Regulations, Knoware, and the Forum move

[pjw]

This is not a forum for politics. But the issues here are existential, way
beyond the confines of polite political discourse. No offence intended
towards any person here, but while the US is flooding the planet with
social, industrial and political effluent, all the while destabilising the
World Order, I dont see how I can stay quiet.

I can understand the immediate panic, but regulation of the Internet will
come, whether we agree or not, including in the US (viz California, et al).
You may not like it, but the OfCom regulations are what the relatively sane
people you elected to decide these matters decided. The intention to
protect vulnerable people is admirable. Thats a decent government's job!
Once upon a time the Authorities decided racism was wrong, much to many
people's annoyance. Would any civilised person now want to go back?

I want as little as possible to do with the US right now. I do my damnedest
to avoid feeding the beast with my data or my money. Perhaps one day, when
theyve stopped trashing the place and smearing poo all over the walls, and
become a normal country again, I may forgive and reconsider.

In the mean time, Knoware will stay in Europe! and, if necessary, hibernate
until a new home can be found.

[dilwyn]

I admire your stance on this, Per. I considered doing the same thing myself when I found out about the Forum's move to America. But in my case I felt that (a) I didn't want to let my political views interfere with my QLing in the short term, (b) it was too short notice to sensibly arrange other hosting, and (c) if I understood correctly the USA hosting will be done by somebody with a connection to the QL scene.

I'll give it a while to see how things pan out with this, e.g. speed of uploading/downloading across the pond and consideration of what more smelly stuff the political elite over there throw at the rest of the world, before I decide whether to look for a UK host for my site. I contributed to the GoFundMe appeal partly because I'd had 'free hosting' from QL Forum for some time, not realising Rob had been paying for it out of his own pocket for years. In fact, I later considered contributing more to the appeal than I did because of that, but by the time I'd thought about it, they'd closed the appeal anyway.

Best wishes finding another host quickly, I hope Knoware.no won't 'hibernate' for too long. I respect you for standing up for your beliefs.

[pjw]

Thank you Dilwyn! I understand your stance too!

[techfury]

Hello, everyone.

I understand that change can be unsettling, especially in today’s politically complex world.

I ask that we all set our political opinions aside for a moment and focus on our mission: keeping the QL alive.

When robheaton and vanpeebles came to me last week on Discord, there was serious discussion of shutting the forum down entirely. I may be relatively new to the QL scene, but I rapidly fell in love with the platform and community about two years ago. I also admit I have not posted on here much before, as I mainly used the Discord, but I gained incredible amounts of QL knowledge through the in-depth discussions on here. That was when they proposed the new arrangement, and I accepted because I simply could not bear the thought of everything here going up in smoke.

Per, your site is a valuable gold mine of neat little toolkits that I have found valuable for all sorts of S*BASIC shenanigans. It would be a loss to the community if your site were to go down. My offer to provide hosting for you will always stand. In the meantime, as per your wishes, I have removed your files from the new server that we are currently building.

Dilwyn, thank you. Your site has been an invaluable goldmine for myself and the community, and I am extremely grateful for your support towards the new hosting arrangement. The speed shouldn’t be a problem- I always had very fast downloads from the “old” UK host, and robheaton and vanpeebles reported good speeds in testing over the weekend. I did make sure to choose a datacenter on the east coast to try to keep the latency down, as well.

[bwinkel67]

If the US is not palatable at this point, what about Canada? Would that be a good alternative? There's got to be ability to host there.

I would also say that more than half of US folks are not happy with the US right now. I'm actually shocked Trump got more votes than Harris, but then again, he still didn't crack 50%. But there were definitely a lot of selfish votes from people that thought they could hold their noses and that stuff he said was just stuff he said. I'm guessing some of those people have had a change of heart but we're stuck with it for 4 years. I long for the day all the crap he's doing will be undone in 4 years.

[techfury]

Hmm. Certainly lots of options in Canada. I am very open to that idea if that would help assuage concerns. We do still have enough time to change course and not delay anything...

Yeah... a lot of us are definitely unhappy, to say the least.

[pjw]

Im glad to see that there are so many good people here! Thanks for kind offers and encouragement!

It would be churlish to reject an honest compromise, so if it can be arranged, and be generally acceptable, Im happy to go along with it. Of course, no one can know where the actual data will end up, but jurisdiction is the point here. I somehow doubt that Canada will be long after in instigating their own rules. But if the masters here are willing to take the chance Im ok with it.

@techfury: Im sorry for the inconvenience of of first having to move my data and then having to delete it (and possibly to restore it again)!

Please let me know what I have too do when the time comes..

[Tinyfpga]

In the mean time, Knoware will stay in Europe! and, if necessary, hibernate
until a new home can be found.

I have sent you a private message.

[pjw]

In the mean time, Knoware will stay in Europe! and, if necessary, hibernate
until a new home can be found.

I have sent you a private message.

Replied!

[dilwyn]

Im glad to see that there are so many good people here! Thanks for kind offers and encouragement!

It would be churlish to reject an honest compromise, so if it can be arranged, and be generally acceptable, Im happy to go along with it. Of course, no one can know where the actual data will end up, but jurisdiction is the point here. I somehow doubt that Canada will be long after in instigating their own rules. But if the masters here are willing to take the chance Im ok with it.

I agree.