Freifunk Kreis GTJan 13
envs.net

important change at envs.net

As many of you know, the Matrix service consumes a lot of resources. This has become increasingly problematic in recent months, as it’s making operation more and more expensive.

For this reason, I’ve decided to discontinue the Matrix service.

The shutdown is planned for March 1, 2026.

Registration of new Matrix accounts has already been disabled.

I believe this timeframe is appropriate to give everyone enough time to migrate their Matrix account to another server.

The tt-rss service will also be shut down on March 1, 2026!

At the same time, the entire envs.net infrastructure will be moved to a new, more cost-effective server to return closer to envs’ original minimalist values.

In the future, chat for the envs project will again take place via IRC.

As before, we will be using the tildeverse IRC server:
• Server: irc.tilde.chat • Channel: #envs

Please respect this decision and refrain from sending private messages expecting justifications.

Thank you for your understanding and please accept our apologies for any inconvenience.

Best regards,
Sven aka. ~creme

envs.net | environments

envs.net | environments for linux lovers - since 9/2019

Jan 12 at 2:53pmWeb
Show thread👾 -fab-Jan 12
@envs
@creme

Sad to hear that you finally decided to shut down the matrix server. Although I don't know how much resources a Matrix server needs, I understand your decision. I'm not sure if I'll ever create another Matrix account again, but yours was a pleasure to use.

I just hope that the Mastodon/Akkoma/Activitypub server will stay online (I don't know how much resources these need either). I never thought I would use any social network at all (I avoid facebook/twitter and all the other commercial bullsh*t like the plague), but Mastodon/Activitypub seemed interesting because they're not bound to corporate interests. And I was lucky to find pleroma.envs.net on my first try of an instance. It's so well maintained and I don't see too much trash. So please keep this instance going 🙏.

I couldn't donate anything in December, but I'll see if I can give something this month. I'll also maybe ask for a shell account, just to see how a pubnix works. I never was part of one.

We'll meet in #envs on irc.tilde.chat when the channel is up and I hope the closing of matrix.envs.net will lower the costs enough to keep things going.

Best wishes,
-fab-
Akkoma

Show thread~cremeJan 28
@fab

Yeah, that's how it is sometimes... envs isn't the first project Matrix has shut down due to costs. But that's okay. It's great on IRC too, and you can see how much leaner and more efficient it can be ;)
Akkoma, the ActivityPub server will definitely stay online for now. I can promise you that! :)

Don't stress about your support... it's not meant to be mandatory. Everyone contributes what they can, and then it'll all work out.

See you later on IRC. 
Show thread👾 -fab-Jan 28
@creme

Are you interested in providing an XMPP server for envs.net?

I've just set up an XMPP server on a little VPS from Netcup for testing purposes:

https://www.netcup.com/en/server/root-server/rs-1000-g12-ip-iv-12m#rs-1000-g12-ip-iv-12m-nue

It has a 256GB SSD, 4 cores and 8GB of RAM, which should be sufficient. I've set up a prosody XMPP server on FreeBSD on it. For now it runs on xmpp.redterminal.org and already has support for rooms under muc.redterminal.org, but I believe it would be easy to install more XMPP services, like file uploads for example, although I haven't set up nginx on it yet, but I think this will be not too much effort to set up. All that said I have to admit, that I don't have too much experience with XMPP yet, but I've made progress fast.

I could set it up for xmpp.envs.net (and muc and files) with little effort if you would just point the DNS addresses to my server. I would grant you shell access with root privileges on the "prosodyctl" command, so you could easily create or delete accounts for new users with a simple 'ssh [email protected] "sudo prosodyctl register <username> <domain.tld> <password>"' for automation on newly created accounts. I would just need your public ssh key. You would have full access to the prosodyctl command and I would maintain the server as a whole, like doing updates and such things. I would also give you write access to the prosody.cfg.lua config file for you to make changes to it. And I'll also help with channel administration if you like, but you could easily add admins, if you trust them.

The only problem would be for already existing envs.net users. They need to receive a new password via email for example for their username.

I don't know if it's a good idea to make an inband or web registration open for all users, due to account creation spam.

I would be really happy to provide an XMPP server for envs.net (instead of making a monthly donation). So if you're interested, send me an email ([email protected]) and we can discuss, what needs to be done.
envs.net | environments

envs.net | environments for linux lovers - since 9/2019

Show thread~cremeJan 29
@fab That's a kind offer. However, I will decline it, even though it's very well-intentioned. I simply don't want to become dependent on infrastructure that isn't mine.

The other point is that I don't currently want to run an XMPP server for envs. On the one hand, it's too much for me right now, and on the other hand, I don't even use XMPP myself.

I hope you understand. Thank you very much for the generous offer nonetheless. I truly appreciate it.
Show thread👾 -fab-Jan 29
@creme

That's not a problem. I can understand that you don't want to rely on infrastructure, that's not your own. At least I can't be held responsible for any problems that might occur ;).

I just thought it might be a good idea to offer it to you.
Show threadNigel DerbyshireJan 22
@envs @creme thanks for your continued hard work on all of this. It's refreshing to see a pull back to the original roots (before my time here, but ya know) & to be mindful of the expense of all of those.

I do have a standing order to donate regularly - but will review that again to see if it can be increased a little. Do/will you publish the running costs for it all (for the new location)?

Also, being of the pre-internet vintage, I do love that the chat around this will be on IRC :-)
Show thread~cremeJan 28
@carbonwriter

I'm so glad to read that. Thank you for being part of the project and supporting it.

The project costs have already been updated. You can find the overview on the donation page at: https://envs.net/donate/

Great! I look forward to meeting you on IRC.

See you later! 
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