[plug] Re: PLUG Membership Update

[Cameron Patrick]

James Devenish wrote:

> PS. I have not been to any workshops or seminars recently, so I don't
> know what the discussion was like at those venues. In any case, I don't
> recall any discussion of the matter via this list.

The only discussion that I recall on this matter (as with a lot of
PLUG decisions) has been private conversations between Bernard and
myself.  In the case of plug.org.au vs plug.linux.org.au I think there
was very little discussion -- the choice was based mainly on the fact
that plug.org.au was shorter and more memorable, with the main concern
against it being that we might forget to pay for the domain again.

FWIW another organisation in a similar situation is UCC (with the
ucc.gu(ild)?.uwa.edu.au and ucc.asn.au domains).  The ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au
is considered canonical for most purposes, but also notice that
e.g. cameron.ucc.asn.au works but cameron.ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au doesn't;
and wesley.ucc.asn.au (stats for the can cruser) works but the UWA
address does not.  Most people who advertise their UCC e-mail
addresses use the asn.au variant, presumably because it is shorter.

> 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:

Your points are quite valid, although I'd consider the "pollution of
namespace" point to be a non-issue for which domain is canonical but
instead a consideration for whether it was worth acquiring the org.au
domain in the first place.

>  - 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.

This has kind of already happened with the off-topic list (when it
moved to shameless.plug(.linux)?.org.au a few weeks ago).

Cameron