- WLUG - wlug.mailman3.com

Re: [EXT] Re: WLUG history

by Voorhis, Michael C

The history of the UG, is an entirely legitimate subject for a meeting, I would say. History is important! --MCV. On 1/15/20 8:26 AM, Andy Stewart via WLUG wrote: > I'm sure if a bunch of us sat together after a WLUG meeting, we'd > recall more stories and could, if desired, document the club's > history. I think it would be a lot of fun!

Jan. 15, 2020

Re: WLUG history

by Andy Stewart

On 1/14/20 8:03 PM, Jon "maddog" Hall via WLUG wrote: > GNHLUG started in 1995, but was reduced to a mailing list about ten years ago. > It no longer holds meetings. Every once in a while someone tries to > resuscitate it, but it eventually goes into a coma again. > > I think BLU has been around a long time. It is what is left from the Boston > Computer Society, and as such may have pre-dated even GNHLUG. I believe that BLU predates WLUG by quite a bit. I had just started learning about Linux, and I knew nothing of the GPL or the ideals surrounding Free Software. I decided that I wanted a place to hang out with people more knowledgeable about Linux. I lived in Worcester at the time, and I didn't want to drive to Boston or New Hampshire for a meeting due to the distance. I had never been to a user group meeting of any sort, yet I decided to jump into the deep end of the pool, with no clue of what to do, or how to do it, or what the result would be. All I thought was that people needed to be brought together. As a WPI alumnus, it seemed like a natural place for such a gathering. WLUG's first meeting was in July 1997 in the WPI Library. Maddog was there, and our first speaker was Jim Paradis. We had 17 people in attendance. I distinctly remember maddog telling me at that time that if we had 17 people in attendance in a year, we'd be doing quite well. We purchased really expensive food from DAKA, the WPI cafeteria service at that time. Later, we moved to different rooms on campus, and I brought soda and cookies. I never believed in charging membership dues for WLUG. I decided to go with small voluntary donations, just to defray costs, and no more. Somehow, it worked. We had something on the order of 50 people show up at what I think was probably the best attended WLUG meeting in history. I don't remember the year, but KDE had just come out, and I gave a talk about it. I have a feeling that this meeting took place in the big room in Olin Hall. The summer parties were always a big hit. Great food, conversations, and great people. While we occasionally had a speaker from outside of the club, most of the speakers were members of WLUG. We have a very talented membership who was never afraid to get up in front of the crowd to share what they know. I learned a lot from WLUG, both technically and otherwise. WLUG has its own Tux penguin, hand made by Doug Waud. WLUG Tux shows up at summer gatherings and other unexpected times. I'm sure if a bunch of us sat together after a WLUG meeting, we'd recall more stories and could, if desired, document the club's history. I think it would be a lot of fun! Andy

Jan. 15, 2020

Re: WLUG history

by Jon "maddog" Hall

GNHLUG started in 1995, but was reduced to a mailing list about ten years ago. It no longer holds meetings. Every once in a while someone tries to resuscitate it, but it eventually goes into a coma again. I think BLU has been around a long time. It is what is left from the Boston Computer Society, and as such may have pre-dated even GNHLUG. md On Tue, Jan 14, 2020 at 7:01 PM Anderson, Charles R via WLUG < wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> wrote: > Not sure we are the oldest, but we /might/ be the oldest still in > operation. Is GNHLUG still in operation? If so, they are probably > older. I was inspired to dig into my archives: > > An early email from our founder, Andy Stewart: > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Date: Sat, 26 Jul 1997 22:22:18 -0400 > From: Andy Stewart <astewart(a)world.std.com> > To: "Worcester Linux Users' Group" <wlug(a)mass-pc.wpi.edu> > Subject: [Fwd: Caldera Inc. IT Forum] > > OK, gang, tell the man what you think! > > Remember, he is the gentleman who graciously donated the tee shirts and > CDROM discs from Caldera... > > Andy > > ---------------------- > > Date: Wed, 23 Jul 1997 12:30:22 -0600 > From: Paul La Fluer <paull(a)caldera.com> > Organization: Caldera, Inc. > To: astewart(a)world.std.com > Subject: Caldera Inc. IT Forum > > Hello Andy, I hope everything is going good. I am in the process of > organizing a conference while in New York. My goal is to rent out a > large ballroom in a hotel and have all the usergroups in the area come > and listen to Bryan Sparks our CEO and other talk about Linux and > OpenLinux. There will be presentations plus a Q&A session. I would like > to hear your feedback on the idea and if your group would attend. We > would be giving away door prizes like OpenLinux Base and Standard and > handing out t-shirts, papers and OpenLinux Lite and OpenDOS to all that > attend. Please give me some feedback on this idea. I need to know soon > to get things set up. > > Thanks, > > Paul La Fleur > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > An email about our SECOND meeting (that refers to the first meeting): > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Date: Mon, 04 Aug 1997 21:29:13 -0400 > From: Andy Stewart <astewart(a)world.std.com> > To: "Worcester Linux Users' Group" <wlug(a)mass-pc.wpi.edu> > Subject: Next WLUG meeting > > The next scheduled meeting for the Worcester Linux Users' Group (WLUG) > is August 21, 1997, at 7 PM in the Gordon Library on the Worcester > Polytechnic Institute (WPI) campus in Worcester, MA. > > We had a great turnout of about 20 people at our very first meeting last > month - I hope to see all of you come back, and I'd like to extend a > welcome to anybody who would like to attend. > > I would suggest parking in the "lower library" parking lot and hiking up > the 102 stairs to the library (not to mention the 12 or so more stairs > in the library to get to the 2nd floor!). > > For more information, feel free to send me E-mail at: > > astewart(a)world.std.com > > Look for the penguin signs! Hope to see you there! > > Andy Stewart > WLUG > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > I'd guess our first meeting was about July 23 or 24, 1997, or perhaps > the week before, July 16 or 17. > > But maddog from GNHLUG forwarded this, which says "as always, the > meeting are free..." which implies that July 30th is NOT their first > meeting. If they had monthly meetings, that would place their first > meeting in June 1997 or before. > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Date: Mon, 21 Jul 97 10:28:09 -0400 > From: "Jon 'maddog' Hall, USG Senior Leader" <hall(a)zk3.dec.com> > To: gnhlug(a)zk3.dec.com > Subject: GNHLUG - Linux Cluster meeting July 30th at Martha's Exchange > > Hi, > > We now have a venue for the July 30th meeting of the GNHLUG, with Loki, > a cluster of 16 Pentium PRO 200s, running Linux as the topic of the talk. > > We will be meeting on the *second* floor dining room of the Martha's > Exchange > Building in beautiful downtown Nashua. I will be picking up the speaker in > Cambridge that day and transporting him to Martha's for dinner, arriving > about > 1730 hours. For those of you who wish to join us for dinner, please RSVP. > The meeting itself will start at 1900 hours, with the speaker probably > getting > up steam about 1915 hours. > > As always, the meetings are free and open to everyone, and as a FINAL > enticement I will be handling out *free* CD ROMS with the V1.2 Debian > release > for Intel on it. > > M. Patrick Goda, a principal of the Loki > > ( http://loki-www.lanl.gov/ ) > > project at the Theoretical Division of the Los Alamos National Labs, a > Beowulf > > ( http://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/linux-web/beowulf/beowulf.html ) > > style computer will be our speaker. I have convinced him to present a talk > on the Loki project, one of linking together 16 Intel Pentium Pro machines > to > create a system that has: > > o high reliability > o high throughput > > and generally 16-node IBM SP2 performance (over 1.2 GigaFlops) at 1/20th > the > cost (about $60K)!! > > Pat is a friend of mine that I introduced to Red Hat Linux when he was a > graduate student at the University of Hawaii (long story). > > Due to the fact that Patrick is a rare find, I will invite the Boston Linux > User's Group and the Worcester Linux User's group to join us that night, > so I > have arranged for larger quarters. > > Some additional Beowulf pages are from my own alma mater: > > http://einstein.drexel.edu/beowulf/Beowulf_concept.html > > including exerpts from the original Beowulf story: > > http://einstein.drexel.edu/beowulf/original_beowulf.html > > Warmest regards, > > maddog > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Nevermind, GNHLUG is definitely older by several years according to their > web page: > > http://wiki.gnhlug.org/twiki2/bin/view/Www/PastEvents > > 1996 > > When Where What Who How Many > 31 Jan 1996 UNH Durham Linux Linus Torvalds 200+ > > 1994 > > When Where What Who How Many > 19 Oct UNH (?) First meeting Members ??? > > > > On Tue, Jan 14, 2020 at 04:13:25PM -0500, Richard Klein via WLUG wrote: > > What do we know about WLUG's history? If it really is one of the oldest > > LUGs, it might merit a Wikipedia article. It would be great if we could > > flesh that out, too. > > > > This article seems like it could use a list of LUGs: > > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_user_group > > > > On Tue, Jan 14, 2020 at 1:43 PM Dennis Payne via WLUG < > wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> > > wrote: > > > > > The NatickFOSS group uses gettogether.community instead of meetup.com. > I > > > don't know that it has gotten us any visibility but the software is > open > > > source. I've been tempted to join meetup to go to Boston Indie Game > > > Developer meetings but have so far held off. > > > > > > The NatickFOSS group also gets a booth at the Science on State Street > > > event at Framingham State. It is a free STEM activity fair for kids. > My job > > > at the event is to generally occupy the time of the kids so the other > > > members talk to the parents. First year I had a playstation controller > > > hooked up to my laptop and held it out to any kid that walked by. Last > year > > > I brought the arcade machine assembled by my son's cub scout den. Any > idea > > > if WPI does any thing similar? Even if it is something only for WPI > > > students it might be useful to alert people to the group's existence. > _______________________________________________ > WLUG mailing list -- wlug(a)lists.wlug.org > To unsubscribe send an email to wlug-leave(a)lists.wlug.org >

Jan. 15, 2020

WLUG history

by Anderson, Charles R

Not sure we are the oldest, but we /might/ be the oldest still in operation. Is GNHLUG still in operation? If so, they are probably older. I was inspired to dig into my archives: An early email from our founder, Andy Stewart: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 26 Jul 1997 22:22:18 -0400 From: Andy Stewart <astewart(a)world.std.com> To: "Worcester Linux Users' Group" <wlug(a)mass-pc.wpi.edu> Subject: [Fwd: Caldera Inc. IT Forum] OK, gang, tell the man what you think! Remember, he is the gentleman who graciously donated the tee shirts and CDROM discs from Caldera... Andy ---------------------- Date: Wed, 23 Jul 1997 12:30:22 -0600 From: Paul La Fluer <paull(a)caldera.com> Organization: Caldera, Inc. To: astewart(a)world.std.com Subject: Caldera Inc. IT Forum Hello Andy, I hope everything is going good. I am in the process of organizing a conference while in New York. My goal is to rent out a large ballroom in a hotel and have all the usergroups in the area come and listen to Bryan Sparks our CEO and other talk about Linux and OpenLinux. There will be presentations plus a Q&A session. I would like to hear your feedback on the idea and if your group would attend. We would be giving away door prizes like OpenLinux Base and Standard and handing out t-shirts, papers and OpenLinux Lite and OpenDOS to all that attend. Please give me some feedback on this idea. I need to know soon to get things set up. Thanks, Paul La Fleur ---------------------------------------------------------------------- An email about our SECOND meeting (that refers to the first meeting): ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 04 Aug 1997 21:29:13 -0400 From: Andy Stewart <astewart(a)world.std.com> To: "Worcester Linux Users' Group" <wlug(a)mass-pc.wpi.edu> Subject: Next WLUG meeting The next scheduled meeting for the Worcester Linux Users' Group (WLUG) is August 21, 1997, at 7 PM in the Gordon Library on the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) campus in Worcester, MA. We had a great turnout of about 20 people at our very first meeting last month - I hope to see all of you come back, and I'd like to extend a welcome to anybody who would like to attend. I would suggest parking in the "lower library" parking lot and hiking up the 102 stairs to the library (not to mention the 12 or so more stairs in the library to get to the 2nd floor!). For more information, feel free to send me E-mail at: astewart(a)world.std.com Look for the penguin signs! Hope to see you there! Andy Stewart WLUG ---------------------------------------------------------------------- I'd guess our first meeting was about July 23 or 24, 1997, or perhaps the week before, July 16 or 17. But maddog from GNHLUG forwarded this, which says "as always, the meeting are free..." which implies that July 30th is NOT their first meeting. If they had monthly meetings, that would place their first meeting in June 1997 or before. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 21 Jul 97 10:28:09 -0400 From: "Jon 'maddog' Hall, USG Senior Leader" <hall(a)zk3.dec.com> To: gnhlug(a)zk3.dec.com Subject: GNHLUG - Linux Cluster meeting July 30th at Martha's Exchange Hi, We now have a venue for the July 30th meeting of the GNHLUG, with Loki, a cluster of 16 Pentium PRO 200s, running Linux as the topic of the talk. We will be meeting on the *second* floor dining room of the Martha's Exchange Building in beautiful downtown Nashua. I will be picking up the speaker in Cambridge that day and transporting him to Martha's for dinner, arriving about 1730 hours. For those of you who wish to join us for dinner, please RSVP. The meeting itself will start at 1900 hours, with the speaker probably getting up steam about 1915 hours. As always, the meetings are free and open to everyone, and as a FINAL enticement I will be handling out *free* CD ROMS with the V1.2 Debian release for Intel on it. M. Patrick Goda, a principal of the Loki ( http://loki-www.lanl.gov/ ) project at the Theoretical Division of the Los Alamos National Labs, a Beowulf ( http://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/linux-web/beowulf/beowulf.html ) style computer will be our speaker. I have convinced him to present a talk on the Loki project, one of linking together 16 Intel Pentium Pro machines to create a system that has: o high reliability o high throughput and generally 16-node IBM SP2 performance (over 1.2 GigaFlops) at 1/20th the cost (about $60K)!! Pat is a friend of mine that I introduced to Red Hat Linux when he was a graduate student at the University of Hawaii (long story). Due to the fact that Patrick is a rare find, I will invite the Boston Linux User's Group and the Worcester Linux User's group to join us that night, so I have arranged for larger quarters. Some additional Beowulf pages are from my own alma mater: http://einstein.drexel.edu/beowulf/Beowulf_concept.html including exerpts from the original Beowulf story: http://einstein.drexel.edu/beowulf/original_beowulf.html Warmest regards, maddog ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Nevermind, GNHLUG is definitely older by several years according to their web page: http://wiki.gnhlug.org/twiki2/bin/view/Www/PastEvents 1996 When Where What Who How Many 31 Jan 1996 UNH Durham Linux Linus Torvalds 200+ 1994 When Where What Who How Many 19 Oct UNH (?) First meeting Members ??? On Tue, Jan 14, 2020 at 04:13:25PM -0500, Richard Klein via WLUG wrote: > What do we know about WLUG's history? If it really is one of the oldest > LUGs, it might merit a Wikipedia article. It would be great if we could > flesh that out, too. > > This article seems like it could use a list of LUGs: > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_user_group > > On Tue, Jan 14, 2020 at 1:43 PM Dennis Payne via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> > wrote: > > > The NatickFOSS group uses gettogether.community instead of meetup.com. I > > don't know that it has gotten us any visibility but the software is open > > source. I've been tempted to join meetup to go to Boston Indie Game > > Developer meetings but have so far held off. > > > > The NatickFOSS group also gets a booth at the Science on State Street > > event at Framingham State. It is a free STEM activity fair for kids. My job > > at the event is to generally occupy the time of the kids so the other > > members talk to the parents. First year I had a playstation controller > > hooked up to my laptop and held it out to any kid that walked by. Last year > > I brought the arcade machine assembled by my son's cub scout den. Any idea > > if WPI does any thing similar? Even if it is something only for WPI > > students it might be useful to alert people to the group's existence.

Jan. 15, 2020

Re: Improving WLUG outreach

by Richard Klein

What do we know about WLUG's history? If it really is one of the oldest LUGs, it might merit a Wikipedia article. It would be great if we could flesh that out, too. This article seems like it could use a list of LUGs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_user_group On Tue, Jan 14, 2020 at 1:43 PM Dennis Payne via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> wrote: > The NatickFOSS group uses gettogether.community instead of meetup.com. I > don't know that it has gotten us any visibility but the software is open > source. I've been tempted to join meetup to go to Boston Indie Game > Developer meetings but have so far held off. > > The NatickFOSS group also gets a booth at the Science on State Street > event at Framingham State. It is a free STEM activity fair for kids. My job > at the event is to generally occupy the time of the kids so the other > members talk to the parents. First year I had a playstation controller > hooked up to my laptop and held it out to any kid that walked by. Last year > I brought the arcade machine assembled by my son's cub scout den. Any idea > if WPI does any thing similar? Even if it is something only for WPI > students it might be useful to alert people to the group's existence. > > > > -- > > Dennis Payne > dulsi(a)identicalsoftware.com > https://social.freegamedev.net/channel/dulsi > _______________________________________________ > WLUG mailing list -- wlug(a)lists.wlug.org > To unsubscribe send an email to wlug-leave(a)lists.wlug.org >

Jan. 14, 2020

Re: Improving WLUG outreach

by Dennis Payne

The NatickFOSS group uses gettogether.community instead of meetup.com. I don't know that it has gotten us any visibility but the software is open source. I've been tempted to join meetup to go to Boston Indie Game Developer meetings but have so far held off. The NatickFOSS group also gets a booth at the Science on State Street event at Framingham State. It is a free STEM activity fair for kids. My job at the event is to generally occupy the time of the kids so the other members talk to the parents. First year I had a playstation controller hooked up to my laptop and held it out to any kid that walked by. Last year I brought the arcade machine assembled by my son's cub scout den. Any idea if WPI does any thing similar? Even if it is something only for WPI students it might be useful to alert people to the group's existence. -- Dennis Payne dulsi(a)identicalsoftware.com https://social.freegamedev.net/channel/dulsi

Jan. 14, 2020

Re: [EXT] Improving WLUG outreach

by Anderson, Charles R

Ideas are great, but I don't think we have a lack of ideas. We need people to step up and implement ideas. What concrete steps do you propose? Who do you propose should do those steps? On Mon, Jan 13, 2020 at 10:43:30AM -0500, Joshua Stone via WLUG wrote: > Hey all, > > I thought I'd like to continue the topic about what we could do to increase > attendance meeting. > > I think working with the community at WPI would be a great thing for us, so > long as we try to understand more about the student culture. I've learned > that one of the most important things about WPI is that a sense of > community and working toward a greater goal are included as part of the > curriculum. One of the earliest classes a WPI student takes involves > thinking about the biggest problems impacting the world and makes strides > to tackling such problems head-on. > > https://www.wpi.edu/project-based-learning/wpi-plan/10-things-to-know > > I believe WPI also has a strong background in bioinformatics, and that's a > field that can surely benefit from FOSS as we want to encourage openness > and ethics when being on the forefront of scientific research that could > have sweeping societal impact. The last thing we need is more companies > like 23andMe hoarding genetic data for profit. > > Perhaps WLUG can do more to be involved in such things, emphasizing the > importance of "ethical" computing with the problems of DRM, > spying/tracking, proprietary software and data formats, software patents, > and licenses that lock away data that the community could benefit from. > Essentially we could give people more of an opportunity to think about the > social aspects and ramifications of technology, and can use that as a > framework for creating a better future. > > These are still ideas I'm throwing at the wall, hopefully something sticks! > > -Josh

Jan. 13, 2020

Improving WLUG outreach

by Joshua Stone

Hey all, I thought I'd like to continue the topic about what we could do to increase attendance meeting. I think working with the community at WPI would be a great thing for us, so long as we try to understand more about the student culture. I've learned that one of the most important things about WPI is that a sense of community and working toward a greater goal are included as part of the curriculum. One of the earliest classes a WPI student takes involves thinking about the biggest problems impacting the world and makes strides to tackling such problems head-on. https://www.wpi.edu/project-based-learning/wpi-plan/10-things-to-know I believe WPI also has a strong background in bioinformatics, and that's a field that can surely benefit from FOSS as we want to encourage openness and ethics when being on the forefront of scientific research that could have sweeping societal impact. The last thing we need is more companies like 23andMe hoarding genetic data for profit. Perhaps WLUG can do more to be involved in such things, emphasizing the importance of "ethical" computing with the problems of DRM, spying/tracking, proprietary software and data formats, software patents, and licenses that lock away data that the community could benefit from. Essentially we could give people more of an opportunity to think about the social aspects and ramifications of technology, and can use that as a framework for creating a better future. These are still ideas I'm throwing at the wall, hopefully something sticks! -Josh

Jan. 13, 2020

Re: [EXT] The future of WLUG

by joshua.gage.stone＠gmail.com

Tim, Thank you very much for creating a meetup.com group for us! The UX for finding future meetups and adding meetup dates to a calender is quite good. Finding WLUG should also be fairly easy now when searching for "linux" within a 50 mile radius of Boston: https://www.meetup.com/find/?allMeetups=false&keywords=linux&radius=50&user… I've noticed that some search strings will show LUGs with overlapping interests but not WLUG. I think adding more words like "FOSS", "Android", "Libre", "Open Source", "Ubuntu", "Fedora", "OpenSUSE", "Arch Linux", "Unix", etc, to the related topics and/or What We're About section should improve this. I've tried setting up a community over Slack but I think the steps need to join was what made it too intrusive for new people -- take joining the Rust language Slack server for example: https://rust-slack.herokuapp.com/ - Send an invite link to your email- Register with a name and password- Be greeted with prompts about whether to send notifications- Open the #general channel And this has to be repeated for joining every community that has their own Slack server, or at least this has been my experience so far. I think Slack has cemented itself as more of a means for teams to collaborate on a project, not so much for casual users who want to jump right into a new chat. Matrix only needs to register a username and password (email is optional) on the server you're on, and once that's done you can join any number of channels on that server. This is much closer to the UX of IRC, and it's still superior in some ways because there's no fiddling with choosing a specific authentication method like SASL and/or authenticating with nickserv I think in general Matrix has more mindshare amongst Linux users as a modern alternative to IRC, which I think is worth considering when comparing frequency of posts on Reddit: https://old.reddit.com/r/linux/search?q=matrix&restrict_sr=on&sort=relevanc… -Josh On Sat, 2020-01-11 at 22:59 -0500, Tim Keller via WLUG wrote: > This morning I went out and created a meetup group for WLUG: > https://www.meetup.com/Worcester-Linux-Users-Group and paid for six > months. Feel free to go and join up if you'd like. > The matrix stuff is cool, I cut my teeth on IRC so I'm always partial > to the old school but I also understand that eventually we'll want a > slack channel as well maybe. > > Tim. > > > > > On Fri, Jan 10, 2020 at 4:07 PM Anderson, Charles R via WLUG < > wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> wrote: > > We also have an IRC channel: > > > > > > > > http://www.wlug.org/participate.html > > > > > > > > Internet Relay Chat > > > > > > > > Join the realtime chat on our IRC channel. > > > > > > > > Connect your IRC client to irc.freenode.net > > > > Join the #wlug-ma channel or join directly from this link: > > irc://irc.freenode.net/#wlug-ma. > > > > See more information about Freenode and join the chat from your > > web browser > > > > > > > > but maybe IRC is too old school--no one chats on it anymore. > > > > > > > > On Fri, Jan 10, 2020 at 04:03:14PM -0500, Joshua Stone via WLUG > > wrote: > > > > > Hey all, > > > > > > > > > > Last night's meeting was excellent, and I'd like say thanks again > > to > > > > > Tim for giving me a ride home! > > > > > > > > > > Last night's discussion gave me ideas of ways we could improve > > general > > > > > activity, increase attendence, and improve outreach efforts. > > Hosting a > > > > > meetup.com group would be certainly improve discoverability, and > > > > > getting in touch with WPI's computer science group would be great > > too. > > > > > > > > > > I think what a lot communities are doing nowadays is having a > > text chat > > > > > format for users who want to communicate more easily over the > > internet, > > > > > especially with mobile devices. As an example, there are Discord > > > > > servers for Fedora, Ubuntu, OpenSUSE, etc, and they have room > > sizes > > > > > generally in the hundreds or even well over a thousand. Even > > before > > > > > Discord they'd use IRC for providing support, posting updates, > > etc. > > > > > > > > > > Having a text chat of our own would certainly help improve > > > > > participation -- I think Matrix would be a good option here > > because it > > > > > has many nice features and has a fairly polished user experience: > > > > > > > > > > - Numerous clients available on desktop, mobile, and web ( > > > > > https://matrix.org/clients/ > > > > > - Persistent chat history > > > > > - Link previews > > > > > - Various bots to choose from for adding functionality ( > > > > > https://matrix.org/docs/projects/bots/ > > > > > - User moderation > > > > > - Server federation > > > > > - Self-hosting available, both client and server are completely > > FOSS > > > > > - File sharing > > > > > - Voice/video calls > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > I have a screenshot if anyone wants to see what a Matrix chat > > room > > > > > would look like: > > > > > > > > > > https://i.imgur.com/aVILcWB.png > > > > > > > > > > Or you can join the room I made: > > > > > > > > > > https://matrix.to/#/!EiTljkvagZDFKfQfFu:matrix.org?via=matrix.org > > > > > > > > > > Alteratively, if you have a Matrix client already: > > > > > > > > > > #wlug:matrix.org > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Any thoughts? > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > -Josh > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > > WLUG mailing list -- wlug(a)lists.wlug.org > > > > To unsubscribe send an email to wlug-leave(a)lists.wlug.org > > > > > _______________________________________________WLUG mailing list -- > wlug(a)lists.wlug.org > To unsubscribe send an email to wlug-leave(a)lists.wlug.org

Jan. 12, 2020

Re: [EXT] The future of WLUG

by Tim Keller

This morning I went out and created a meetup group for WLUG: https://www.meetup.com/Worcester-Linux-Users-Group and paid for six months. Feel free to go and join up if you'd like. The matrix stuff is cool, I cut my teeth on IRC so I'm always partial to the old school but I also understand that eventually we'll want a slack channel as well maybe. Tim. On Fri, Jan 10, 2020 at 4:07 PM Anderson, Charles R via WLUG < wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> wrote: > We also have an IRC channel: > > http://www.wlug.org/participate.html > > Internet Relay Chat > > Join the realtime chat on our IRC channel. > > Connect your IRC client to irc.freenode.net > Join the #wlug-ma channel or join directly from this link: irc:// > irc.freenode.net/#wlug-ma. > See more information about Freenode and join the chat from your web > browser > > but maybe IRC is too old school--no one chats on it anymore. > > On Fri, Jan 10, 2020 at 04:03:14PM -0500, Joshua Stone via WLUG wrote: > > Hey all, > > > > Last night's meeting was excellent, and I'd like say thanks again to > > Tim for giving me a ride home! > > > > Last night's discussion gave me ideas of ways we could improve general > > activity, increase attendence, and improve outreach efforts. Hosting a > > meetup.com group would be certainly improve discoverability, and > > getting in touch with WPI's computer science group would be great too. > > > > I think what a lot communities are doing nowadays is having a text chat > > format for users who want to communicate more easily over the internet, > > especially with mobile devices. As an example, there are Discord > > servers for Fedora, Ubuntu, OpenSUSE, etc, and they have room sizes > > generally in the hundreds or even well over a thousand. Even before > > Discord they'd use IRC for providing support, posting updates, etc. > > > > Having a text chat of our own would certainly help improve > > participation -- I think Matrix would be a good option here because it > > has many nice features and has a fairly polished user experience: > > > > - Numerous clients available on desktop, mobile, and web ( > > https://matrix.org/clients/ > > - Persistent chat history > > - Link previews > > - Various bots to choose from for adding functionality ( > > https://matrix.org/docs/projects/bots/ > > - User moderation > > - Server federation > > - Self-hosting available, both client and server are completely FOSS > > - File sharing > > - Voice/video calls > > > > > > I have a screenshot if anyone wants to see what a Matrix chat room > > would look like: > > > > https://i.imgur.com/aVILcWB.png > > > > Or you can join the room I made: > > > > https://matrix.to/#/!EiTljkvagZDFKfQfFu:matrix.org?via=matrix.org > > > > Alteratively, if you have a Matrix client already: > > > > #wlug:matrix.org > > > > > > > > Any thoughts? > > > > > > -Josh > _______________________________________________ > WLUG mailing list -- wlug(a)lists.wlug.org > To unsubscribe send an email to wlug-leave(a)lists.wlug.org > -- I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their constituents as "consumers".

Jan. 12, 2020