Thinking about the future of this forum

Over the past few semesters I have been working to try and slowly bring back aspects of FOSS@RIT, such as re-connecting the instant-messaging channels (IRC, Telegram, matrix, and the new discord server), holding my own FOSS hours, and keeping the site as up to date as I can.

I noticed that this site was one of the last social platforms linked to from https://fossrit.github.io that has not been revived in some way and I wanted to put a message out to the community here to see who, if anyone, is still monitoring this space and solicit opinions for its potential future.

I was recently granted elevated permissions on the site after noticing and reporting some instances of spam and am unsure which direction would make this forum most helpful to the community.

A collection of potential directions i have thought about:

  • As I will be TA-ing for HFOSS again this coming semester, I could potentially find a way to make it part of the experience for students
  • I have also been involved in some of the work being done by Jessica Lieberman in the realm of RIT’s Digital Humanities and Social Sciences (DHSS)/Humanities, Computing, and Design (HCD) programs - so maybe this space could become a place for a wider group of students to participate and collaborate on ideas
  • Since the site is hosted on OPEN@RIT infra, maybe the monetary savings to OPEN@RIT for closing it down would be helpful

Anyone have strong opinions in some way? This will likely be my last semester at RIT before I graduate, so I definitely have my eye on options that can be sustainable independent of my involvement as I shift into a Full-Time role at Red Hat post-graduation.

One other thing i noticed too is that theres fairly significant duplication between some of the information in the Discord server and this discourse (i.e. both have a job opportunities section)

i think it would be nice to integrate them so that things get cross-posted but im not sure how to make that work well.