[plug] Re: PLUG Membership Update

[James Devenish]

Hi,

In message <20041215020952.19674DBAD at shameless.plug.org.au>
on Wed, Dec 15, 2004 at 02:09:51AM +0000, PLUG Administrators wrote:
>  - kettle.plug.org.au - a UML running on a 1 GHz VIA C3.
>  - spark.plug.org.au - a 90MHz Sparcstation 20 clone

I wish to submit my (lone, I assume) objection to the use of the
plug.org.au domain as the canonical address for these machines (which
is what seems to have happened during the migration to Arachnet). I feel
strongly that the plug.linux.org.au domain should be used instead:

 - Better identity and branding. plug.org.au means nothing,
   'Plug' is a normal English word, not known as a trademark
   or acronym for anything in particular. plug.linux.org.au
   is more descriptive and more 'advocative'. There's also
   a pun in it, which I assume others have noticed too.
 - plug.linux.org.au incorporates acknowledgement of national
   affinity via Linux Australia.
 - Less pollution of namespace. While it's clear that the club
   would maintain the plug.org.au name regardless of which was
   canonical, the practice of using plug.org.au is not unlike
   non-multinational companies who buy up multiple names:
   e.g. a local company buying both blah.com and blah.com.au
   and blah.net.au. What's next -- a buy-out of plug.org? Don't
   we receive enough stray 'P'LUG inquiries already? While this
   practice is fairly prolific amongst a variety of unparented
   online groups (including LUGs), that doesn't automatically
   make it a good model for our own standards. However, I do
   acknowledge that plug.org.au remains useful because of its
   analogy to some prominent Aus LUGs, and retains its usefulness
   for that reason regardless of which domain is canonical.
 - Perpetuity and continuity. If plug.org.au is canonical, it
   would imply that e-mail addresses are going to be canonical
   in the plug.org.au domain, which means rebranding the e-mail
   list as plug at plug.org.au instead of plug at plug.linux.org.au,
   etc. Also, imagine if PLUG were to close or find itself
   unable to support its own hosting and domain renewals: it may
   be possible to negotiate with Linux Australia for them to
   maintain archival continuity in the plug.linux.org.au domain
   without incurring distinct cost (as opposed to plug.org.au
   renewals). I acknowledge, though, that should there be a rift
   between PLUG and Linux Australia, PLUG may wish to stand on
   its own.