Abner Coimbre is our Handmade Cities. You may reach the author at abner@handmadecities.com

Dear Handmade Folks,

Allow me to discuss three things:

1. We Left DigitalOcean: and how I’ve temporarily lost some newsletters
2. Going More Underground (Less Open Web)
3. Quick Update on the Handmade Library

Leaving DigitalOcean

There’s currently three (non-DigitalOcean) VMs running most of Handmade Cities: our chat, mailing list, code forge, the RSVP system and so on. The last holdout was my personal DO droplet which was serving the main website.

That DO droplet is now gone, but I’ve partially lost our News feed in the process. This is on me and I’ll be keen to write up my own postmortem, proudly following Mariano’s footsteps haha. Most importantly the relevant data is backed up: I just need additional time.

Some posts are already back online.

If there are meetup hosts with an upcoming event I strongly suggest you blast a newsletter with a meetup reminder, since your old posts are currently unavailable at this time. Forgive the inconvenience.

Going More Underground (Less Open Web)

Handmade Cities is the target of constant malicious scraping, especially of our code forges. We’ve also fallen victims to multiple DDoS attacks. Traditional defenses are becoming less-and-less effective unless we spend more-and-more money or manpower and so I think it’s time to exit this scene.

I don’t intend to leave 100% – the main website should probably stick around. However, we may explore overlay Networks / mesh VPNs for the web apps: like Gitea or the upcoming library. Or whatever community service we offer in the future.

We welcome your thoughts on the matter. This is Terra Incognita for us, which is very exciting but also a little terrifying. One day I do believe our growth will no longer come from the open web, and we’ll just use the Internet to collaborate with the humans we seek out in person.

Quick Update on the Handmade Library

Member donations of computer books and used electronics are still pouring in! I’m super grateful. Our goal is to publish the library service by end of the year, which is an updated deadline from the original August 2026 one. I was overly ambitious :)

Cool cool, that’s all for now. Mariano’s HMC Weekly should come around Friday or during the weekend!

Your community organizer,
Abner Coimbre