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If you're an experienced engineer that wants to give back to learners, OSSU is a great place to do so. This can look like: - Setting a regular time that you'll

If you're an experienced engineer that wants to give back to learners, OSSU is a great place to do so. This can look like: - Setting a regular time that you'll pair (or mob!) program on a side project of your own with OSSU learners. - Developing familiarity with one or more courses in the curriculum and responding to students who have questions or are stuck. - Attending weekly check-in meetings, sharing what you are working on and listening to what learners are working on. To do so - Visit our Discord server: https://discord.gg/wuytwK5s9h https://discord.gg/wuytwK5s9h - And ping me @waciuma or the @tutor role I'm one of the leaders of OSSU and we agree that community, networking, and projects are part of a complete education. That's why we celebrate not only the professors and universities creating free courses, but also the many engineers and practitioners that have volunteered with OSSU learners over the years. I hope some of you will join that group!

dokyun 1y ago
[flagged]
- hackable_sand 1y ago
  Discord is very accessible and convenient for learners to just hop in and ask questions.
  - dijit 1y ago
    Sure, I suppose that is similar to how facebook is convenient for organising events. It might be considered somewhat ironic though that a curriculum with “open source” in the name would use something that is considered very non-open. Like the EFF organising their next meet in a facebook event. I understand the parents incredulousness.
    - johnisgood 1y ago
      I understand, too, and "Like the EFF organising their next meet in a facebook event." is a really good way to put it, but then again, were it not for Discord, it might not have a thriving community (assuming it currently has).
    - therealpygon 1y ago
      Did you just assume they don’t? EFF has a fairly active Facebook page. You meet people where they are, not where you decide you wish they were.
      - dijit 1y ago
        I think it's not on brand, but I can't confirm your statement because facebook is a walled garden. https://i.imgur.com/SeL8NHH.jpeg https://i.imgur.com/SeL8NHH.jpeg
- CalRobert 1y ago
  I love open protocols, IRC, etc but right now the reality is that discord is where people are. I hated when Slack broke their IRC bridge but ultimately Slack was better for most people.
- JFingleton 1y ago
  It does make me sad that in 2025 we still don't have an open real-time chat service. IRC was too janky for widespread use... Everything else that has come after it hasn't been able to reach the "network effect". Too many options, too many half finished projects. Lots of missed opportunities.
  - saghul 1y ago
    But network effect doesn't have an impact here, does it? Matrix exists and would be a great fit for this initiative. If someone is committed enough to help out but using Matrix (either directly from the web browser or installing the Element client) is too big a burden I'd question that original commitment. PS: I'm not affiliated with Matrix in any way.
    - Sanzig 1y ago
      I like Matrix but unfortunately it has major stability issues. The GrapheneOS project moved most of their chat over to Discord after their Matrix community got nuked twice. They still maintain a Matrix community which is bridged to their Discord instance, but most users are on the Discord side of the fence. IMHO, Revolt is a better FOSS Discord alternative: https://revolt.chat/ https://revolt.chat/. Relatively young project, but they are unashamedly cloning the Discord user experience (even with the name). By default it uses infrastructure in Europe run by the project maintainers but can also be self hosted.
  - dijit 1y ago
    Zulip works pretty well for this, rust-lang.zulipchat.com is a good example. Completely open to guests, open-source and self hostable.
  - trbleclef 1y ago
    I've been using IRC for almost 30 years. We communicate pretty easily
  - dokyun 1y ago
    You guys forget about XMPP or what? It's got tons of clients, lots with E2EE with OMEMO if you're into it. Matrix sucks shit by comparison.
- chairmansteve 1y ago
  That was my reaction, but I have never used Discord... What's the problem with it?
  - dokyun 1y ago
    This is just me, but aside from being complete proprietary spyware, I've got problems with the culture it's designed to cultivate. On a normal text-based chat like IRC or XMPP, you chat with people, maybe share files and that's about it, the way it should be. On Discord, everything is grabbing your attention in this pavlovian game where the actual substance of what you're talking about is secondary, on the other hand it's more about cultivating attention towards yourself with reactions and memes. It also promotes segregating everyone into a caste system with "roles" and whatnot. If you've ever been around you'll notice how quickly people sardonically accept Discord as being the name-brand platform for predators and sex perverts. I think a lot of the problem with kids on the net these days has to do with the way they chat with people like this. When you're on IRC you've got a place to "post into the void", where what you say is ultimately ethereal and even if two people are flaming one day they can go back to being buddies the next day cause it doesn't really matter. When you're on Discord everything you say is logged, and the air hangs thick around you cause what you're supposed to say is meant to matter to someone, even though most people are just cultivating this emotional persona detached from their real selves. So you get this really toxic cesspool as a cultural penchant built-in. I've never really connected with that many people I've met through Discord the on the same level as IRC-adjacent people, FWIW.
  - robobro 1y ago
    It's a chat program designed to be anti-user inherently. And it's spyware. Discord being full of sex perverts and pedophiles are just reasons to avoid it after the fact that it is a terrible, terrible replacement for IRC channels. If you are afraid of IRC, playing Matrix should be no problem. But please don't play discord.
nand_gate 1y ago
No Discord, please. Plenty of FOSS alternatives exist.

dokyun 1y ago

[flagged]

hackable_sand 1y ago
Discord is very accessible and convenient for learners to just hop in and ask questions.
- dijit 1y ago
  Sure, I suppose that is similar to how facebook is convenient for organising events. It might be considered somewhat ironic though that a curriculum with “open source” in the name would use something that is considered very non-open. Like the EFF organising their next meet in a facebook event. I understand the parents incredulousness.
  - johnisgood 1y ago
    I understand, too, and "Like the EFF organising their next meet in a facebook event." is a really good way to put it, but then again, were it not for Discord, it might not have a thriving community (assuming it currently has).
  - therealpygon 1y ago
    Did you just assume they don’t? EFF has a fairly active Facebook page. You meet people where they are, not where you decide you wish they were.
    - dijit 1y ago
      I think it's not on brand, but I can't confirm your statement because facebook is a walled garden. https://i.imgur.com/SeL8NHH.jpeg https://i.imgur.com/SeL8NHH.jpeg
CalRobert 1y ago
I love open protocols, IRC, etc but right now the reality is that discord is where people are. I hated when Slack broke their IRC bridge but ultimately Slack was better for most people.
JFingleton 1y ago
It does make me sad that in 2025 we still don't have an open real-time chat service. IRC was too janky for widespread use... Everything else that has come after it hasn't been able to reach the "network effect". Too many options, too many half finished projects. Lots of missed opportunities.
- saghul 1y ago
  But network effect doesn't have an impact here, does it? Matrix exists and would be a great fit for this initiative. If someone is committed enough to help out but using Matrix (either directly from the web browser or installing the Element client) is too big a burden I'd question that original commitment. PS: I'm not affiliated with Matrix in any way.
  - Sanzig 1y ago
    I like Matrix but unfortunately it has major stability issues. The GrapheneOS project moved most of their chat over to Discord after their Matrix community got nuked twice. They still maintain a Matrix community which is bridged to their Discord instance, but most users are on the Discord side of the fence. IMHO, Revolt is a better FOSS Discord alternative: https://revolt.chat/ https://revolt.chat/. Relatively young project, but they are unashamedly cloning the Discord user experience (even with the name). By default it uses infrastructure in Europe run by the project maintainers but can also be self hosted.
- dijit 1y ago
  Zulip works pretty well for this, rust-lang.zulipchat.com is a good example. Completely open to guests, open-source and self hostable.
- trbleclef 1y ago
  I've been using IRC for almost 30 years. We communicate pretty easily
- dokyun 1y ago
  You guys forget about XMPP or what? It's got tons of clients, lots with E2EE with OMEMO if you're into it. Matrix sucks shit by comparison.
chairmansteve 1y ago
That was my reaction, but I have never used Discord... What's the problem with it?
- dokyun 1y ago
  This is just me, but aside from being complete proprietary spyware, I've got problems with the culture it's designed to cultivate. On a normal text-based chat like IRC or XMPP, you chat with people, maybe share files and that's about it, the way it should be. On Discord, everything is grabbing your attention in this pavlovian game where the actual substance of what you're talking about is secondary, on the other hand it's more about cultivating attention towards yourself with reactions and memes. It also promotes segregating everyone into a caste system with "roles" and whatnot. If you've ever been around you'll notice how quickly people sardonically accept Discord as being the name-brand platform for predators and sex perverts. I think a lot of the problem with kids on the net these days has to do with the way they chat with people like this. When you're on IRC you've got a place to "post into the void", where what you say is ultimately ethereal and even if two people are flaming one day they can go back to being buddies the next day cause it doesn't really matter. When you're on Discord everything you say is logged, and the air hangs thick around you cause what you're supposed to say is meant to matter to someone, even though most people are just cultivating this emotional persona detached from their real selves. So you get this really toxic cesspool as a cultural penchant built-in. I've never really connected with that many people I've met through Discord the on the same level as IRC-adjacent people, FWIW.
- robobro 1y ago
  It's a chat program designed to be anti-user inherently. And it's spyware. Discord being full of sex perverts and pedophiles are just reasons to avoid it after the fact that it is a terrible, terrible replacement for IRC channels. If you are afraid of IRC, playing Matrix should be no problem. But please don't play discord.

nand_gate 1y ago

No Discord, please. Plenty of FOSS alternatives exist.