Minutes/2025-06-13

Present: TM, RL, MM

Administration
- comp.lang.asm.x86
  - RL is continuing to coordinate setting up a moderation system with Terje.
- news.groups.proposals
  - RL determined that the group's signing key, with the e-mail address ngp-approval-key@ngp.big-8.org, is a 2048-bit DSA key and should probably be replaced with something more secure. RL to create a new, more secure key, sign it with the old one, post it to our website, and announce the new key on the group.
- comp.compression.research
  - Awaiting confirmation that the rmgroup control message has been posted.
- Moderated groups without moderators
  - Awaiting confirmation that the rmgroup control messages have been posted.
  - soc.genealogy.surnames.britain : No further update from volunteer. RL to ping them a final time. If we receive no further response, we will consider removing the group in a future mass deletion at least one year from now.
  - rec.humor.funny : No further communication with Brad Templeton.
  - comp.newprod , comp.simulation , comp.std.announce , and rec.photo.moderated : RL has posted MODERATOR FOUND announcements for each of the four groups and informed Ivan about these. (Ivan needs to show these to his news provider in order to be allowed to post articles with Approved headers.) TM to publicize the announcements on social media.
  - comp.binaries.cbm : RL is continuing to coordinate things with the new moderator.
  - rec.arts.anime.creative : RL still awaiting a response from tidux.
- soc.sexuality.general (non-functioning moderated group): TM in correspondence with former moderators.
- soc.culture.jewish.moderated (non-functioning moderated group): TM posted an RFD to remove the group. One reply has been received, albeit only with some further details about the group's website. TM also wrote to four of the six original moderators (the other two being deceased) but has received no replies. TM to post a 2nd RFD.
- comp.sys.wearables : On 2025-05-08 RL pinged Greg Pfeil for an update on the moderation infrastructure. No response yet. RL to ping again in another week or two. In any case, agreed to wait several more months for further action.
- comp.protocols.dns.bind : On 2025-05-02 MM pinged Dan Mahoney for an update on the mail-to-news gateway. No response yet. In any case, agreed to wait several more months for further action.
Unused comp.unix.* groups: MM proposes deleting 17 unused groups in the comp.unix.* hierarchy, mostly covering EOL Unix variants. RL thought the more general groups could be spared, and noted that some of the others have had posts in the last two or three years. MM to report on usage statistics for the individual groups at a future meeting.
Infrastructure
- RL's backup script has been in operation for two weeks and seems to be working.
- Decommissioning of the mail.big-8.org domain and of Mail-in-a-Box, Nextcloud, etc.
  - MM to write to JE to inform him that we are planning to decommission Nextcloud and suggesting that he back up any files he has stored there.
  - MM to investigate the decommissioning procedure and report back to a future meeting.
- TM noted an annoying permissions error from user www-data's daily cron job to delete certain munin directories, probably because those directories are actually owned by munin:munin. The cron job is part of Mail-in-a-Box. Until we decommission Mail-in-a-Box, can we fix the permissions issue (maybe via chown -R munin:www-data /var/lib/munin/cgi-tmp) or disable the cron job? RL to investigate.
Software/funding
- TM: No update yet on GPG signing best practices on Savannah
- Thunderbird 128 contact deferred given Julien's comments on INN.
- TM still to respond to Julien.
- OTF IFF/NGI0/Sovereign Tech Fund: no further updates
- No response yet from JE to RL's e-mailed request to approve the OpenCollective expense. RL to ping JE via direct message on his social media accounts. RL to arrange for the name on the hosting account to be changed to his own.