[fink-core] Fink going down the drain? --> was (New packages in tracker ).

[David H. <dm...@us...>]

Hello all.

First of all let me take the opportunity to welcome the discussion
around Fink, how we are being perceived as a project and what we can
improve on.
Some know me, some do not. My name is David (dmalloc) and I spend most
of my time researching how to make Fink more accessible to our users,
how to ensure that we have a working infrastructure and I also
maintain some packages (zsh, hercules, gsasl...)

I would like to confirm to everyone here that Fink, as a project, is
very much alive. We, as a core group of people, have a vested interest
in ensuring that Fink as a project can continue to exist. Right now
Fink is at a turning point, where we will seriously need to think
about making decisions on how to take things forward. That has mostly
to do with the size of the project and the many, many people involved.

We are all doing this in our spare time. The things we need to pay for
(such as domain names and the like) are paid for by us, from our money
(usually it is somone that volunteers to pick up the tab).

What we have been working on but never finished can be derived from
the wiki but has never been really publicised. If you have a look on
the wiki: http://wiki.finkproject.org/index.php/The_Fink_Wiki you will
see a section titled:
Fink Developer Network

This is our attempt at registering a not-for-profit, tax exempt
company which could help us take Fink to the next level. It would
enable us to improve our level of service, it would also enable us to
put a better system in place to acquire funds which will then benefit
the community as a whole. Right now we are struggling with that
project.
One of the reasons is money. Registering such a company, filing all
the paperwork and doing it right requires a lawyer. Lawyers are
expensive. So while the FDN exists as a registered company in the USA,
it is not fully registered yet nor tax exempt (which can take years).
The second, most predominant reason is a limitation in time. We are
spread over the globe and we are all busy in our jobs. Sitting down,
having a chat, a phone conference and getting things moved forward is
not as easy as it seems. I should know, I have been trying for a long
time.

I hope that we will get better at this, now that Leopard is out and we
have some important bits out of the way, we can once more start
focusing on this.
I apologise to any user that feels left out and not valued. I
apologise to anyone that has not had their package reviewed yet. We
value what you are doing, it is important to us and helps us move
forward.

This is an open process. Can you help with FDN? Can you help with
funds? Are you a lawyer or know one? I will make myself available and
we can, together, core team members and YOU as well, move this
forward.#

PS: Cross posted to ALL lists, please only respond to one. Thank you!

David H.
FDN Board Member
Fink Admin type of guy
-- 
Sent from gmail so do not trust this communication.
Do not send me sensitive information here, ask for my none-gmail accounts.

"Therefore the considerations of the intelligent always include both
benefit and harm." - Sun Tzu