Add Funkwhale 8th birthday post

content/funkwhale-8-birthday.md

+Title: Happy Birthday Funkwhale!
+Date: 2023-12-01
+Authors: Sporiff
+Category: Community
+Slug: funkwhale-8-birthday
+Summary: Today is our 8th birthday!
+
+8 years ago today, [Agate](https://agate.blue/) made the first commit to a project that is now known as Funkwhale. This means today is our birthday! 🎁 🐳
+
+The project started as a tribute and replacement to the dying platform [Grooveshark](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grooveshark). Since then, a lot has happened! Agate grew a great community around the project. In 2018, with the release of version 0.8, Funkwhale joined the Fediverse by implementing ActivityPub. In December of the same year, funded by the community, Agate started working full time on the project.
+
+This time was hugely productive 💪 Funkwhale improved a lot and got more stable. After updating the Funkwhale feature set in versions 0.18 to 0.21, Funkwhale 1.0 was released in the summer of 2020. Funkwhale got per-user libraries, moderation features, OAuth and Podcasts. Parts of those developments were also funded by NLNet between 2019 and 2021.
+
+At the end of 2020, Agate stepped back from the project as a maintainer, handing the project over to the community. After taking some time to get into a flow again, we've made some great plans for the future as well. We're planning to:
+
+- replace Funkwhale libraries with a much more flexible concept called [Collections](https://forum.funkwhale.audio/d/214-whats-wrong-with-libraries-and-a-path-to-fix-them)
+- extend our federation support and add new content types.
+- update our web application to make use of [our new design library](https://ui.funkwhale.audio/)
+- create a new API layer to improve performance and extend functionality
+- implement some new ideas around improving Funkwhale as a publication platform for artists and [help them get funded](https://agate.blue/2019/06/09/introducing-retribute-a-decentralized-open-effort-to-support-creators.html)
+
+As an open-source project that is mostly run by volunteers, updates can be slow. We have to balance our studies, day jobs, and family commitments with the time we can spend contributing to Funkwhale. We also have to ensure that we have the necessary resources to facilitate our work, such as tooling and dedicated personnel. As we look at the long list of things we want to achieve to make Funkwhale a better place to be, the thing that is most obvious is that we will need finances to back us up.
+
+If you have the means and are interested in seeing Funkwhale improve, consider [supporting us](https://www.funkwhale.audio/donate/) with a one-off or recurring donation. Your donations go towards keeping our infrastructure running and paying for essential development resources. It also enables us to perform necessary tasks such as our recent [accessibility audit](https://forum.funkwhale.audio/d/317-budget-request-accessibility-audit-for-the-upcoming-new-website), which require outside help.
+
+Any amount is greatly appreciated 🙏 We're looking forward to this next year and to making our platform something truly great 🐳