New Home for Xconq Project?

[Eric McDonald <mcdonald@phy.cmich.edu>]

Hello Xconquerors,

   Over the past few months I have had some discussions with various 
people about whether the Xconq project should be moved to a new host. 
Although I think that 'sources.redhat.com' has been a fairly decent 
host, there have been some issues with it:
   (1) The site has been down at least twice in the past year.
   (2) The overseers have been unresponsive to inquiries regarding 
access to the bug-tracking system.
   (3) The overseers have been unresponsive to inquiries regarding 
upload access to the FTP server for one of the developers who did not 
have such access.
   (4) It is a fairly low visibility location. Although the Cygwin and 
GCC projects have some association with the site, it is still not known 
as being dedicated host for other projects. One might argue that Xconq 
stands out more because it is among a relatively small couple of 
handfuls of projects, but I think that there are not enough projects on 
this site to attract much attention in the first place.
   (5) A site hosted by Redhat is not "neutral" ground. Even though the 
Debian folks have, in the past, made Debs for Xconq, there can still 
easily be an impression that Xconq is a special Redhat project and won't 
work elsewhere, or at least, not as well.
   (6) At least one developer has expressed a desire for a different 
bug-tracking system than the one provided (gnatsweb), even it was set up 
properly for developers to service it.

   That said, I am grateful to Redhat for hosting the project, and 
things like the mailing lists and CVS access have worked fine.

   I am not aware of any strong arguments for keeping the project at its 
current location. One could say that it is best to leave well enough 
alone; but, from my perspective, it is not "well enough". I would 
appreciate a serviceable bug-tracking system, and I would appreciate 
upload access to a FTP server for all active developers.

   Some of the suggestions for an alternative home have been Sourceforge 
and Savannah (which is hosted by the Free Software Foundation). I have 
looked into Savannah and it seems like it would get the job done. A 
number of people have been chomping at the bit to get Xconq moved to 
Sourceforge; I suppose I should investigate that more deeply in the near 
future.

   What I would like to know is: should Xconq move to a better site? If 
yes, then why? If not, then why not? Also what are the preferences for a 
new host site, and why?

   Stan, if you are reading this, I would be curious if moving to a new 
host is an action that you would approve of.

   Thanks,
     Eric