Re: LYNX-DEV browser.org

[Walter Skorski]

Jim Spath writes:

> I peronally like the idea of browser.org, although I said earlier that
> lynx-dev.org was okay.  By having a whole 2nd level namespace, we can
> branch it out as much as we like, as in "text.browser.org,"  etc.

This "branching out" may be something you or Rob or other
*individuals* on the list may have interest in, but as a *group*, it's
something I feel the *group* should keep a safe distance from.

> We may
> change the name Lynx is some corporation decides to hassle us,

One small advantage, but if all those Lynxes that already exist
haven't found cause to hassle us in the years that Lynx the browser
has been around, I doubt they'd start now.  Besides, the name "Lynx"
has been used to refer to the browser longer than a lot of those other
entities have existed - so in effect, we're "grandfathered in".

> and the
> browser.org links will still work.

How so?  If a legal problem arose, it wouldn't matter if we were using
lynx-dev.org or lynx.browser.org, because there would still be pages
out there referring to that as "our" Web address.  If someone with a
good case and/or an expensive lawyer came after us, I doubt they'd
allow us to use *any* old address containing "lynx" - even if only to
redirect requests to the new address, whatever it might become.

If someone were so bound and determined to take sole posession of the
l-y-n-x sequence of letters, I doubt we could stop them, and I also
doubt they'd be satisfied with anything less than expunging it
completely.

> We would be able to have chimera or
> other free browsers hang off our namespace it it seems reasonable.

This is what worries me the most.  Who decides what's "reasonable"?
What if several entities lay claim to the same subdomain?  Who
arbitrates such decisions?  These are certainly not jobs any of us in
the "Lynx Development Group" signed up for when we subscribed to the
list...

What if, after this domain gets established with these other
subdomains attached, the person administering the domain loses
interest and cedes control to someone who has no interest in
maintaining these other subdomains, or worse yet, has no interest in
maintaining the lynx.browser.org subdomain?  How can we claim to
deserve control over a domain name as generic as "browser.org", if
someone decides to contest us in that regard - especially when we
*invited* these others into the domain?

> If we can agree to stick with lynx-n.browser.org as our base, I'd like to
> see version specific web pages that we can have the older sites point to.
> The UKans page could redirected to lynx-237.browser.org/help.html, where a
> page of helpful hints could be placed, as well as the obligatory "upgrade
> to lynx-newer-than-you-have". Subir's pages could be redirected there as
> well so all the latest releases have working help pointers next year. 

I see no reason why such can't be done as part of the file structure
rather than as a subdomain, e.g. lynx-dev.org/2-3-7/help.html.

> We could also set up mirrors the way FreeBSD does, with uk.lynx.browser
> being in the UK, etc.

Nothing stops us from doing that, either; I'm only arguing that if
we're going to "officially" set up shop in cyberspace, we should do so
in a location that's uniquely and unequivocally ours.

--
.    iksrokS retlaW<>Walter Skorski    ..        address@hidden         .
 Computer Administrator, Div. of Medical Genetics, Thomas Jefferson University

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