📕 subnode [[@flancian/social coop tech group minutes]] in 📚 node [[social-coop-tech-group-minutes]]
📓 garden/flancian/social coop tech group minutes.md by @flancian ️👁 ️📝
  • #pull [[social coop tech group]]
  • [[2022-05-13]]
    • Attending:
    • round the table catching up :)
      • [[neil]] first time in one of the tech group meetings!
        • post work on a Friday -- nice to be here!
      • [[noah]] happy the group seems to be "revived"
      • [[akshay]] like a Saturday for me due to 80% time :)
        • [[neil]] +1 here, but not off today
        • been doing it for a year
      • [[[noah]]] freelance, working four days a week
      • [[nick]] here :)
    • let's seed a potential agenda?
      • [[noah]] what was discussed at the last meeting?
      • [[nick]] handing over the keys, how to be able to disengage before the next meeting
        • if we have root in social.coop, what else do we need to get full access to all resources?
        • [[nick]] there's also the password repository, which is based on gpg keys
        • [[noah]] adding people to the pass repo is maybe the one thing where we surely need nick the most
        • [[nick]] can add Eduardo to the pass repo
          • it requires re-encrypting with all keys
          • need to find the notes on how to do this
          • [[akshay]] is it worth storing in the repo itself how to do this?
          • +1
        • we are pretty confident all credentials are in the pass repo, at least in the past 2-3y everything has been there
        • there is a lingering domain registration issue
          • we need to look up the name of the person responsible
          • [[nick]] enric duran (sp?)
          • there was discussion of transferring
          • -> let's find the loomio thread, there was a proposal for where to transfer to https://www.loomio.org/d/Jf5Wi4Ph/domain-expired-social-coop-down
          • [[noah]] it would ideally be transferred to a collective entity?
          • probably want to discuss with other working groups
        • [[akshay]] do we keep track of what we have credentials for?
          • [[noah]] no separate source except for the pass repo
          • in short:
            • admin account in the instance
            • hetzner
            • digital ocean for static storage
            • login for email aliases which is required for git access
        • we could agree on a time slot and then do some coworking on the pass repo
          • next week 2h earlier? 4pm London
        • [[nick]] make sure you have an email alias asap so you can access the git repo so you can do, well, other stuff :)
          • noah, nick, david have access
      • welcome GiacomoSansoni!
        • newbie here!
        • don't know much about tech (yet)
        • willing to learn
      • [flancian] focus areas / learning exercises
        • mastodon instance (currently on docker)
          • who does moderation?
          • there is a moderation group, [[community working group]] does it
          • [[neil]] is there anything that the tech working group does with registrations?
          • [[noah]] the wiki runs alongside the mastodon deployment and supports the process
          • [flancian] why do we do it this way instead of letting people join (with approval) and then following up?
          • [[noah]] there's the requirement of joining the open collective first, but there is potential for streamlining as long as we have energy in driving :)
          • [flancian] interested, would like to try to bring this up as a possible improvement -- in particular if we want to make it easier to onboard/grow more
          • [[neil]] there was discussion about improving the process in the strategy session
          • [[nick]] there's only one field in registration and that was considered a blocker
          • [[akshay]] it seems like mastodon in general could benefit from this
            • +1
        • backups and restores
          • secondary server?
          • [[nick]] there was some effort previously some time ago (https://git.coop/social.coop/tech/ansible/-/merge_requests/12 - although it's more about an instance for testing upgrades, but same principle for restores)
          • one of the complications was to try to bring up a new instance which isn't federating, which could mess up the fediverse
          • there's a merge request in git
          • nicks didn't reach agreement
          • wu lee (sp?)
        • new services
        • [[akshay]] instance customization
          • is there interest?
          • [[noah]] some people are definitely interested
          • [[noah]] putting together a survey in general would be useful for both gauging this and interest in new services
          • [[akshay]] themes would also be nice
          • [[nick]] there was -some- customization previously but it might have been ripped out to lower maintenance cost
          • [[neil]] in the strategy sessions people mentioned [[hometown]], main feature that was desired seemed to be local only timeline
          • [[noah]] there is some risk associated with the switch, but it shouldn't be a very involved process. [[hometown]] keeps up with mastodon pretty regularly.
          • [[darius]] is active in the fediverse and could maybe help out
          • [[nick]] deployed a hometown instance rencetly, used [[coop cloud]] for it. setting up a parallel second setup might be a good idea. https://coopcloud.tech/
          • [flancian] is there consensus on whether the community wants that?
          • [[neil]] no consensus, just has been brought up a few times
          • [[nick]] as a user, likes the concept but it adds a bit more complexity to the already relatively complex mastodon post visibility options. third party apps don't support it. it works maybe better for technology-engaged communities.
          • [[noah]] has an alt on dads.cool and it's pretty nice, but it makes sense in the context of that server
          • [will/datatitian] it's good for complaining among other coopers :)
      • (breaking here until next time)
        • [flancian] maintenance pending
        • [flancian] engagement with other working groups
          • -> could be related/linked to a solution to gender imbalance/diversity
        • [[neil]] steps for onboarding new tech WG members
          • might be linked to focus areas
        • [flancian] documentation sources of truth, do we have too many? do we share enough with other working groups?
    • checkout round
      • [[GiacomoSansoni]]: on customization, could be just put things to a vote on loomio one by one?
        • +1, this sounds like a good idea
        • send a notification to everybody on the instance requesting a proposal?
      • [[noah]] signing off, nice to see you!
      • [[nick]] glad I joined, climbed out of bed, now need to eat dinner :)
        • enjoyed it more than I thought!
          • [flancian] +1
      • [[neil]] nice to put faces to handles :)
        • +1
        • nice to get a start on how the meeting is run, looking forward to next Friday!
      • [[akshay]] was looking forward to the meeting and enjoyed it, see you next Friday :)
        • this being the second meeting it feels like the start of something
  • [[2022-04-08]]
    • Hi all :)
    • Let's try to keep communal notes here?
    • [[nick]] == [[nick sellen]] got involved in social.coop during a crisis long ago
      • saved it from going offline, stabilized for a bit
      • then david and noah came onboard
      • not very active in the instance as of late
      • periodic emergencies
        • certificate renewal
      • trying to empower others to join in, but don't have capacity for being really active again for now
      • in the UK (Bath)
    • side note: [[gender imbalance]] here pretty obvious
      • (what do we do about this?)
    • [[akshay]] been on social.coop for ~1y
      • mostly lurking :)
      • saw the certificate thing happen, thought maybe I can help
      • ops + software development experience
      • based in [[Berlin]], originally from [[India]]
    • [[idmyn]] == David
      • being in the instance for ~4y
      • joined around the same time the nicks rescued the instance
      • based in UK
      • doing some tech bits with [[Noah]] for a while, then dropped off -- mostly here to offer any knowledge that is singly homed in brain :)
      • focus areas:
    • [[flancian]] == [[Eduardo]]
      • living in [[switzerland]]
      • joined a couple of years ago, but not that involved until recently
      • when recent cert issue happened felt rusty but perhaps they could help out
      • SRE recently, linux experience
      • not sure if recent experience is relevant but willing to learn!
    • [[edsu]] == ed summers
      • been around for ~4y
      • use the instance quite a bit, notice when it goes down -- thank you nick for bringing it back every time!
      • is invested so would love to know more, learn
      • software developer background, mostly web. working mainly with libraries (in the organization sense) which have digital repositories and a web presence.
      • love the idea of pitching in to help and this group being a coop.
    • [[datatitian]] == Will
      • joined in 2017
      • got involved with the tech group back then but didn't have a lot of specific experience; now would be interested in trying again
      • working on immers.space which is activitypub based
    • [[nick sellen]] love how the recent disruption has served to get people together, shows how as long as we have fundamental organization we can channel energy in the right direction :)
    • [[nick sellen]] server access
    • [[nick sellen]]
      • love the coworking/colearning model
      • really enjoyed learning about the background of others just now
    • [[flancian]] is there a 'root node' for tech docs/etc.?
    • [[flancian]] I see we have one server -- do we have a backup server? do we have backup+restore processes?
      • [[david]] we have database backups but unclear when they have been tested
      • [[flancian]] what about using this as an exercise in which the "new wave" of admins is tasked with setting up a new server off backups and such?
    • [[akshay]] what's this [[sauce]] repo mentioned?
      • [[nick sellen]] the other nick named it after 'special sauce'
      • in principle it could be all consolidated into ansible
      • [[docker compose]] setup
      • the update process involves touching the sauce repo which then somehow results in updates configs making it to prod
      • [[akshay]] love automation, been doing this for the past few years for employers
    • [[datatitian]] thinking of oncall schedules for the group -- need not be too granular
      • [[flancian]] +1, plus having a secondary/backup would make for a simplified learning experience
      • [[edsu]] would love to join a rotation
      • [[edsu]] the instance feels pretty stable though, it's a challenge when problems only come about too sporadically
    • [[edsu]] perhaps other working groups within the coop might be interested in other tools we could provide for them?
      • [[datatitian]] there's been a long term interest in bridging loomio and mastodon
      • [[edsu]] issue tracker for FRs?
      • [[flancian]] [[git.coop]]?
      • [[akshay]] if access to git.coop is limited, that would be a bit exclusive
      • [[edsu]] loomio might also be a good platform for this
      • [[nick sellen]] love the idea about building bridges -- and the oncall sharing
    • [[edsu]] how did you notice the recent instance problem?
      • [[nick sellen]] I do use it often enough :) also keep up to date with matrix.
    • (wrap up round)
    • [[nick sellen]] happy with this meet, would like to support everyone any way I can
      • next steps: next call next week
      • happy to receive more questions over matrix/mastodon/loomio
    • [[akshay]] already have a git.coop account, would like access to ansible/sauce if possible to see how this works :)
    • [[david]] happy to see new and familiar faces!
      • won't be able to make the other call but will stay reachable and happy to answer questions and assist
    • [[flancian]] thank you for social.coop! happy to meet you all
      • will read docs, think about where to focus
      • please feel free to pull me in if you need work on any particular direction
    • [[edsu]] happy to meet all, would love to learn more about side projects that people have here
      • would like to learn more about mastodon
      • do have a git.coop account already, will take a look -- have used ansible before
      • will tune in next week
    • [[datatitian]] will start coordinating on loomio focusing on the oncall schedule
    • [[akshay]] how to join in loomio?
      • (people apply)
📖 stoas
⥱ context
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