Re: [Dspam-devel] Leaving dspam project

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Hi TOm,

 Though I also love the DSPAMdesign and mechanism(s), spamassasin with
it's filters have been a de facto mail filter that almost everybody
uses, and that adds to DSPAM's "unknown" status and being forgotten by
mail administrators ;(

 Sorry to see another good project wither away :(

Hendrik

On Wed, Jul 9, 2014 at 4:04 PM, Tom Hendrikx <to...@wh...> wrote:
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> Hello DSPAM community,
>
> After a few years of being active in the DSPAM community, I've decided
> to leave the project. Unlike others who silently stopped responding to
> mails and other inquiries, I'm documenting my reasons in the hopes
> that it might be of help/interest to others.
>
> When I actively joined the DSPAM project, it was in need of some new
> blood that helped out on development and other tasks, after most of
> the original participants of the community takeover from Sensory
> Networks somehow silently abandoned the project for reasons unknown
> (to me).
>
> After being active for a few years, I think I've seen most of the
> problems in the DSPAM project, and tried to address a few without
> result. The main issues I learned are listed below.
>
> 1. No active development
> - ------------------------
> There is no one working on the DSPAM code. There are numerous bug
> reports and feature requests that could be addressed, and some parts
> in DSPAM have been ripe for refactoring or rewriting for a long time,
> but nobody is putting any effort into it. There is currently only one
> developer 'active' within the project, but you rarely see activity
> from this person.
> The most code changes in the last 2(?) years are from patches
> contributed through debian bugreports (thank you, debian maintainer).
> The fact that no one within the project is actively working on the
> code, creates a sort of chicken-or-egg problem: without existing
> activity, no major outside contributions can be expected, since no one
> is interested in becoming the new sole responsible developer in the
> project.
>
> 2. No value seen in making DSPAM more transparent
> - -------------------------------------------------
> On several occasions I've raised my voice on making DSPAM more usable
> to new users, for instance by making error messages more informative,
> or adding logging of normal operation (i.e. non-errors) so people get
> a better hang of the product. Changes like this don't 'improve' DSPAM
> filtering, but the they do make the software easier to use, and its
> operation more transparent to new and experienced users.
> Finding issues in software is easier when you actually understand what
> it's trying to do, which in turn could result in more active users,
> more useful bug reports, possible more contributed patches and in the
> end maybe even more developers.
> Right now DSPAM acts like a sort of black box for anyone not familiar
> with the source code, and that discourages investigation of odd
> behavior, which could be any of: configuration errors, bugs or missing
> (but expected) features.
>
> 3. No drive on changing the status quo
> - --------------------------------------
> The situation that DSPAM is in right now, a sort of dormant or zombie
> (not dead but far from alive) status, is not good. It doesn't attract
> new users, it doesn't attract new developers, actually it only only
> supports existing, experienced users. Nobody in the community, both in
> the project maintainers as in the users community, seems to be
> interested in changing that.
> Based on my observations, that seems that people seem to think that
> DSPAM is either feature-complete and bug-free, or they just lack the
> motivation/energy/time/whatever to contribute anything.
>
> Because I care about DSPAM, in the years I've active within the
> project all of these issues have bothered me multiple times. I've
> tried to address stuff that I could address, or tried to raise
> awareness for other things. I didn't get much done though.
> - From this I can only conclude that DSPAM is a sort of dead project.
> Just like I wouldn't like to get myself (or my company, for instance)
> depending on a piece of software in this state, I think that nobody
> should get the impression that DSPAM is supported by an active
> community, when that support actually never goes beyond answering easy
> questions on the users mailing list.
>
> Therefore I'm resigning as DSPAM release manager, and will remove
> myself as project admin from the sourceforge project. I hope others
> will take up responsibility for the work I leave behind (and
> unattended tasks listed above, or any tasks I didn't point out), so
> maybe DPAM will become an active project in the future.
>
> Kind regards,
>         Tom Hendrikx
>
>
> PS: I tried to address some of the issues listed above (logging of
> regular operation, transparent code (including documentation), easier
> ways of contribution) outside of the DSPAM code base itself, which
> finally resulted in dspam-milter[1]. I'll continue to develop and
> support that software, probably until I'll stop using DSPAM myself. If
> I would ever abandon the project, proper notice (just like this one)
> will be given.
>
> [1] https://github.com/whyscream/dspam-milter
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