Re: FYI: solid.community pod shutting down

FYI: I had a quite long chat with some involved, around my suggestion of
putting things back the way they were

Firstly, I dont, and will never understand why that option was taken off
the table so quickly.  The server I left running was gone the next day.
If, as a community, we decided to recover, that choice was taken from us.

Out of genuine respect for the individual I spoke to, I wont divulge the
details of the conversation

Sadly, my offer to put things back to the way they were before, and point
my domain solid.community back at the user data, in order to give users
back their data and webids was rejected :(

I think it's a bad idea for those that took our data to name their new
"community" site so similar to our because you run the risk of causing
confusion, in future.

So I will focus more on health now.  But, if I was doing this again the
lessons learnt

1. Undoubtedly put the server and domain under the same point of control.
What project can start off well, gets forgotten over time.  After 2.5 years
nobody remembers what went before

2. See (1)

3. Dont underestimate how much work running a pod can be.  To be woken up
in the night.  To have to cancel plans on your birthday.  To have to do
emergency repair the day after christmas.  All happened

4. Have a good team based on a web of trust.  Never on top down upstream
appointments.

5. Realize that a "white swan" event is always just around the corner.
Some new release doing the wrong thing.  A hack.  The server going off.
The disk crashing.  Someone adding content that breaks a law.

6. Realize that if you create something of value, others will look at it
and think they can capture some of that value.  Beware of internal and
external pressures.  Dont compromise on user data or ethics ever.  Think
from the perspective of that one person in 1000 that you might hurt.
Protect them always.  Try to have two people with the same values running
things, find a partner.  Never sell data, never share data.  Unbelievable
pressure will be put on you to do so.  Never take one step down that
slippery slope

7. Believe in your users.  Always feel that if you serve them well, your
own success will follow.

Lots of learning experience.  Hopefully the web of read write data will
become more and more useful over time.  Perhaps some of us can start or
reboot this pod again in future, with our own server.

But for now I will be prioritizing my health, and I wish everyone a safe
and healthy winter.

On Tue, 13 Oct 2020 at 08:11, Melvin Carvalho <melvincarvalho@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Let's just put things back to the way they were before
>
> On Sat, 10 Oct 2020 at 11:27, Melvin Carvalho <melvincarvalho@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Hi All
>>
>> After a quarter of a decade the decision was made to shut down the
>> community pod.  There were a number of reasons for this, but the most
>> urgent of which was due to health issues related to the Covid-19 pandemic
>>
>> Of all the options available to me, shutting down was the least bad.
>>
>> It was quite difficult to run as a grassroots project given that we didnt
>> have any funding, didnt have our own servers, relied on others for source
>> code, and so on.
>>
>> What started as my experiment to allow users to try out node solid
>> server, took on a life of its own.  If you consider that Google Plus with
>> all their resources lasted about 2000 days, and we, as a pod, lasted almost
>> 1000, that's quite amazing really.
>>
>> I am sorry that it happened so quickly, I just felt there were limited
>> options.  There was a lot of work behind the scenes.  Given the rapid
>> escalation of the pandemic, something had to give.
>>
>> While the data is kept safe and backed up, I appreciate it is disruptive
>> to have to change a WebID that you've invested time in. I have had to do
>> this myself and I know how painful it can be.
>>
>> If there was some way for users to reclaim their webid or accounts, and
>> it was easy to run.  I'd be open to doing that, perhaps after the peak of
>> Covid-19 passes.  It would require a server tho, which we dont have at the
>> moment.
>>
>> I'd like to thank everyone that took part in our journey, especially our
>> amazing admins.  All of whom worked skillfully and tirelessly for the
>> community, sometimes for years, without ever once being paid.
>>
>> Keep safe, and hopefully we'll see each other safe and healthy after the
>> Covid-19 crisis has peaked
>>
>> Best
>> Melvin
>>
>