[mesh-talk] Why I'm leaving sudomesh

[Max B]

I've been putting this off for a while now, but I think it's important
that I finally come out and say this.

I'm no longer interested in a being a member or in any way involved with
sudomesh. This might surprise some folks, largely because so much of the
dysfunction in this group has been swept under the rug, but I don't want
to continue to participate in the facade of "everything is fine here and
we're building a community mesh network". I don't think it's fair to new
folks or to the community at large.

The ownership and power structures of the organization are choking a
really good idea to death. At first I tried to cope with it, thinking
that it was better than nothing. Later I attempted to take action to
help correct it, but was met with a complete unwillingness. The work is
difficult enough. I no longer feel any need to compound it with the
interpersonal, power dynamics, and bureaucratic difficulties that
sudomesh is burdened with.

As I'm currently the owner and maintainer of the sudomesh exit node, if
people are using a "peoplesopen.net" router and want to continue to do
so, they should speak with someone involved with sudomesh (probably
Juul) to coordinate ongoing functionality. I will continue to maintain
some infrastructure, mostly those nodes that I personally installed. I'm
happy to support folks who I personally met with and helped setup.

I do continue to care deeply about building community owned and operated
internet infrastructure. I'm happy to talk about my future plans with
folks as well as what I think went off the rails here. Obviously there
is a lot of work to be done in this domain and though I'm discouraged by
the situation here, I do think that we can move forwards in positive
directions. Feel free to reach out directly to me if you'd like to be a
part of that.


Max