dbott schrieb:
> Markus -
> I saw his web page and he looks busy.......

I just looked at http://www.irtc.org/team.html and was 
shocked to find that the people listed there are (at least 
to me) "retired from service" for at least a year or two! 
Really needs to be brought up-to-date sometime soon.

The current admin is supposedly Jesse Becker, though it's 
really worrisome that he's so long unaccounted for... maybe 
just because i've had very bad experiences when people 
suddenly stopped their online activities, because things DO 
happen...

Feeding J.B.'s PGP key (not the name) from his Nov.2006 
postings into Google turned up no newsgroup posts after Jan. 
2005. OK, that's not quite thorough research, and proves 
just about nothing, but it's as disquieting as the IRTC's 
silence.

I've written to his two PGP-confirmed mail accounts that 
turned up in the process. Keeping fingers crossed...

> Question 1: Who owns the irtc web page?
>  I know it lives on the povray.org server.
> And, I know it is run by irtc admin.

The hosting is done by povray.org, which means that this 
server's root admin typically has "access all areas" and 
could create/assign a new user account to handle 
IRTC-related tasks. However, to the current IRTC admin, this 
is like coming home from a holiday and finding the house has 
been sold, and the locks already changed. To describe this 
as "awkward" may be an understatement... i'm running several 
domains myself, and finding that someone else has taken over 
one of these in my absence is very near the top of my 
internet horrors list, thus my reluctance to step up and say 
"we want IRTC to be run by someone who actually cares" ...
Also, the POVray.org master admin has to "give away the 
keys" to someone else he may or may not know anything about 
- passing hosting responsibilites is a rather big leap of 
faith if it's entirely online.

> Question 2: Why won't someone step up
> and take it over?
> (If this is one person who is done with it)

There are several script-driven things on the server, and 
(speaking as an outsider to IRTC's internal workings, so 
this is pure guesswork) i'm not sure who knows how these 
work, what these things do, or if it's at all documented 
somewhere (being familiar with "organic growth" websites 
myself)... Most of the IRTC preparation could likely be 
handled manually, like copying files or creating a web page. 
(see my preview page, which took about all of ten minutes to 
set up). With the registration and voting stuff, i honestly 
don't know. I fear it's "secret knowledge" passed on from 
one admin to the next, but that's exactly where the current 
problem lies. The last admin's mail from November seems to 
hint at "someone else" that's also able to move things 
around, which would indicate the presence of at least one 
more backup admin (or someone from POVray?). None has 
stepped forward so far, and this is equally worrisome.

> Statement : The IRTC has been around a long
> time. Obviously, many talented people are participants.
> When reading the irtc.stills a lot of people were willing
> to take it over. But instead they have started a pseudo
> competition.

To fill in the time, of course, but i agree, without the 
IRTC webpage to offer a "web-visible" beacon, this is about 
as interim as it gets ;)

> I will throw my name in the hat, I will be willing to take it
> over. If this is would be allowed......and get backup admin.
> (It has such a great following, it can't just disappear).

Amen to that!

> Yes, Markus I know what your going to say we need to
> see what develops with the current situation. That's fine,
> but it would be nice to have something and someone in place
> to take over. Which gets back to my original  question----
> Who owns the irtc web page?  And, can we use it?

Previous mails from the povray group raise the impression 
that the current IRTC admin "owns" it alone. This IS a 
problem in the current situation... although to me, it's 
more of a moral dilemma... (see above). If the IRTC was a 
"wholly owned subsidiary" of povray.org, i'd say full steam 
ahead, in with a new admin (because then it's not someone's 
own project, but community-driven), and let's get rolling!

(Querying nic.com, the IRTC.org is registered to an email 
address at aussie.org, and sponsered by Tucows Inc. - same 
as the povray.org address.)

> A web site that gets pass around from admin to admin
> when he retires...putting his own mark on it.
> (That might be to optimistic)

Why? I think that would be great!

-Markus

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