Re: FYI: solid.community pod shutting down

On Mon, 12 Oct 2020 at 09:52, Melvin Carvalho <melvincarvalho@gmail.com>
wrote:

>
>
> 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
>

Final note.  It wouldnt work with a new machine of course, because in the
data directory the name of that directory must match exactly to the origin
(ie subdomain).  Some of the other oidc things may be affected too.


>
>
>>
>>
>> > 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
>> > >
>> > >
>>
>