[App_rpt-users] Response to the AllStarLink Board of Directors message from 29 December 2020
Steve Zingman
szingman at gmail.com
Thu Dec 31 03:54:52 UTC 2020
I have NOTHING to do with the politics of what is going on. I'm simply a
user asking what happened to the AllStarLink repository. And, I'm still
waiting for a answer.
Steve N4IRS
On 12/30/20 10:44 PM, Skyler F wrote:
> politics politics politics
>
> why can't we all be friends and work together?
>
>
> On Wed, Dec 30, 2020 at 6:52 PM Steve Zingman <szingman at gmail.com
> <mailto:szingman at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> I understand that, my question is why was it "moved" and not
> forked. I setup the AllStarLink github account as part of
> AllStarLink. No matter what pttlink does the resource is AllStarLink.
>
> Steve N4IRS
>
> On 12/30/20 8:46 PM, Andrew Sylthe wrote:
>> 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
>> <mailto: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 <http://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 <http://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 <http://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
>> <http://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
>> <http://register.pttlink.org>
>> >
>> > PTTLink Node List Server - nodes(x).pttlink.org
>> <http://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 <http://allstarlink.org>
>> before the ASL Board forked the network):
>> >
>> > IP Address of registered node: dig
>> <node#>.nodes.pttlink.org <http://nodes.pttlink.org>
>> >
>> > TXT record showing DNS registration info: dig TXT
>> <node#>.nodes.pttlink.org <http://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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