On 8/1/24 3:02 PM, Alan de Freitas via Boost wrote:
The Boost Foundation cannot transfer control of the domain to the C++ Alliance because they don't own it either > There's no point in voting on whether they can transfer ownership of something that is not theirs.
Right. The domain name "boost.org" is owned by the Beman Dawes estate and can only be transferred by the executor of that estate. The other asset of interest might be the github repositories. At least in the case of safe_numerics, that repository is "owned" by me - Robert Ramey. I don't have any intention of transfering that ownership to anyone else. I can't speak for the other repositories. Github doesn't reveal who owns them to anyone other than the owner. Finally there is the boost.org "umbrella" repository. I believe that this is "owned" by Glen Fernandez. I put "owned" in quotes as it's unclear to me what the owners property rights in this case. Seems to me that this is beyond the influence of both the Boost Foundation as well as the C++ Alliance. The only thing that might change things is that C++ Alliance and Boost Foundation attempt to purchase the ownership of the domain boost.org from the Dawes estate. It's not really possible to know what would happen then. It might spark a "bidding" war as both parties have significant assets and apparently interest. The "winner" would be the Dawes estate who would receive a payment commensurate with their perceived value of the domain name. Which would be a fine outcome as far as I'm concerned. Beman was a friend of mine. He (along with David Abrahams) worked his butt off for years making Boost a success. I see no better result that his family receive some recompense for his unselfish efforts and contributions to C++. I do now believe that without these two gentleman, C++ would not have survived into the 21st Century. Boost accomplished it's original goal in 2011 when large parts of Boost were incorporated into the C++ standard. It hasn't been very relevant after that. Basically, Boost was so successful, that it worked itself out business - as successful organizations to. Of course these organizations don't die immediately and no one want's to kill them off due to sentimental reasons. Sometimes they can re-purposed and continue on as version 2.0. Jon Kalb took on this task in 2012? and managed to get another 12 years out the franchise and build the successful C++Con. (For this he was rewarded by getting unceremoniously pushed out of Boost by the board of directors of the Boost Foundation due to some code of conduct BS. Shameful and cowardly behavior by members of the board. But I digress. Here we are stuck again. Something's got to give. The status of the library repositories probably won't change much. C++ Alliance will acquire the domain boost.org and develop the website, (I'm not sure why - oh well) or not in which case Boost Foundation will do it (?). Regardless, I see the purpose and goals of Boost significantly changing or Boost dying. Consider this my modest tribute to a life well lived. Robert Ramey PS. The Beman project is living in the past. I predict that it will be nothing but a zombie website within a year. RR