Redis.org VS investing the money to create Redis.io
Salvatore Sanfilippo
as you probably know a few weeks ago Tim Lossen started a fundraising
in order to purchase Redis.org.
Once I saw the setup page with the paypal button, I donated 100$ in
order to avoid to end with the community effort not including
something from my pocket, then twitter the following:
"Clarification about redis.org, it's a community effort, I just
donated 100$. I think the big problem is working at it, not domain."
(http://twitter.com/antirez/status/22811943569)
Without to mention I don't think feeding the domain squatters is a good idea.
Also we *already have* redis.io, I purchased it myself thanks to a few
cool guys on IRC that showed that this was a great domain and was
available.
Redis.io is truly for geek, note the I/O part :) So, I don't think
Redis needs a .org domain to succeed.
Btw, after some time Tim reported it was not an easy process to get
the reply from the original owner of Redis.org. So I suggested: either
ask for a strong discount now, or we can use the money for something
better. You can see my message in the google group archive if you
check.
Today I together with a few hard-core Redis contributors (@soveran,
@djanowski, @pnoordhuis) where talking about going forward and build a
decent Redis site: we have a great community, we have an appreciated
software, why our web site sucks so hard? :)
So, isn't it just better if we invest the money to build the actual
site? That is, virtual machine, DNS service, a designer if we need it,
even paying a few dollars if we want some feature implemented by some
cool guy near Redis: anything BUT NOT feeding the squatter basically.
I started asking on twitter to people that actually donated the money.
What I got was positive ACKs. But I think from a tweet from Tim Lossen
that he does not agree:
@antirez uhh, did we? -- i still intend to go ahead with the domain
transfer as planned.
Now I know for sure three things:
1) It's not my money
2) It's not Tim money
3) At this point the original donators are the only ones that I want
to hear. If the majority will like to still get redis.org, I'll agree.
Otherwise the money will be used for something else.
So please if you contributed some money, reply to this thread with
your ideas. What do you want we should do with the money you kindly
contributed?
Anyway thank you for donation to the Redis project. Anyway this is a
good indication that a lot of people appreciate the project and the
work we are doing, that is what I really care about.
Cheers,
Salvatore
--
Salvatore 'antirez' Sanfilippo
http://invece.org
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act,
but a habit." -- Aristotele
Andrey
goal was start help redis project in some way. I think you can use the
money as you wish.
Make a better design, more content and improve the functionalities in
redis.io, I believe can help the beginners (like me) in his first
contact.
[]s,
Andrey
Tim Lossen
i asked people for money to buy a domain, and everybody
who contributed knew exactly what the funds were going to
be used for.
i do not think it is fair to go ahead and use the money for
something else now -- even if some or most of the contributors
should agree.
if the domain deal does not work out in the end, i will return
the funds instead.
tim
On 2010-09-16, at 8:20 PM, Salvatore Sanfilippo wrote:
> 3) At this point the original donators are the only ones that I want
> to hear. If the majority will like to still get redis.org, I'll agree.
> Otherwise the money will be used for something else.
Jason J. W. Williams
me about a new OS project, I tend to punch it in as project.org. I
think redis.io is cool, but redis.org is much better from a
marketing/recognition perspective.
-J
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Salvatore Sanfilippo
> salvatore, you are putting me into a difficult position here.
>
> i asked people for money to buy a domain, and everybody
> who contributed knew exactly what the funds were going to
> be used for.
Tim my point of view is that you asked people for money, but telling
the word "Redis". So people provided money to the project, even if via
a specific person. So I think that the community is the king, and
reaching the people that donated is not hard. It's like 15 people more
or less if I remember correctly.
If you want to go forward with your idea I'll take it as an unilateral
unfair act.
> i do not think it is fair to go ahead and use the money for
> something else now -- even if some or most of the contributors
> should agree.
>
> if the domain deal does not work out in the end, i will return
> the funds instead.
Don't like this line of action at all...
Do whatever you want, but please don't get involved into Redis
donations / projects the next time without specifying in bold
characters that your request is not affiliated to me or other people
running the project but is your own idea. This way you'll actually be
free to do what you want with the money afterward.
Btw we are in the process of building the new Redis site. We don't
need money as there are a lot of people that are donating their time,
we have slicehost and lindode donating the VM, and so forth. I just
that I refuse the idea that an open source project should feed the
domain squatters with user's money.
End Of File,
Tim Lossen
wishes here, i have decided to cancel the purchase of redis.org,
and i have returned all donated funds to the contributors.
let's all concentrate on building a great redis.io website instead.
tim
On 2010-09-16, at 10:18 PM, Salvatore Sanfilippo wrote:
> If you want to go forward with your idea I'll take it as an unilateral
> unfair act.
> I refuse the idea that an open source project should feed the
> domain squatters with user's money.
Salvatore Sanfilippo
> ok, as i certainly have no intention to act against salvatores
> wishes here, i have decided to cancel the purchase of redis.org,
> and i have returned all donated funds to the contributors.
>
> let's all concentrate on building a great redis.io website instead.
Thank you Tim, in the end this was a better option compared to using
the money for something else.
Anyway the redis.org issue started the process of building the new Redis site...
Cheers,
Aníbal Rojas
anything interesting to the discussion so feel free to skip it.
This is growing pains, in a highly distributed and fast context.
The common Open Source model of Benevolent Dictatorship works, and I
think Redis is successful and good example of it.
It has always amazed me how Salvatore, has managed to balance his
opinionated vision of Redis development with the necessities of the
community. This visions for sure have collided in the past and should
in the future, for the project health.
I can understand both Tim and Salvatore's positions, not wanting to
make this personal, but it showed in this way.
I think is was great that Tim had the interest push the really
required changes in the Redis site (I suffered the pain of editing the
wiki clients section when there was a exponential grow of
information).
And I can also understand Salvatore necessity to assure that Redis
backed initiatives go trough what mostly resembles the community, that
is this group.
'Community' is a lousy term, and people plays different roles and
weights in it. As big fan of the project, I try to keep testing
latest developments under the most real conditions I can try,
answering questions in the group and still trying to fix the wiki when
I have time. And the weight of my contribution is years light behind
Salvatore, and Pieter just to mention two.
Contributing to Redis has happened in two basically different ways:
- Code, bug reports, feature requests, mailing list.
- And cash from sponsors.
But as Tim initiative showed, there are a lot more spaces to do things
to help the development of Redis and promote is usage. And as usual
policies, and practices are running a way behind reality, so shit
happens.
Not sure if this 'How things are done here', or 'We love
contributions, just check this rules first please' should be written
somewhere, but for sure it wont hurt avoiding decision taking at
Twitter speeds :) And having a new /redis\..+/ is a good moment to
rise our heads from code and take some time this kind of stuff.
Best regards,
--
Aníbal Rojas - @anibalrojas
Ruby / Rails focused Devops
More info: http://www.google.com/profiles/anibalrojas
My free/busy schedule: http://tungle.me/anibal