Riis Beach Bulletin

Dean

I have been thinking about a little project at Riis Beach. Riis is great, in part, because you become inaccessible on a busy weekend afternoon. With the network too saturated with queers texting their friends, "where are you??," a rare reprieve from constant digital connection opens. Phones only become useful for beachside photoshoots and playing music. Only Jah, Riis' secret keeper and trans historian, has communication technologies at the becah with their the oral history listening booth to create a vast and beautiful archive of Riis lovers.

There are, however, some pieces of information that would be great to have access to when you get to the beach. Did you forget to look at the tide schedules? Is there a storm rolling in? What about a rip tide? And what are you to do if you lost your mom's ring? Or saw someone cute?!

I am describing a technology we already have: a community bulletin board. But because of the high likelihood that anything put up would be taken down by National Parks Service staff or snitched on by the far-right neighborhood next door, a bulletin board would be too visible by design.

I got to thinking about something silly we did for my birthday last year: a red carpet to the ocean. I found a bunch of red fabric that a friend helped me cut up and sew into an extra long strip. To top it all off, another bud surprised me with stanchions!! It was so goofy and fun to create a stage for passersby on the beach to come and play with us. I wanted to create a little gag for my friends and didn't expect that so many other folks at the beach would also find joy in it. I see the virtual bulletin board in the same vein. What fun would Riis lovers have with a blank canvass?

[Story about having the cops called on me at my building for putting up a bulletin board. This is a thing the State really doesn't want us to do, so why not try to make it happen. ]

The only other diy project I know of in recent years was how Chris B crowdsourced a few thousand dollars to buy a beach accessibility mat. Both the lifeguards and NPS left it alone and it was well appreciated in its innaugural season.

I spoke with Max at length today about the technical possibilities here. They mentioned creating a LAN and LoRA technology. We also discussed needing to get in touch with the Spectro guys who theoretically would be able to supply power.

3/6 Update:

Raspberry pi has been acquired (thanks Zev) and is running Yunohost and Etherpad.

Still to do:

  • Figure out a power source at Riis
  • Talk to Spectro folks
  • Figure out tunneling - set up zero tier on the rpi
  • Landing page (and mobile access??)
  • Community rules and guidelines for use
    • none of the usuals (racism, transphobia, etc.)
    • explanation of what happens to the data
    • explanation of how to even use this thing
  • Cutie flyer
    • QR code? I wonder about the design here

  • Some sort of weatherproof container - ask Cars?

In the intervening weeks, I got Yunohost on the Raspberry Pi, loaded Etherpad and Lichen Markdown, and tunneled my little site onto the Big Internet.

Community Agreements:

I feel like this is the crux of the project, but I feel continuously stuck on what would make for this. I maybe need examples?**

  • No racism, no transphobia, no sexism, no homophobia, no nada - good vibes only. [This is actually something I'm not sure about and would like to research more. What is the best way to frame this idea considering there is no ability to moderate? If I go with Etherpad, then the moderation is community led since anyone can just delete anyone else's writing. But the router chat function seems more difficult to do so.]
  • There are no trackers on the site. Nothing you will do will be logged anywhere.
  • This is a silly little project made by Dean, who is on the beach right now.
  • Write what you want! Cruising encouraged,

Container

  • I'd originally thought I'd use some sort of Tupperware, zip tied to the boardwalk's railing. But then figured that hours of direct sunlight would probably get so hot it'd cook my server. So, some sort of breathable sun shade.
    • Ask Cars or Clark

Flyer

  • Need to make something hand drawn that explains how to get onto the server.
  • Need also to figure out how to get onto the site at all before designing the flyer. Chicken and egg.