Steve wrote:
The last weeks here almost every one was talking about forking DSPAM. Well... Sensory Networks replied and now every thing is quite again.
I was thinking the same thing. I was optimistic that the message from SN indicated that there might be some involvement from them (and not on an "early next year" timescale) but it's gone quiet again.
My opinion is that a fork would be worthwhile, if only to merge back into the official source if/when SN wish to do so (or not if they decide not).
Okay. Why this long mail? Well... I would love to see other people on the list implement stuff. I am sure that others are developers or can develop. What is holding you back to do things? I miss the time when DSPAM was getting better and better with each release and where you did not had to wait almost 1 year to get a new DSPAM release.
I think I found dspam just too late to have witnessed this, but it's obvious from the passion people have about dspam that it was once there.
As a coder I might be able to offer something, but my days of C coding are some time ago. I would very much like to look at the web interface though (although I'm happier in PHP than Perl). Maybe I could do some documentation too.
So please all you out there using DSPAM and able to code: fire up your dev environment and start coding on DSPAM. Add new features. Fix old known bugs (if you don't know them, then ask here and I am sure you will get responses). Enhance DSPAM. Make it faster. Make it use less memory. Add new storage engines. Etc...
What I'm missing here is a clear idea of where to put the resulting code. Do we fork? Can we at least have a single repository of patches and other enhancements?
Would SN be hostile to a fork? It seems to me that they might benefit from it (they can merge the code back after all, and they don't seem to have the resource to push dspam forward at the moment). If they are hostile to a fork then these mailing lists may disappear...
If you look at how Compiz forked to create Beryl, which later merged back into Compiz once it was stable, then there might be a model we can follow here.
-- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0845 45 89 555 Registered in England (0456 0902) at 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG
