The following was sent to the D-STAR Administrator's mailing list this morning. (9 June 2009) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All, Most of you are already aware that we have a developing conflict between two authors of add-on software for the Gateway. There is much discussion, both online and offline about the situation. There are also many accusations floating around. While the situation is disappointing, there is only one subject about which I will comment. This comment is purely my own, and should be attributed to nobody else. That subject is the involvement of the Trust Server Administration Team in this debate. The Trust Server Administration Team is not involved in this conflict at all. To best serve the needs of the D-STAR community, we must remain strictly neutral. We endorse neither product or person. Our only requirements for joining the network are that a Gateway be up- to-date on all of the Gateway patches, and that the Gateway regularly execute the update script to stay up-to-date. That script controls nothing other than the patches to maintain our functionality. Those requirements were implemented to prevent many of the failures we experienced prior to their development, and have provided a much more stable network for us. Up until recently, the DSync.DStarUsers.Org page also reported versioning information about some other products, by request of many administrators. Those other products are not mandatory installations, but many of us use them. We provide versioning information for only one of the products involved in the conflict only because that is the only one that would cooperate and provide us the necessary information to track versions. Now, in order to remain neutral and objective, we track neither. Before jumping to respond to any online recommendations to drop a product or kill a process, please take a few moments to investigate what's really going on. Most of these comments are not fully informed. I am in contact with both parties involved in this mess, and have nothing against either person. I do have a very strong opinion about anyone, regardless of who they are, testing new functions on the production network. I am now actively testing a non-ICOM Gateway on a test network, with very promising results. If you're interested, just Google "G4ULF". We will continue to support anyone willing to work with us in the safe development and testing of new "stuff". The Trust Server Administration Team doesn't block individuals or products. Any User blocking is performed at a specific Gateway. Any individual user deletion is performed by the administrator of the Gateway where that individual is registered. The Trust Server Administration Team will continue to maintain our neutrality and objectivity, and try to provide you the most stable D-STAR network we can. This is a pivotal time for D-STAR. There are some really BIG things coming in the next few days (not weeks - days!). As you go through the trials of administering your Gateway and make decisions about how you will move forward, please consider the potential impact to the rest of the network. I would truly hate to see the network that was built through your volunteer efforts be disrupted by the current conflict. I know that this is a topic about which many will wish to comment. We cannot afford for this forum to become a battleground, so please direct any comments directly to me, offline. My email address is my call at K5TIT.Org. Just remember that the Trust Server Administration Team is here to serve the network and the Gateway Administrators. That is a responsibility that we all take very seriously. Thank you for your patience. We will get through this. 73, Jim N5MIJ [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
