The Story of the JaxLUG Website
The past unofficial Jacksonville Linux Users Group has had many websites over the years, and in recent years, multiple conflicting, which has become a total mess. This page aims to document the history of the various websites and the information is a work in progress.
Tracking who hosted the website, where it was hosted, and on what platform is entirely another matter. That data may be added someday, if available.
2000 Generation 1
The first record of the JaxLUG website on Archive.org under JaxLUG.org domain name goes back to August 15th, 2000. Based on public record, this is considered the first generation of the JaxLUG website. This website existed till at least, March 28th, 2002.
2002 Generation 2
The second record of the JaxLUG website on Archive.org under JaxLUG.org domain name goes back to July 20th, 2002. Based on public record, this is considered the second generation of the JaxLUG website. This website existed till at least, January 26th, 2003.
2003 Generation 3
The third record of the JaxLUG website on Archive.org under JaxLUG.org domain name goes back to March 20th, 2003. Based on public record, this is considered the third generation of the JaxLUG website. This website existed till at least, March 17th, 2005.
Unfortunately, it looks like this website went down sometime starting around March 25th, 2005, and first confirmed on November 9th, 2005.
2005 Generation 4
The fourth record of the JaxLUG website on Archive.org under JaxLUG.org domain name goes back to November 25th, 2005. Based on public record, this is considered the fourth generation of the JaxLUG website and the first generation of the wiki. This wiki/website existed till at least, January 5th, 2009.
2010 Generation 5
Per this "Wiki lost data" post from William Thomson on June 30th, 2010, some of the data from the prior wiki was lost, this was the unfortunate beginning of a reoccurring trend of needlessly losing the website wiki data and database. The fifth record of the JaxLUG website on Archive.org under JaxLUG.org domain name goes back to this "Wiki moved and updated" post from William on July 8th, 2010, further confirmed on December 23rd, 2010. Based on public record, this is considered the fifth generation of the JaxLUG website and the second generation of the wiki. This wiki/website existed till at least, June 25th, 2013.
William still has a copy of this wiki on a VM backup that includes a copy of the mailing list. There was no need for further loss or change beyond this point, but others elected otherwise; a copy was presented and ignored in 2025. There are copies of uploaded past presentations that William will retrieve and upload to the presentation repository someday.
2013 Generation 6
The sixth record of the JaxLUG website on Archive.org under JaxLUG.net domain name goes back to this post from Gene Cronk on July 7th, 2013, further confirmed on July 23rd, 2013. Based on public record, this is considered the sixth generation of the JaxLUG website and the third generation of the wiki. This wiki/website existed till at least, October 22nd, 2021.
2017 Github
In 2017 William Thomson recommend in this post that the group consider abandoning a self-hosted wiki for Github wiki and/or website. This would solve many problems, current and future, but it fell on deaf ears. William did proceed to create the Github account, but it would be several more years before it would be considered and acted upon; now hosting this very webpage and site.
2023 Google Sites
In 2023 it seems an attempt was made to use Google Sites per this link which is not available in Archive.org. Therefore, it is unknown when this site first came online, or how long it was in use. Note the banner logo in use refers to jaxlug.org.
For some reason, as of 2026, it remains on the Meetup page, as one of two visible links. Just one example of the neglect on Meetup. Why that link to the Google Sites website remains on Meetup?
If/when the link is removed, it is due to our raising the issue...
- January 19th, 2026
2023 Generation 7
The seventh record of the JaxLUG website on Archive.org under JaxLUG.net domain name goes back to May 30th, 2023. Based on public record, this is considered the seventh generation of the JaxLUG website and the fourth generation of the wiki. This wiki/website existed till at least... the 2025 mess!
2024 Github
In late 2023, early 2024, Ramon Dominguez had reached out to William Thomson, first via email in 2023, and then Github in an issue on an unused now deleted repository. William provided Ramon access to the Github account that William had created years prior, and Ramon proceeded to create the foundations of what would evolve into this website, after lots of work cleaning up broken HTML.
Ramon seemed to initiate some Website Collab efforts as evident by his presentation on January 17th, 2024, titled "Web Site Collaborate JaxLUG.github.io", per the meeting history page. William always supported Ramon in his efforts, and Ramon failed to realize, William had a past information systems and hosting company, that in part did web development, along with application and database hosting services.
Unfortunately, like many efforts, as William has experienced time-and-time again, that what starts out as others participating, evolves into one person doing it all, as this ended up with just Ramon developing and maintaining the website as of most 2025 per the repo git history, not for lack of Ramon's efforts, just how things go. Group efforts are always welcomed, but rarely materialize.
2025 Mess
The mess worsened in 2025 with conflicting efforts on Github and via wiki, and then later splitting the wiki and fraudulently moving to Gitlab. There are two different wiki's as of end of 2025, start of 2026, one under wiki.jaxlug.net and another under www.jaxlug.net, jaxlug.net seems to redirect to the wiki.jaxlug.net wiki now, but was going to www.jaxlug.net wiki.
These are two different wikis with different databases, that seem to have diverged, as the last record that exists in both was on 20:06, 18 November 2025, made by Ramon Dominguez. Since then, Ramon seems to be maintaining the two separate wikis and their respective databases with diverging commits in history. In addition, to the fraudulent mess going on at Gitlab.
2025 www.jaxlug.net
It is believed this is a continuance of the seventh generation website, the fourth wiki from 2023. Plans for this wiki have not been made announced or made known publicly. It seems this wiki will be maintained for the foreseeable future along with the other, for what purpose, other than wasting time, duplicating efforts, and potentially leading to mistake and confusion.
This wiki likely also remains due to confidence and network issues with the other, wiki.jaxlug.net, as demonstrated from accessing wiki.jaxlug.net on January 8th, 2026. Errors like this are entirely preventable by working with people in the community who have such skills, rather than shunning them.
This is not evident of a proficient technical group, this is clearly, amateur hour, sadly!
2025 wiki.jaxlug.net
This seems to be a copy of the seventh generation website, the fourth wiki, which would make it the eighth generation website, and fifth generation wiki. The reason for this is unknown, and seems conflicting with other efforts on Gitlab. This url has had numerous errors with redirection. This also seems to be a personal mission of Christian McLaughlin which per his announcement, he took over to his own servers; a community decision, as so frequently claimed.
While someone hosting things on their own personal resources would have flown in past years, the group should have long secured a corporate hosting sponsor for the long term. This may or may not have been the case with past generation, but it was the case with the fifth generation, second wiki, which was needlessly and stupidly abandoned; copies still exist including uploaded presentations.
It is great that some 15 years later, others are finally hosting a LAMP stack VM, as William had presented back in 2011, except, that VM also contained the mailing list, which was the primary means of communication. But how the past repeats itself, including mistakes, except, this is an individual, Christian, William did it via his business which hosted websites and ran a private cloud at a local datacenter, Peak10 at the time. This isn't progression, but literal regression, but partial, only the website, not the mailing list, etc.
2025 jaxlug.gitlab.io
This is a fraudulent Gitlab account and website!
In 2025, several people ran off to Gitlab, cloned the Github JaxLUG jaxlug.gitub.io repository, and proceeded with a fraudulent clone. This is evident by the date of their account additions, most on September 22nd, 2025, this is after legal formation and offers made that were declined; adding to the illegality!
This is all fall out from failure to realize the implications of their actions, Christian McLaughlin creating rules and banning William Thomson from the past unofficial Discord. Christian, and others, failed to consider the implications. Christian accused William of taking over Github, but William had created that JaxLUG Gitbub account years prior, long before the Discord in 2020, and long before Christian or others became involved, see the unofficial community page for further information.
For some reason, they have chosen to register the following two domain names in addition to jaxlug.net, which are pointed at the fraudulent newly created Gitlab account gitlab.com/jaxlug and Gitlab pages site jaxlug.gitlab.io. Furthering this mess, and increasing the registration burden of the group; three domain names, jaxlug.net, jaxlug.us, and jaxl.ug.
Who will pay to renew these three domains year-after-year?
They already lost jaxlug.org over failing to simply pay annual registration, and almost losing jaxlug.net. More domain names are surely the solution, and this was a community decision, as so frequently claimed.
- jaxlug.us
- jaxl.ug
And who knows the story behind this one...
- jaxlug.io
One domain is all that is needed, presently, jaxlug.ngo, and hopefully, jaxlug.org once again someday!
A total and absolute mess! 2 Wikis and GitLab, 3 urls, and 3 websites, one fraudulent!
2026 Github
There is only one legal and official Jacksonville Linux Users Group - JaxLUG website, this one JaxLUG.ngo!
Website repository https://github.com/JaxLUG/jaxlug.github.io/
It should be somewhat obvious the reason for unifying into a single official website, in addition, all the problems of the past, which could have been prevented twice, either retaining Generation Five, Wiki Two, or going with Github in 2017. Rather than follow advice, year-after-year, decade-after-decade, others continue to fumble with something that Linux does arguably the best, host websites, LAMP stacks!
Rather than continue this mess, the permanent home as it should have been sometime ago, is and will remain on Github, per their respect of Trademarks and US Corporate Law. Along with their dominance in the market, and the usage is no different than proprietary features of other platforms such as Gitlab.
Ideally, the group would have the capabilities and facilities to host such reliably, but they chose to remove it from a local business long ago, and have individuals fumble around since. Local education has been un-interested in doing their part. Therefore, for the foreseeable future, the sole web presence will be hosted on Github pages.