Dear community,

As some of you know, our WildHub Socials have been hosted in Gather, a wonderful space originally created by @Lucy Tallents at VerdantLearn. These socials are a place for us to connect, network, and recharge as a community.

However, Gather has recently moved to a paid model (I found out only today when trying to access it), and we now need to explore options for hosting our socials going forward — whether that’s finding a new platform (or funding) to continue using Gather. Next week’s social is scheduled for Wednesday 24th September, so this is an urgent request.

👉 We’d love your help!

• Do you know of free platforms that would allow us to host interactive community socials?

• Have you seen creative solutions for continuing to use Gather without incurring the full cost?

Here are Gather’s current costs for up to 10 concurrent users:

• Subscription (always open space): $150/month (or $120/month if paid annually).

• One-time reservation (per event, 1–5 days): $30 per day — which works out to about $3 per person per Social if we have 10 participants.

📌 Full details: Gather 1.0 Pricing Overview

We’ll also be hosting next week’s Social (co-hosted with @Fleur Morton  and @Fairuse Akter), so your suggestions could directly shape how and where we meet!

Please share your advice and experiences in the comments below — your input will be invaluable in helping us find the best solution together.