LURK logo

Welcome to LURK, we host, facilitate and archive discussions around net- and computational culture and politics, proto- and post-free culture practices, (experimental) (sound) (new media) (software) art, and things like that…

We’re volunteer run and wish to:

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Services

LURK provides a few community services composed of mailing lists, chat and access to the Fediverse. In addition to offering these platforms, we try to document how they are set up on a wiki.

Discussion Lists

Over at we.lurk.org we host several mailing lists using mailman3 and hyperkitty. These are available both via your mail-client as well as your web browser.

Chat

On LURK we host a server for federated instant messaging and chat. It is based on XMPP and uses Prosody as a server which is configured to support modern E2E encryption and mobile use.

Stream

Accessible at echo.lurk.org, we run an icecast server. This server is used to relay some audio streams, host automated/algorithmic (or not) radio programs, broadcast live events, and do streaming experiments in general. We also use this for the occasional private movie screening.

Fediverse

We provide access to the Fediverse, a communities-run social media network, through a modified Mastodon instance: post.lurk.org

Wiki

We maintain the Run Your Own wiki, where we try to document how we run LURK and some of our machines, so that we can inspire others to do it as well, and avoid the situation where LURK becomes itself a silo.

The wiki is also used by our friends at the homebrewserver.club for dumping ideas, useful links, HOWTOs, and configs for DIY and DIWO self-hosted services.

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Access

If you would like to have a mailing listed hosted by LURK, please drop us an email and tell us a bit about you and your project(s). XMPP accounts, including public or private chatrooms creation, and access to the icecast server is usually accessible to LURKers and people we already know, but we can make exceptions. Our Mastodon instance is limited to 666 accounts, there are both technical and socio(sub)cultural reasons to limit the size of the community. However we regularly remove unused accounts and open the instance for new applications. We do not have a waiting list, first arrived, first served, granted your application matches the scope of the instance. Joining LURK means you are in accordance with our CoC, TOS, and Privacy Statement.

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LURK infra

We currently use three machines:

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We

LURK is used by several communities coming from a variety of cultural, ethnic and professional backgrounds. We strive for LURK to be welcoming to people of these various backgrounds and provide a non-toxic and harassment-free environment. Our (work-in-progress) Code of Conduct, Terms of Services and Privacy Statement can be found here

If you run into an issue contact our admins:

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Pls send halp

Big tech and an abusive misunderstanding of free and open source software practices have led us to believe that software production, server maintenance and on-line services should be free as in gratis. However there is no such things as a free lunch and software does not exist in a vacuum.

If we want sustainable alternatives and a diverse cultural sector, these alternatives and the humans behind them, need to be supported. If LURK is useful to you, and if you can afford it, please help us by donating.

You can support us through open collective, PayPal (drop us an email for account info), or by international Bank Transfer (drop us an email for account info).