Re: [hylafax-users] [hylafax-devel] Re: new community site

[Lee Howard <faxguy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Darren,

You've thrown up the "fork! fork!" flares and overreacted.  This is no 
fork.  This is much closer to a mirror than to a fork.  I have commit 
privileges to CVS on hylafax.org and my developments are eventually 
being merged in to the HylaFAX code base unfettered.  I have no reason 
to fork.  What I have done, though, is merely to set up an alternative 
community site for updated on-line references, bug reporting, and 
discussion.  The code is the same, the community is the same.  The user 
base is the same.  It's merely an alternative.  It's an alternative that 
agrees with me and many others.  It's an alternative that frees me from 
any concern over what iFAX may choose to do at the hylafax.org site.  
Again, there has been no fork.  Again, I've no reason to fork.

With respect to the daily CVS HEAD snapshot versus Sourceforge 
sub-releases... The daily CVS snapshots are a good thing.  However, I do 
not think that it's enough when the normal release only happens 
semi-annually and enough development occurs after the feature freeze and 
before the release to warrant yet another release.  (I've said this 
multiple times before both here and on -devel.)  So after the dust 
settles from a flurry of CVS commits I am taking a snapshot of CVS HEAD 
and labeling it as a sub-release.  So HylaFAX 4.2.2.1 on Sourceforge is 
simply the CVS HEAD snapshot from October 27.  The source code was 
already released; I'm merely making it more visible and assigning a name 
to it that is more user-friendly.  Neither is it a "Lee Howard HylaFAX" 
version, and nor is it a HylaFAX that is Sourceforge-specific.  I don't 
expect these sub-releases to agree with everyone, especially those who 
use the wind-up towards the end of a release cycle to get all of their 
commits in, and for that reason I have tried to change references and 
versions so that users who download sub-releases from Sourceforge don't 
get into "friction-heated" situations when looking for support for 
"version 4.2.2.1" on hylafax.org.  Thus, I encourage users who download 
sub-releases from Sourceforge to turn to the Sourceforge site for 
support, since those of us there are those that are committed to 
supporting those sub-releases.

As for involving other existing community members, especially 
contributors (a.k.a. developers), in the project... Other community 
members, mostly those who lurk and go silent and have otherwise worked 
through me, were informed and involved to an extent in the Sourceforge 
site.  For the most part, though, they saw it for what it was, that is 
simply an alternative, and thus there really was no need for alarm or 
conspiracy or political posturing.  I invite everyone to participate 
there, or here, or both.  To me it's all the same.  These are simply two 
sites about the same software project.  There are dozens of HylaFAX 
reference and informational pages out there, and nobody gets alarmed 
over those.  Each distribution that provides HylaFAX has their own patch 
set, informational pages, and support forums for HylaFAX, and nobody 
gets alarmed over those.  This is just more of the same.

As for the future of the website at hylafax.org... I'm now in a position 
where I can feel totally and completely free from worry about whatever 
may or may not happen there.  It feels good.  You can do a Mambo or a 
Joomla or a Wiki or whatever else pleases you.  You can hang up 
advertisements as much as you please, and it doesn't bother me in the 
least.  With reference to the website you've said "we've been open to 
this" and "we've been discussing doing that" and many other "we" 
comments.  I don't know who the "we" is, though, that you're 
mentioning.  It's not been discussed on-list, and I wasn't involved in 
any private discussions.  So when you say "we" and I'm not involved 
although I certainly have tried to always be involved I can only feel 
excluded.  After writing the How-To and having it placed on the 
hylafax.org website I was included in the alias for 
webmaster@xxxxxxxxxxxx  I remained there for a few years, and I would 
respond to e-mails and make various adjustments to the website through 
you.  I'm not sure what happened, though, but for quite some time now I 
am no longer part of that webmaster alias and my website commits would 
not get "made live" in good time if ever.  You've talked about the 
openness of your efforts at www.hylafax.org, and I'm sure that you feel 
that's what it's been.  However, I certainly haven't felt that way.  
Hopefully you can see my frustration.  I'm sure that Mambo or Joomla is 
a lot of fun just like a Wiki, but those kinds of things just don't work 
for me, and so I've developed a site with the kind of documentation and 
references that does work for me.

With respect to the Sourceforge donations... *IF* (and that's a big if) 
any donations ever come in they will be publicly accounted for and will 
be used to directly fund the resolution of the feature request or bug 
report of the requestor's choice, and if they do not make a choice then 
those at Sourceforge will determine which bug report to use those funds 
for - this will all be part of that accounting.

Thanks,

Lee.


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