Re: FYI: solid.community pod shutting down

On Sun, 11 Oct 2020 at 15:27, Eric Prud'hommeaux <eric@w3.org> wrote:

> On Sun, Oct 11, 2020 at 01:41:26PM +0200, Melvin Carvalho wrote:
> > On Sun, 11 Oct 2020 at 09:50, <christian@darcy.is> wrote:
> >
> > > Hi Melvin,
> > >
> > > first off, I want to thank you for running solid.community for as long
> as
> > > you did. That is really appreciated! I also completely understand and
> > > always promote the notion that personal well-being ALWAYS comes first.
> All
> > > my best well-wishes to you.
> > >
> > > If you want, I'll happily inquire with Mo from 1984.is to see if he
> can
> > > offer help with hosting. (They provide hosting free of charge to
> darcy.is
> > > too, for which I cannot praise them enough)
> > >
> > >
> > > There is a question though that I have in the meantime: I noticed that
> my
> > > pod from https://jollyorc.solid.community/profile/card#me is now
> > > available at https://jollyorc.solidcommunity.net/profile/card#me . As
> you
> > > said that you have shut down your server, who runs this one, and how
> did
> > > they get my data? (the password from solid.community works on the new
> URL)
> > >
> >
> > I guess it is important to point out that the domain solidcommunity.net
> has
> > absolutely no relation to my domain solid.community, as the name might
> > imply.  The owners of solid.community were not asked, did not give
> > permission, endorsement, or consent.  They moved our data, our passwords,
> > and I suppose our brand, and locked us out, that's about all I can say.
>
> Oops, apologies, I thought that the problem was with the domain
> name. Is there any reason not to just point the old domain at the
> working machine so all of the old webids continue to work?
>

Nice idea & thinking on your feet! :)

In fact at Tom's request I was going to do this, in order to sunset things
more gracefully

And that could have worked but I can't even telnet to the box:

telnet 165.227.231.225 80
Trying 165.227.231.225...

The thing is, and I think this is under appreciated, as the owner of the
domain, I am ultimately responsible for anything and everything it points
to.  If there is illegal content for example, or a law is broken, I would
be the one liable.  And that's a responsibility I take seriously.  In fact,
the whole reason I'm with solid at all is that I've always said that I want
to work on systems that I want to use myself.

I have no idea who is running the new box.  I am ambivalent about this, on
the one hand I could not be happier that users can get at their data, but
on the other hand it was not done in a collaborative or cooperative way.
If I was to point it at another machine it would have to be someone I
trust.  Timbl is still vaguely in my web of trust (tho sometimes I
wonder!).  But not those he delegates to.  You are a person I trust alot,
Eric

I would be open to a process in the future where users could move back to a
newly setup machine.  I dont have cycles spare for the drama right now.
But sensibile technical options, in the interests of users, are on the table


>
>
> > That's not to say it's bad.  Or that some good can come out of it, such
> as
> > users gaining access to their data.
> >
> > Possibly a good solution would be to have users opt in to moving their
> > webid, just like you have to click "accept" on cookies, I dont know.
> >
> > I believe there's a repo here about it:
> >
> > https://github.com/solid/solidcommunity.net_operations/issues
> >
> > > I am not mad nor accusing anyone here (and again, I realize that this
> was
> > > and is a volunteer effort), but this does also feel a bit like a data
> > > protection violation, as I heard from the new server only by
> happenstance
> > > via a 3rd party.
> > >
> > > again, thanks for your past efforts, and hope things get better soon!
> > > Christian Buggedei
> > >
> > > On 10.10.2020 11:27, Melvin Carvalho wrote:
> > >
> > > Hi All
> > >
> > > After a quarter of a decade the decision was made to shut down the
> > > community pod.  There were a number of reasons for this, but the most
> > > urgent of which was due to health issues related to the Covid-19
> pandemic
> > >
> > > Of all the options available to me, shutting down was the least bad.
> > >
> > > It was quite difficult to run as a grassroots project given that we
> didnt
> > > have any funding, didnt have our own servers, relied on others for
> source
> > > code, and so on.
> > >
> > > What started as my experiment to allow users to try out node solid
> server,
> > > took on a life of its own.  If you consider that Google Plus with all
> their
> > > resources lasted about 2000 days, and we, as a pod, lasted almost 1000,
> > > that's quite amazing really.
> > >
> > > I am sorry that it happened so quickly, I just felt there were limited
> > > options.  There was a lot of work behind the scenes.  Given the rapid
> > > escalation of the pandemic, something had to give.
> > >
> > > While the data is kept safe and backed up, I appreciate it is
> disruptive
> > > to have to change a WebID that you've invested time in. I have had to
> do
> > > this myself and I know how painful it can be.
> > >
> > > If there was some way for users to reclaim their webid or accounts,
> and it
> > > was easy to run.  I'd be open to doing that, perhaps after the peak of
> > > Covid-19 passes.  It would require a server tho, which we dont have at
> the
> > > moment.
> > >
> > > I'd like to thank everyone that took part in our journey, especially
> our
> > > amazing admins.  All of whom worked skillfully and tirelessly for the
> > > community, sometimes for years, without ever once being paid.
> > >
> > > Keep safe, and hopefully we'll see each other safe and healthy after
> the
> > > Covid-19 crisis has peaked
> > >
> > > Best
> > > Melvin
> > >
> > >
>