Remove DNS entry for themes.drupal.org or investigate other options
| Project: | Drupal.org infrastructure |
| Component: | Other |
| Category: | feature request |
| Priority: | normal |
| Assigned: | sepeck |
| Status: | closed |
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Hello,
This issue has been bothering me for a while This is the story. There used to be http://themes.drupal.org, but it was closed. The subdomain was redirected to http://drupal.org/node/108543/ So far, so good.
However, at a certain date, someone build http://themegarden.org. All the links to that used to point to Theme Garden is now redirecting to a page that say that Theme Garden is closed, although it has been reopened by someone else.
I know that people could read the last comment in that page and see that there's a new Theme Garden, but they just don't. And we may be making the life a little more difficult for people willing to start a new project with Drupal.
This has to be fixed in one of these ways:
1) Redirect themes.drupal.org to themegarden.org (the better solution)
2) Since this redirection can bring some trouble (as themegarden.org is not officially drupal.org's), the second option is keep the current redirection and add a big disclaimer: "A new unofficial Theme Garden has been opened at themegarden.org"
3) Don't change anything (the worse), but at least ask module maintainers to point their links to new Theme Garden...
Regards
José San Martin
#1
Change title...
As themes.drupal.org has been decommissioned for some time now, we should just remove the DNS entry. As we are no longer providing the site. The solves items 1 and 2.
Item 3. We have instructions on how to link to your screen shot in cvs. If theme contributors wish to there is a field they can fill out for a demo site. They can add a link there but I don't think we need an 'official policy' on this.
#2
moving to drupal infrastructure
#3
My vote is for #1.
Or if not #1 perhaps to invite the person maintaining themegarden.org to do it "officially".
What made Ber official? What makes this guy "unofficial" ?
#4
Login access to the server to maintain it. It was using drupal.org infrastructure resources. My vote is still to just remove the DNS entry. It isn't used and has been decommissioned for quite some time.
Discussing other options is certainly possible but that alias should be removed.
#5
Can't you preserve themes.drupal.org?
There are so many stuff that link to it. A good solution would be a page with a message like that:
"themes.drupal.org is closed. You may be interested in visiting Drupal Theme Garden at http://themegarden.org."
Why not?
#6
There has been no Drupal site at that address for months (year?). So as a matter of cleanup and a site we don't later forget to update or leave in a vulnerable state it would be best to remove the DNS entry.
Leaving empty websites around long term is a recipe for forgotten sites / missed maintenance to sneak up and get you.
We can publicize/list the other site in different ways. One is to put the address in the theme's description on the /project page. The other is to put it in the description here http://drupal.org/project/Themes.
I am not certain if it is appropriate so we shall have to poll the site maintainers / admins.
#7
We are proud about themegarden.org for the successful continuation of the Drupal Theme Garden.
Now, we are honored to be considered as an official replacement for the former Drupal Theme Garden, closed at a time of Drupal 5.0 release seven months ago.
We would be grateful for supporting the themegarden.org as worthy Drupal themes live demo site.
However, we will support any decision you (Drupal community) make.
---
Drupal Themes Live Preview - themegarden.org
#8
We are proud about themegarden.org for the successful continuation of the Drupal Theme Garden.
Now, we are honored to be considered as an official replacement for the former Drupal Theme Garden, closed at a time of Drupal 5.0 release seven months ago.
We would be grateful for supporting the themegarden.org as worthy Drupal themes live demo site.
However, we will support any decision you (Drupal community) make.
---
Drupal Themes Live Preview - themegarden.org
#9
I've been clicking through the theme garden. I think they've done a very good job with their work and it's a very useful site. I think the theme garden should either be made official or at least linked to.
The problem greggles pointed me at is they have affiliate links on their home page; I assume this is how they pay for the time and effort they've put into this. This could be a problem with making it official.
#10
I agree that removing it leads to linkrot; a completely empty/forgotten site is better than a 404. Those links are still out there.
#11
About the affiliate links, I'd be fine if the themegarden had a link at the bottom saying "hosted/maintained by example.com" and if the affiliate links were moved to the example.com site. This way they can still have that as a source of revenue while not being a form of advertising that is on a drupal.org sanctioned resource. I feel this is an issue since the Drupal Association is just now experimenting with advertising in different places - I see affiliate links as a similar system and a form of advertising which we wouldn't want to have in a subdomain (which could be interpretted as something that the Drupal association "sanctions").
Also: linkrot. Removing themes.drupal.org results in linkrot. Why do that?
#12
Do not, under any circumstances, ever delete a DNS entry that was once popular. There's prolly a hundred other sites out there that have inbound linkys to the themes.drupal pages. It'd be far better to place a simple html page in that site's subdirectory that affirms the site was closed, the date on which it ceased to be, *maybe* a reason and a link to the relevant forum post.
Possibly even a link to a similar yet obviously third-party site? As long as it has a disclaimer, of course.
An added bonus to using nothing but an html page is that there won't be any site maintenance or security concerns within themes.drupal.org. Remember the html file? It used to exist before this badass Drupaly thingy came along...
#13
1. It was popular but short lived. It is not being used, if forgotten it will be an additional maintenance burden and potential security issue as noted. Even a simple html page is yet one more thing to maintain and one more thing to forget therefore one more vector. In addition, it is one more thing to forget to update and break in embarrassing ways during maintenance, server move, add front end.... etc.
2. We do not redirect drupal.org sub domains to other sites. This is policy. Dries set it. Anyone interested can dig through the infrastructure archives to find the email and discuss it with him. None of the rest of us can make this policy change.
3. We are not offering it as a direct service through drupal.org. We are not going to redirect it to a live site. We have had a redirect to an explanation for some months time now. It is time to retire it as I do not see drupal.org offering/hosting this service anytime soon.
4. I see no problem linking on the themes page description a link to the theme garden site. We have done this to other sites. I just haven't had time to go through and edit the necessary fields. I should get to it this weekend, no promises on the time line.
I will add a note to the themes link here: http://drupal.org/project
and the top of the page here: http://drupal.org/project/Themes
We can update documentation for managing themes mentioning this demo site as somewhere they can link to in their project page.
#14
If link rot is a concern, why not redirect themes.drupal.org to http://drupal.org/project/Themes?
Michelle
#15
No one suggested it and I didn't think of it. I don't have an objection to that re-direct. Just an objection to a months old thread that gets resurrected periodically.
#16
added link in description.
#17
redirects to a page exxplaining closure.
#18
Automatically closed -- issue fixed for two weeks with no activity.