Re: Potential Launch of Boost Website: Request for Final Feedback

From: Vinnie Falco (vinnie.falco_at_[hidden])
Date: 2024-02-16 01:24:48

On Thu, Feb 15, 2024 at 2:17 PM David Sankel via Boost
<boost_at_[hidden]> wrote:
> The C++ Alliance has been in contact with the board and has agreed to
> assign copyright of the new website to the foundation.

This is false. The new Boost website we developed is a complex web
application similar to a Boost C++ library except it is written in
Python. We did not assign the copyright for our code to anyone, and a
transfer of copyright is unprecedented in the history of Boost. Our
code would be licensed under the Boost Software License if anything,
but the copyright is ours as is customary.

> The C++ Alliance has offered to donate funds to keep the server up
> and running for a couple years

This is also false. We offered to host the website and administer it,
as we are already currently doing. The Boost Foundation has the
option, but not the requirement, to adjust the DNS records for
https://boost.org (which it controls) to point to our servers. At any
time they can change this and point back to their existing web server
(called “wowbagger”) which they also own and operate. If they don’t
like our changes, they can point the domain away from our server. If
they want us to do controversial things, we can refuse. This is only
fair. Giving the Boost Foundation complete ongoing control of our work
is not acceptable.

On Thu, Feb 15, 2024 at 3:18 PM Andrey Semashev via Boost
<boost_at_[hidden]> wrote:
> And thank you to The C++ Alliance for assigning the copyright and
> funding the server maintenance. This truly is a generous donation.

The kind words are appreciated but we can't take credit for what never
happened (see above).

We did offer to assume all costs for hosting and administration of the
website, which would remain under our necessary control to maintain
its operation. We did offer the Boost Foundation a $6,000 donation to
pay for a premium mailing list service that supports threaded replies,
but this was rejected.

The way you get something done in Boost is to do it, not make
proclamations on the mailing list, so we built a new website for
Boost. There has been complete transparency regarding our desired
direction and how we might improve Boost:

https://cppalliance.org/boost/2023/05/09/New-Website.html
https://cppalliance.org/boost/2023/05/08/Future-of-Boost.html

We aren't ready to throw out our work or simply hand it over to
others, so we could just publish it on some other domain, but it would
be much better if the community could come to something mutually
agreeable.

Thanks