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Ahoy, smolneteers! September really does seem to be recurring on an annual basis. It's happened five whole times now! Deeply mysterious. Once again, the time for ROOPHLOCH is upon us.
For those who came in late, the Remote Outdoor Off-Grid Phlogging Challenge, or ROOPHLOCH, is a smolnet community ritual I have organised each September since 2019. Originally a Gopher-only phenomenon, this is the first year I am also announcing it on Gemini, since last year's edition got some Gemini participation anyway and nobody seemed upset by it, so what the hey, the more the merrier.
The essential idea is that you should make a phlog and/or gemlog post sometime between September 1st and September 30th (inclusive, in your local timezone), under the following conditions: you need to make your post without being inside any kind of permanent, non-natural shelter (e.g. be outdoors, or in a cave, or in a tent, not in a building, not even a log cabin. Do yurts count? Nobody has tried it yet) and the device you post from should not be plugged into a wall for any reason - get your electrons and your packets some other way! Once you've done this, email solderpunk@posteo.net to let me know the URL of your post. At the end of the month, I will post a roundup of everybody who participated.
ROOPHLOCH is a challenge, but it's not a race and it's not a competition. The challenge is against yourself and your everyday internet routines and your imagination. Some people just take their laptop into their backyard and use their home WiFi to post. Some people go for a hike or a bike ride to get a bit further away from civilisation, but not so far they can't use a cell phone for internet connectivity to make a post. Some folks kick it up a notch and use amateur radio to get their post online. To date nobody has combined mountain climbing, solar panels and satellite repeaters to set a new record for ROOPHLOCH style points, but I continue to look forward to that happy day. The style points, let me be clear, are imaginary and subjective and there are no guidelines for them. You don't need to feel pressured to use expensive, high-tech gadgets for ROOPHLOCH. Just think outside the box when it comes to getting bytes out of one computer and into another.
Have fun, try something different, hone some new skills and/or explore some new locations. Last year was the biggest ROOPHLOCH turnout in a while, with 11 posts, but strangely we still have not managed to exceed the 13 post turnout achieved when we did this the very first time in 2019. Maybe this can be the year?
As always, you can check out previous years for ideas and inspiration (Gopher-only links, sorry):