A user group supporting open source, creating culture, and loving scifi on IRC | #skiffy, irc.freenode.net irc.libera.chat | * The Big Dumb Object *

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From the inputline...

> We're sorry to say that our old channel, #skiffy on freenode, was purged along with at least hundreds of others that indicated they had moved in their topics. The stated reason was a violation of network policy. On one of the freenode support channels, it was explained by a member of the new staff that they no longer permit communities that have moved to leave behind a channel with placeholder information. If you join the channel now, you will be directed in the topic to ##skiffy. We have no control over that channel either. We effectively no longer have any presence on freenode.

On the night of these channel shutdowns a great deal of of anger in the support channels was expressed - both in opposition and support over what happened. Please remember that the most aggressive words have been thrown about by people who don't have a real claim to speak for the leadership of either network. Remember, the freenode policy guidelines on presuming the best in others have not changed.

Our community is where our users are. All we've lost in the material sense is a sign that directs old friends to where we've set up. If you know of someone from the old days who would like to say hello, you can show them the way.

> The channel leadership and users have grown concerned about the ongoing developments around the questionable circumstances of who owns the Freenode IRC network. The issues at contest center upon matters of contract law spanning multiple countries and less tangible (but still worthy) moral claims. Since many important details are not public and likely never will be, we will not be quick to condemn any of the involved parties. However, after consultation within our community, we have come to the conclusion that we are supportive of the former staff of Freenode in their efforts to build a new network. #skiffy's new home is on irc.libera.chat. The old channel will remain active for the forseeable future, acting as a lighthouse to guide returning users to our new location.

> Happy new year everyone!

There's been enough action in the channel that the website is due for an update.

Details on our upcoming FOSS grant (presently untitled) will be unveiled on the 29th. In the meantime, users are invited to think about where they encounter "missing pieces" in their day to day use of open source software and hardware. Regular discussions will be scheduled on at least a weekly basis, with our first in support of the grant being scheduled for 10PM STZ on the Thursday the 21st.

December was an exciting month for us as we had the opportunity to watch auctus and testing team pull together the first pre-alpha version of SupportPro right here in #skiffy. Once a release candidate is approved, we'll throw a celebration in the channel as it's uploaded to our git page.

Elsewhere in in-channel open source development, snaked is ramping up to release a set of libraries for OpenSCAD, a programmatic solid modeler popular in 3D printing. These libraries will add support for additional geometry, easier curve generation, and support for a slew of useful units of measure.

Git page? Yeah, we're bringing some of our projects together under one umbrella. A special thanks goes out to dasmi and auctus for their work putting together a Gogs server of our very own after a recent... unpleasant... acquisition.

We're also going to bring back our beer book club program as "Beer With The Dev" - a monthly conversation with an open source project leader or contributor. Though scheduling is still being figured out, we have a lineup of a few personalities so far. If you know someone who has their hands in an interesting open source project that might like to hold court for an evening, /msg snaked.

Scifi hasn't been forgotten! In support of all of you still locked up at home, we're continuing group movie viewings on friday and saturday nights, with Star Trek on sundays. To participate, check the topic for upcoming viewings, NTP sync your clock, and get ready to hit play at showtime! Our streaming sources continue to be Netflix, Amazon Prime, and YouTube.

Upcoming viewings...

> Viewings are currently running every Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and some Thursday nights with each film chosen the day before. See channel topic for details.