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

[Aidan Van Dyk <aidan@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

OK,

I have to admit I am still a bit confused by this whole thing.  I mean,
I can obviously see that Lee has an axe to grind with Darren.  But who
are all the "contributors" that knew about hylafax.sf.net?  I certainly
didn't.  Am I just "thrown out with the bath water" because iFAX happens
to be pay me to spend some time on HylaFAX code sometimes?

The main thing I get from reading all Lee's posts is that he is against
the "commercialisation" iFAX is doing with HylaFAX (in particular, the
commercialisation of hylafax.org). 

But all I see on hylafax.org is a small "box" with hylafax-supported
hardware on shop.ifax.com.   And on the mailling lists, a single line
on the bottom of messages (BTW, how many  people actually read the
bottom of ML signatures?).  Compare that to Lee's constant "you could pay
someone do do it (hint hint) posturing on the lists.  All told, I'm
surprised that iFAX hasn't done any more spreading of it's name/logo
around hylafax.org.  I can't speak for them, but I would chalk it up to
them trying to keep hylafax.org healthy and stable, distinct from iFAX

And so he's set up another informational site about HylaFAX.  Cool,
that's not an issue - anyone can setup an informational site.  But
that's not just what I see.  I see another site, listing other releases,
another set of mailing lists, and another bug tracker system, with
release announcements from the "HylaFAX development team".  All on a
site with a big "donate" logo on the bottom.  He even made a point of
claiming in his announcement that there was just a standard SF set of
footers, no commercial interests, etc.

And all this is "just to set up an alternative source of documentation"?

The only things that are bugging me about hylafax.sf.net are:

1) The announced intention of "de-commercialising" it, with a big
   paypal donation solicitation on the bottom of every page.

2) Completeness of it being "separate" from hylafax.org, including
   "releases", "mailing lists", "bug tracker" which are all listed and
   referred to as if they are from the "HylaFAX development team".

3) That I'm obviously thus not part of the "HylaFAX development team".

I've worked on and with HylaFAX for quite a while, even before iFAX
offered me work.  And I took the job with iFAX because it would allow me
to do more work related to HylaFAX.  But of the the opinions expressed
in this e-mail are my own.  Though iFAX employs me, I can't speak to any
of their goals/intentions.  As to HylaFAX, iFAX has always told me to
use my own judgement as to what is good for the project when pursuing
features/bugs/enhancements/etc.

a.




* Lee Howard <faxguy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> [051103 11:26]:

> 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.

-- 
Aidan Van Dyk                                             Create like a god,
aidan@xxxxxxxxxxx                                       command like a king,
http://www.highrise.ca/                                   work like a slave.

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