On 22/3/06 01:34, "TjL" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I'm sorry to hear about the difficulties, but am at a loss to figure out why > that would lead someone to REMOVE content.
A lot of history and internal politics and deep seated resentments going back over many years. What? You thought all us MVPSs were nice people? > > This was THE main source of information, especially about Sync Services (the > part that I am in desperate need of). I don't understand why it wasn't just > left up, even if the person responsible for it no longer wanted to be > involved. > > Do the MVPs not sign any sort of agreement regarding content compiled as part > of a group? The site was the brainchild of an individual (who just so happened to be an MVP). She single-handedly wrote the site, initially compiling the articles from posts on the public newsgroups and mailing lists. As the site grew, she accepted articles from other people as well, but always maintained the editorial rights. The confusion and bitterness arose because she hosted the site through mvps.org. This is a domain owned by another individual (who just so happened to be, at that time, another MVP). The domain owner makes email addresses and supplies web hosting to any current or former MVP out of the goodness of his heart. Diane made use of this facility to host her site. However, other MVPs assumed that the site was a communal MVP resource, even though they had had nothing to do with its inception. Arguments arose over editorial rights and content management. They escalated to the point where there was an attempt to take the site ownership and editorial rights away from Diane - all this happened a couple of years back. Since then, the bitterness has simmered away in the background without the hurts ever being properly healed. Just recently, the row flared up again and all the old arguments were once again aired in semi-public. Diane decided, rightly or wrongly, that it was time to pull the plug. She has all the content still, and may yet re-publish it if or when she can find suitable hosting. She will not publish it back onto mvps.org as she does not want any more confusion over who owns the site. It is Diane's site and hers alone. It is not an MVP site, and never was despite the name and domain. There was nothing 'official' about the site at all, it was simply the results of an immense effort by one individual - effort that was not always fully appreciated by others. > > Has someone gone through the Google cache and seen what might be there? Yes, several people have. However, there are ethical and legal considerations to republishing information that is harvested in such a manner. If you wanted to do it for your own personal use, I guess that could come under the terms of 'fair use', depending on what jurisdiction you come under. Even that would be illegal in many countries. But to re-publish the information in any form would be immoral. Even to us it as the basis for a new site would come under the definition of plagiarism, and be ethically repugnant to me. At least. -- Barry Wainwright Microsoft MVP (see http://mvp.support.microsoft.com for details) Check out the Entourage User's WebLog for hints, tips and troubleshooting <http://homepage.mac.com/barryw/weblog/weblog.html> -- To unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> archives: <http://www.mail-archive.com/entourage-talk%40lists.letterrip.com/> old-archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/entourage-talk%40lists.boingo.com/>
