You can track the main post on our community while it is still up (https://forum.unfinishedprojects.net/topic/46/unfinishedprojects-will-be-closing-down.)

But essentially our community that was started not too long ago was an experiment by myself and two others who were hoping to create a space on the fediverse that acted as a sort of Commons for people to iterate and work on various Openly licensed projects together (of all types, to include not only software but all various disciplines). See here for more on what our community hoped to become: [ https://unfinishedprojects.net/wiki/About/Vision ]

In short, it is a combination of a federated forum and a public Wiki, where individuals can collaborate and contribute to a wide array of projects - using their diverse skills, knowledge and experience - to create a hub of open projects... and allowing individuals to make small contributions without needing to commit long term to any one project.

The reason I am posting this is not to promote the platform (because I have already tried and mostly failed), but because I truly still believe in the ideas and vision that we had for it. Ultimately, I just realized that I am not able to be the one to bring this vision to life.

Although I know it's unlikely, it would be nice if someone else saw the same potential for this platform to create a space on the internet that fights against the internet that "big tech" has been pushing for it to become.

So all that to say, I hope that this short lived experiment can either inspire someone else to iterate and improve on our failed attempt, or maybe even "take over" the already existing platform.

Either way, it was a short lived experiment, but I enjoyed the journey and the few connections I made along the way! If nothing else, it helped me reflect on our current standing of internet spaces, and what they might someday be able to evolve into given we have enough buy-in from like minded individuals.

I know most of you have probably never heard of our platform, but for those of you that have and engaged with it in any way, I appreciate your time and I apologize for any wasted time or effort in our shutting down after only launching recently.

• Anthony and the Unfinished Projects Team

You can track the main post on our community while it is still up (https://forum.unfinishedprojects.net/topic/46/unfinishedprojects-will-be-closing-down.)

But essentially our community that was started not too long ago was an experiment by myself and two others who were hoping to create a space on the fediverse that acted as a sort of Commons for people to iterate and work on various Openly licensed projects together (of all types, to include not only software but all various disciplines). See here for more on what our community hoped to become: [ https://unfinishedprojects.net/wiki/About/Vision ]

In short, it is a combination of a federated forum and a public Wiki, where individuals can collaborate and contribute to a wide array of projects - using their diverse skills, knowledge and experience - to create a hub of open projects... and allowing individuals to make small contributions without needing to commit long term to any one project.

The reason I am posting this is not to promote the platform (because I have already tried and mostly failed), but because I truly still believe in the ideas and vision that we had for it. Ultimately, I just realized that I am not able to be the one to bring this vision to life.

Although I know it's unlikely, it would be nice if someone else saw the same potential for this platform to create a space on the internet that fights against the internet that "big tech" has been pushing for it to become.

So all that to say, I hope that this short lived experiment can either inspire someone else to iterate and improve on our failed attempt, or maybe even "take over" the already existing platform.

Either way, it was a short lived experiment, but I enjoyed the journey and the few connections I made along the way! If nothing else, it helped me reflect on our current standing of internet spaces, and what they might someday be able to evolve into given we have enough buy-in from like minded individuals.

I know most of you have probably never heard of our platform, but for those of you that have and engaged with it in any way, I appreciate your time and I apologize for any wasted time or effort in our shutting down after only launching recently.

• Anthony and the Unfinished Projects Team

cross-posted from: https://forum.unfinishedprojects.net/post/130

I have simply been thinking this idea through for quite some time, and wanted to put it to words partly for my own sake to organize my thoughts, but also partly because I want to put the idea out into the world and hear other's thoughts.

Libraries have a generally positive image in our societies, regardless of the political spectrum.

I think this simple fact is worth pointing out simply for a "branding" perspective. Often ideas may appear over idealistic, unrealistic, or misaligned with individual's political or economic stances. I think if it is possible to frame a new system or idea in relation to libraries, it can soften the "shock factor" of an idea that may appear idealistic to people indoctrinated into the beliefs that modern society has tricked us into thinking is the only way things can realistically be done.

Spinoffs of the traditional library are already a thing:

There are already things like tools libraries, Seed Libraries, and even anarchist ideas of a library economy.

The Idea I have been tossing around in my head:

A "Library" or "Community Center" that is actually a large outdoor space (similar to a park in a city center) that is fenced and largely consists of food producing plants (food forest/garden). This space would have many "sleeping pods" throughout the outdoor space that can be reserved by individuals (primarily to help the homeless community, but usable by anyone). In addition, there would be a small handful of cabins or cottages where the "librarians" would live on site and would act as stewards to the space (gardening, managing check-ins, ensuring the place stays clean and safe, etc.) Since the space is essentially a large gated, with a few stewards who live on property, the costs would be limited to run and manage (the stewards would be paid, and given benefits, however their housing would be covered).

The "library" could offer a variety of various services to include:

• Free food from the fruits and vegetables grown on-site
• A safe place to sleep via the various sleep pods (and public restrooms)
• Tools/equipment library - especially outdoor tools
• Seed Library for native plants of the area
• Classes on things such as gardening, uses of local herbs, crafts, etc.

Implementation

Obviously ideas are easy, and implementation is almost always the issue...but I think that is actually maybe more of my actual main point. Something so simple and not-at-all groundbreaking is seen as a utopian socialistic dream that people would likely scoff and say "well in a perfect world, yeah - but..."

But why do ideas that would obviously cause so much value for so many people have to be dismissed so quickly? I am not saying that my idea is fleshed out, or not missing key details that would need to logistically be planned out - but this isn't something that a city couldn't realistically budget for and implement. (I think that) it's that ideas like this that are too quickly dismissed, instead of actually finding what is broken with the idea and iterating on it until we find something that works. Instead we dismiss the idea and stick to the same old systems that we know don't work. And yes, I know its because big money, politics, and our whole system works to support the elite and not the majority, but to think if just one or two billionaires wanted to ACTUALLY make a difference...the things that could be accomplished. And the precedence it could set.

Well, that's all I have for my late night rant. I know my thoughts and writing were all over the place, but mostly just wanted to get my thoughts written down and see if anyone else had any thoughts on the matter. :)

#Anarchism #Capitalism #Sociology #Community #Commons

cross-posted from: https://forum.unfinishedprojects.net/post/130

I have simply been thinking this idea through for quite some time, and wanted to put it to words partly for my own sake to organize my thoughts, but also partly because I want to put the idea out into the world and hear other's thoughts.

Libraries have a generally positive image in our societies, regardless of the political spectrum.

I think this simple fact is worth pointing out simply for a "branding" perspective. Often ideas may appear over idealistic, unrealistic, or misaligned with individual's political or economic stances. I think if it is possible to frame a new system or idea in relation to libraries, it can soften the "shock factor" of an idea that may appear idealistic to people indoctrinated into the beliefs that modern society has tricked us into thinking is the only way things can realistically be done.

Spinoffs of the traditional library are already a thing:

There are already things like tools libraries, Seed Libraries, and even anarchist ideas of a library economy.

The Idea I have been tossing around in my head:

A "Library" or "Community Center" that is actually a large outdoor space (similar to a park in a city center) that is fenced and largely consists of food producing plants (food forest/garden). This space would have many "sleeping pods" throughout the outdoor space that can be reserved by individuals (primarily to help the homeless community, but usable by anyone). In addition, there would be a small handful of cabins or cottages where the "librarians" would live on site and would act as stewards to the space (gardening, managing check-ins, ensuring the place stays clean and safe, etc.) Since the space is essentially a large gated, with a few stewards who live on property, the costs would be limited to run and manage (the stewards would be paid, and given benefits, however their housing would be covered).

The "library" could offer a variety of various services to include:

• Free food from the fruits and vegetables grown on-site
• A safe place to sleep via the various sleep pods (and public restrooms)
• Tools/equipment library - especially outdoor tools
• Seed Library for native plants of the area
• Classes on things such as gardening, uses of local herbs, crafts, etc.

Implementation

Obviously ideas are easy, and implementation is almost always the issue...but I think that is actually maybe more of my actual main point. Something so simple and not-at-all groundbreaking is seen as a utopian socialistic dream that people would likely scoff and say "well in a perfect world, yeah - but..."

But why do ideas that would obviously cause so much value for so many people have to be dismissed so quickly? I am not saying that my idea is fleshed out, or not missing key details that would need to logistically be planned out - but this isn't something that a city couldn't realistically budget for and implement. (I think that) it's that ideas like this that are too quickly dismissed, instead of actually finding what is broken with the idea and iterating on it until we find something that works. Instead we dismiss the idea and stick to the same old systems that we know don't work. And yes, I know its because big money, politics, and our whole system works to support the elite and not the majority, but to think if just one or two billionaires wanted to ACTUALLY make a difference...the things that could be accomplished. And the precedence it could set.

Well, that's all I have for my late night rant. I know my thoughts and writing were all over the place, but mostly just wanted to get my thoughts written down and see if anyone else had any thoughts on the matter. :)

#Anarchism #Capitalism #Sociology #Community #Commons

cross-posted from: https://piefed.zip/c/foss/p/1548253/we-are-trying-to-grow-a-new-foss-collaboration-community

A few of us have put together a forum and wiki in the hopes to build a community focused on collaboration for various open source and creative commons projects. We build the platform a few months ago, but haven't done the greatest job of actually spreading the word and building up the active members, so I'm posting in another attempt to try and spread the word to establish some activity for our community.

In short, the idea behind our website is to:

1. Build a community that is based on genuine connections and collaboration. Our community is a forum and wiki, and hopes to steer towards a slower (and possibly more old school) type of internet - and away from some communities that are mostly article reposts and memes.
2. Libre/foss/creative commons/etc - we want to help generate community that can come together to work on projects that benefit everyone, and in a way, push back against some of the urges of capitalism.
3. Involvement - we want to welcome everyone, but the idea is to eventually create a culture where people are not afraid to contribute small things to many projects. We want to motivate individuals to grow the foss ecosystem without feeling like they need to commit heavily to any one project. Projects can get rekindled and improved on even if others have abandoned it.

Overall, we have a big vision for the community - but at this point we are just trying to get it off the ground and are looking for members to sign up and start some discussions to help us grow.

The goal is to create a community that is able to stand on its own, and outlast myself or any of the other admins. And essentially become a commons space, with the current admins simply acting as a steward that can be replaced if they need/want to step down. In that respect, we hope to get some members and allow the community to grow and evolve the platform to fit the needs of the community.

While modern social media has its place, we felt that the current standing of online collaborative spaces were limiting and often highly niche. We hope that maybe we can grow a space for people of various skills, backgrounds, and ideas can come together to create a creative and productive space - and make some lasting connections as well.

I know this post got a bit lengthy, and many will probably skim over it, but if it's something that sounds interesting to you I would really appreciate it if you came over and checked it out, signed up, and maybe help us get some discussions going to help us grow our community. And of course, if you would be so kind as to helping us spread the word, it would be greatly appreciated - as we spent so much time working on building the site, but none of us are all that great at actually "marketing" the community to actually find new members.

Our forum is: forum.UnfinishedProjects.net

And our wiki, where we hope people will actually build out various projects together is located at:

UnfinishedProjects.net

cross-posted from: https://piefed.zip/c/foss/p/1548253/we-are-trying-to-grow-a-new-foss-collaboration-community

A few of us have put together a forum and wiki in the hopes to build a community focused on collaboration for various open source and creative commons projects. We build the platform a few months ago, but haven't done the greatest job of actually spreading the word and building up the active members, so I'm posting in another attempt to try and spread the word to establish some activity for our community.

In short, the idea behind our website is to:

1. Build a community that is based on genuine connections and collaboration. Our community is a forum and wiki, and hopes to steer towards a slower (and possibly more old school) type of internet - and away from some communities that are mostly article reposts and memes.
2. Libre/foss/creative commons/etc - we want to help generate community that can come together to work on projects that benefit everyone, and in a way, push back against some of the urges of capitalism.
3. Involvement - we want to welcome everyone, but the idea is to eventually create a culture where people are not afraid to contribute small things to many projects. We want to motivate individuals to grow the foss ecosystem without feeling like they need to commit heavily to any one project. Projects can get rekindled and improved on even if others have abandoned it.

Overall, we have a big vision for the community - but at this point we are just trying to get it off the ground and are looking for members to sign up and start some discussions to help us grow.

The goal is to create a community that is able to stand on its own, and outlast myself or any of the other admins. And essentially become a commons space, with the current admins simply acting as a steward that can be replaced if they need/want to step down. In that respect, we hope to get some members and allow the community to grow and evolve the platform to fit the needs of the community.

While modern social media has its place, we felt that the current standing of online collaborative spaces were limiting and often highly niche. We hope that maybe we can grow a space for people of various skills, backgrounds, and ideas can come together to create a creative and productive space - and make some lasting connections as well.

I know this post got a bit lengthy, and many will probably skim over it, but if it's something that sounds interesting to you I would really appreciate it if you came over and checked it out, signed up, and maybe help us get some discussions going to help us grow our community. And of course, if you would be so kind as to helping us spread the word, it would be greatly appreciated - as we spent so much time working on building the site, but none of us are all that great at actually "marketing" the community to actually find new members.

Our forum is: forum.UnfinishedProjects.net

And our wiki, where we hope people will actually build out various projects together is located at:

UnfinishedProjects.net

cross-posted from: https://piefed.zip/c/foss/p/1548253/we-are-trying-to-grow-a-new-foss-collaboration-community

A few of us have put together a forum and wiki in the hopes to build a community focused on collaboration for various open source and creative commons projects. We build the platform a few months ago, but haven't done the greatest job of actually spreading the word and building up the active members, so I'm posting in another attempt to try and spread the word to establish some activity for our community.

In short, the idea behind our website is to:

1. Build a community that is based on genuine connections and collaboration. Our community is a forum and wiki, and hopes to steer towards a slower (and possibly more old school) type of internet - and away from some communities that are mostly article reposts and memes.
2. Libre/foss/creative commons/etc - we want to help generate community that can come together to work on projects that benefit everyone, and in a way, push back against some of the urges of capitalism.
3. Involvement - we want to welcome everyone, but the idea is to eventually create a culture where people are not afraid to contribute small things to many projects. We want to motivate individuals to grow the foss ecosystem without feeling like they need to commit heavily to any one project. Projects can get rekindled and improved on even if others have abandoned it.

Overall, we have a big vision for the community - but at this point we are just trying to get it off the ground and are looking for members to sign up and start some discussions to help us grow.

The goal is to create a community that is able to stand on its own, and outlast myself or any of the other admins. And essentially become a commons space, with the current admins simply acting as a steward that can be replaced if they need/want to step down. In that respect, we hope to get some members and allow the community to grow and evolve the platform to fit the needs of the community.

While modern social media has its place, we felt that the current standing of online collaborative spaces were limiting and often highly niche. We hope that maybe we can grow a space for people of various skills, backgrounds, and ideas can come together to create a creative and productive space - and make some lasting connections as well.

I know this post got a bit lengthy, and many will probably skim over it, but if it's something that sounds interesting to you I would really appreciate it if you came over and checked it out, signed up, and maybe help us get some discussions going to help us grow our community. And of course, if you would be so kind as to helping us spread the word, it would be greatly appreciated - as we spent so much time working on building the site, but none of us are all that great at actually "marketing" the community to actually find new members.

Our forum is: forum.UnfinishedProjects.net

And our wiki, where we hope people will actually build out various projects together is located at:

UnfinishedProjects.net

A few of us have put together a forum and wiki in the hopes to build a community focused on collaboration for various open source and creative commons projects. We build the platform a few months ago, but haven't done the greatest job of actually spreading the word and building up the active members, so I'm posting in another attempt to try and spread the word to establish some activity for our community.

In short, the idea behind our website is to:

1. Build a community that is based on genuine connections and collaboration. Our community is a forum and wiki, and hopes to steer towards a slower (and possibly more old school) type of internet - and away from some communities that are mostly article reposts and memes.
2. Libre/foss/creative commons/etc - we want to help generate community that can come together to work on projects that benefit everyone, and in a way, push back against some of the urges of capitalism.
3. Involvement - we want to welcome everyone, but the idea is to eventually create a culture where people are not afraid to contribute small things to many projects. We want to motivate individuals to grow the foss ecosystem without feeling like they need to commit heavily to any one project. Projects can get rekindled and improved on even if others have abandoned it.

Overall, we have a big vision for the community - but at this point we are just trying to get it off the ground and are looking for members to sign up and start some discussions to help us grow.

The goal is to create a community that is able to stand on its own, and outlast myself or any of the other admins. And essentially become a commons space, with the current admins simply acting as a steward that can be replaced if they need/want to step down. In that respect, we hope to get some members and allow the community to grow and evolve the platform to fit the needs of the community.

While modern social media has its place, we felt that the current standing of online collaborative spaces were limiting and often highly niche. We hope that maybe we can grow a space for people of various skills, backgrounds, and ideas can come together to create a creative and productive space - and make some lasting connections as well.

I know this post got a bit lengthy, and many will probably skim over it, but if it's something that sounds interesting to you I would really appreciate it if you came over and checked it out, signed up, and maybe help us get some discussions going to help us grow our community. And of course, if you would be so kind as to helping us spread the word, it would be greatly appreciated - as we spent so much time working on building the site, but none of us are all that great at actually "marketing" the community to actually find new members.

Our forum is: forum.UnfinishedProjects.net

And our wiki, where we hope people will actually build out various projects together is located at:

UnfinishedProjects.net

We have launched our wiki and forum that is built around collaboration on Libre projects. The aim is to create a community built around genuine and lasting connections, where people can work together on various projects across various disciplines - from artists to software developers...we hope to create a hub for skill-sharing and project creation.

In an age of instant connection, we are still remarkably lonely in our creative work. You can have a niche interest and instantly find someone across the globe who shares it — but sharing isn't the same as collaborating. At some point in your creative journey, you may lack a specific skill or just need fresh ideas to move forward.

UnfinishedProjects is an attempt to connect you with other creative individuals and serve as a hub for open-licensed work. Our goal is to enable small, meaningful contributions across multiple projects, allowing us to move them forward together. It is an experiment in breaking isolation . . . an attempt to bring stalled ideas, or those simply too complex to finish alone, back to life through the power of collective contributions.

We aren't just another place to talk about what we like. We don't want to be yet another modern social media platform. We have faith in selfless connections and aim to build a place for meaningful and thoughtful discussions. We want to promote collaboration over self-promotion — a space where "incomplete" is not a shame or failure, but an opportunity to exchange with others, to build together, and eventually . . . to share the feeling of pride in what you've achieved.

We hope some of you will check out our platform as we try to establish our community.
Feel free to stop by our forum and introduce yourself at https://forum.unfinishedprojects.net/ - or read more about or community vision on our wiki at https://unfinishedprojects.net/wiki/About/Vision

In an age with modern social media and internet, it can sometimes be hard to sit down and dedicate time to build lasting relationships and communities, but we hope that our forum is taking a step in the right direction, and that you will help us build it into a community that brings back some purpose into our digital lives.

We have launched our wiki and forum that is built around collaboration on Libre projects. The aim is to create a community built around genuine and lasting connections, where people can work together on various projects across various disciplines - from artists to software developers...we hope to create a hub for skill-sharing and project creation.

In an age of instant connection, we are still remarkably lonely in our creative work. You can have a niche interest and instantly find someone across the globe who shares it — but sharing isn't the same as collaborating. At some point in your creative journey, you may lack a specific skill or just need fresh ideas to move forward.

UnfinishedProjects is an attempt to connect you with other creative individuals and serve as a hub for open-licensed work. Our goal is to enable small, meaningful contributions across multiple projects, allowing us to move them forward together. It is an experiment in breaking isolation . . . an attempt to bring stalled ideas, or those simply too complex to finish alone, back to life through the power of collective contributions.

We aren't just another place to talk about what we like. We don't want to be yet another modern social media platform. We have faith in selfless connections and aim to build a place for meaningful and thoughtful discussions. We want to promote collaboration over self-promotion — a space where "incomplete" is not a shame or failure, but an opportunity to exchange with others, to build together, and eventually . . . to share the feeling of pride in what you've achieved.

We hope some of you will check out our platform as we try to establish our community.
Feel free to stop by our forum and introduce yourself at https://forum.unfinishedprojects.net/ - or read more about or community vision on our wiki at https://unfinishedprojects.net/wiki/About/Vision

In an age with modern social media and internet, it can sometimes be hard to sit down and dedicate time to build lasting relationships and communities, but we hope that our forum is taking a step in the right direction, and that you will help us build it into a community that brings back some purpose into our digital lives.

We have launched our wiki and forum that is built around collaboration on Libre projects. The aim is to create a community built around genuine and lasting connections, where people can work together on various projects across various disciplines - from artists to software developers...we hope to create a hub for skill-sharing and project creation.

In an age of instant connection, we are still remarkably lonely in our creative work. You can have a niche interest and instantly find someone across the globe who shares it — but sharing isn't the same as collaborating. At some point in your creative journey, you may lack a specific skill or just need fresh ideas to move forward.

UnfinishedProjects is an attempt to connect you with other creative individuals and serve as a hub for open-licensed work. Our goal is to enable small, meaningful contributions across multiple projects, allowing us to move them forward together. It is an experiment in breaking isolation . . . an attempt to bring stalled ideas, or those simply too complex to finish alone, back to life through the power of collective contributions.

We aren't just another place to talk about what we like. We don't want to be yet another modern social media platform. We have faith in selfless connections and aim to build a place for meaningful and thoughtful discussions. We want to promote collaboration over self-promotion — a space where "incomplete" is not a shame or failure, but an opportunity to exchange with others, to build together, and eventually . . . to share the feeling of pride in what you've achieved.

We hope some of you will check out our platform as we try to establish our community.
Feel free to stop by our forum and introduce yourself at https://forum.unfinishedprojects.net/ - or read more about or community vision on our wiki at https://unfinishedprojects.net/wiki/About/Vision

In an age with modern social media and internet, it can sometimes be hard to sit down and dedicate time to build lasting relationships and communities, but we hope that our forum is taking a step in the right direction, and that you will help us build it into a community that brings back some purpose into our digital lives.

We have launched our wiki and forum that is built around collaboration on Libre projects. The aim is to create a community built around genuine and lasting connections, where people can work together on various projects across various disciplines - from artists to software developers...we hope to create a hub for skill-sharing and project creation.

In an age of instant connection, we are still remarkably lonely in our creative work. You can have a niche interest and instantly find someone across the globe who shares it — but sharing isn't the same as collaborating. At some point in your creative journey, you may lack a specific skill or just need fresh ideas to move forward.

UnfinishedProjects is an attempt to connect you with other creative individuals and serve as a hub for open-licensed work. Our goal is to enable small, meaningful contributions across multiple projects, allowing us to move them forward together. It is an experiment in breaking isolation . . . an attempt to bring stalled ideas, or those simply too complex to finish alone, back to life through the power of collective contributions.

We aren't just another place to talk about what we like. We don't want to be yet another modern social media platform. We have faith in selfless connections and aim to build a place for meaningful and thoughtful discussions. We want to promote collaboration over self-promotion — a space where "incomplete" is not a shame or failure, but an opportunity to exchange with others, to build together, and eventually . . . to share the feeling of pride in what you've achieved.

We hope some of you will check out our platform as we try to establish our community.
Feel free to stop by our forum and introduce yourself at https://forum.unfinishedprojects.net/ - or read more about or community vision on our wiki at https://unfinishedprojects.net/wiki/About/Vision

In an age with modern social media and internet, it can sometimes be hard to sit down and dedicate time to build lasting relationships and communities, but we hope that our forum is taking a step in the right direction, and that you will help us build it into a community that brings back some purpose into our digital lives.