So, if you all are interested in keeping in touch outside of the SAV site, there are options. These are free or cheap. If everyone decides these are all horrible, I can dig around a bit for alternatives. For background, I worked for what felt like an eternity in IT, so my experience with any of these may color my recommendations.
E-mail based list server (e.g., Mailman)
Pros: easy to use, mostly self-maintained, has options regarding how and when you get messages. Easy to run.
Cons: Only uses e-mail, so no real-time interaction. Not free, but very inexpensive.
Chat-based channel, e.g., telegram.
Pros: free, someone else’s infrastructure, allows some voice and real-time capabilities.
Cons: Not very flexible. No ability to group conversations by subject.
Mastodon instance, probably not connected to the federation.
Pros: Reasonably familiar interface.
Cons: steep learning curve for lazy administrator. 😄 Server required, although a small one would suffice, so not quite free.
Discord server
Pros: Lots of features. Highly customizable, including voice capability. Very granular security: private channels, trusted-only areas, etc. Cons: Lazy administrator learning curve again for some cooler functions . Would probably require 1-2 volunteers to do moderation in case people get too spicy.
Any thoughts, other options, anything?
I'm now on Mastodon, becoming very disenchanted with other options, and that forum is pretty damn cool.
Here's my label:
@fmhilton@mastodon.sdf.org