Discuss mailing list

[Jeff Taylor <shdwdrgn AT sourpuss.net>]

As you may (or may not) be aware, recently one of the T2 operators was 
forced to shut down most of their servers overnight. Unfortunately at 
the time, this person was running about 50% of the total list of public 
servers.  Messages were sent to the mailing list, the servers were 
removed from the listings, and some of the servers were able to brought 
back again soon after.

We've had some debates on IRC already regarding whether there should be 
limitations placed on how many servers each individual is allowed to add 
to the public list (which affects things such as the nearest-servers 
info displayed on opennic's homepage).  There are pro and con points to 
this argument.  If we allow unlimited server entries, it greatly expands 
the reach of opennic with local servers in more countries.  However in a 
situation such as this, where a large number of servers are shut down at 
once, it hurts opennic's credibility and reliability, especially for 
those who like to set their DNS server entries and forget about them 
(this describes a large number of people who set up a home router or 
access point).

Keeping this in mind, these are our options:
1) allow unlimited entries
2) limit the number of entries per person to a fixed number
3) limit the number of entries based on a formula, taking into account 
the current number of public servers, and/or the amount of time a user 
has successfully provided public servers.

Number 3 seems to offer the best option, so long-time members can 
provide larger numbers of servers.  Even within that, there are 
sub-options to consider:
3a) Number is a percentage of total servers -- if there are 70 public 
servers and we user 10% as our base, then each user would be allowed to 
list 7 servers.
3b) Add the percentage to a base number -- we could allow everyone 5 + 
10%, so as above this would currently give everyone a total of 12 
servers they could provide.
3c) Calculate a number from the length of time the user has been hosting 
public servers -- For a simple example, let's say 1 server per every 
month of hosting, so someone who has run servers for 10 months would be 
allowed to list up to 10 servers.

Most likely we would want to create a combination of the above... 
something like a base of 2 servers, plus 5% of total servers for every 3 
months of hosting.  This would ensure a new user doesn't have too many 
entries to begin with, but that they become more trusted with long-term 
involvement with the project.

Please discuss how this should be handled.  We need to decide how we 
want to handle this and implement a solid solution that is fair to 
everyone.  If you have ideas for a formula to use, please explain why 
you like it.  If there are other variables that should be considered, 
let me know and I'll see if it's something I can implement.