[ntp:hackers] Re: public server listing

Steve Kostecke kostecke at ntp.isc.org
Tue Nov 9 06:59:34 PST 2004


Paul Vixie said:

>i'm getting the sense that the tools (twiki, bitkeeper) are way
>more important to a lot of you than the software (ntp) itself.
>this isn't nec'ily a bad thing as long as you document it.

The entire point of using a Collaboration Platform (e.g. TWiki) is that
it allows all of the participants to add to the documentation as opposed
to relying on the "single maintainer choke-point" (e.g. The NTP FAQ,
conventional web-sites).

It seems to me that are spending too much time complaining the tools
chosen by others. The fact is that every tool has its bad points. And
some are worse than others. All we can do is choose our tools and use
them. In-fighting and derisive comments serve no useful purpose.

I am including the following because here (although it may be off-topic)
because it keeps getting rejected by the vix.com MTA...

>this is a volunteer effort.  if you can't be happy volunteering, then
>please take a back seat and let someone else, who can answer in a less
>confrontational way, do the customer service.

I like to think that _my_ answers are a bit more measured in tone.

At any rate, I have manually processed Mr. Lawrence's list entries for
him and notified him that I have done so.

>i happen to hate the wiki also.

That's a rather broad statement. What do you specifically dislike? The
fact that it's editable by the users? The way it looks? The way it's
organized? Something else? It is, after all, really just another
web-site.

If you've seen something that we can improve, I'd be interested in
hearing about it.

>i would be willing to maintain the old CLOCKS.TXT file, and i would
>accept requests by e-mail on a best efforts basis,

We _do_ accept e-mail submissions. The Time Server Lists home-page
clearly, IMHO, states that we do. And we even provide a template that
people can use.

BTW: I've received two e-mail submissions within the last 48 hours.

>so there ARE viable solutions WITHOUT having to get confrontational with
>the people who just want to publish their info in the project.  please
>discover one for yourself.

My personal complaint about all of this is the fact that Mr. Lawrence
chose to aggressively complain to _everyone_ instead of first asking for
assistance. The ensuing flame-fest has not been a productive use of our
time.

I always help people if they ask for it.

-- 
Steve Kostecke <kostecke at ntp.isc.org>
Public Key at gopher://kostecke.net or `finger steve at kostecke.net`



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