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<p><font size="-1">*Apologies for cross posting*</font></p>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dear Everyone,</span><br>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">
After some lengthy yet snappy deliberations, I think Linux Australia has come up with a workable real-time chat solution that keeps everyone connected in some sort of way. Interestingly, our IRC/Matrix channels of communication are one of our more popular ways of engaging with our community and it is essential that we do the right thing and make sure we don’t segregate the community [0] by implementing yet another chat platform. I will talk about 2 specific modes of communication. These will/have been bridged so that they talk to each other.</span><br>
<br>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">#Matrix</span><br>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">TL;DR: we are staying, with more bridges!</span><br>
<br>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Matrix[1] will become our primary channel space. We have had a presence here for a while now, and are taking the opportunity to make this our official communication channel. For those new to Matrix, Element is a great multi-platform client to get started with. Note that Matrix does not require you run your own home-server: just choose matrix.org as your home-server when setting up your account. </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">
</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We have registered a Linux Australia “Public Space” as an experiment (as Spaces are still in Beta) but we think that this is a great way to centralise everything and make our Linux Australia community groups more discoverable. You can join the space via </span><a
href="https://matrix.to/#/#linux-australia:matrix.org"
style="text-decoration:none;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://matrix.to/#/#linux-australia:matrix.org</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, from which you can see all our rooms (aka channels).</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">
</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">All of our channels are also available in the directory, so you can join without using the space:</span></p>
<ul style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;padding-inline-start:48px;">
<li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type: disc; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;" aria-level="1"><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">#linuxaus (</span><a href="https://matrix.to/#/#linuxaus:matrix.org" style="text-decoration:none;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://matrix.to/#/#linuxaus:matrix.org</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">)</span></li>
<li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type: disc; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;" aria-level="1"><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">#linuxaus-lugs (</span><a href="https://matrix.to/#/#linuxaus-lugs:matrix.org" style="text-decoration:none;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://matrix.to/#/#linuxaus-lugs:matrix.org</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">)</span></li>
<li dir="ltr" style="list-style-type: disc; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;" aria-level="1"><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">#linux.conf.au (</span><a href="https://matrix.to/#/#linux.conf.au:matrix.org" style="text-decoration:none;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://matrix.to/#/#linux.conf.au:matrix.org</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">)</span></li>
</ul>
<br>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">#IRC</span><br>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">TL;DR: we have moved to libera.chat and any channels there will be bridged to Matrix.</span><br>
<br>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Although Matrix will be our primary platform, we will be backwards compatible with IRC by bridging key Matrix rooms into their IRC equivalent.</span><br>
<br>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We have put in an application to the libera.chat team to create what’s called project and community groups (</span><a
href="https://libera.chat/chanreg" style="text-decoration:none;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://libera.chat/chanreg</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">) based around our major chat channels. Once this has been completed we will let everyone know where to point to (or not). Hopefully this shouldn’t take too long and we will be in touch as soon as we know more.</span><br>
<br>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">#For those who aren’t in either</span><br>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Join us! We will be creating some documentation on our website about joining these specific channels shortly. </span><br>
<br>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to reach out to us via these methods:</span><br>
<br>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Email: </span><a
href="mailto:council@linux.org.au" style="text-decoration:none;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">council@linux.org.au</span></a><br>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">IRC/Matrix: </span><br>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Myself - MsMaryMac</span><br>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Joel - jea/Joela</span><br>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Russell - rstuart</span><br>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Steve - evil_steve</span><br>
<br>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thanks,</span><br>
<br>
<span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sae Ra
</span>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[0] </span><a
href="https://xkcd.com/1810/" style="text-decoration:none;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://xkcd.com/1810/</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p>
<p dir="ltr"
style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[1] </span><a
href="https://matrix.org/faq/" style="text-decoration:none;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://matrix.org/faq/</span></a></p>
<p><br>
</p>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Sae Ra Germaine
President
Linux Australia
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:president@linux.org.au">president@linux.org.au</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://linux.org.au">http://linux.org.au</a>
Linux Australia Inc
GPO Box 4788
Sydney NSW 2001
Australia
ABN 56 987 117 479</pre>
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