[SOLVED] openHAB subreddit locked?

Why is the openHAB subreddit locked for submissions? It looks like it was locked for new posts about 2 months ago, and it looks like a wasteland. Not a good look for openHAB on Reddit, especially as /r/homeautomation and /r/smarthome are basically one big HomeAssistant love-fest.

In general, I have this impression that we form a very tight community here on the forums, which is great as a resource for users who actually find/visit the forums, but we don’t have as much outreach/footprint anywhere else (Reddit, Twitter, Youtube, etc…). That spread out promotion is to me one of the reasons behind HomeAssistant’s rise in popularity, with YTers like bruh or Dr Zzz’s popularizing it, posters on the Home Automation subreddits singing HA’s praises any time some new user asks about getting into home automation, and even traditional promotion (shirts, hats, stickers, etc…). I’m happy to promote openHAB as much as I can, but as a community, we should all be trying to get the word out…

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I didn’t even know there was a subreddit for OH. I’ve kind of purged Reddit from my internet habits a couple years ago as too much of a time sync. I end up spending the same amount of time here only now at lest I feel like I’m helping people instead of constant arguments. When did they change to the orange logo?

It looks like there are no moderators, which makes sense for why it doesn’t allow new posts. Perhaps it’s abandoned and we can start it up again (I nominate Bartus :-P). Any idea how to become a moderator on an abandoned subreddit?

I’m cautious about reintroducing Reddit into my life but I might give it a try for a bit to see how it goes.

There was some talk about setting community use rules for the OH logo when the new logo was created but I don’t think that ever went anywhere. It was brought up not too long ago again but I think we need Kai to chime in and he is up to his neck in work with the big merge. I for one would love to put a sticker on my computer and my car but haven’t because I want to make sure using the logo like that is allowed. Plus I don’t want to have to buy 50 of them.

As a non-profit in Germany, I know that the foundation will never sell merch like this as it’s too complicated from a tax perspective.

Smart man :slight_smile:

I’ve noticed that, and I for one can say it’s very much appreciated!!

Following your tip, I found out there’s a subreddit for that (/r/RedditRequest) - I’ve posted a request and we’ll see what happens! If it’s approved, I’ll leave it to @Kai to decide who should be made moderators of the subreddit going forward.

I asked that question as well - but have not pushed the issue, understanding how swamped Kai is right now with the merge.

That’s a great point, though a bit disappointing - I feel like the foundation is missing out on available funding streams - I also wonder how the HA organization is able to make it work - I thought that project was based out of the EU, as well? Perhaps there’s a way to designate a US-based member of the foundation to run these commercial/marketing aspects, and pass the funds back to the OH foundation or pay for services/equipment required to run things like myopenhab.org (I hope I’m not recommending something illegal or against the EU tax law :))

You seem to be indeed a good candidate! It’s fine for me to allow anyone who is a respected community member here in the forum to be made a moderator on Reddit, so if you are willing to start and possibly chose others as additional moderators, please go ahead!

There was some talk about setting community use rules for the OH logo

This is actually still in the process. We (the foundation) have submitted the logo as a trademark and while it is still pending, we cannot really officially publish any re-use policies. For the use on Reddit, I can approve the use, so feel free to use it there.

I know that the foundation will never sell merch like this as it’s too complicated from a tax perspective.

I wouldn’t say that it is impossible for tax reasons. It is just effort to offer merchandise and to deal with all of that. If anybody wants to take care of such activities on behalf of the openHAB Foundation, please start a discussion on the Foundation’s Slack channel and we can see with our CFO what is possible.

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All of these are big tasks for folks to take on, Bravo @bartus having strong presence on youtube already promoting openHAB :+1:

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Thank you @Andrew_Rowe - I’m just one voice, and just starting out, but there’s plenty of demand and room for more openHAB channels to pop up!

By the way, I will be participating in Dr Zzz’s livestream later today (~1:00 PM EST), where the topic will be HomeAssistant vs OpenHAB comparison. Hope to see other openHAB users in the livestream chat!

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Just to let everyone know, I’ve just been made moderator of the www.reddit.com/r/openhab subreddit. With that, the subreddit is now again open for new posts and discussion.

I encourage people to start visiting/posting/commenting on the subreddit, so we can build a helpful home automation community, promote openHAB, and have a more spread out presence!

I’m also looking for volunteers to help with moderating, building out wikis, layouts, automoderator rules, and CSS themes for the subreddit (it’s pretty bare right now, and I’m a reddit mod noob with not much extra time for these tasks at the moment). Help would be greatly appreciated!

-B.K.

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