People,
I am sending this email as a result of conversations I have had with people
and in response also to some of the messages on the spf-discuss list. This
is not about forking, or about speaking badly, or wild speculation. My goal
is simple: cooperation.
John Pinkerton and I have been talking about setting up one authorative
source of information about spf for a while now, as some of you may already
know. John is hosting one attempt at this on spfhelp.{net,com,org,..}, so is
James on spftools.net and Meng on spf.pobox.com, and there's even some
relevant stuff on the various libspf/libsrs/libspf2/libsrs2 pages (have I
forgotten some sites here? I am sure I did!)
We believe all these sites should become one site, all domains pointing to
the same ip giving the same information. No confusion. I have received
positive feedback from several people about this so we think it's time to
make it happen!
The site would provide at least:
- A really clear description of what SPF actually does, written for newbies
- A clear and concise description of how to set up spf records, what to
put in the TXT record, and how to get it into all the various dns systems
out there.
- quality tools that are easy to use, to validate, test and generate
spf records (various tools on spftools.net, with or without an overhaul,
various tools already linked on spfhelp.net, the tools on spf.pobox.com)
- good explanations for the less-initiated about how it works (for which
we can recycle a fair amount from existing sites, especially
spf.pobox.com)
- the 'spf registry' of registered domains (spftools.net)
- centralization of development coordination (already partly on
libspf2.org), a 'developers corner'
- enduser support (already up on rt.sonologic.nl /
spf(_at_)sonologic(_dot_)nl and
of course the spf-help list)
- links to _all_ implementation sites, preferably with some short
explanation about how to use in-so-far as the sites do not provide this
themselves
- howto's: common topologies/setups with explanations on what to publish
- howto's: common mta/dns software and how to configure them for spf
What we have been lacking is organisation. From William Leibzon's poll it
became clear that a lot of us want to see things get organised. As far as
the public web site and the customer support go, John and I offer to handle
the full coordination of these matters.
John and I are very committed to this concept, and we have basically the
approval of Meng, James and Shevek, who currently run the sites I am mostly
aware of at this time. What we now need is for the community to recognize
the authority of this effort in regard to communicating to the outside
world.
One very important note: we want objectivity. This unfortunately means
neither of the players in the libspf/libspf2 debacle can have direct
influence on the sites content. This does not mean I want to dismiss
anyone's contribution to this effort, not at all. In fact, we really really
need the input and contributions of the libspf/libspf2 guys. All we are
asking, for the sake of moving forward, is that those guys hand over direct
control of the site to John and me.
Objectivity will also entail that John and I will refrain from politically
tinted posts to the lists from now on. It is a sacrifice we both are willing
to make, must make, in order to have this plan of ours succeed.
It is essential that the project is portrayed as a genuine Open Source
Standards project, and there will be no subversion of any percieved
opposition. The intention is to succeed because we are the best.
Last but not least, John and I welcome all help, however small. If you are
prepared to write the howto's (one of the most pressing issues at this
point), let us know! Whatever is your expertise, contact us and help! Even
if it is only in reading and correcting the content. We would like one or
more people to join John and me in coordinating this stuff, but want to keep
the coordinating group:
a. limited in size
b. with an odd number of participants
Three people would be ideal I believe.
Note that in no way are we proposing to be the 'coordinating authority for
spf' per se. What we do offer is to take on the complete coordination of
getting this authorative site up and running, and up to date.
I hope everyone can find themselves a place in this initiative, and will
support us. Let's move forward now.
If this thing doesn't blow up in our face immediately, we'll be sending out
requests in a couple of days to those who have content that is essential for
the site.
Thanks for your time and most of all your cooperation,
Koen Martens & John Pinkerton
--
K.F.J. Martens, Sonologic, http://www.sonologic.nl/
Networking, embedded systems, unix expertise, artificial intelligence.
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