response 15 of 122:

Dec 12 00:51 UTC 2003

I've a standing offer open to help out on anything remaining to
be completed on nextgrex.  Unfortunately, the one thing I
cannot help out with from afar is loading the basic OS and
getting it onto the net.

response 17 of 122:

Dec 12 02:38 UTC 2003

I'm not in favor of paying a staffer (or anyone else) for contracting 
work for NextGrex.  We're volunteer run and I can't see any reason why 
that should change.

We were told a year ago that buying NextGrex was urgent, and then the 
treasurer was pushed to buy everything quickly because it was urgent 
to get everything into place.  The urgency of the project failed as 
soon as the stuff was all bought.  I am not going to conceal that I, 
for one, feel let down by the staff about it all.  Maybe it really was 
urgent and Grex is being left dangling; maybe someone panicked and 
stampeded Grexers into sending money for no good reason.  Maybe both.

But there you go.  We all placed our trust in some people, and they... 
well, they really didn't earn it.  It does not mean they're bad 
people.  They're excellent people, and we were once lucky to have them.

Grex can't back out and get it's money back.  No one can presently 
move the project forward.  We can't stay where we're at.  There's not 
enough will or outrage or responsibility (or something) to replace the 
staffers with someone who *will* do the job.  So here we sit, until 
Grex dies and goes away, or someone does what they said a year ago 
they'd do, or someone else takes over the project.

response 21 of 122:

Dec 12 05:18 UTC 2003

I do not agree with John's harsh conclusion that staff has let us down
or that they have violated the trust of grex users.  That strikes me as
wrong-headed and more than a little mean.

I also think arguments that there is some sort of expiry date on the
hardware we purchased are silly.  Whatever the capacity of hardware
we purchase, the grex community would expand to use that capacity.
My guess is that the increase in capacity from the new hardware would
simply unmask some other constraint like network capacity or the like.
The more pressing issues in my view are those such as how to keep drawing
people in the conferences and how to redistribute staff workload more
evenly.

I do not think we can afford to hire someone to do the work and from what
I understand of the current situation, the issues limiting staff time
for work on nextgrex are not the sort that would go away by incentivizing
through some cash outlay.  Even if they were, that is not how I'd like to
see the relationship between staff and the larger community redefined.
Right now staff are part of the community; throw in salaries and folks
start talking about violated contracts and "violated trusts".

What I would like to see is a confirmation of the specific requirements
necessary to see nextgrex into production and then a plan from the board
on how we are going to finish those off with existing staff resources.
If we can't get there from here with the staff resources on hand, I would
like the board to draw on volunteers from the larger grex community to
see this project through.

response 23 of 122:

Dec 12 05:26 UTC 2003

But you have lots of ideas in moving backwards, don't you.

response 27 of 122:

Dec 12 13:29 UTC 2003

If we hadn't bought the hardware, we wouldn't have made as much progress as
we have.  If we didn't have the hardware, we'd have made NO progress toward
the migration.

response 29 of 122:

Dec 12 13:44 UTC 2003

The hardware is currently located in the home of janc, who apparently has
everything *except* the time. :(

response 31 of 122:

Dec 12 14:08 UTC 2003

I'm sorry you've not heard the answer.  I know it's been offered:  Yes.

response 33 of 122:

Dec 12 15:16 UTC 2003

Re resp:24: I agree that things need to move forward.  I think that the
"the hardware will be obsolete!" argument is a red herring, though.  No
matter how long things sit, that hardware will still be less obsolete
than what Grex is running on now, and that's all that matters.  If we'd
put off buying the hardware there wouldn't even be the *possibility* of
moving forward.

Re resp:32: You'd have to ask Marcus, I think, and I haven't seen him
posting to coop recently.  What are you afraid will happen?  Who is
likely to come along and try to enforce the license terms?  If they
haven't cared yet, why are they likely to care now?