Happy new year and > 1000 members
First off, happy new year to everyone 😊
We also surpassed 1000 members on slrpnk.net near the end of last month. This is a nice milestone and another reason to celebrate.
While we had some server issues last month and also did not yet upgrade to the latest version of Lemmy (due to federation bugs with it), we can still welcome more users in 2024.
Of course the actually active number of users is quite a bit lower, as many of the Reddit migrants did not stick around. But I think we managed to get a healthy number of regular posters and our communities are also well subscribed to in the larger Fediverse.
I also managed to promote our instance a bit on the 37C3 congress in Hamburg a few days ago. Great Fediverse presence there and good solarpunk vibes as well.
New moderators / communities
We got two new communities in recent weeks that seem to be quite popular:
- @toaster@slrpnk.net started !asksolarpunk@slrpnk.net
- @activistPnk@slrpnk.net started !climate_action_individual@slrpnk.net
Technical updates
Besides the upcoming upgrade to Lemmy 0.19.x we thought a bit about other services to host. One idea is a collaborative text editor, for which the new Hedgedocs2 alpha is being tested on https://docs.slrpnk.net (BEWARE users and documents might be wiped without notice during the test period). We will update you when this service stabilizes sufficiently and also if we find a way to integrate accounts with the main Lemmy user database like we do for the XMPP & Movim service. Stay tuned 👍
Open discussion
As always, this is your thread. You’re welcome to comment about any meta stuff you don’t think is big enough for its own post. New communities, Lemmy or Movim issues, personal news, and questions for the community will be visible to the entire community here through the month of January.
Hi all, recently joined. Seems like a great community and I’m looking forward participating. I just started exploring the fediverse in general and was really drawn into this instance and idea of solarpunk.
I’m coming from mainly being immersed in ‘collapse’ content, but am now more interested in a constructive discussion of the future. I’m still interested in what future sustainable society will actually be realistic in the absence of fossil fuels, which are not as easily replaceable as in mainstream green narratives suggest. For example, we don’t actually have a plan for a self sustaining (without fossil fuels) way to make the photovoltaic solar panels prominently featured in solarpunk art, as discussed in this article. However, that article also mentions concentrated solar power at the end, which involves simply mirrors redirecting the sun to run a steam turbine, shifting reliance on complex technology and global supply chains to an 18th century technology that could in principle be built by small-scale communities in a de-industrialized rooted/thrilling future. Concentrated solar power plants would also just be objectively cool additions to solarpunk art.
I try not to get hung up over technology that requires fossil fuels, there’s so many other uses of fossil fuel that are out of convenience that something like solar panels needing some fossil fuels to create isn’t worth worrying about at this point
I appreciate your point and I don’t necessarily think we shouldn’t be producing PV. But what is the plan in 30 years when those panels reach end of life? Are we eventually reaching some sort of steady state where we are using the electricity from solar panels to replace those solar panels? Our mining is highly dependent on diesel without a clear replacement, and making solar grade purity silicon is a highly complex and energy-intensive process. Its not about the carbon emissions today, its that it might be come much more difficult to manufacture PV in a future without cheap energy. I’m not sure that will be the future, but currently many people want to completely bet the farm on wind (another testament to fossil fuel) and solar.
I’ve also come here from collapse content, back on reddit. I would say it’s quite balanced here - collapse-aware but always pointing towards possible solutions. Thing is, collapse is already happening as we speak, might as well get on with making things better. Edit: Oh and welcome! Glad to see more people join!
On the art of solar concentrators, I did one scene of a solar furnace and got some ideas on how to make a more realistic version from the discussions over on the subreddit - I think solarpunk industry is an underexplored concept overall. I also like the idea of low tech solar power (including solar cookers) because its so approachable and because I tend to imagine solarpunk as a guide for rebuilding. Mirrors and water tanks are pretty straightforward and easily acquired.
Awesome! I appreciated the writing to go with it, particularly about asking where all the things depicted in solarpunk scenes come from. Generally as a culture we are blind to the embodied energy in the structures around us and goods we use, which shows up in art.
I don’t want to come off as negative to anyone creating art and expressing themselves imagining the future they want. I just think it’s also important that others critically examine the space of what is imagined for what is actually possible in the real world. Happy to hear any feedback on how do that in line with the intentions of this server.
If you’re asking about offering criticism of my photobashes, I certainly don’t mind! I make these for the discussions, to cause conversations and examinations of whatever concept I’m building the scene around. Solarpunk spaces tend to be pretty quick to point out deficiencies. I research a bit, and definitely try to get it right, but I’m often combining multiple concepts I’ve only just read about, so I expect to get things wrong.
