July 2026 - Free-software-melb - lists.softwarefreedom.com.au

Re: Shutting down freesoftware.org.au domain/website?
by Ben Sturmfels 22 Jul '26

22 Jul '26

On 21/7/26 17:15, Matt Cengia wrote: > >> On 21 Jul 2026, at 11:36, Ben Sturmfels via Free-software-melb >> <free-software-melb(a)lists.softwarefreedom.com.au> wrote: >> >> 2. Convert the website to use a static site generator for ease of >> future hosting (currently a database-driven site). Doing this, rather >> than just taking an HTML archive, leaves the door open for future >> updates. I don't suppose anyone is an expert on Hugo or another >> non-JS static site generator? I can script an export of all blog >> entries and pages to Markdown. > > I can speak Hugo, but don't really have capacity to help out much, and > having used it for a few years for my own site, generally wouldn't > wish Go templating upon anyone if I could help it. If I were looking > to build a static site today and avoid any of the JS-based website > generators (e.g. 11ty, which I keep hearing really good things about, > or Astro), I'd probably look at a Python option like Pelican. > https://jamstack.org/generators/ > I know some SSGs use Jinja templates so if you're coming from > something using that, it might make migration simpler Very interesting to hear, thanks Matt. I've used Pelican a couple of times over the years, but figured I should get out of my comfort zone and see why Hugo is so popular. Thanks for the tips. Ben

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Places to discuss free software ethics and social aspects
by Russell Coker 21 Jul '26

21 Jul '26

When discussing what the future of this group should be I think we need to consider the ways of communicating. Matrix is good for IM, has some nice features, but is a pain in some areas at the moment. It's something that would be good for people in this group to use. I would not encourage Ben to run a Matrix server because it does have some pain points and has ongoing work to manage it. If anyone wants a free Matrix account under the luv.asn.au domain then let me know. I can also provide test Matrix accounts and rooms and help with bot development. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastodon_(social_network) https://nzoss.nz./ Mastodon is a good service for sending out announcements of things and starting discussions. In this regaard for my use it is approaching the utility that Twitter used to have before Elon bought it. The downside of Mastodon when compared to good (pre-Elon) Twitter is that you can't use it to contact companies which isn't a downside for what we are discussing. The NZOSS people gave Flounder a Mastodon account and they are happy to give out other accounts to people doing OSS stuff. If we are going to revive or reinvent this group then I think that NZ should be included too because there are similar cultural and legal issues and there are some good people in the NZOSS who could join. Also they run some good services that are a real pain to setup, BBB is one of the services they provide and running your own instance of that is too horrible to consider. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemmy_(social_network) https://lemmy.ml/ Lemmy is a useful service. It is not even 10% as popular as Reddit but the quality is high. I am mystified and disappointed by the lack of interest in using it by Flounder members. Regardless I think it should be considered and maybe with a different group of people a different result will be achieved. I don't know enough about Lemmy to know if lemmy.ml is the best server to use, but it works quite well for me so it's a decent option. Facebook can be used for getting new people involved. Create a group with a suitable name and get some people to post content to it and it will get recommended to people. Then encourage them to use free software communication systems. For the things this group is about I think getting people from outside the traditional Linux community is a good thing. What do you think? -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/

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Shutting down freesoftware.org.au domain/website?
by Ben Sturmfels 21 Jul '26

21 Jul '26

Hi Folks, auDA (au Domain Administration) are tightening up their management of .org.au domains. I have previously registered and paid for the Free Software Melbourne/Australia website domain freesoftware.org.au myself, but that's likely no longer possible. They need an ABN of a non-profit. This brings forward a few questions about the website such as whether we shut it down or try to transfer the domain to someone else. I'll make some notes here and would be interested to hear any reactions. Background ---------- FSM has always been an informal group. It's not incorporated so isn't a business entity in a technical sense. This means it can't register a domain. The group has been inactive for a while. It started up back in 2010 to talk about the ethics and social aspects of free software and open source, rather than just the technology. It met regularly for more than 10 years and a lot of interesting discussions were had. With the explosion of interest in open source, it's also become harder to run a group with a broad subject. There's a lot competing for people's attention. The website is currently three things: 1. A Django/Mezzanine CMS with all the event details and pages (https://freesoftware.org.au/) It's been OK, but if the group did take off again, a static-site generator might be easier to maintain long-term. 2. A MoinMoin wiki (https://freesoftware.org.au/wiki/) This was unused even when the group was still active. 3. A MediaGoblin site hosting talk videos (https://media.freesoftware.org.au/) The mailing lists have always remained on the original domain I registered way back in 2009, https://lists.softwarefreedom.com.au/ so no immediate action required there. Options ------- The options that come to mind are: A) Shut it all down. I would feel a bit bad about turning off the website, but I guess the value was really in the relationships and experiences that people had, not so much in an asset like the website. B) See if Linux Australia will accept the domain. This would be deferring the hard decision about the future of the group. C) Switch to a non .org.au domain. Similar compromise to B. I'm probably leaning towards A. I think there's something healthy in calling a clean end to something and making way for the new things that might fill its place. Happy to be convinced otherwise. Regards, Ben

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