[HacktionLab] Fwd: FLOSS Manuals is 20 Years old today! Let's celebrate.

Fri Jun 5 21:16:02 UTC 2026

I followed the link and on
https://gitlab.com/flossmanuals/fm_en_splash/-/work_items/25 it seemed this
doesnt exist and is a goal?
If that's so, I recently made a little repository (it's still on github
though), where a scientific paper style pdf is generated from markdown and
a website could be generated as well.
If that's of interest, I can share it.

On Mon, 1 Jun 2026 at 15:25, m3shrom <m3shrom at riseup.net> wrote:

> Hi there,
> This rather long post below by me is worth sharing if only for the link to
> the original of this ole house (not Shakin' Stevens!)
>
> But if you want to join for 1 month of discussion future of community
> documentation (or at least flossmanuals) you can join here.
> http://lists.flossmanuals.org.uk/listinfo.cgi/community-flossmanuals.org.uk
>
> I would actually like to collaborative an mimimal update to
> https://archive.flossmanuals.org.uk/tech-tools-for-activism/  - perhaps
> we can table that for Nottingham?
>
> And can I just say how fooking right we were about being farmed! Can we
> get a T shirt?
>
>
> nice one
> Mick
> -------- Forwarded Message --------
> Subject: FLOSS Manuals is 20 Years old today! Let's celebrate.
> Date: Mon, 1 Jun 2026 15:12:43 +0100
> From: Mick Fuzz <mickfuzz23 at gmail.com> <mickfuzz23 at gmail.com>
> To: community at lists.flossmanuals.org.uk
>
> Hello friends, it's Mick here from Floss Manuals.
>
> Floss Manuals is 20 years old today. We've chosen the 1st of June as our
> celebration date because it's the first time the project was captured by
> the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. Although I got in touch with Adam
> Hyde our founder and he said it was actually Feb :)
>
> Over the last few months, me, Martin Kean and Helen Varley Jamieson have
> been working on improvements and updates to the Floss Manuals community
> infrastructure. We'd like to use this anniversary as the starting point for
> a month of community activity to help reboot the network.
>
> The process of writing my PhD using open documentation tools, I think,
> could align with a new direction for Floss Manuals, which is, to me, to
> take the plunge and move towards writing with static websites and Git
> instead of a centrally managed, specialised content management system as we
> have used before.
>
> This move is also practical. For several years the French Floss Manuals
> community generously took on the task of running Booktype on behalf of the
> wider project, including the English-language community, and I'd like to
> thank them for that work. They took the decision to stop maintaining the
> platform in April 2024, which was entirely understandable. Since then, the
> project has effectively been on hold.
>
> The overhead of running and maintaining systems such as Booki and Booktype
> has become increasingly difficult to sustain after Floss Manuals became a
> volunteer-run project. Moving towards static websites and Git may offer a
> more sustainable path forward.
>
> As part of this post I'm also including a link to a song called *This Old
> House*. Some people in the UK will know it as a Shakin' Stevens song, but
> I prefer the original version. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WhLhF12TBE
> - check the lyrics, it's a bit darker than Shakie's take.
>
> Being involved with Floss Manuals has sometimes felt a bit like looking
> after an old house. There have been things falling off it, services
> shutting down, and periods where I haven't been able to repair or add to
> things as quickly as they've broken. I've been a bit of a caretaker. But
> it's a good old house, and it's a house that's worth patching up.
>
> Of course, there's another thing that's about to fall off the roof of the
> house.
>
> I recently received an email from our hosting provider to say that they
> will no longer be supporting the Mailman mailing lists that we've used
> throughout much of Floss Manuals' history. So, beyond making sure that we
> preserve and archive what's there, one of the jobs that needs doing is
> working out what comes next for community communications.
>
> This may actually be a good opportunity to start again and let people
> choose what they want to subscribe to, whether that's a low-traffic
> announcements list, a more active community discussion list, or something
> else entirely.
>
> I do already have an offer from someone who can provide a Mailman list if
> we want to keep things old school, but I'm also open to updating the
> technology if there's a better approach. Email me directly if you have a
> suggestion or offer.
>
> We've got another couple of months before this mailing list reaches its
> end of life, and in some ways that's helpful. I feel slightly hesitant
> about generating a lot of traffic in people's inboxes if this reboot
> discussion becomes active, and that's something we can look at together. At
> least we know that there is an end date for activity on this list, and that
> gives us a reason to decide what comes next.
>
> Of course, if you'd rather not be part of those discussions, the link to
> unsubscribe is at the bottom of every email.
>
> In the coming weeks I'll write more about the huge number of people who
> have contributed to Floss Manuals and the equally huge body of work that
> has been created over the last twenty years. I won't try to start listing
> people or projects now.
>
> I'd also love it if other people could chip in with their own memories,
> thanks, stories about what they learned, or tributes to particular people
> who made a difference to them along the way.
>
> I'd like to invite people to write blog posts for us, or simply start
> thinking about what they might want to remember and share. As part of this
> reboot process I've migrated our previous blogs to a new Hugo-based
> website, which is now available at: http://about.flossmanuals.net
>
> It would be great to see that site become a place where we can collect a
> bit more of the history, memories and lessons from twenty years of Floss
> Manuals.
>
> It would also be great to hear where people are now. Floss Manuals has
> connected an rich diversity and quantity of people over the years. I think
> many people would be interested to hear what you've been doing since,
> whether there are things you learned through the project that stayed with
> you, and whether you see any parallels between the work you're doing now
> and the work we did together through Floss Manuals.
>
> On that note, I also want to share some personal good news.
>
> Last Wednesday I successfully defended my PhD thesis in a viva
> examination, which feels like a pretty important milestone for me.
>
> Looking back, I can see a lot of connections between that work and my
> involvement with Floss Manuals. Many of the ideas that shaped the research,
> particularly around collaborative working, open documentation,
> participation and sharing knowledge, were influenced by things I've learned
> through being involved with this community over the years.
>
> The thesis is available online at pump.jammlabs.org.uk. I still need to
> make a few final corrections, but it's now in a form that people can read.
> There's also a particular blog post related to the research that I think
> may be of interest to people here, which I'll share alongside it.
>
> *A Future for non-linear FLOSS Manuals*
>
>
> *While most manuals in FLOSS Manuals have been linear, there have also
> been ones which were more complex in structure. For example, some have been
> about process, exploration, and a kind of pick-and-mix approach. A good
> example of this is Digital Foundations, which moves between guided
> instruction and open-ended experimentation rather than forcing a single
> path through the material From *
> https://pump.jammlabs.org.uk/blogs/meeting-middle/
>
> I'd genuinely be interested to hear where other people have ended up, what
> projects you're involved in these days, and whether Floss Manuals played
> any part in shaping the path that got you there.
>
> I'll also share some of the technical changes that have been made, along
> with some of the new approaches to publishing that we're experimenting
> with. I'll do that in a way that invites discussion, because I don't think
> there's only one way forward and I'd be interested to hear different views
> on how we should approach these things.
>
> So, given those teasers of different directions for discussion, that's
> probably enough for this celebratory post.
>
> Feel free to chip in with your thoughts and responses in any way you want
> by hitting "reply all".
>
> nice one
> cya
> Mick
>
>
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