scheme) and desktop + mobile; nav, full-bleed bands, dark-screenshot swap, responsive stacking, and the institutional footer all verified.

Notes for review

• This is a draft pending Ian's sign-off on direction and copy. Content/tone is a design call; happy to adjust the headline ("no servers" vs the README's "no backend"), section order, or which features are surfaced.
• A Fable-5 review of style/layout/content is being run separately and its findings will be posted here.
• Follow-up (separate change): update the River repo README.md to focus on the developer/code audience and point users to this new landing page.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

https://claude.ai/code/session_01YRnnQnrtAVHdKzHKT8JrQ6

[AI-assisted - Claude]

[sanity]

Fable-5 design/copy review + fixes applied (commit c5e8ec1)

Ran a Fable-5 review of the built page (style, layout, content, README fidelity), told to be brutal. It found real ship-blockers; all are now addressed. Summary of findings and what changed:

Ship-blockers (fixed)

1. "There's nothing to download" was false — it sat right above "Install Freenet". Retitled the section "You install Freenet, not River" and imported the README's stronger framing ("install Freenet once, any number of apps run on top of it"). The install is now the pitch, not a bait-and-switch.
2. Unqualified encryption claims — the hero said "Encrypted group rooms" + an "End-to-end encrypted" tick, but only private rooms are E2E (public rooms are readable). Dropped the hero E2E tick, and all encryption copy now says "private rooms". Also fixed the feature line "public rooms anyone can read" (was "join").
3. Dropped the README's honesty — added the metadata caveat ("private rooms hide content, not shape; peers can see a room exists and roughly how active it is; if you need to hide that too, River alone isn't enough yet") to the privacy section, and an alpha-status line by the CTA. Retitled features to "The essentials, working today" so it doesn't promise Signal-grade completeness.
4. CSS bug — .rv-head{max-width:44ch} was measured against body-size ch (~390px) and mangled five desktop headings into ragged 2-3 line stacks. Removed; sub-copy alone is width-limited now.
5. Accent collision + button contrast — green text on white on a blue box, and green buttons failed AA in both modes. Collapsed to a single blue accent; green is now used only on invite buttons, darkened (deep green + white text in light, bright green + dark text in dark) to meet AA.

Also fixed

• Garbled River comparison row ("hosted by Freenet itself" now parses); reframed the comparison heading ("Everyone else runs a server, or keeps you online") since the old "they all keep a server" was contradicted by its own Briar/Tox "serverless" row.
• Flat headline color instead of gradient text; flat inline step numbers instead of floating gradient badges; bare pillar icons instead of pastel tiles; lighter/flatter shadows (closer to the rest of freenet.org).
• Final "River on GitHub" button points at the repo (was the Freenet developer manual); the explainer got a real <h2> ("Wait, no servers?"); added og/twitter card meta.
• Cut the "not a paywall" aside and the mid-funnel riverctl interruption.

Not changed (noted)

• Hero screenshot is dense — Fable suggested cropping to a zoomed message cluster. Left as the authentic full-app shot for now; cropping is a judgment call and easy to do as a follow-up if preferred.

Verified light/dark + desktop/mobile after the changes; hugo --gc --minify builds clean.

[AI-assisted - Claude]