If data ownership / control is a concern, perhaps just set up an agreement whereby some activitypub related nonprofit entity owns the data, contracts with Pavilion to provide hosting for some nominal fee (i.e. $1; otherwise the contract would not be real for lack of “consideration”). In a previously life I was a lawyer, so happy to draft the agreement if such an entity exists. I really don’t mind how we structure this.
Are you able to make any promises regarding archiving of existing and current content?
In many respects I think it would be useful to provide a neutral archive of content on a git forge.
I would not know how easy that is given I dont touch Discourse.
(and thanks for volunteering your services!)
Sure! Like I said, I really don’t mind. You can easily make dumps of discourse databases (it’s a built in feature). We can pipe those somewhere pretty easily.
Thank you for your willingness to help here – and for the flexibility!
One of the challenges in the transition so far is that there isn’t yet an entity that’s expressed interest and meets @how’s criteria (and some of the obvious potential entities may not meet those criteria, for example if they’re US-based then it’s hard to see that as secure against fascism no matter the intent of the entity). So a possible short-term solution is for petites singularités to put a contract like that in place – others have said they’d be willing to contribute funding (as would I). This fits in well with renewing the domain as an interim solution, so continuity won’t be lost, and the contract can then be transferred when the right entity is found.
Thank you, that was helpful additional context.
I think that’s a great idea. If we don’t have an entity that can be the owner for now, I’m also personally fine with setting this aside for now and revising when such an entity can be brought into existence. Again, I certainly hope I didn’t hurt any feelings. I have no reason to distrust you individually, just wanted to bring it up for discussion more broadly.
Love that idea!
Makes a lot of sense to me if P.S. is willing to take on this role, as a way of “easing” the transition. But if they’re disinterested, that would be perfectly understandable of course.
Then I’ll proceed with making backups, adding @angus to root access on the VPS, and we can move on with this. @angus feel free to PM me. Once we’re done, I’ll remove admin to myself, so you all know it’s done.
How do you feel about this @how? The Discourse ActivityPub plugin wouldn’t exist without you so I don’t want to do anything you’re uncomfortable with.
I trust you @angus. If the community shares this sentiment, I think we should proceed. You have been doing an amazing work on the Discourse ActivityPub plugin and making this and other forums interconnect.
Yes truly amazing work. You have my trust too @angus and thank you for all your efforts!
… and thanks again to you for all your years of service!