Welcome to this month’s blog post! If you have any ideas for improving this blog, or any questions at all, please let me know in the Community Feedback Forum, or message me on the Fediverse (the link is in my profile). Thank you!
A huge welcome to all the newcomers; do feel free to explore the site and post/comment/reply in any of the forums and groups! The Share Space, and Connect Cafe, are probably good spaces to start; your input helps build the community.
Unfortunately, as some of you are aware, despite IFTAS’ best efforts to secure funding, we are experiencing a critical financial shortfall. This means that, as stated in this blog post, within the next 60 days we will have to curtail some important resources and tools. There will be updates on or after 1st March 2025, so keep a close look out for any official IFTAS statements.
There were several discussions started this month, including a query about new users and community guidance, and how admins ensure compliance with – and confirm that users read – any community guidance they may have. There were some good replies, and it provoked some thought as to how admins can encourage users to read guidelines when we’re all too familiar with the ‘I have agreed to the terms and conditions’ clicky button without actually having read it!
IFTAS user Sohw asked whether there was a place to collate upcoming events and media/talks about the Fediverse – if you know of any such spaces please do head over to the thread and reply there; it could be a really valuable resource if anyone knows of anything.
With the threat of IFTAS having to close some services down, it’s been a quiet month on the surface, while those behind the scenes have done great work to attempt to secure funding and have been extremely busy. If you can help spread the word, pledge a donation, or connect IFTAS with patrons or potential funders, please do step up; trust and safety in the Fediverse is a powerful and important resource and it would be devastating to lose it.
As always, the Library remains an amazing resource, with new articles being added all the time. If you have suggestions for articles, or feedback for existing ones, please let us know here.
Thank you for your time, and please keep your hopes up for IFTAS moving forward.