[TriLUG] Need secondary DNS provider

[Cristóbal Palmer]

On Wed, Feb 17, 2010 at 9:02 PM, Joseph Mack NA3T <jmack at wm7d.net> wrote:
>
> I still don't know the difference between can't and won't

Can't: don't know how or are unable to provide.
Won't: able but unwilling to provide.

As a member of the SC, I won't vote for hosting any new free service
unless I'm confident that:

a) The volunteers who currently run our systems can and are willing to
maintain it. That includes people other than me.
b) The volunteers who come after us can reasonably maintain it
c) Our (generous) free hosting provider will put up with it
d) Enough of our users want it to justify any expenditure of time or monies.
e) Our users won't (unintentionally or otherwise) abuse it.
f) Strange netizens won't abuse it.
g) It won't interact badly with other software/services we already provide
h) Possibly other factors that are important to other members of the
SC that I can't think of

Let me give a great example of a service we are able but unwilling to
provide: an ircd. Putting one up is easy. Keeping our hosting provider
happy and preventing abuse is more work than we're willing to put into
it given that there are multiple large-scale, relatively stable, free
IRC networks that our users can take advantage of. Now, it may be that
the balance of factors in this particular case--providing secondary
DNS--is in favor of us doing it. I won't know until I've heard from a
willing volunteer who comes to me and says, "Yes, I do want to do
this. Where do I start?" and we have a conversation. So far that
message has not landed in my inbox.

I'm sorry if my earlier messages came across as personal or
combative--I assure you that was not my intention. My main concern
right now is that I be a good steward of LUG resources. Right now my
priorities skew towards making sure we can pay for pizza at meetings,
receive tax-deductible contributions from corporate sponsors, etc. I'm
happy to take additional time and shepherd a small DNS project along,
but I'm not going to take the lead. Meetings are the heart of the LUG.
Secondary DNS is not.

Cheers,
-- 
Cristóbal M. Palmer
ibiblio.org systems
cdla.unc.edu research assistant