[DECtalk] Important announcement

[Tony Baechler]

Hello.  Thank you and about time!  I'm glad to see this happen.  Let's 
return to a nice, quiet list.  I had no real interest in moving and 
maintaining the archive, so I'm glad I won't have to worry about it.  I am 
willing to do some maintenance on your server if you want since a lot can 
be done with ftp.  You said some things below which I would like to address.

At 05:42 AM 8/18/2005 -0400, you wrote:
>3.  File upload is currently unavailable.  I am looking for a secure
>mechanism to make this happen.  It must be secure against people downloading
>from the upload area, people deleting uploaded files, and people overwriting
>other files by uploading new files with the same names.  Any suggestions are
>welcomed.  What I'd love to find is a web-based solution which would allow
>people to upload files, it Emails me saying there's a new upload, I look at
>the file then approve or reject it as appropriate.

We've talked about this before so I don't know why this is still causing 
you confusion.  Proftpd will do this.  Examples are given in the 
documentation.  I can refer you to them if you can't find them on your 
system.  I don't know how Gentoo packages things but in Debian they are at 
/usr/share/doc/proftpd/examples/.  If this is unacceptable to you, there 
are many ways to do this with php.  I am not a php programmer, but search 
for "php file upload site:sourceforge.net" on google and I'm sure you'll 
find something.  I see file upload forms in php all the time.  Again, I'm 
not a php programmer so I can't help beyond that.

>4.  If there is enough demand, I will make a torrent of all or part of the
>archive from time to time.

I don't really see the need.  First, the archive is static so it isn't like 
people will need to install updates.  Second, it isn't that big.  I easily 
downloaded all of it in one morning.  Third, dial-up users wouldn't 
benefit.  Finally, since the files are already compressed mp3 files, there 
is little point in trying to compress them again into one big 
archive.  That's up to you of course, but it seems like a waste of disk 
space to me.

>5.  Although I hope to find a secure solution to the file upload problem,
>even if this archive remains forever static with the exception of Red Dwarf,
>I have no problem with hosting it for as long as anyone wants.
>6.  I will write a new Readme file as soon as possible.
>7.  I reserve the right to investigate possible mirroring options, and if
>bandwidth usage gets out of hand, I reserve the right to restrict
>downloading directly from me to mirror sites, install bandwidth limiting
>modules, or take other actions to eliminate the problem.  However, I will
>make every effort to investigate possible alternatives before I remove the
>archive or ask for donations.

I think you should seriously look into a mirroring option.  First, it's a 
backup in case your drive crashes.  Second, if it is somewhere other than 
the US such as the UK, it eliminates the copyright problem.  Finally and 
most important, people get faster download speeds and it saves your 
bandwidth.  Maybe things have changed, but last I knew you could only 
handle a couple users at a time before it got really slow.  Even an 
Australian site like planetmirror is much faster.  Of course that assumes 
that the archive will get new files added.