SocialHub either shutting down or rebooting in September

SocialHub (https://socialhub.activitypub.rocks) has an upcoming forced
transition on September 10, 2025 when the domain that hosts their email
service (required for ongoing operation) expires. The maintainer(s) do "not
intend to renew it unless there is a solid ongoing plan for the community
for taking over this infrastructure, including financially." Thread here:

https://socialhub.activitypub.rocks/t/socialhub-developer-community-reboot-or-shutdown/5445

There is even some floating of the idea that if SWICG is in charge of
activitypub.rocks, maybe SWICG could take over stewardship of SocialHub. (I
personally don't think we have the resources to do this but I wanted to
point out to the list that the discussion is happening.)

https://socialhub.activitypub.rocks/t/socialhub-developer-community-reboot-or-shutdown/5445/7

I'm curious what Forum Task Force people in particular think about this
(Julian?). My sense is that with true forum federation the community could
survive and thrive even after a SocialHub shutdown, with people posting to
topics from their software/servers of choice. Other people are arguing that
decentralized discussion will fragment the community even further, or that
perhaps context collapse between different communities will reduce the
quality of discussion. There's some discussion here:

https://socialhub.activitypub.rocks/t/against-fragmentation-unifying-dev-discussions-with-forum-federation/5402

Any thoughts? I'm particularly interested in ways SWICG could be of help to
the community in this moment.

-Darius

Received on Friday, 1 August 2025 17:37:19 UTC