Discussion

Blogs

Our staff maintain blogs (previously known as .plans) about recent activities of the organization and new project announcements. You can read all of the current plans by visiting blogs.distributed.net. There is also an RSS feed available on that page so that you will not miss a post.

You can also subscribe to the “plans” mailing list (described below) if you would prefer to read our blog posts via email.

Social Media

We can be found on the following social media sites:

• dnetc page on Facebook
• @dnetc tweets on Twitter

In general, the above accounts will post major blog posts from our staff blogs, but will also sometimes post/re-tweet other related messages and posts that we think would be relevant to our participants.

IRC Online Discussion

IRC (Internet Relay Chat) is a way of communicating in real time with people all over the world. IRC is similar to instant-messaging tools such as iChat, Jabber, AOL Instant Messenger, or Skype except that it is focused on group conversations instead of person-to-person messaging. distributed.net owes its existence to IRC and IRC is likely to always be the most effective way of getting help using dnetc if our Frequently Asked Questions doesn’t have the answer to your question.

*;The quickest way for new users to join us on IRC is to use the web-based IRC client or an alternative by Mibbit with any modern web browser.

The channel #distributed on irc.libera.chat normally has quite a few people in it and ranges in activity from hectic to very quiet. You will be able to chat with whoever is in the channel at the time. Although it’s the official distributed.net channel the discussion can frequently stray to other topics.

If you prefer to use Slack to communicate, you can also find us there as well. All messages sent on Slack are automatically mirrored with our Libera.Chat IRC channel.

*; Join our channel using Slack.

The regular users of the #distributed channel have also set up some webpages showing:

• IRC usage traffic statistics
• graphed connections between which users talk to which other users
• physical locations of regular IRC people
• photos of regular IRC people

For a more detailed primer on IRC usage and information, consult the IRC Tutorial.

Mailing Lists

There are several mailing lists available to provide you with more information about the distibuted.net and its projects. You can subscribe to our mailing lists by visiting the mailman subscription page entering your e-mail address into the correct form.

Announcement Lists

• The announcements list (announce@lists.distributed.net) is a moderated mailing list that will only contain messages from the distributed.net administrators. Posts are sent in English. To subscribe to the main list, send a message with the subject “subscribe” to announce-request@lists.distributed.net. Alternatively, you may also visit the mailman listinfo page for the “announce” list. Please Subscribe to this list, important information is sent on this list.
• The plan list is a mailing list used to mail out the day’s blog posts at 00:00 UTC. To subscribe to this list, send a message with the subject “subscribe” to plans-request@lists.distributed.net. Alternatively, you may also visit the mailman listinfo page for the “plans” list.

Project RC5 Lists

• If you have questions you wish to direct privately to the administrators, you can send mail to help@distributed.net or use the help form.
• The main list (rc5@lists.distributed.net) is an unmoderated mailing list available for your questions and discussions relating to the effort. To subscribe to the main list, send a message with the subject “subscribe” to rc5-request@lists.distributed.net. Alternatively, you may also visit the mailman listinfo page for the “rc5” list.
• The main list gets a considerable amount of traffic and so a “digest” version of it is also available so as to reduce the number of mail messages you receive in your box. To subscribe to the digested version of the main list, visit the mailman listinfo page and subscribe with that option selected.
• If you have questions about the personal proxies, you should direct your messages to the mailing list. To subscribe to the proxyper@lists.distributed.net main list, send a message with the subject “subscribe” to proxyper@lists.distributed.net. Alternatively, you may also visit the mailman listinfo page for the “proxyper” list.

Coding Lists

• The stats-dev list stats-dev@lists.distributed.net is for anyone interested in stats development, including the stats database, the PHP front-end, and the stats processing code. To subscribe to the list, send a message with the subject “subscribe” to stats-dev-request@lists.distributed.net. Alternatively, you may also visit the mailman listinfo page for the “stats-dev” list.

Hardware List

• The hardware list hardware@lists.distributed.net is for anyone interested in hardware based distributed computing solutions. Possibilities include parallel arrays of FPGAs, DSPs, or cheap micros. To subscribe to the main list, send a message with the subject “subscribe” to hardware-request@lists.distributed.net. Alternatively, you may also visit the mailman listinfo page for the “hardware” list.

Mailing List Archive

• If you would prefer not to receive any email, you can view an archive of all of the messages sent to the mailing lists by visiting our mailing list archives for: the announce list, the rc5 list, the proxyper list, or the hardware list.

Regional Lists

We also offer a number of regional mailing lists to allow our participants to obtain assistance and have discussions in their native languages.