Re: IM

Hi,

I'm unhappy about our Jabber server.  This is what Bruce just told me
about it:

> Frankly I think the whole idea of running our own jabber server is crazy
> and has caused all sorts of confusion.

In my opinion, it has been a very useful tool, but there are some
implementation restrictions that make it much less useful than it could
be.  Bruce continues:

> I have been promised an account
> on that server many times but it never happened.  For me the jabber
> server has turned into a secret clubhouse, which isn't very effective
> for moving the community forward.  Do you guys look at girely magazines
> in there or what?  :-)

You have to admit that this "secret clubhouse" thing is there all right.
Who gets an account, and how it is named, is a complete mistery.  I see
two accounts that have never connected at all: one is named
"brucemomjian" and the other is "petereisentraut".  Does anybody think
that they are inactive members of the community?  I don't.

But I also have no clue why would anyone choose such an username.  I
know I would be very annoyed if somebody offered me an account named
"alvaroherrera".

Bruce closes with

> As far as I know I don't have an account, and if I do I have no idea
> what my password is.

So there's another problem here: somebody created accounts, but the
person who was supposed to use it has no clue about it.

This all started because Bruce wasn't able to talk to me on IM.  I said
"hey, add my jabber.postgresql.org account to your momjian.us account
and we should connect."  But it didn't work at all.  Bruce gets a weird
XMPP 404 error; apparently the Jabber server is just not able to talk to
outside jabber servers.  I know it was capable of doing so some days ago
-- I tested it myself.  Now it's messed up again.

I really hate to have to waste time complaining about something that
someone else wasted time to set up.  But if we're gonna offer a service,
let's provide said service.

-- 
Alvaro Herrera                        http://www.advogato.org/person/alvherre
"The eagle never lost so much time, as
when he submitted to learn of the crow." (William Blake)