On Wed, 10 Sep 2003, Paul L. Allen wrote: > Ms. Catherine Kouzmanoff writes: > > > It is a time to call together everyone on this list to insist that Tom > > Collins add Ken Jones or another representative from Inter7. > > I've been using vpopmail for a few years now and didn't really care who > was in control as long as somebody was. When I saw Ken's comments I > thought that perhaps Tom had acted a little precipitously in blocking > Ken. After seeing your shameful comments I am inclined to think that > Tom was correct.
I've got a guess as to what's going on, based on the timing of this. To anyone on this list, it's obvious that Tom was undertaking some radical changes in how the project will be *administered*. There is now a place for users to submit bug reports, and those that can code to submit patches. I also assume that in the future there will be things for people like myself to do; FAQ entries, documentation, helping with administering the mailing lists hosted as SF, etc. These are all positive changes. So in the months that Tom has been (not so quietly) doing this, not a peep from Inter7. Now a few days ago, Tom solicited help in creating a front page for the SF project. This would presumably be a home for documentation, a FAQ, an install guide, etc. All items that do not exist. Right after this announcement, we hear not from Ken, but from the CFO of Inter7. Maybe I'm making a leap here, but I think that the loss of the redirect from "vpopmail.sf.net" to the inter7 site is the problem. Inter7 is a business, and their business is selling "pop toasters" and support of their software. Currently, I must imagine that some amount of their customer base came there after visiting the vpopmail project pages. If the new home of vpopmail is "vpopmail.sf.net", they lose that sales lead. I think that is what precipitated all this, and that everything else is tangential. Personally, I *want* a real homepage for vpopmail. I *want* to contribute docs, and I *want* to make it easier for new users to find information about the project, even simple info like "what is vpopmail?" is helpful, followed by a complete list of required software, links to the various "toaster" sites, and of course links to companies that provide commercial support or "toaster-in-a-box" hardware/software solutions. Again, just a guess, but the timing seems to point to the homepage issue being the unspoken center of debate here... Some have been calling anyone that speaks up "ingrateful" and "unhelpful". Let me just state that while I am not (yet) much of a C coder, I would gladly offer up my time for the following: -documentation on a new vpopmail homepage -aggressive testing of development releases -CVS repository hosting (primary, or simply mirroring for when SF has problems) -a FreeBSD 4.x development environment for interested developers -mailing list administration (ie: reaping malicious subs, deleting those with autoresponders, answering manual unsub requests, etc.) > Ken himself seems like a nice guy who is genuinely concerned for the > users and who feels left out. You seem like a piece of shit determined > to keep the Inter7 stamp on vpopmail at all costs (which fall upon the > users). Ditto. I was disturbed by the tone of the CFO, and somewhat puzzled. Thanks, Charles > -- > Paul Allen > Softflare Support > >
