Closing communitynetworks.group

The communitynetworks.group platform will be shut down in the near future as it has not developed sufficient momentum to justify its ongoing support. The platform will remain up until the 31st of July 2024 in order to allow users time to extract any resources they may wish to retain. After that, the domain will redirect to the APC LOCNET home page.

A word of appreciation to everyone who has participated here.

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And a huge thanks to you @steve for keeping this resource alive for so long. Cheers to all involved.

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Seconded. You’ve been an inspiration, Steve, and I hope/trust will continue to be even without this platform.

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@Steve.tg @steve I believe that is simply because very few people (who need to be) are aware of it. Would you be open to extending the lifetime of this forum by another year, so that we can engage ISOC Chapters to promote discussions around Community Networks and small ISPs here? I don’t believe ISOC’s own forums have any more traction.

If someone volunteers to help me, I will set up a wiki with some of the best practice shared here, which might become a valuable resource, that will draw more of the right audience here?

Alternately, might I suggest that instead - if you do insist on closing it - that you redirect it to Community Networks - Go local! instead? Or somewhere else where there is a community of small network builder discussions?

Hi Coenraad. I agree with you that there is a need for a discussion space like this. Unfortunately, I don’t think this is it. Somehow the format or the accessibility or something has not clicked with potential. Maybe a discord/slack/rocketchat or other fine platform might work better. I am not opposed in principle to keeping the site up but I think the downside is that it might serve to get in the way of something better that might take its place.

I like the idea of linking to archive.org and will certainly make sure that is there.

You won’t believe it.

I couldn’t find a diagramming tool. I dragged a diagram I drew with it into Google Reverse Image search - and guess what the first hit was… https://communitynetworks.group.

Also, having trialed every single platform out there, this is the best. (There’s a reason the hottest companies right now, use it too. Yes, you were ahead of the curve!)

The signal to noise on Discord and other platforms is just too low, and they can not be indexed by any search engines. The exact problem with resources like this, is that they are all fleeting. The best way to build a valuable resource - and have it gain traction - is to keep it up for at least 10 years. You can quote me on that. I guarantee you that it’s not standing in the way of anything else.

Worst case… or best: Maybe it’s not about having a lot of traction, but about catching the singular hits on the long tail, the ones that do the impossible.

Let me share the site around a bit more, though, please keep it up for another year! Or let me host it.

Hi all,
We have decided to reopen the communitynetworks.group forum for at least a transitional period where we can decide where our global community can meet to share knowledge. There has been discussion in a number of sub-communities that we still needed a searchable forum-type resource, but a more dynamic chat-like space is still needed. We are thinking of having a mailing list as well as a Matrix server bridged to a lot of diverse and fragmented community networks spaces (signal chats, Slack/Discord/Zulip servers, etc). Please get in touch with me if you are interested in joining the Matrix server, want to help maintain a bridge to your online community space, and/or want to advocate for/help maintain a specific communication platform. Thank you!

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