<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:monospace">I followed the link and on <a href="https://gitlab.com/flossmanuals/fm_en_splash/-/work_items/25">https://gitlab.com/flossmanuals/fm_en_splash/-/work_items/25</a> it seemed this doesnt exist and is a goal?<br>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.<br>If that's of interest, I can share it.</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Mon, 1 Jun 2026 at 15:25, m3shrom <<a href="mailto:m3shrom@riseup.net">m3shrom@riseup.net</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><u></u>
<div>
<p>Hi there, </p>
<div>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!)<br>
<br>
But if you want to join for 1 month of discussion future of
community documentation (or at least flossmanuals) you can join
here. </div>
<div><a href="http://lists.flossmanuals.org.uk/listinfo.cgi/community-flossmanuals.org.uk" target="_blank">http://lists.flossmanuals.org.uk/listinfo.cgi/community-flossmanuals.org.uk</a></div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I would actually like to
collaborative an mimimal update to
<a href="https://archive.flossmanuals.org.uk/tech-tools-for-activism/" target="_blank">https://archive.flossmanuals.org.uk/tech-tools-for-activism/</a> -
perhaps we can table that for Nottingham?</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>And can I just say how fooking
right we were about being farmed! Can we get a T shirt?</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><img src="https://archive.flossmanuals.org.uk/tech-tools-for-activism/_booki/tech-tools-for-activism/static/being_farmed_badge_ttfa.png" alt="" width="260" height="255"></div>
<div><br>
nice one</div>
<div>Mick</div>
<div>-------- Forwarded Message
--------
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th valign="BASELINE" align="RIGHT" nowrap>Subject:
</th>
<td>FLOSS Manuals is 20 Years old today! Let's celebrate.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="BASELINE" align="RIGHT" nowrap>Date: </th>
<td>Mon, 1 Jun 2026 15:12:43 +0100</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="BASELINE" align="RIGHT" nowrap>From: </th>
<td>Mick Fuzz <a href="mailto:mickfuzz23@gmail.com" target="_blank"><mickfuzz23@gmail.com></a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th valign="BASELINE" align="RIGHT" nowrap>To: </th>
<td><a href="mailto:community@lists.flossmanuals.org.uk" target="_blank">community@lists.flossmanuals.org.uk</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<br>
<br>
<p><span>Hello friends, it's Mick here from
Floss Manuals.</span></p>
<p><span>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 :)</span></p>
<p><span>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.</span></p>
<p><span>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.</span></p>
<p><span>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.</span></p>
<p><span>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.</span></p>
<p><span>As part of this post I'm also
including a link to a song called </span><em><span>This Old
House</span></em><span>. Some people in the UK will know it
as a Shakin' Stevens song, but I prefer the original version.
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WhLhF12TBE" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WhLhF12TBE</a>
- check the lyrics, it's a bit darker than Shakie's take. </span></p>
<p><span>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.</span></p>
<p><span>Of course, there's another thing
that's about to fall off the roof of the house.</span></p>
<p><span>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. </span></p>
<p><span>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.</span></p>
<p><span>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.</span></p>
<p><span>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.</span></p>
<p><span>Of course, if you'd rather not be
part of those discussions, the link to unsubscribe is at the
bottom of every email.</span></p>
<p><span>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.</span></p>
<p><span>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.</span></p>
<p><span>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: <a href="http://about.flossmanuals.net" target="_blank">http://about.flossmanuals.net</a></span></p>
<p><span>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.</span></p>
<p><span>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.</span></p>
<p><span>On that note, I also want to share
some personal good news.</span></p>
<p><span>Last Wednesday I successfully
defended my PhD thesis in a viva examination, which feels like
a pretty important milestone for me. </span></p>
<p><span>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.</span></p>
<p><span>The thesis is available online at
<a href="http://pump.jammlabs.org.uk" target="_blank">pump.jammlabs.org.uk</a>. 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. </span></p>
<blockquote>
<h3><i>A Future for non-linear FLOSS Manuals<span id="m_-2850308704439439474a-future-for-non-linear-floss-manuals"></span></i> </h3>
<p><i>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<br>
From </i><span><a href="https://pump.jammlabs.org.uk/blogs/meeting-middle/" target="_blank">https://pump.jammlabs.org.uk/blogs/meeting-middle/</a></span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span>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.</span></p>
<p><span>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.</span></p>
<p><span>So, given those teasers of
different directions for discussion, that's probably enough
for this celebratory post.</span></p>
<p><span>Feel free to chip in with your
thoughts and responses in any way you want by hitting "reply
all".</span></p>
<p><span>nice one<br>
cya<br>
Mick</span></p>
<p><br>
</p>
</div>
</div>
_______________________________________________<br>
HacktionLab mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:HacktionLab@lists.aktivix.org" target="_blank">HacktionLab@lists.aktivix.org</a><br>
<a href="https://lists.aktivix.org/mailman/listinfo/hacktionlab" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://lists.aktivix.org/mailman/listinfo/hacktionlab</a><br>
</blockquote></div>