[Theforum] access, ownership, resturcture

[Daniel J. Cody]

This is close to the longest single email I've ever sent. It takes about
10 minutes to read straight through, or its broken up into three main
sections to address what I saw as the primary topics for discussion
while i was away.

Access

Ownership

Restructure

********************

ACCESS

i guess i'm with the camp that agrees that not everyone on the SC should
have root. i'm also with the idea that not everyone on the MonkeyRun
group(which would do server/network/etc stuff) should have root access
when they join and want to help out either. but thats the cool thing
about each group getting to decide how to run itself(which it seems is a
major point of the restrucutre stuff that some people may have missed).
if/when joe server admin wants to contribute back to evolt and joins the
MonkeyRun group to help out, he may have to sit there for a while and
"prove" that he's responsible to the MonkeyRun group before he gets X
amount of access. the MonkeyRun group may decide that newcomers need to
stand on their head, shotgun a beer while pulling an 'atomic bong'
(joke!) before people get root. again, thats the cool thing with all of
these groups, the MonkeySee group may have different criteria as to who
gets to answer emails, edit articles, or delete them.

as for access that was given before i left, hopefully i can explain a
couple thing and try to sort some stuff out.
there were points taken with who i gave root & thelist admin access to
before i left for chile. first, thelist admin : i'm sorry some of you
took exception(isaac, madhu, jeff, adrian to name a few) that you
weren't allowed(and hadn't been) as thelist admins. i've mentioned it
before, although perhaps not in the clearest manner, which is my fault,
that MG has issues with locking, and more than a couple people using it
at once. if i had 20 people admining thelist, someone would've
overwritten someone elses changes, or a lock file would've got totally
fucked. its really not written for multiple administrators for the same
list, and thats my fault. also, the "Who's on first?" syndrome appears
when changes are made, options updated, and no one knows who did them.

root access: matt and dean and garrett(even if he forgot) have all had
root access for a long time now, so i assume the problem wasn't with
them continuing to have root while i was gone, but with russ/jeremy.
well, even if i had given root access to a number of 'admins' or
whoever, what good does that do you if the machine crashes, or ssh isn't
working? sure you have root(yay!), but honestly, you can't do a damn
thing with it, making it worthless to give out in the first place. which
is why people who
	1.) have a very good knowledge of linux and
	2.) are geographically close and can physically access
	the machines
were given root access. i can't see how anyone would not see this as
logical. sure, russ and jeremy aren't as active as some are publically,
but they care a great deal about evolt, worked hard at the last
codefest, and even submitted their bio's to the 'admin' group last fall
when people were concerned about someone they didn't know(but that i
vouched for) having access to the machines. this is just me trying to
clarify the situation, so let me know if its not happening.

jeffs access: this is a touchy subject, and one i've only shared in
private with a couple of people(jeff included), and have taken crap for
keeping the situation discrete. but since it keeps getting pushed, fine,
here it is. jeff didn't and doesn't have root access because he used his
shell account on members.evolt.org to 'guess' the root password a number
of months ago to change someones group permissions, and didn't tell me
or anyone about it. i only found out a week after while reading log
files and confronted jeff about it. *ANYONE* else that has *EVER* tried
this(2 people) did not get a warning before I deleted their account
straight up, no questions asked. and if jeff were not jeff, the same
would have happened to him. as i explained to him, if anyone has a
problem with their MEO account, they come to me or dean or matt, they
don't guess the root password and try to make the changes themselves.
if anyone thinks i was overly harsh, i'd like to hear. my intent was to
keep it more or less quiet, but i'm done looking like the bad guy when i
was just trying to deal with the situation discretly.
as i said above, a couple of people were informed of that in the past
month, including jeff numerous times, the last being the 17th of april,
to which i never received a reply, and i'll be happy to provide that if
need be. i'm not doing this to put any sort of heat or embaresment on
jeff or anyone else. i'm doing it because i'm trying to be honest and
forthcoming about a particular situation in which many people have asked
about.

********************

OWNERSHIP

the 'whois' information points to my apartment, yes. thats so i can get
the bill for our domain once a year and pay it(yes i realize people may
say i shouldn't be the one paying it, but no one else has, so i do it).
it's also because i was the one that wrangled it away from jenn(old
timer) after she went MIA on us. i'm not sure where else i would point
it? it's pointed to me for three years now, so i'm not sure why its a
concern(of a couple at least) all of the sudden.

'pulling the plug': oy. i think communication and common sense prevailed
on that whole subject, so i won't get too much into it.

hardware: ya, i've used a lot of hardware for evolt. someone asked for
our hardware list, so i provided it. we have a pretty kick ass setup
folks, and the only reason i've put so much into our hardware is because
i like our site to be fast and slick and useable for the people that use
it(all of us), not because i'm looking for some sort of control over it.

********************

MONKEY GROUPS

although i wish i could have given a bit of foreward about the monkey
groups before they were announced to the public, i'm glad they're looked
upon favorably for the most part. i also hopes that it reaffirms my
commitment to moving forward, recognizing we have problems, and fixing
them.. i hope that the token of martin and i working together for the
past couuple months on the MonkeyGroups shows that we are ready to move
on in a constructive manner, even if we disagree(And thats 'OK'!) at
times. i do have some things i'd like to update and clarify on there
when i get time and can figure out how to set a username.

these groups though do provide a structure for evolt while balancing
certain peoples need to create their own processes for their respective
areas.

********************

AMMENDUM

hopefully, this doesn't seem like i want to 'live in the past' or
anything. in fact, i'm very excited about where things are moving. part
of that moving forward is me clarifying some things though, and i'm
trying to do that in a mostly constructive(although admitedly it is a
bit defensive in parts) manner.

Thanks for your time and reading this far, even if you don't like what I
have to say.

.djc.