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<p>Thanks Senectus, useful feedback.</p>
<p>I can't get to as many events as I'd like but with so many
resources on-line, perhaps IRL is what PLUG offers. That has a
higher cost to PLUG except PLUG in the Pub but some people may
prefer events that don't have beer and food cost. I don't know
without asking the people here or doing the meetup Onno proposed.</p>
<p>All the best<br>
Harry <br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 15/6/26 14:20, Sen ectus via plug
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CAEJ996vutZoVjjPnCwcptvvGVbDfx9JwpFDD10LJ-koFhBN3pw@mail.gmail.com">
<div dir="ltr">My involvement is dependent on whats going on in
life... so over the many years I've basically just become a
lurker.<br>
<br>
I'd like for PLUG to get a little more lively while not being
demanding... something like the <a
href="https://allthingslinux.org/" moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://allthingslinux.org/</a>
project (before it got cancelled and trolled and hacked into
oblivion).<br>
A discord like chat/forum would be nice. <br>
But again, while I use Linux daily at work and home, I'm mostly
just using it these days. I dont often get time to play or
contribute.</div>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Mon, 15 Jun 2026 at 12:16,
Harry McNally via plug <<a href="mailto:plug@plug.org.au"
moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">plug@plug.org.au</a>>
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote">
<div>
<p>Late last year, Onno and I discussed ways to find out
what subscribers might be seeking from membership of PLUG
or subscribing to the PLUG mailing list. Onno had helped
another NFP group by hosting a meeting that, after four
hours of ideas, arrived at a direction that suited the
whole group. We wondered if a special event like that
might increase IRL participation at events and encourage
paid membership to support those events. <br>
</p>
<p>To add to that Onno posted about his own experience with
Linux and, while he got a few people figuring out when
they started participating in PLUG, there wasn't a lot of
feedback to match Onno's thoughtful consideration of how
Linux has been part of his professional and technical
life. <br>
</p>
<p>It takes time to articulate and, I wondered, what am I
going to say other than that I use it every day (pretty
much exclusively other than when I use Win10 as a software
wrapper around Altium Designer) ? So, apologies Onno, this
post is a long time coming. <br>
</p>
<p>With the next Installfest less that a week away, I
thought I'd explain why I asked the committee if I could
run a series of Installfests this year. The journey begins
in the last millennium.</p>
<p>I'd been using Linux for a few years by 1999 although I
think the first system in the house was a firewall
installed for us by Harry Protoolis around 1994.</p>
<p>In the late 90's the Coalition Federal government needed
support from a Tasmanian senator for <some unrelated
bill> and he predicated his vote on the introduction of
a net censorship bill. Wikipedia is light on the
machinations but EFA has some archive material:</p>
<p><a href="https://efa.org.au/media-releases-archive/"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://efa.org.au/media-releases-archive/</a>
<br>
</p>
<p>There was a lot of campaigning by the EFA and the first
(of not very many) political rally I attended was the
Anti-Censorship Protest in Perth May 28, 1999.</p>
<p>See: <a
href="https://www.efa.org.au/Campaigns/may28/perth/index.html"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://www.efa.org.au/Campaigns/may28/perth/index.html</a></p>
<p>My reason for taking part was a technical one; that the
methods they were proposing would not work and it was easy
to take that position because CSIRO were an <span>authoritative</span>
source that were informing parliament in the same way.</p>
<p>The political reaction was savage. For anyone that
remembers, the tactic taken was that anyone who opposed
the Online Services Bill was a bomb maker, drug dealer, or
child molester.<br>
</p>
<p>I wondered, outside of the astonishment and outrage, if
more people were better informed about what the Internet
offered, then the debate might be more rational. <br>
</p>
<p>That started what turned out to be 7 years of
participation in Computer Angels in various roles and I am
forever grateful for the participation of so many other
technical supporters and non-technical volunteers for what
was a free training and awareness organisation that
supported that with a free re-furbished Linux computer. </p>
<p>But while there was a lot of support from all sides with
time and knowledge, the thing we constantly struggled with
was financial; a premises needed rent and disposal costs
for "working glass monitors" that were found to have weeds
growing through them meant we were constantly looking for
operating funds. </p>
<p>That really wore us out and stopped us in 2007.
Associations law required that we had to wind up in the
black and boxes and boxes of IEC power cables became a
skip full which went away for chipping to copper scrap.
The copper price was at a peak and we got $2400 (I think)
for the scrap which cleared our debts and, as required to
wind up, we passed the remainder to "a like-minded
association" which naturally was PLUG.</p>
<p>I've also learned that a past Benjamin (we have a few)
donated all fees from one of his consulting contracts on
to PLUG so these intermittent cash injections have helped
PLUG continue to host events; albeit frugally.</p>
<p>Skip to late 2025 and this year and with Online Services
(Age Restrictions) Bill and AI and I wondered if
Installfests could encourage a new group of users to
install Linux or become proficient with independent
content using Hugo or a Mastodon server.<br>
</p>
<p>James has demonstrated the minimal cost required to host
PLUG on Digital Lane and my own interest is still
RaspberryPi hosting on a home network. Could PLUG share
Ansible scripts or configured RPi images to download to
offer alternatives to social media algorithms ? <br>
</p>
<p>So far public attendance at the Installfests has been
mute but I have extended the promotion this time to see if
we can reach people to simply install on a retired machine
and give it a try. I see it as a Computer Angels flashmob;
all the fun but at much lower cost.</p>
<p>So the event this Saturday is on the usual page. <a
href="https://plug.org.au/installfest" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://plug.org.au/installfest</a><br>
</p>
<p>Committee has added backup/restore as a theme and I have
extended the RPi theme if anyone wants to bring ideas for
home hosting servers or all other things Pi. If you let
the list know if you are coming for an hour and what time
then it is an opportunity to get like-minded project ideas
at certain times.</p>
<p>If we get more public attendees then more hands will be
helpful. If we don't, then we can hear your ideas and
projects that you can bring. It would be great to see you
and them.</p>
<p>All the best<br>
Harry</p>
<p><br>
</p>
</div>
_______________________________________________<br>
PLUG discussion list: <a href="mailto:plug@plug.org.au"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext">plug@plug.org.au</a><br>
<a href="https://lists.plug.org.au/mailman/listinfo/plug"
rel="noreferrer" target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://lists.plug.org.au/mailman/listinfo/plug</a><br>
Committee e-mail: <a href="mailto:committee@plug.org.au"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext">committee@plug.org.au</a><br>
PLUG Membership: <a href="http://www.plug.org.au/membership"
rel="noreferrer" target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext">http://www.plug.org.au/membership</a><br>
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<span class="gmail_signature_prefix">-- </span><br>
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<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">_______________________________________________
PLUG discussion list: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:plug@plug.org.au">plug@plug.org.au</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://lists.plug.org.au/mailman/listinfo/plug">https://lists.plug.org.au/mailman/listinfo/plug</a>
Committee e-mail: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:committee@plug.org.au">committee@plug.org.au</a>
PLUG Membership: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.plug.org.au/membership">http://www.plug.org.au/membership</a>
</pre>
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