March 2026 - Members

by Matthew Wild

Hi folks, These have come up before, but I don't think the board has ever actually voted on them as an agenda item (forgive me if I'm wrong, but I found no record of it). Therefore, I would like these two membership-related proposals to be picked up for discussion and voting by the board: 1) Make the publication of members' real names optional This has come up a number of times, and there is broad consensus that we don't need to publish real names of our members, even if we may need to have them privately on file. This proposal would be to explicitly permit members to reveal their names only to the XSF Secretary, and allow pseudonyms to be used elsewhere. I believe that adoption of this proposal would help encourage more people to join the XSF as members, who may be unwilling to publish their real name on the internet, or connect their identity with the XSF (for which I can think of countless possible reasons). 2) Cease publishing vote tallies for membership applications It has been raised before, by someone who said it contributed to not renewing their membership, that the presence of "no" votes on the membership page was not a good experience. Realistically, it is very rare for members to be accepted unanimously (most people have some "no" votes, and this will only increase as our membership increases). However, I fear that publishing the vote counts turns it into something of an unnecessary popularity contest, even if it isn't aiming to be one. It's not necessary for them to be public, as long as we keep the results on file. For people who are part of minorities in our community, it can be disconcerting to be told that some people voted against them, and to have a publicly visible record and ranking. Therefore I am proposing reduction of our membership results to a list of accepted members instead of publishing tallies publicly. I am not proposing changes to our council or board elections, as I think those would need additional consideration and may warrant greater transparency. Regards, Matthew

2 weeks, 1 day

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Expose donation information at xmpp.org

by E.M.

Dear members, I hope you are doing all fine. TL;DR: Can we present XMPP Project donation information at xmpp.org per software listed? (which involes updating the DOAP XEP [1]) As you know we are having a great success since we started publishing XMPP software and project information via the .doap files at xmpp.org. It not just allowed to improve the visualization but helped even build new tools for comparison of the capabilities behind each software, such as the XMPP Software Comparison [2]. Many thanks to Daniel Brötzmann in that regard! For a while there is the idea out to also support the projects by presenting a direct reference to their donation information and beyond. It would hopefully help projects run by volunteers to generate a bit more attention to their background and also to give something back. Of course, there can be more ideas on what other things we can do, too. This should be a discussion if such a promotion of donation information is okay to do. It should not be not about the DOAP standard. That we can take in a different fora. (But yes, it would require an update of the XEP.) Best regards, Eddie [1] XEP-0453: DOAP usage in XMPP https://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0453.html [2] Software · XMPP Software Comparison https://xmpp.org/software/software-comparison/

2 weeks, 5 days

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[EMFCamp 2026] XMPP village for outreach

by Polarian

Good evening, I have discussed this on XMPP already, however I was recommended to bring this to the members mailing list, however back when I was recommended I was not a member, so thank you all who elected me, and for those who encouraged and helped me apply. I feel like getting an XMPP presence at EMFCamp would be a good way to outreach to new people. EMFCamp isn't just FOSS, its tech/engineering as a whole allowing to outreach to people outside the usual bubbles. I have been told that there is some XMPP stuff at CCCamp, this would be similar. What are villages? Villages are groups of tents around a central theme, in this case it would be XMPP. We would hopefully have people interested in XMPP camp around the village, and then in the centre of the village have a few tables or something to show off XMPP (see the idea) and have stickers and stuff. I still need to speak to some people on the feasibility of this, but for now this is the "draft" so to speak. The idea? Villages should have a lot more space than at FOSDEM, so this gives a lot more room to show more stuff off. I am dividing it up into 3 areas. 1. Server side I would like to copy Ralph's idea from FOSDEM, and setup an XMPP server on a SBC, and then run it on a table for everyone to see. The event itself is entirely Matrix (unfortunately), so my idea is to have an unofficial chat for the event, and hopefully as we progress through the event more and more people will yap on the XMPP MUC(s) hosted on a SBC which you can see yourself, hopefully showing off the power of XMPP. Someone suggested (sorry forgot who it was) that we also allow antonymous login, to quickly onboard people for the event, the MUCs and any accounts will be deleted after the event, and all data erased. 2. Client side I have many spare laptops, and phones, as I do quite a bit of device repair. I should have a spare iphone for showing off Monal, then I planned to have an android phone (or a few) to show off conversations (and maybe its forks, cheogram and monocles chat). Then for desktop, gajim/dino, I might put gajim onto windows and then dino on Linux so its more inclusive for those who don't daily drive Linux. Potentially show off some of the web implementations too, such as movim and converse, however I don't want to do too many as I need to be able to handle the workload. The idea is so that people can pick up a device, and play with it (test accounts), I stole this idea from PostmarketOS. Speaking of PostmarketOS maybe it would be cool to have a Linux phone running XMPP as well? 3. Providers (if I have help) It would be amazing if one or maybe a few providers could be there. In the modern age, I feel a lot of people are interested in where there data is stored and how it is stored so it would potentially be interesting to have someone who has hands on experience with this. What do I need? I can pretty much do most of this myself, I already have leaflets and stickers from FOSDEM which I wanted to distribute at EuroBSDCon. Most of the gear I can provide. I do not drive however, so I can carry the devices to show off, stickers and leaflets, but might need some help with the setup of the central part of the village to show off the stuff. I have already had one person (forgot who it was) who offered to help. Obviously having as many XSF members, and XMPP users as possible would be cool, but not required, most of this I could handle myself. Attending? The website [1] has a ton of information, this is a paid event, prices can be seen here [2], tickets are released in batches, and are snapped up quickly, so it might be difficult to get tickets, the times of ticket dumps follows: • Monday 9th March, 20:00 UTC • Sunday 22nd March, 15:00 UTC • Thursday 2nd April, 18:00 BST If you would like to help out, please let me know. This is still a "draft", and not set in stone. I haven't even got a ticket yet for example :p Thank you for reading, -- Polarian Jabber/XMPP: polarian(a)icebound.dev [1] https://www.emfcamp.org/ [2] https://www.emfcamp.org/tickets

3 weeks, 6 days

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Membership Application period Q2-2026

by Alexander Gnauck

Hello, I have created the membership application page for Q2 2026 at: https://wiki.xmpp.org/web/Membership_Applications_Q2_2026 The following XSF members have to reapply: * Daniel Brötzmann * Artur Hefczyc * Wojciech Kapcia * Guus der Kinderen * Mathieu Pasquet * Mickaël Rémond * Arc Riley * Kevin Smith * Andrzej Wójcik * Nicolas Cedilnik * Dele Olajide * Jérôme Sautret * Badri Sunderarajan Regards, Alex

1 month, 2 weeks

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Chat of the Future Initiative

by E.M.

Dear all, the XSF Communication Team is pleased to announce a new initiative to help evolving the XMPP ecosystem in a broader and aligned perspective. This should cover discussions, development but also extended public communication and presence. As this is being setup in an iterative way its participants will be able to form and steer the collaborations direction over time. You can read the full blog post here: https://xmpp.org/2026/01/chat-of-the-future-initiative/ After a number of questions let me elaborate a bit more. So, when you join the session(s) we will have a interactive collaboration board present where we will conduct different exercises. We start with basically exposure and a discussion of the networks status quo is as everyone sees it from their corner. If you have ideas of what you would like to change, you can just propose those. Ideas could be for example that members from the XMPP community are interest in an organised (regular?) interoperability meeting on certain XEPs. Others think of more engagement along encryption or building a better landing page for developers. In the end, all those great ideas and constructive feedback can be brought to the first session, but also at a later point. Out of this, the round will form a collaborative direction that anyone interested can join, commit and contribute to. There are more and other directing and hopefully fun exercises of this nature and we will collect, review and discuss ideas that could be worth moving on within a couple of months. Ideas, to be shaped in smaller activities, with no long time frames but effective outcomes that the ecosystem benefits at user or (new) developers level. We hope this is a motivating opportunity for the XMPP network and help us to step ahead all together. We also believe that such a collaboration can enable the network to evolve and gain new momentum and result in strong benefits for all actors. Feel free to comeback with your thoughts already. Best regards from the Communication Team, Eddie

1 month, 2 weeks

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XSF EU Legal Structure: Example Proposals

by Guus der Kinderen

Dear XSF community, Documentation has been prepared outlining example approaches for relocating the XSF's legal home to the European Union. These proposals are intended as lightweight, pragmatic illustrations of how such a transition could work. They are not intended to define the eventual legal form, and no decisions have been made. Please note: although I am currently a Board member, these proposals were created on my own accord and do not reflect any shared opinion or decision of the XSF Board. Currently, the examples focus on structures under Dutch law and assume a complete migration from the U.S. to the EU. They are meant to help the community explore possibilities, understand trade-offs, and discuss potential paths forward. The proposals can be found at: https://wiki.xmpp.org/web/XSF_EU_Legal_Transition_Proposal Please review these examples, ask questions, and share feedback - maybe even add alternative proposals of your own. Your input will help ensure that any future decision is well-informed, practical, and aligned with the needs of the XSF community. Kind regards, Guus

1 month, 2 weeks

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Mailing lists vs. MUCs (was: Proposal for a moderation team)

by Guus der Kinderen

Hi all, I wanted to split off the recent discussion by Peter and Travis suggesting we may consider moving away from mailing lists in favor of MUCs. I think this deserves its own thread so as not to dilute the ongoing conversation in the previous discussion. Personally, I am not in favor of abandoning mailing lists for this type of discussion. Mailing lists have several important advantages: - Time to respond thoughtfully: Mailing lists allow participants to carefully compose responses. Some people are naturally quick at finding the right words in real time, but others (also including many for whom English is not a native language) benefit from (or simply prefer) having more time to reflect. For example, composing this email took me 41 minutes (longer than I care to admit), a duration that would generally be impractical in a live chat room. - Asynchronous participation and time zones: Mailing lists naturally allow people to contribute "later" which is much harder to do in chat rooms (where conversations 'moved on'). This is especially helpful for people in different time zones or those who cannot respond immediately. - Offline processing and focus: Threads in a mailing list are ordered and easy to read offline. Chat rooms often mix multiple topics, making it harder to follow the discussion. In practice, I don't expect the majority of people to scroll back in history, which significantly reduces the potential reach. - Engaging quieter participants: Mailing lists often generate responses from participants who do not otherwise join MUC discussions. - Record keeping and referencing: Mailing list archives provide a single, persistent URL for referencing discussions. Chat logs are often fragmented and thus lack a canonical link. I understand that, technically, XMPP technology could be used in ways beyond standard instant messaging to support discussions like these, and some clients could replicate many of the benefits of mailing lists. However, in practice, I don't expect the majority of users to take advantage of these features consistently. Even today, features such as message references or reactions are inconsistently supported, which can make following discussions difficult for people who cannot, or prefer not to, change their XMPP implementation. So while MUCs are great for fast-paced, interactive discussions where ideas can bounce around quickly, I see mailing lists as far more practical for thoughtful, organized discussions that people can read, reflect on, and reference later. Kind regards, Guus

1 month, 3 weeks

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Recap Blogpost & Survey on XMPP Summit 28 + FOSDEM 2028

by E.M.

Dear all, This year the XMPP Summit 28 took again place in Brussels and we had great participation of almost 40 people attending in-person and online. We also had several new faces there which is great news, too! The same, FOSDEM 2026 took also place at ULB, and though we had to arrange for a new location our Realtime Lounge, the feedback and impressions have been mostly positive. Finally, writing a summary of our experience would be valuable and help others to gain interest in the way we work and the ecosystem are continuously building. To collaborate on this effort, everyone is invited to contribute to this pad before we will create a final PR to review: https://pad.nixnet.services/BoUphR54TnOzh774PhNWXw?view To provide your individual feedback everyone is invited to participate this survey on both events: https://xsf-communication-team.limesurvey.net/286665?lang=en&newtest=Y Please leave your feedback by Sun, 22nd February 2026. At this point, many thanks to everyone who supported us making both happenings a success! Best regards! Eddie

1 month, 3 weeks

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voting results & meeting minutes

by Alexander Gnauck

Hello, you can find the meeting minutes here: https://wiki.xmpp.org/web/Meeting-Minutes-2026-03-05 All applicants and reappliers were accepted. Congratulations to everyone. And a warm welcome to our new member George Timms. I will open the Q2 application process shortly. Alex

1 month, 3 weeks

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Proposal for a moderation team

by Matthew Wild

Hi folks, I would like the board to consider, at their next meeting, the formation of a team for moderation of XSF discussion venues (at least MUCs). "Why?" Currently the set of people with moderator/admin status in XSF venues varies from channel to channel, and people are granted permissions on a rather ad hoc basis. This raises questions of responsibility and transparency, and moderation varies significantly between channels. The goal of a moderation team would be to: - Formally define a set of people to gain moderation rights across all XSF discussion venues - Spread the responsibility, accountability and decision-making among members - Improve communication between moderators (formation of a dedicated MUC for the team to discuss moderation matters would be sensible) Currently moderators act primarily as individuals, which leaves them open to being singled out for retaliation, rather than feeling like they have the backing of the XSF. This sometimes leads to no moderation action being taken, when it probably should (if we care about the health of our community). If moderation decisions can be agreed with a team, this will help make our moderation actions more consistent and more fair to both the moderator and the moderated. "What would be the difference from the conduct team?" I see the conduct team as a smaller group reserved for tackling only important cases, mostly reactively, in response to reports and appeals as described in the CoC. The moderation team would (ideally) consist of slightly more people. They would be responsible for the day-to-day moderation duties while following the words of the CoC and the direction of the conduct team where provided. Regards, Matthew

1 month, 4 weeks

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2026

2025

2024

2023

Members March 2026