Bug#160529: acknowledged by developer (should not be packaged)
On Thu, Oct 07, 2004 at 05:33:05PM -0700, Debian Bug Tracking System wrote:
> This is an automatic notification regarding your Bug report
> #160529: ITP: ask -- Active Spam Killer,
> which was filed against the wnpp package.
>
> It has been closed by one of the developers, namely
> martin f krafft <madduck@debian.org>.
>
> With reference to
>
> http://kmself.home.netcom.com/Rants/challenge-response.html
>
> (especially at the bottom)
>
> I think this package should not be in Debian. Therefore I am closing
> this bug.
Before I go any further, please keep in mind that it is not my intention
to create any kind of flame wars over the topic. In all honesty, I've been
very busy lately to give attention to ASK, other than fixing bugs. If it is
decided that the project shouldn't ever be in Debian, I'll not pursue the
matter any further.
I developed ASK for personal use, a few years ago. I gave copies of ASK
to a few friends, who suggested new features and fixes. After a while, I
decided to release ASK as a free-software challenge-response solution to
spam. Despite some minor problems, ASK has generally received good responses
from its user base.
One day, I woke up with the "research" of Mr. Karsten in my mailbox. Quite
to my surprise, I discovered he had made an incredible effort to post
his results to every place where prospective ASK users could see them,
including the main ASK user's mailing list, the ASK-announce mailing-list (an
announcement only list), the ASK message feedback section on freshmeat.net,
and on the users, bugs and feature-enhancement forums of sourceforge.net.
Personally, I find his attitude childish and gratuitously aggressive towards
me and the other users/developers of ASK. Posting off-topic messages to
support and bug forums is, to say the least, a demonstration of bad net
citizenship.
To make matters even more embarrassing, his "paper" contains gross
misconceptions, and presents his opinions or bias against some tools as the
absolute truth. As it is usual in these situations, he's able to generate a
lot of heat, but no light.
But again, it is a free world, so let's allow Mr. Karsten to enjoy himself
with the results of his work.
My big concern, however, is with what I saw here today, when Mr. Krafft
closed the ITP because he "Does not think this package should be in Debian",
based on the aforementioned report by Mr. Karsten.
So, my question is, what is the criteria to have a project adopted in
Debian? Should new projects should be denied based on personal opinions of a
few, or reports of questionable accuracy? I'd hate to learn that this is the
policy, as it would cast a shadow of doubt on the trust I have in the Debian
project.
Sincerely
Marco Paganini
>
> --=20
> Please do not CC me when replying to lists; I read them!
> =20
> .''`. martin f. krafft <madduck@debian.org>
> : :' : proud Debian developer, admin, and user
> `. `'`
> `- Debian - when you have better things to do than fixing a system
> =20
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--
Marco Paganini | UNIX / Linux / Networking
paganini@paganini.net | PGP: http://www.paganini.net/pgp/
http://www.paganini.net | Magnus Frater te spectat...
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