Would it be difficult to link a conference between M-Net and Grex?  If 
not, would there be interest in doing so?

I am the fw of the sports conference on both systems.

The conference on Grex hasn't been used in many years.  I made an effort a 
few years ago to generate activity there, but it didn't attract anyone but 
myself.  There was, however, some recent activity because M-Net was down 
for a couple of weeks.

I'm not sure what the mechanism would be for linking a conference.  It 
seems like both a political and technical question, so I decided I'd start 
here.  I'll add a similar item to the policy conference on M-Net.

Thanks!

21 responses total.

I would follow the sports conf. if it was here on Grex. I used to check 
in on the conf. on M-net but I usually don't remember to.

There's been a sports conference on Grex since the beginning, but it's not 
usually very active.

This is non-trivial to do correctly.  The software has diverged since it
was last attempted.

Why couldn't it be done using a mounted file system?  Is it a security
hazard?  (I know little about network security.)

Really, I'm just asking.  It seemed worth asking the question.

I know the sports cf has been here the whole time; was basically saying 
that if those of you who normally posted in the sports cf on mnet also 
posted here, then I'd be interested in reading it here [and maybe even 
participate!]. :-)  Though I'll have to check and see if my account on 
mnet is still there...

resp:4 It's a security hazzard, for sure.  NFS (the easiest distributed
filesystem to use between Grex and M-Net) doesn't work well across a wide-
area network, and then, neither YAPP nor backtalk really expects to run
on NFS.

re resp:5: You should check it out, denise.  I think you would feel at
home there.

re resp:6: I'm not even sure if the two systems could read each other's
item formats any more.

Thanks for your replies, Dan.  I appreciate them, even if they aren't
what I was hoping to see.

Just put the conference files on dropbox and share between the two systems.

(just kidding)

I thought the conference systems had database backends? Is it really
just flat files? Eww.

Nope.  Just flat text files.

I know very little about the conferencing system. But if you were looking to sync up text files on two systems, couldn't you use rsync or lsyncd, or something like that?

It might be easiest if I were to just put a link in the intro to the 
conference, offering people the option to go to M-Net for the sports 
conference.  They'd need an ID on M-Net, and there'd be no backup of the 
items on a 2nd system, but it would be simple and easy.  There aren't that 
many people on the two systems combined to make it worth a lot of trouble.

There would be the issue of two different people using the same login,
one on Grex and the other on M-Net.

Oh hell, just combine the two systems and get it over with. :)

I'd be in support of combining the two.

I might support that, but there are things I'd want to see happen as
part of it.  I couldn't bear to see the M-Net name vanish.  I couldn't
bear to have the name "Cyberspace Communications" continue, either.

I didn't start this item to promote combining M-Net and Grex.

I've said for years I think it would be a good thing to combine
operations but there is some very firm opposition to the idea over on
the M-Net side of the world.  There's no organization left for Arbornet.
 It would be easy to take it over for the purpose of merging with Grex.
 I wouldn't be willing to force the issue against those who hate the
idea so much.  I don't see it would be worth doing.  Those who most
against it are some of the longest standing users left on M-Net.

I hope both systems can continue to limp along for a while longer. 
They've been doing it for 20 years, gradually fading a little more each
year, but never quite vanishing completely.

They'll each die an assymptotic death; probably grex before m-net.

The way forward is probably to combine operations in such a way that the
two communities are preserved on a single system.

It's been discussed in the past.  Given that you and tonster are the 
active sysadmins for both systems, it seems like it would make sense from 
a technical perspective.  Also a financial perspective (though M-Net 
currently has no expenses at all, which is good because it also has no 
income).

There's much political flak for any collaboration from a minority of vocal 
users on M-Net.  That's what I was referring to yesterday.  I can think of 
ways to force the issue, but not without offending that minority.

There's similar potential for flak from a small yet vocal set of Grex users,
most of whom are more or less uninvolved in the day to day operations of the
system.  Most of the conflict stems from decades old differences that just
don't seem relevant anymore.

grex and mnet *sharing* a conference?  might be a good idea, but dave 
cahill would probably say, 'over my dead body' and scare the others on 
mnet from agreeing.   

He doesn't seem active on M-Net anymore.

This response has been erased.

Oops, my resp:20 was posted in error.  Sorry!

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