by Daniel73 » Mon Apr 30, 2007 8:13 pm
In the past, Inducks has been hosted from some universities. The Uppsala university in Sweden, used by Per Starbäck. And later a university in France, by Francois Willot.
I've understood that when Willot quit the university in France, publisher Egmont from Denmark offered Inducks to do the sponsoring of the Inducks/Outducks-server. I've undserstood that Egmont demanded that this should be kept a secret. I've understood that a reason was that Disney might protest about this sponsoring, as Egmont has no such publication rights for internet.
And so, Egmont pays for a bunch of irresponsible fans who can do whatever they want at a server. Including raising a PunBB board titled "DCF", offering visitors free room for pictures to be put at the server.
At this moment, sponsored Inducks/Outducks/DCF/DDB/COA/whatever-name-they-have is offline for over a week.
I've understood that Inducks has become divided. I've understood that DCF was an action by Francois Willot which has met some protest. And that Willot reportedly replied that he wants to do what he thinks is fun.
I fear that if keep Inducks keeps on being irresponsible this way, they will not exist very long anymore. Reportedly there are approximately 40 bugs at COA/Inducks waiting to be solved. But, reportdely, a new project like DCF was found to be more interesting by the responsible programmer.
Inducks is secretive. People who want to join them should keep secrets. Secrets like Egmont being their sponsor. I think that a lot of programmers rather wouldn't contribute under such circumstances.
I find it a shame that Inducks practically has a monopoly on indexing notably children's comics, demanding indexers to be secretive. Disney comics are in essence just children's comics. And I've understood some kids are/were member of Inducks. Would a kid be allowed to tell his parents or his/her friends about company Egmont sponsoring Inducks, without feeling guilty towards his/her "friends" at Inducks?