@j12t@j12t.social what I loved most about this year's FOSDEM was the camaraderie shown by everybody. I told my wife, who isn't plugged into the open social web (yet!) that I was constantly networking, and while that is technically what you would call it, what it really was was a purely organic gathering of like minded individuals, who have never met in real life, who had instant rapport because of the shared values inherent to the fediverse. As the fediverse grows, we'll see this kind of phenomenon happen less and less (see "Eternal September"), but we're at the early stage of the social web where these kinds of things can happen, and when it does, it's amazing. "Networking" at conferences is usually shaking hands and exchanging business cards, and then walking away never to hear from them again.

@malte@radikal.social yes! I've been working on it all year, and so the two-way federation is live already. It is enabled by default on new installs.

@hello@from.thefedi.wiki neat! It's running NodeBB! Unfortunately as @andypiper@macaw.social mentioned, there's a bit of a naming conflict as FediForum is definitely already in use. No trademark or anything, but avoiding a namespace collision would be ideal Oh, also, you can create posts to NodeBB from fedi! Just mention the category, e.g. @general-discussion@thefedi.forum

There's nothing of value between where @dansup@mastodon.social lives and I live I jest, but while I am throwing out ideas I have a lead on a space in Toronto that could easily hold 200 standing room. Depends how big you want to think. @reiver@mastodon.social did we already discuss that you were from Canada? In all that went on it might've just slipped my mind. @liaizon@social.wake.st @andypiper@macaw.social @evan@cosocial.ca

@hexaheximal@mastodon.social that's fair. I also feel a certain responsibility to protect and defend the fediverse from bad actors, so I get being on guard. I've also seen what happens when fedi brings out the pitchforks, though

Hi @robz@toot.robzazueta.com! (Thanks @beaware@social.beaware.live for bringing this to my attention) You're right, our website is more about our self-service hosting option, and that's because that's what pays our day-to-day bills. It's an unfortunate reality of the open-source development model. The project itself is licensed under GPLv3 and has always been this way. Your concerns over Automattic are well-founded and they also worry me. That said, NodeBB is free and open-source, and you are encouraged to self-host it. That has been our mantra from day one, and still remains that way today.