My goal is to explore the process of individuation and becoming more and more autonomous.
I jotted down some ideas here:

https://write.as/latortuesurunfil/to-develop-autonomy

@globcoco Fully agree here, I started this process yesterday, Quit both Computing at School and Torbay Together forums as they were proving to be a waste of time.

Using the discourse forum here, as a community we can share experience and where to learn new skills or follow interests through learning.

Very important now that schools are closed and people are falling over themselves to provide home learning, no one ever seems to ask the learner what they want to learn or go deeper in to.

@zleap
It is true.
And asking "the learner what they want to learn or go deeper to" is for me one of the basics.
When I was teaching english I wanted 1st to know what were there interests and their passions.
If they didn't know about it, I felt this is where it has to begin.
I definitely feel the same way now!

I heard of course about the rogerian approach and of an old school based in the UK that centered on student's interests and desire to learn rather than enticing them to learn something they wouldn't care about (kinda the mainstream's teaching culture)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summerhill_School

@globcoco This is the nice thing about OpenLearn with the Open University, you can try out different subjects. The course, I am doing now (just slowly), is 24 hours long roughly,

Just given it a mention on the forum

In school I know some reading is compulsory but you are never really told why,

When I think back reading about 'An Inspector calls' by JB Priestly actually seems to teach or suggest what happens when individuals act without considering the wider implications.

@zleap @globcoco

Good morning, good afternoon for both of you in Europe. I am really glad to see the ideas developing and us making use of resources that are here, at hand, and open to new suggestions and approaches.

It was amazing to see how Paul took to the Discourse forums -- a resource I cherish but it's not that used by the community here. That can change, and I sure hope it does. I will support and help in any way I can, as I see potential and love to explore myself.

We are always open to new ideas. The same way that Paul suggested and got a new Astronomy subforum, and I got a much needed Pinafore one, we could accept requests if people bring suggestions and take leadership in providing content and supporting one of those new areas.

Serendipity is wonderful, and I am so glad we crossed paths and started conversations -- not only us, but others will benefit from them.

Have worked in Education for many years, and now I do it in this new environment, under my own direction, learning every day.

Wonderful to see new ideas germinating. Thank you both.

@design_RG @zleap

It's funny what serendipity does sometimes.
Part of the process I'm involved in (re-owning one's autonomy) has always included taking the learning into our own hands.
I have to search for all the notes I had about it and maybe I could summon my courage and articulate it to share it - why not in our Discourse...

@globcoco

I would love to see it, Coralie. And Discourse is wonderful as it not only allows a richly formatted presentation, but it can be the buidling area for something later copied and pasted directly into a Blog post.

The Markdown source works so well -- I put out 3 new blog pages yesterday, in fairly short order, as the original Discourse was already polished and the text perfect.

Just added an intro above, trimmed images for Blog ideal sizes, and voilá. Trés facile.

@zleap

@design_RG @zleap

Discourse seems a very nice place indeed.

If the theme I deal with would not fit in the theme of the group (which is more on STEM if I understand it correctly), I may have to create one myself.

But the price per month is a little bit pricey for now and I am yet to gain the skills that would allow me to host it by myself...

@globcoco

You could think and articulate a proposal for an added area at our Discourse - really it's too much to front the cost and hassles of hosting one's own.

@freemo is the person to approach, just prepare a good post with the ideas lined out, the reasons and what you are proposing. He will listen.

If it could all fit into on Subforum, a new Project Forum like the one we added for Pinafore is very easily approved.

And an actively used subforum or area adds value to the whole Discourse instance -- we can really benefit from that, as it will attract other users.

@zleap

@design_RG @freemo @zleap

Very good to known!
My 1st idea was that the group is on very specific subject all dealing with learning... but thinking of it Learning to develop (personal) autonomy, self-sufficiency and individuation might actually be ok in there.🤗

@globcoco
He will be seeing this as I included his attrib in the conversation. So think over what you would like to have, and present it here or in a Discourse topic even; whichever you prefer.

At Discourse it has the added advantage of staying visible for longer times. Toots disappear unless you know they are there, or search and find them accidentally.

@freemo @zleap

@design_RG @freemo @zleap
Now I understand why you go back and forth between the 2...

@globcoco

I went looking and seaching, and didn't find a Free Discourse Forums host so far.

Best I found was a professional install and config, done for you, costing $150 USD one time fee. This is installed into a Digital Ocean droplet small server, which is a $5 a month service fee.

Screenshot from : https://www.literatecomputing.com/discourse-installation-packages/

Discourse.org also says you can do it yourself -- and provides this page to guide :

https://blog.discourse.org/2014/04/install-discourse-in-under-30-minutes/

A Digital Ocean signup with a FREE one month of service deal -- https://m.do.co/c/a5bf212d9a92

Although staying here and using the already running service is the simplest option of all.

#rgxJournal

@freemo @zleap

@design_RG

The official discourse support channels are a joke. I highly recommend you stay away from it. Its open source software so I cant really be too mean on them, but they are some oily business people on that forum in my expiernce.

They intentionally design the installation docs to be very narrow and rigid so if anyone wants to install discourse in a cheaper or more professional setup they have to pay one of them a fortune to do it.

I was stuck redoing a lot of discourse to get it work in docker and with no help from them. To even ask for help would have gotten me banned (I was warned when I tried).

@globcoco @zleap

@freemo @design_RG @globcoco I think this is part the issue with quite a few free software products / projects, they are good at writing software but when it comes to help and support some fail and fail badly.

I think it was also agreed they fail when it comes to documentation too.

@zleap

The bigger issue for me is that the failure is explicitly states as intentional.

@design_RG @globcoco

@freemo @zleap @globcoco

The Discourse people are being clearly greedy -- and making hundreds of thousands a month from the companies paying their fees.

That in itself is not the problem, it's fair if they get an income stream to support their running costs and previous development lean years.

But to actively obscure any simpler ways to use the open sourced product they offer? That is the bad point.

The Write.as company also seems to have had some tugs with open source people in the past; I didn't read much about it, but I know Ellen mentioned it and wasn't impressed.

Plume is an alternative to WF, but I don't like it as much. Uglier and with less features I need and use.

@design_RG @freemo @zleap

There is also Pluxml.
@linuxine talked to me about it.

@globcoco

I haven't seen that. Earlier Freemo mentioned Git as being a possible base for a Blog, but I foudn that non-trivial, and time consuming.

For a newer user, not a productive path, as there are excellent hosts for Write.Freely which is a superb blog platform.

so I gave up on the idea, after briefly exploring it. We need to focus on getting simple tools that work, testing and learning them a bit, then hone some more.

With our own content production, which is the ultimate goal and reason for getting all these tools.

I absolutely love my Blogging work, it's a pleasure.

@freemo @zleap
@linuxine

@design_RG @globcoco @freemo @linuxine

I tried to use jekyll on github pages but failed, it sort of works if you really really know what you;re doing.

@zleap

Maybe its hard for me to see the problem as im technically oriented. It always seemed tow ork with no configuration for me. Just pick a template to start from and it works.

@design_RG @globcoco @linuxine

@freemo

It comes from Git being a place you are used to; for me it's an Alien space, still. For most newer users as well.

Not really made for new blogger's use, although it might work. A niche solution perhaps.

@zleap @globcoco @linuxine

@design_RG @freemo @zleap @linuxine
I certainly think there could be a niche in there!!!

@globcoco

>> I certainly think there could be a niche in there!!!

Mostly it can be easy for active Git users.

For most people, I imagine a focused Blog platform is easier and faster to become proficient at.

I run my personal Write.Freely instance right here, in this very laptop I am writing at. All my pages are developed in-house, and then copy/pasted into TeDomum when ready.

And that is all done in Windows 10, which is a platform that works really well for me.

Productivity superceeds technical merits, Unix is better but Windows does it for me. Being a long time user, sys admin and Tech person, mine are well maintained and fast.

@freemo @zleap @linuxine

@design_RG @freemo @zleap

That is an interesting way.

If I understand it well;
You have a private instance you're paying for and when you're ready to publish you go onto TeDomum?
May I ask why you don't publish straight off your own instance?

@globcoco

More or less, let me clarify:

- I have installed a Write.freely instance in one of the systems here in the house, yes.
- There is NO cost for that other than your time to learn how to do it.
- My personal instance is NOT federated, although it could be if desired; it's one of the options in admin panel.

Why not publish directly from here?

- I could, and actually have spare full blown Servers on hand, Rackmounted Dell Powerservers.
- but that takes time, electricity, and they are production machines. Loud and not so nice to stay around. 😛
- it also bring bi security implications, because now you could become a target to the scum around the dark corners of the Net.

So it would need to be more than a Hobby reason. I think these systems might someday have use, if we have some kind of breakdown, I could become part of a local Library -- all kinds of content in the Net would vanish, and only local resources would be available.

I do read a lot of sci-fi, and Dystopic scenarios are possible.

I am thinking specifically of the "World Made by Hand" series of novels by James Howard Kunstler. His home and the novel's location is not too far from me -- I have travelled there by bicycle touring. 😺

#rgxJournal
@freemo @zleap

@design_RG @freemo @zleap
Nice.
So the idea of having it home means that your content is safe if something happened?
And for your non-federated personal instance can a basic computer do?
I think storm is there and I might have to stop the web while it passes.
We'll see how it goes.
Thanks for the ref 👍

@globcoco

The main reason for installing a personal instance in my case is that I can do all the work needed for new page creation or maintenance -- anywhere, while not needing a live internet connection. (it will hurt on image hosting uploads, for new pages, but other than that, it works fine offline.)

The speed of edits and reloads is delightful -- no lag at all, since it's a local process.

And this does not require much power, space, ram or anything much. I installed it on Windows and there's dismal documentation for it.

Requirements include a MySQL install, which is free but not a user friendly software to install and manage.

But I haven't touched it in 7 months, since first installing it.

Any basic computer, laptop or desktop could do. It could also be located in another system in your home network, and accessible by internal IP address. Mine is local, running at https://127.0.0.1:8080/

You are welcome for the ref -- absolutely great novels, recommended.

#rgxJournal

snapshot of the minimized Write.freely service -- I normally don't even look at it. ----v
@freemo @zleap

@design_RG @freemo @zleap
I understand why you don't😶
What about their desktop app?
I have to admit I don't get the advantages of it.
https://write.as/apps/linux/get

@globcoco

I would use it, once the promised Windows version arrives (no time frame promised, so uncertain).

The Linux one should do for you though! Tried it yet ?

Reminder -- remove pesky Long Post CW's

@freemo @zleap

@design_RG @freemo @zleap
Yes I really have to be careful about it...😅
No I haven't used it yet.
There are too little info on it so I didn't know what it really was...
If it replaces (kinda) a personal instance that might be cool indeed.