[Savannah-hackers] Re: freesoftware.fsf.org and non-GNU packages on savannah

[Richard Stallman]

    Meanwhile, word of mouth spread far about savannah, and now there are
    indeed tons of non-GNU packages on savannah, and people are likely RELYING
    on the URL being "savannah.gnu.org".

We must and will proceed with the change anyway.  If the volunteers
don't do it soon, could you have Paul do it?

When we make this change, people "relying" on the wrong name will
simply have to change their links.  We have to keep our priorities
clear: changing the name is more important than preserving those
links.

Besides which, the change in host name won't really cause much trouble
even when these links exist.  For each non-GNU package FOO, we will
create a page savannah.gnu.org/FOO/index.html which says, as text,

   The FOO package is not a GNU package, but it is hosted by the Free
   Software Foundation.  To avoid confusion about its status, the FOO
   package is now accessed through free-software.fsf.org and not
   through savannah.gnu.org.

with "through free-software.fsf.org" being a link to the new location.

It is important to use a page like this, not a redirection.  We want
users to see that the old name is not right; we want them to update
their links.

This will be easy to implement and will make the situation clear to
the users.  So we shall not get distracted reconsidering the strategy
that we have chosen.  Please go ahead and implement this ASAP.