Way back when I used to do .NET, alt.NET was also an umbrella for alternative frameworks like Castle, data mappers, etc. It would be great to see a resurgence of non-MS frameworks.

Don't get me wrong the MS prescribed frameworks are great. I just prefer SQL over LINQ, lightweight HTTP muxes and middleware as found in node.js or Go.

There's a group of us specifically talking about running another big alt.net 'unconference' here in the UK, but we're also keen to rekindle wider interest in the whole open source .NET ecosystem, and the kind of ideas that fuelled the first wave of alt.NET. For now we've got people posting their own things and we're using Medium (https://medium.com/altdotnet) as an aggregator, but nobody owns this; there's no trademarks or anything. If you want to kickstart something in your own community, go for it. We're going to be talking to other community groups and some of the extant alt.NET meetups that are still running, and share their ideas about community engagement, how to promote diversity and inspire enthusiasm, that kind of thing.

And it's great to see such a positive reaction. Thank you :)