In October 2024 I have created Focus Group, a small community of like-minded photographers who enjoy the craft and process over the commercial aspects of it.
This community started out on Discord, for ease of use and discoverability. Given the recent announcements regarding age verification and the heinous bait and switch to use a service that has ties with Peter Thiel I have decided to kill the Discord instance. Enough is enough and all. After vetting a couple of options I have decided that the best course of action is running a matrix homeserver instance.
All of this isn’t without challenges, the most prominent being user reluctance, not entirely unfounded concerns about possible user fragmentation and people plainly not wanting to switch. With the situation being as dire as it is and all the buzz surrounding the Discord scenario I have decided that this switch happens no matter what. An american-owned commercial operation, potentially even looking for IPO, can no longer be trusted that they will stick to their word. Vetting age verification providers and even considering Persona is a move I cannot and will not tolerate. It sets a dangerous precedent, especially in times of ICE just plainly “disappearing” people. I am convinced that using Persona is just another pawn on the field for the ICE fascists to target more people.
So, for now we’re building and re-building it live, learning the ins and outs of matrix along the way.