[App_rpt-users] Response to the AllStarLink Board of Directors message from 29 December 2020

Thu Dec 31 01:46:02 UTC 2020

Steve,

It appears to have been moved to https://github.com/pttlink/Asterisk

On Wed, Dec 30, 2020 at 7:43 PM Steve Zingman <szingman at gmail.com> wrote:

> Stacy,
> Do you know why the AllStarLink <https://github.com/AllStarLink> github
> repositories are gone? Was this part of the actions of the board?
>
> Steve N4IRS
>
> On 12/30/20 8:06 PM, Stacy wrote:
> > A bit on this change:
> >
> > Nobody on the admin side that runs what was the AllStarLink (ASL)
> > infrastructure (now PTTLink) was ever informed this was going to
> > happen.  Yesterday afternoon (12/29/20) at around 5:00 PM (Pacific) our
> > monitoring system started going crazy with alerts telling us systems
> > were down.  Investigation showed that the SOA record for allstarlink.org
> > was changed to what it is now (Cloudflare) and this broke numerous
> > things.  Both the wording and timing of this announcement is very much a
> > jab (or middle finger) pointed directly at me since I'm the main person
> > who has been running things.  I am one who has ensured that the ASL
> > Network (and associated infrastructure) remained operational and was
> > able to handle the increasingly growing number of nodes (well over
> > 5,100).  This was done solely through me investing both my own time and
> > money without the help or participation of the ASL Board.  In addition
> > to this "re-engineering" I have also had my account on the ASL Slack
> > workspace suspended without notice and any and all admin access to the
> > ASL Web portal was removed too (among other things).
> >
> > For quite some time, well before Bryan Fields (W9CR) or Fred Moses
> > (W8FSM) stopped their involvement in ASL directly, the AllStarLink, Inc
> > Board (ASL Board) has done its best to alienate, patronize, ridicule,
> > demean, and basically exclude the admin team from anything substantial
> > regarding the ASL infrastructure for which they had no understanding of
> > nor did they attempt to understand.   Numerous attempts were made by
> > myself and others to try to fix the issues that were very apparent, and
> > yet they were met with disdain and ignored.  This included on several
> > occasions attempts at impassioned pleas by myself and others directly to
> > the ASL Board members regarding the issues that we saw and asking for
> > reparations to make things better.   Of which included being open
> > regarding any decisions being made which directly affected the admin
> > team.  Additionally, any and all attempts to ask what is happening on/at
> > the board level regarding ASL were ignored or told that it didn't
> > involve or concern us.  Instead, they continued on the same course of
> > action that served to alienate more and more people from participating
> > in ASL on the admin side with the results of me being the sole admin
> > person left.
> >
> > This "re-engineering" and the resulting chaos and outages are serve as a
> > testament to the ASL Board again attempting to change things without
> > understanding the system itself and without telling anyone.
> >
> >> This is part of an ongoing two-year project to provide sufficient
> > resources for projected node growth and additional stability. In
> > addition, this will create a stable framework for new types of clients
> > to participate in the future.
> >
> > Again, nobody told me (or anyone else associated with the admin team)
> > about this "two year project".  Each and every time the ASL Board has
> > attempted a change (and broken something), the current node registration
> > system was brought up.  For example, the Round Robin DNS (RRDNS) has
> > been a sticking point for a certain unnamed ASL Board member, and during
> > discussions this unnamed individual had the audacity to state that
> > DSNMGR messages regarding changes to the IP address of the server at
> > register.allstarlink.org was "trashing his node".   One of the long
> > since alienated admin team members had to explain that you could adjust
> > logging in Asterisk through a config file.  This is one of many examples
> > that demonstrated the lack of knowledge of AllStarLink, Asterisk, and
> > app_rpt by a  member of the ASL Board.  Yet we are to believe that a
> > "two year project" has been in the works by this same group that is
> > supposed be  a "re-engineered" system to promote growth and stability?
> >
> >> You should also be aware that some specific volunteers (past and
> > current) have opposed this sort of design change and we suspect that you
> > may be reading negative comments from them on various platforms. The
> > board’s staffing goals are to promote technical innovation from as many
> > hams as want to get involved and bring new features and clients to
> Allstar.
> >
> > Don't be fooled by this attempt at taking the high ground.  The
> > opposition they are implying results from attempts at changes from the
> > ASL Board without understanding the underlying technical issues behind
> > how/why things run and causing outages that they wouldn't (or couldn't)
> > fix.  Each and every time an ASL Board member brought up
> > "re-engineering" the registration system, the reply that I empathically
> > gave was that yes, the system can be improved upon but there needs to be
> > a plan.  I personally have stated that I am open to improvements to this
> > system that were the result of planning, testing and made sense.  The
> > ASL Board thought that moving the system to AWS or Google would "solve"
> > everything yet when pressed for details on how this would be done, we
> > were met with crickets or arguments that it was just better and that was
> > that.  And when asked about a budget for such a move we were again met
> > with silence.  The "resistance" that is alluded to was with regards to
> > actually sitting down and creating a plan on how to move forward with
> > "re-engineering" this system, and not just what amounted to throwing
> > scat at the wall and seeing what stuck (resulting in either myself or
> > others on the admin team having to figure out what broke and fix it,
> > since most of these changes were done without telling us).  At no point
> > during the any of occasions in which I said this has any ASL Board
> > member taken the initiative to actually have this discussion with me (or
> > anyone on the admin team) and come up with a viable plan to both
> > "re-engineer" and do a proper cut over that isn't as disruptive as the
> > one we are experiencing now.
> >
> > There is a history of the ASL Board doing things that have broken
> > registration and parts of the infrastructure in the past, and this is no
> > different.
> >
> > PTTLink was formed due to the ASL Board's actions which forked the
> > AllStarLink network by changing the DNS records without prior notice.
> >
> > The PTTLink Network can be thought of as an "overlay" to what had been
> > in operation as the AllStarLink Network. This change was done simply by
> > changing the domain name in use on the servers to pttlink.org. Your
> > existing credentials will continue to work unless you change them.
> > However, PTTLink, as a result of the ASL Board's egregious and careless
> > action, is now a separate entity from the AllStarLink Network. I call
> > upon the ASL Board to restore DNS back to the way it was before they
> > forked it, moving everything back to the perfectly working
> > infrastructure that uses what are now the pttlink.org servers.
> > Additionally, I call upon them to restore all access that was revoked
> > from me (both recently, and that which was revoked before without
> notice).
> >
> > I am very disappointed in the egregious actions that the ASL Board has
> > taken (or more importantly have directed others to take) with regards to
> > the AllStarLink infrastructure and their statement.  Such actions are
> > clearly indicative of a group that is unfit to be the stewards to the
> > legacy of the late Jim Dixon or properly be of service to the community
> > without trying to benefit from it.  Additionally, I feel that these
> > actions, as made clear in their statement, were directed at me in an
> > attempt to "punish" me for my insistence and diligence at keeping the
> > ASL (now PTTLInk) infrastructure running when others made disruptive
> > changes to it.  If so, then this is very troubling indeed.
> >
> > As I have very plainly stated before to the ASL Board members and
> > others, as long as I have the resources to support ASL they will remain
> > available.  In that I will pledge to my fellow hams that PTTLink will
> > remain operational and available for use as long as I am able to
> > continue to provide the time and other resources to keeping it
> > operational.  Fortunately, I am no longer alone in this endeavor and
> > others have volunteered to help.
> >
> > The new links for PTTLInk sites are as follows:
> >
> > PTTLink Portal - https://www.pttlink.org
> >
> > PTTLink Stats Server - http://stats.pttlink.org
> >
> > PTTLink Registration Server - register.pttlink.org
> >
> > PTTLink Node List Server - nodes(x).pttlink.org
> >
> > PTTLInk is on Reddit - https://www.reddit.com/r/pttlink
> >
> >
> > Additionally, you can use the DNS node lookup developed by W9CR (which
> > was working with allstarlink.org before the ASL Board forked the
> network):
> >
> > IP Address of registered node: dig <node#>.nodes.pttlink.org
> >
> > TXT record showing DNS registration info: dig TXT <node#>.
> nodes.pttlink.org
> >
> > Additionally, you can utilize the app_rpt-users mailing list for support
> > by subscribing at
> >
> >
> > 73,
> > Stacy
> > KG7QIN
> >
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-- 
Andrew Sylthe
KC9ONA
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