[nflug] Is this group still active?

[D. Joe]

On Mon, Jan 12, 2009 at 07:54:15AM -0500, Tom Reid wrote:

> Yes, the merge is complete.  You can probably read the
> discussion in the archives--anyways, here is the link to the
> LUG site, and we have a meeting this Wed.

Given that the nflug.org web site and mailing list and mailing
list archive are still operational, and that the nflug.org site
makes no mention of wnylug on its front page or first level of
secondary pages (or vice versa so far as I've seen) it seems the
merge is far from complete.  

I'm only an occasional reader of the nflug mailing list--I
appreciate that the web archive is public, something it shares
with the NY Loco list but which the LUGOR list lacks.  I went
back to see some of the background to what is an apparent fork
in the LUG efforts in that part of the state and came up with
the thread starting here:

http://www.nflug.org/pipermail/nflug/2008-November/028214.html

In this, Mark Musone recommends having only one list, probably
shutting down nflug and moving to wnylug.  I agree that multiple
lists would be sub-optimal, but I would caution against throwing
away a web archive of such long standing (archives going back 7
years).  At the very least, the pipermail archive should be
maintained online, even if the list as an active entity is shut
down.  Also, consider the implication of shutting down
nflug.org--if the domain is abanoned, it will get squatted on. 
Links that exist in many places, and that are hard to
change, will break.

Additionally, the name "wnylug" holds a similar problem to the
one the "nflug" name does--it beats around the bush that this
is, essentially, a LUG centered on the Buffalo-Niagara Falls
metropolitan area.  At least with nflug, there was less
possibility of confusing "wnylug" with other ongoing western New
York Linux and FOSS efforts like LUGOR and the
Rochester-centered portion of the NY Loco community.  It does
have a nice symmetry with the Western Pennysylvania Linux Users
Group (http://www.wplug.org) centered on Pittsburg, though, and
if wnylug seeks to emulate that group's prominence and success,
I'm all for it.

If there aren't solid agreements to convert the nflug.org web
presence into redirects for wnylug.org any time soon, then it
would be a service to the wider community to feature prominently
on the wnylug web site links to nflug.org.  Similarly with links
to other organizations that also support at least portions of
the western New York FOSS community, like LUGOR, the RCSi Linux
SIG, and so forth.

I say all this as someone who moved back to New York state after
the whole Linux/FOSS phenomenon had taken off.  It was
frustrating to find much about efforts in this part of the
country because I tend to think of that conurbation on the
Niagara River as "Buffalo" and not the "Niagara Frontier" or the
"Buffalo-Niagara Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area" and
certainly not as the be-all, end-all of western New York.  Thus
I did not include "Niagara" as a search term initially.

Even now, searching "rochester linux" or "rochester ny linux"
pops up LUGOR as the top hit, but "buffalo linux" (not the top
10) and "buffalo ny linux" (8th hit down) do not pop up up nflug
(or wnylug) as a top hit.

I also say this as someone who has made some effort to keep down
or otherwise ameliorate a splinter-like proliferation of
multiple groups in the Rochester area all dedicated, in whole or
in part, to supporting and promoting FOSS.  One of my standard
questions to newcomers to the #ubuntu-us-ny channel is to draw
them out as to what their local LUG is--if there even is one, if
they know about it, if they participate in it.  The underlying
idea is to bring people together.

So, on a lighter note, I don't want to get all angsty and accuse
you guys of being splitters ;-)

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Python's_Life_of_Brian#Political_satire
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb_qHP7VaZE

but rather hope I've indicated well enough and in a constructive
enough way what my concerns are and what might be done to
address them.

-- 
Joe