Re: [Fsuk-manchester] Domain Names

[MJ Ray]

Paul Waring <address@hidden> wrote:
> On Fri, Apr 18, 2008 at 02:51:53PM +0100, MJ Ray wrote:
> > What is the rationale for this?  It wasn't in the meeting notes, which
> > said only "as this would allow us to offer support to new free
> > software groups which might start up in the UK" which seems just as
> > true of fsuk.org too.  Also, this group is going to need some control
> > of manchester.fsuk.org in order to avoid having a zombie site out
> > there misleading people.
>
> The rationale *is* in the meeting notes - that we cannot change anything
> to do with the domain as it is under Matt Lee's control:
>
> "Our current domain name, manchester.fsuk.org, is registered by Matt
> Lee and we cannot easily add new email addresses, change hosting etc."

I was trying to avoid writing this, but: I ignored that rationale
because it doesn't make much sense to me.  You don't need the
registration to add new email addresses or change hosting.  To change
hosting, you need control of the nameservers; to add email addresses,
you need some control of the server hosting the mail exchange (MX).

Some pragmatic groups have been running on domains donated by a pretty
inactive founder member for years without problem (6 or so years for
ALUG.org.uk, I think).  Why isn't that possible for this group?

Also, how is the group going to get enough control of
manchester.fsuk.org to avoid that becoming a zombie site?

> > Matt Lee tells me he's said he'll point the domain anywhere.  When did
> > someone tell him where to point it?
>
> Simon and I have asked him to do this, I have also asked for the admin
> password for the mailing list so that we can moderate posts (e.g. when
> someone posts from an address which they're not subscribed with). This
> has been done numerous times over several weeks and nothing has
> happened.

OK, thanks.  I'll wait and see how he answers that.

> > Worst case, has the group asked for fsuk.org to be transferred to an
> > active member on behalf of the group?
>
> As far as I am aware, FSUK is a project run by Matt Lee and he is not
> willing to transfer over the domain to anyone else (which is fair enough
> in some ways, as he's paid for it).

Has the group asked for fsuk.org to be transferred to an active member
on behalf of the group?</paxman>

If Matt Lee refuses, or asks for the registration costs to be paid and
the group decides against it, then fair enough, but I think this
change is being advocated with insufficient information.

Hope that explains,
-- 
MJ Ray (slef)
Webmaster for hire, statistician and online shop builder for a small
worker cooperative http://www.ttllp.co.uk/ http://mjr.towers.org.uk/
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