hmmm...my thoughts exactly however I would like to add some comments (or suggestion).
documentation: I do not think there is one person who knows everything about ntop -- Burton may come close :) -- so maybe it is a good idea if someone would come up with a table of contents and then have people choose sections they would like to contribute (based on what they feel most comfortable with). Someone should take ownership of the document in order to integrate contributions and fill in the gaps. I think the list is a great place to mediate this because we have no idea what kind of expertise is out there using ntop and might be willing to contribute their expertise and experience to the document. donations: I really dont know what to say here other than educate people in regards to financial issues ntop may be dealing with so if they feel inclined to donate, they have something in particular they may want to contribute too (this may be some short and simple news letter that may even help keep your ideas together like a project plan or something). Also, add something to the download page http://www.ntop.org/ntop.html about donations and reference the donation newsletter and list contributors, etc.. just some ideas! regards, ~Blake --- "Jarmoc, Jeff" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Luca - > I'd love to help out on the documentation front. > Problem is, I'm > new to Ntop myself and having some trouble figuring > it all out and getting > my head around how things work. I like to think I'm > good at documenting > things, but understanding them comes before that. > Unfortunately, with the > amount of documentation that's available now that > part is difficult. I > definitely agree with you that documention NEEDS to > improve, and I'm willing > to do what little I can. > As for donations, I could probably throw a few > bucks (albeit not > much) your way. From the ntop.org site, it wasn't > clear to me (and I'm sure > many others) that donations were encouraged, or even > accepted. Maybe > setting up a tipjar or something would help? Having > a public list of things > you intend to use donation money for might help as > well. > The little bit I've been able to tinker with Ntop > so far, it seems > wonderfully useful. I'd love to see the project > flourish, and I'll do > whatever I can to help. I wish I knew a little more > coding so I could help > out more in that area, but I certainly hope I can be > of some help on the > documentation front, but like I said my experience > and understanding of ntop > is unfortunately somewhat limited. > > -----Original Message----- > From: Luca Deri [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: Thursday, April 25, 2002 1:07 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: [Ntop] Running the ntop project: my view > > > Burton & all, > Your analysis is has some good points. However the > core of the problem is > that I'm basically the only one who codes. Beside > some patches from you and > a few others the community is doing a lot of testing > on ntop but no major > contributions to the project. > > Let me mention some issues: > > - documentation: there is no one who has asked me > "Luca can I please write > the user's guide?". No one. Last year I decided to > give away some ntop > t-shirts (self paid) for pushing people to write a > manual but nothing > happened. > > - donations. In the year 2001 ntop got donations > for... 0 (zero) $. However > we need money for buying faster machines from > monitoring faster nets, for > registering the DNS, showing ntop at conferences, > and so on. No sponsor at > all. > > - lobby. You're doing a great job here: I couldn't > ask any better. I > definitively have no time for reading all the mails > on the list. > > In the past I had some help from other (e.g. Rocco) > but he's now busying > doing other crap. The project needs workforce. Some > code branches are dead > (think of RMON for instance). Other stuff (e.g. PEP) > could be vastly > improved. I would like to write an Internet Draft > for exposing some of the > measures ntop has in SNMP, writing the ntop-lib for > creating custom apps, > and many other things, but I have no time. And I > don't see volunteers. > Please show up: I want to be wrong about this. > > Cheers, Luca > > > On 22-04-2002 17:22, "Burton M. Strauss III" > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > Unfortunately, Luca isn't the most communicative > individual - he vastly > > seems to prefer coding to sending email. Not that > ntop hasn't benefited > > from this... But, for periods of time - when he's > swamped - he doesn't > > actively monitor the list. Because I have stepped > in, he's felt freer to > > focus on the coding - and as a result we've had > some huge under-the-covers > > rewrites and improvements (-j > --border-sniffer-mode is just one example) > > since 2.0. > [..] > > I'm not shy about expressing opinions - I do think > Luca should have > released > > a 2.0.1 version in early January (-j), probably > another version mid-Feb > > (hash.c rewrite) and one after the security > problem in early March. But > he > > hasn't and that's his choice - all I can do is > lobby. > [..] > > The result of the combination - infrequent > releases, code problems, loud > > mouth, frequent postings, very current source - > has been that I get asked > A > > LOT for recommendations about "which version to > use", given the known > issues > > with 2.0 and the instability of the cvs. > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Ntop mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://listgateway.unipi.it/mailman/listinfo/ntop > _______________________________________________ > Ntop mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://listgateway.unipi.it/mailman/listinfo/ntop __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Games - play chess, backgammon, pool and more http://games.yahoo.com/ _______________________________________________ Ntop mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://listgateway.unipi.it/mailman/listinfo/ntop
