Join the Humancrafted community

When I shared that I was stopping using AI for coding (and everything) else, a lot of people reached out to me asking if there was any online space to talk with other people who are doubtful of AI, experiencing the harms it causes, or have rejected it entirely. I wasn't aware of any, and I very much want one to exist! So I started the Humancrafted forum over at https://humancrafted.dev/forum.

Humancrafted is a free online discussion forum powered by Discourse. No ads. No timeline. No bots. No AI boosters. Just real people talking about what they're working on, what's going on in the world of software development, and how to navigate this current moment.

I've been a member for the past three years of an online forum focused on talking about video games, and it's been one of the highlights of spending time online. I treasure the people and convos. Also, it's a lot of fun!

Online forums were a big thing for me when I was growing up, and I think they can be a great platform for focused community discussion. The feeling of using a forum these days is quite a bit different than social media or chat apps like Discord. It's slower, more focused. The convos are often deeper and more thoughtful. If places like Mastodon and Bluesky are shouting out into the void from the public square, well, an online forum feels like a small cafe where you recognize the faces and talk about various topics.

The fastest way to setup an online community would have been to make a new Discord server, but I have lots of concerns about Discord. It's a walled garden, where it's difficult for others to find servers and the community. It streams by quickly and is difficult to have thoughtful, longer-form messages. I find Discord servers difficult to keep up with as well with how fast they move. Also, Discord is closed source, now shows ads with no way to hide them, and always seems to be cooking up some questionable scheme. Basically, I think Discord is bad for a ton of a reasons.

Discourse, on the other hand, is a free and open source discussion forum software that's been around for many years. It's stable and mature. And they also offer free hosting for small communities with quite generous limits. So I figured Humancrafted could start there and we can see what happens.

If you're looking for a place to hang out online with others to talk about the craft of software development and what we can do about the harms of AI-powered coding tools, check out https://humancrafted.dev/forum and consider joining in on the conversations! The community will be what we make it, so let's make it a welcoming, kind, thoughtful, and fun place.