Virtual Hack Forge

I realized that there are seemingly no good 'default packages' for hackerspaces that integrate all the needed bits and parts in one place, while this might be an excellent way to encourage more people to set up such a place. I also was thinking of a conceptual 'Virtual Hackerspace' where people could register to, in order to organize, meet up, share tools, chat, ask questions, and more.

That's how this place was born.

I do want to mention one thing though: I used LLMs in the making of this product.
Honestly, I get if you're against them, but without the code completion and quick building abilities, this would've taken months if not years to complete. I did take excessive steps to stay in control of the project, and I like to think that I used the LLMs as tool, rather than the other way around. I hope that despite the use of such tools, this project hopefully helps folks to create/improve (virtual or physical) hackerspaces.

In the hacking spirit I've tried to use tools and options to create a hackable, adaptable website, with as little lock-in as possible.

To that end, I've used Markdown wherever possible rather than purely leaning on the PostgreSQL (or SQLite) database, and created a CLI that should make it incredibly easy to set up, backup, and export all your data from.

Additionally, each part of the website has its own separate folders and sections within the code, and I've explicitly used LTS versions of packages wherever available; No exciting new tech, just proven things, such as Django, which also should be familiar to a lot of hacker folk.

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me on the Fediverse: https://mastodon.derg.nz/@anthropy
or send me a poke on Matrix: @anthropy:m.derg.nz

If you want to get registered, I can send you an invite code that allows you to create an account. After this, you should be able to talk in the Chatroom bridged to Matrix without requiring any further details; VHF takes care of the bridging through a Bot account.

Features

• Multi-room Chat, with optional bidirectional Matrix Space sync
• Wiki, based on Github Flavored Markdown, with Folder support
• Armory, a lending library with extensive tracking of the state, maintenance (-cost), datasheets and manuals, and location of the lend items.
• Workbench, a project showcase/tracker, which is what you're looking at right now!
• Agora, a stackoverflow-inspired simple forum with voting on answers, and the ability to turn answered questions into Wiki pages easily
• Pulse, a calendar, meetup, presence, and chores tracking system, with ical exports!
• User profiles, with a brief bio, list of skills, projects, and lendable tools, as well as public keys and such (also available through API for usage with servers/services/etc)
• Hackable Light and Dark themes, with optional auto switching based on browser-provided preferences

Git Repo and code

You can find the repository at https://git.dragonhive.net/DragonHive/VirtualHackForge

It is MIT licensed, so that Hackerspaces can feel comfortable using it as they see fit without having to worry about legal aspects. Feel free to hack and use as you wish, I consider the code public domain.

If you have problems, ideas, suggestions, or other feedback, feel free to reach out to me in any way comfortable to you to let me know.

Future ideas

Some ideas for potential future development (none of these are to considered confirmed, they're just ideas):
- Git hosting for online hacking (though that would probably integrate my GitLiz project rather than redo from scratch)
- If desired, I can create IRC integration; I've thought about both making a IRC client bridge (like the Matrix bot), as well as maybe putting a basic IRC server inside, so that the package becomes even more complete (but also complex).
- User Blogs, beyond just projects in the workbench, we could have a Blogs section where people can write up larger things that don't necessarily fit in the Wiki or Workbench
- SlowStream integration, another project of mine, which is excellent for hosting Webcams or other 'slow streams' of at most a few FPS (it's entirely image based)
- bidirectional calendar support for syncing with other devices and places, maybe calendar imports of other icals with regular pulling, etc
- Expanding Chat support to have images and what not
- Custom pages for easier hacking and customizing of the website
- upgrade the VHF tool to support Jekyll exports and alike for migration if desired