Hello, all,
The co-founder of Lubuntu, Mario Behling, has been in charge of
lubuntu.net/org for as long as I've been using Lubuntu, let alone being a
member of the team. I never quite understood why we have had problems keep
it up to date, but I've learned the reasons why: we have no access to the
site and Mario refuses to give us access. This is why we created lubuntu.me.
Unfortunately, the existence of the two websites creates a great degree of
confusion for our users, who have been complaining a lot lately, as you can
see from [this bug report][1]. So I decided to take this issue on first
hand.
I have tried to contact Mario to get the issue resolved. I didn't try to
make a big public issue out of it. I've suggested he give us access, link
or redirect to lubuntu.me, or simply transfer the domain ownership
(ultimately to Canonical). My messages were ignored or only answered
minimally (e.g. "Good job on lubuntu.me"). He finally decided to provide a
[real response][2] on that aforementioned bug report, wherein he denies the
notion that we don't have access (but has not provided credentials) and
that Lubuntu has no "official" relationship with Canonical.
In turn, Michael Hall stepped in and tried to propose some private
mediation to get the issue resolved to everyone's satisfaction, or at least
with productive language. Mario did not respond to this, either. It does
seem like in response to all this, he has removed his name from the footer
of lubuntu.net (to which lubuntu.org redirects), but it also explicitly
says "lubuntu.net is an innot associated with Canonical which holds the
Ubuntu trademark," reinforcing the notion that he refuses to believe in the
connection between Lubuntu and Canonical.
Apparently, he wishes to maintain control and do things his way, even
though he no longer contributes to Lubuntu in even the most remote of ways.
Apparently, this is not new behavior. Again, on that bug report, Phill
Whiteside makes a [comment][3] that claims that a team of contributors once
voted on an update to the website and Mario simply refused ("vetoed") it.
In his comment, Mario says he would prefer "decentralised resources," which
is actually what the Lubuntu Team wants. The domains should ideally be
owned by Canonical and the hosting should be done by Canonical. That way,
the community, whomever it might be, can use the normal Canonical resources
and procedures to access them. Currently, we're in the [process][4] of
making that happen with lubuntu.me, because we as individuals don't want to
be in control, but we want the community to control it.
That being said, my hope is that the Community Council, perhaps in concert
with Canonical Legal, can help secure lubuntu.net/lubuntu.org under
Canonical ownership and that they can redirect to lubuntu.me.
If we can answer any other questions for you, please let us know. Thank you
for the hard work you do.
Sincerely,
Walter Lapchynski for the Lubuntu Team
[1]: https://bugs.launchpad.net/lubuntu-artwork/+bug/1608306
[2]: https://bugs.launchpad.net/lubuntu-artwork/+bug/1608306/comments/17
[3]: https://bugs.launchpad.net/lubuntu-artwork/+bug/1608306/comments/11
[4]: https://rt.ubuntu.com/Ticket/Display.html?id=28808
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