Tux Machines Growing as a Volunteers-Run Site
A month ago in northeast England we celebrated the anniversary of Tux Machines, a site that didn't start in northern England or even in England. It began in Tennessee, which is known for music (not only country music) and all sorts of other things. The site, in its 22+ years of operating, was always led by women. Rianne became the chief curator in 2013 and she remains fully committed to her responsibilities. There are many people who help around. Everyone is a volunteer.
In its earlier days the site published many distro reviews along with extensive sets of screenshots. In its later years the scope of coverage extended to Android, Tizen and all sorts of other things that are Linux-based. Rianne and I habitually blogged around 2013 and I began blogging here a lot more in more recent years.
The site continues to mature, there are volunteers who help maintain a Gemini edition of Tux Machines, and we understand that the audience of both has grown over time.
As noted earlier today, some time later this week I intend to change the way I curate links. Rianne and Marius typically catch all the important links and I'm deliberately staying behind them, time-wise, to collect less important stories that can be clustered together for easier absorption. I think I can do this task better ("sweeper" for lack of a better term) and much faster if I alter my workflow, leaving myself with a lot more time to produce original stories.
Historically the site did not have many original stories, but this changed as the audience grew and the site gained more recognition (about 4 million requests in the 3 days we were away).
I'm still young enough to do this for many years to come and as long as it is enjoyable - not a chore - it's hard to envision barriers except external ones.
The key thing is, Tux Machines needs to be fun. All those involved in running Tux Machines - myself included - don't do it for money. █
Image source: Roy and Rianne