Hi, I agree completely with Mobeen here. The decentral model of email is pretty nice. Other stuff is server hosted. When the server goes down, the whole data and knowledge is gone as well. With email i can have a lokal copy of the ddata. Maybe the people don't konw this mailing list or other mailing lists. A hybrid solution might also be platforms like groups.io. There you have a mailing list but you can also use it like a forum. Greetings, Simon -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht----- Von: Mobeen Iqbal via Blind-sysadmins <blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org> Gesendet: Montag, 23. Februar 2026 11:44 An: Mailing list for blind system administrators <blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org> Cc: Mobeen Iqbal <mobeeniqbal@gmail.com> Betreff: [Blind-sysadmins] Re: Would anyone be interested in a blind professionals forum? Hi. I would argue that email is still the most convenient,. Yes we could switch to platforms like PHPBB or facebook, or even WhatsApp. But not everyone knows how to use those platforms. Professionals probably would, I suppose it would depend how easy you want to make the process in terms of people actually interacting. I personally find Facebook cumbersome no matter what platform I use it on, the same applies to online forums especially in cases where I'd quickly like a summary of posts on a page etc. Very best wishes, Mo. On 23/02/2026 10:38, Andrew Hodgson via Blind-sysadmins wrote:
Hi.
There have been a few attempts to do this before, most haven't gone anywhere. However I don't see that as a reason for not trying. I have often wondered what a successor to this mailing list would look like, as I realise it's a bit outdated now. I think even young blind professionals have moved away from email these days.
Andrew.
-----Original Message----- From: Samuel Barnes via Blind-sysadmins <blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org> Sent: 23 February 2026 01:53 To: Blind sysadmins list <blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org> Cc: Samuel Barnes <samuellbarnes@gmail.com> Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Would anyone be interested in a blind professionals forum?
I'm thinking of spinning up an instance of nodeBB to serve as a forum for blind people working in fields not traditionally associated with the blind or for blind people seeking employment outside the "blind employment ghetto" (you know, O&M instructor, VI or special ed teacher, government case worker, lawyer, musician, etc.)
This would host discussions about adaptive strategies for blind professionals in specialized fields, advocacy for blind people in the workforce, and just commiseration.
IT industry topics like those discussed on this mailing list would be a subset of these discussions.
I also have two ulterior motives for doing this. First, I really like traditional forums as a platform and think nodeBB is a promising successor to the venerable (and surprisingly still around) phpBB. I'd like to have other blind folks use it day to day and provide the devs with feedback on how to make it more accessible.
Second, as I mentioned in a previous email, all my certs are expiring next month, and I'm too exhausted to try to renew them. Adminning (and possibly self-hosting) this forum would serve as a personal portfolio of sorts, something I can show potential employers to demonstrate I know what the heck I'm doing. _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list -- blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org To unsubscribe send an email to blind-sysadmins-leave@lists.hodgsonfamily.org _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list -- blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org To unsubscribe send an email to blind-sysadmins-leave@lists.hodgsonfamily.org
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