Hi everyone,

 

Thanks again for the great discussion last meeting. Sorry for the delayed follow up. Here’s a recap plus where we are on the website move, and details for our next meetup.

 

Next Meetup (3rd Thursday - same location, room already reserved)

 

Date: Thursday, March 19, 2026

Time: 6:00pm – 8:00pm

Location: Johnson County Library – Leawood Pioneer 4700 Town Center Dr, Leawood, KS 66211

Room: Leawood Conference Room

 

Feb meeting recap (highlights)

 

Website / hosting

 

Our hosting provider Netstandard is getting out of virtual hosting, so we need to move the KCLUG website.

 

Volunteers so far:

 

• Billy Croan offered to host (VM with public IP)
• Brent may be able to host as well (checking on public IP/VM)
• Chris Bier is current site contact/maintainer
• Hal Duston maintained the site back in the 90s

 

Current site repo: https://codeberg.org/KCLUG/website

(Chris made it public)

 

Stack / requirements (current + near-term):

 

• Apache + PHP (currently PHP 8.2.29)
• We want updates to be doable by multiple people (reduce single points of failure)
• Directionally: we’d like to keep “site vs. mail” separable, and it would be nice to keep components in separate containers where it makes sense, but no final architecture decisions yet.

 

What matters most day-to-day: keeping the front page fresh.

 

Mailing list / mail server (related but can be separate)

 

From Chris’s follow-up, the mail host needs good deliverability:

 

• good reverse DNS
• non-residential IP with a decent reputation
• Postfix (preferred)
• Mailman3
• optional IPv6

 

(Website and mail do not have to live on the same server.)

 

Domain / “single point of failure”

 

Vaughan shared a cautionary tale from another LUG losing their domain due to renewal/ownership process breakdown. Good reminder to ensure we’re not relying on a single person/account for critical access.

 

Current note: Billy has access to the domain/registrar. (Thank you!)

 

Vaughan also suggested a practical “corporate-style” mitigation to avoid single points of failure:

 

• keep registrar credentials in a shared password vault
• set registrar contact email to a small group/distribution list
• ensure at least 2–3 active admins always have access

 

Quick replies requested (so we can move forward)

 

Please reply to the list with any of the following:

 

1. Hosting offers (website and/or mail):

 

• VM or bare metal? Public IP? Can you support reverse DNS (mail)?
• Rough specs are fine (CPU/RAM/storage)

 

2. Access / admins:

   We should have at least 3 people with access for:

 

• domain/DNS
• website host
• mail host

• If you’re willing to be an admin for any of those, please say so.

 

3. Codeberg contributors:

 

• If you want access to the Codeberg org/repo to help maintain the site (or explore a static site generator approach), reply and Chris can add you: https://codeberg.org/KCLUG

 

 

What folks are doing with Linux (round-robin from the room)

 

We had a lot of shared interests: gaming, low-level programming, not using Windows!, tinkering/hacking, embedded, networking, and a ton of self-hosting (Plex/Nextcloud/backups/media servers). Also: lots of interest in Kubernetes and containerization.

 

My proposed March topics:

 

• Steve (myself) will present: “Linux Containerization” (practical overview + discussion).
• Chris: if you’d like to add a short Kubernetes segment or demo, that’d fit great, totally optional.

 

If anyone else would like to present or share something, please let us all know!

 

See you all on Thursday, March 19 (6–8pm) at Leawood Pioneer in the Leawood Conference Room.

 

Thanks,

 

Steve Gilmore