Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2005 00:39:14 -0400 (EDT) From: "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl at KeithLynch.net> To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org> Subject: [WSFA] Re: "Capclave committee" discussion re Capclave website I'm moving this to the WSFA list, since it was CCd to seven people all of whom are on this list, and since it is of interest to the others as well. Elspeth Kovar wrote: > This is long but it's covering a lot of bases. I'm going to outline > the current situation as I see it on several matters, propose a way > of handling them, and explain why I think it's the best way to go > about it. > The reason for my doing this is that we've nattered on for half a > year about what's to be done with the Capclave website. I'm sorry > for any offence taken but this has gone on far longer and has taken > up way too much energy to be good for WSFA, Capclave, or the people > involved. I'll admit to being rather fed up with the whole thing: > we all have better things to do and many of those are to the benefit > of WSFA and/or Capclave. At the same time I know that we have to > reason about it. Talk about being on different wavelengths! I thought it was all worked out, and working rather well. Paul and Gayle produce content. I put in the wsfa.org/capc05 and in keithlynch.net/wsfa/capc05, usually within a day or two. I also check it for problems (HTML errors, misspelled names, etc.), consistency, and compatibility, and report back to Paul and Gayle, who fix any problems. I also archive old versions, so any changes can be backed out. If I am run over by a bus, Sam Lubell also has the wsfa.org website password. As far as I know, nobody but Sam has the capclave.org password, but since capclave.org just points to wsfa.org/capc05, that's not a major issue. If he gets run over by a bus tomorrow, we'll have several months before we have to change it to point to wsfa.org/capc06 instead. As I mentioned in the March WSFA Journal, everything in my apartment that belongs to WSFA is in a bookcase that has a huge sign indicating the ownership, with contact information for Sam and Cathy. > At the last meeting it was decided that: > "Elspeth asked about the status of the capclave.org domain. It was > explained that we own it, that it's maintained by Sam Lubell, and > that it's currently just a pointer to the Capclave '05 section of > the WSFA website, http://www.wsfa.org/capc05/. It's not hosted > by Panix. It never needs editing, except that if Panix goes down, > it can be repointed to Capclave '05 section of the backup site, > http://keithlynch.net/wsfa/capc05/. (Also, it is of course > repointed at the following year's Capclave each year.) Nobody but > Sam Lubell has the password, which is needed for the repointing. > Colleen moved that "the Capclave committee investigate and report > back the advantages and disadvantages to the club in a reasonable > amount of time". The motion passed. Keith asked who was on the > Capclave committee. The president said all current Capclave > chairfen (Mike Walsh, Elspeth Kovar, and Colleen Cahill), the > president (Sam Lubell), the treasurer (Bob MacIntosh), and the > secretary (Keith Lynch). Mike Bartman said the Capclave webmasters > (Paul Haggerty and Gayle Surrette) should also be on it." > (I seem to recall that we voted on this and it passed but that's not > in the minutes. In any event, folks at the meeting were in support > so I'm going to assume that this is what's going to be done.) What's not in the minutes? You quoted "The motion passed" right in that paragraph. > It's become clear that Capclave needs it's own website if only > because we're processing credit cards and the WSFA account doesn't > support this. I'm not sure how, or whether, Paul and Gayle are handling that. The last I heard, someone (Bob?) was going to look into how we can do credit card processing without it showing up as a charge to "56th Worldcon," since people are likely to dispute any such charges. Several months ago I reported that we could do SSL processing (which is necessary for credit card processing) on Panix, but it would cost us $250 a year, so I recommended against doing it that way. Was someone looking into Paypal as a cheaper and more flexible alternative? > We already own Capclave.org and many clubs have at least two > different sites, one for the club and one for the convention. Yes, we own wsfa.org and capclave.org, which are hosted on separate sites. This is good, since is panix.com goes down, it doesn't take capclave.org with it -- capclave.org can be temporarily repointed to keithlynch.net/wsfa, or to amperzen, or given local content. > For now let's set things up so that http://www.wsfa.org/capc05/index.htm > points to http://www.amperzen.com/capclave/. This will take care of > things in the short term. I'm not comfortable with that, though I'm having a hard time articulating exactly why at this hour. > In the long term, however, and with absolutely no slur on the > Amperzen folks, I am entirely against the website being owned by > anyone except WSFA. I agree. > Furthermore, this whole thing has taken more than enough time and > has been characterized by "quick fixes" rather than getting things > settled. Sorry, I thought it *was* settled, except perhaps for credit card processing or whatever else Gayle and Paul were developing. > Thus I want a timeline set up with points at which items are to be > accomplished with the starting date to be the day this is decided > upon. > This means finding a host for capclave.org, transferring ownership > from Sam to the club, and arranging passwords. As mentioned in the part of this minutes you quoted, it's already owned by the club. It already has a host: pnap.net. > I strongly suggest that we go with Panix for several reasons: Panix is good, but do we really want to put all our eggs in one basket? > SSL (Secure Server) add-on for e-commerce: > * $25/month ($250/year prepaid) > * One-time setup fee: $50 There are places that do this more cheaply. I recommend talking to someone who has done this, and is happy with the service. > Far, far too much time and energy that could be spent on more > productive things has already been taken up by this. It has? Not by me. I've spent most of the weekend, and all evening, doing work for WSFA, but relatively little of this had to with the website, and even less with Capclave. Right now I'm debating whether I should eat -- I skipped dinner to print, collate, and staple the WSFA Journal -- or just go straight to bed. > 1. I think that someone in WSFA should know who the contact is in > case an idiot driver doesn't notice Keith's bicycle. We don't really have one. When I've replied to the individual who replied to my email to corp-web at panix.com, I was chided for not once again using corp-web at panix.com. Barry Newton wrote: > <html><body><font size=3>At 10:10 PM 6/27/2005, Elspeth Kovar wrote:<br> > <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite=""> Sorry, but it's well past midnight, and I have to get up in a few hours, so I'm going to put off deciphering HTML messages. Especially since most of it seems to just be quoting what Elspeth said. Sam Lubell wrote: > If capclave becomes its own domain, I'll cheerfully give the > password to whomever the chair authorizes. Huh? Capclave.org is already its own domain. It has been since you registered it three years ago.