Hello, all,
The co-founder of Lubuntu, Mario Behling, has been in charge of
lubuntu.net/org for as long as I've been using Lubuntu, let alone being a member of the team. I never quite understood why we have had problems keep it up to date, but I've learned the reasons why: we have no access to the site and Mario refuses to give us access. This is why we created
lubuntu.me. Unfortunately, the existence of the two websites creates a great degree of confusion for our users, who have been complaining a lot lately, as you can see from [this bug report][1]. So I decided to take this issue on first hand.
I have tried to contact Mario to get the issue resolved. I didn't try to make a big public issue out of it. I've suggested he give us access, link or redirect to
lubuntu.me, or simply transfer the domain ownership (ultimately to Canonical). My messages were ignored or only answered minimally (e.g. "Good job on
lubuntu.me"). He finally decided to provide a [real response][2] on that aforementioned bug report, wherein he denies the notion that we don't have access (but has not provided credentials) and that Lubuntu has no "official" relationship with Canonical.
In turn, Michael Hall stepped in and tried to propose some private mediation to get the issue resolved to everyone's satisfaction, or at least with productive language. Mario did not respond to this, either. It does seem like in response to all this, he has removed his name from the footer of
lubuntu.net (to which
lubuntu.org redirects), but it also explicitly says "
lubuntu.net is an innot associated with Canonical which holds the Ubuntu trademark," reinforcing the notion that he refuses to believe in the connection between Lubuntu and Canonical.
Apparently, he wishes to maintain control and do things his way, even though he no longer contributes to Lubuntu in even the most remote of ways. Apparently, this is not new behavior. Again, on that bug report, Phill Whiteside makes a [comment][3] that claims that a team of contributors once voted on an update to the website and Mario simply refused ("vetoed") it.
In his comment, Mario says he would prefer "decentralised resources," which is actually what the Lubuntu Team wants. The domains should ideally be owned by Canonical and the hosting should be done by Canonical. That way, the community, whomever it might be, can use the normal Canonical resources and procedures to access them. Currently, we're in the [process][4] of making that happen with
lubuntu.me, because we as individuals don't want to be in control, but we want the community to control it.
That being said, my hope is that the Community Council, perhaps in concert with Canonical Legal, can help secure
lubuntu.net/lubuntu.org under Canonical ownership and that they can redirect to
lubuntu.me.
If we can answer any other questions for you, please let us know. Thank you for the hard work you do.
Sincerely,
Walter Lapchynski for the Lubuntu Team