Eating your own dog food (was: Re: change back to old name?) change back to old name?)

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Ron Guerin:

> I don't know what we should refer to Rick Moen as....

A befuddled and easily confused sysadmin, generally willing to work for
pickled herring. (I started running *ix boxes long before I was working
in tech, mind you. I was a staff accountant for CPA firms at the time.
Fortunately, nobody told me I couldn't run my own Internet host, so I
did.)

> Running some basic Internet services does not require a PhD and all
> your free time.

Yr. humble servant will soon[1] be doing a long-overdue rebuild of his
server to new hardware and a new config. Existing box is a 2001-era
rackmount PIII made by my former employer, VA Linux Systems. This
time, I'll be keeping very careful notes. Setting up and running GNU
Mailman is (IMO) almost insultingly easy. The challenging part is
effective antispam in the MTA.

But yeah, basic MTA and Mailman ain't rocket science. I've been doing
it in accordance with a philosophy of Laziness and Benign Neglect[tm]
for decades. It pretty much runs itself.

My main host provides mailing lists for several LUGs local to me (though
I encourage them to spread things out to avoid my machine becoming a
major SPoF).

> If we end up with two expressions of this
> community someday, to paraphrase the wise and wonderful Ruth Shanen,
> these things aren't exclusive of one another. Especially if one of them
> isn't even a mailing list.

Indeed, to paraphrase Mr. Lincoln, Web forums, outsourced Internet
presence, and such are the sort of thing that will be enjoyed by those
who enjoy that sort of thing.


[1] After my wife and I get back from our Black Sea cruise in a couple
o' weeks. Tough life, I know.