What happened to Ares?
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He went MIA a while back, lol
Ares2 officially stepped down as lead author in June, citing real life issues that left him little time to work on the project; while he retains commit rights to the EasyList repository and continues to provide hosting for the subscriptions, he seldom visits the forums.
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That's sad to hear. In any case, thanks for stepping up and keeping Easylist alive Michael.
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And Michael, nothing against Ares2, he never was as involved or hands on as you have been. I don't mean to disrespect Ares2 at all, I think he had lots of other things going on and was just not able to be on top of things like you have been. I think you are doing a great job so far. Fact it kind of reminds me of the creator himself. He was VERY hands on. Edit: and respectful to people.. like you have been.
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Maybe I've been away for too many years, but I don't recognize that picture. Ares is extremely competent from what I could tell, at least as much as Rick was.IceDogg wrote:not able to be on top of things
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As I'm the topic of this conversation, I thought I might as well join you. 
Just some things for clarification:
I indeed wasn't very active the weeks before the topic Hubird links to was created, and I still regret that. Obviously I should have handled it differently i.e. I should not have waited for someone else to push me into the multiple maintainers thing when at the same time I wasn't even able to keep up with the forum topics (I always thought I would get on track again at a later time). Same goes for when I stopped working on EasyList completely. I should probably have passed the lead a lot earlier and when it happened I should at least have stayed a little bit longer for the transition to be smooth (sort out some organisational questions etc.). Hell, I didn't even post a status update here (iirc?), Wladimir's blog was the only official statement afaik. There might be other similar things I've handled far less than perfect in terms of organisation, but those are probably the most severe ones.
Then again, those have always been the things I didn't care about, hence never was good at. What really makes me sad is that there were and still are so many things that can be done to improve EasyList and make it more suitable for different use cases. For example the categorized sections which seem to have proven to be a good concept (looking at other lists who adopted them
) have so much potential in terms of graduated adblocking, but they still need a lot of work to be usable. And strict rules in terms of how to handle adding new rules and modifying existing ones - which is one of those things I really cared about the most, some kind of quality assurance. In the short time after Michael and Erunno joined and before I ...vanished, I spent most of the time looking through their additions trying to enforce the basic rules we had (have?) and also thinking about better rules to manage the sections etc. I realize that users don't really care whether you block *fooaserver.* or ||fooaserver.com^$third-party : They will even wonder why ||fooaserver.net^$third-party ||fooaserver.com^$third-party ||fooaserver.net^ ||2-fooaserver.com^$third-party aren't replaced by *fooaserver.*. In this example you might even be able to give an undestandable explanation, but there are other situations where even a list authors "instincts" might suggest the easier solution over the more consequent. That's OK of course as long as it doesn't cause any problems, but in my opinion that's just not how it "should be", it should be more than just fixing reported things with an "as long as it works" kind of attitude when something is meant to improve over time. That said setting such "ambitious" goals when already having limited time was probably stupid - I could have probably achieved more in the past by simply working off some forum topics instead of losing myself in unobtainable ideals.
Argh, talking about this already makes me want to do something again, and I really don't know whether I should or not. All I know is that I can't just "add some filters, fix some problems when I have time", I want to do "bigger" things and that takes time I really should spend elsewhere. Anyway I did at least experiment with some load-balancing for the EasyList mirror today, that counts as contribution, right?
Summary: Paragraph 1: Shallow excuse that isn't even one , p2: Nobody cares, provide results or gtfo, p3: That's not gonna help you...
Just some things for clarification:
I indeed wasn't very active the weeks before the topic Hubird links to was created, and I still regret that. Obviously I should have handled it differently i.e. I should not have waited for someone else to push me into the multiple maintainers thing when at the same time I wasn't even able to keep up with the forum topics (I always thought I would get on track again at a later time). Same goes for when I stopped working on EasyList completely. I should probably have passed the lead a lot earlier and when it happened I should at least have stayed a little bit longer for the transition to be smooth (sort out some organisational questions etc.). Hell, I didn't even post a status update here (iirc?), Wladimir's blog was the only official statement afaik. There might be other similar things I've handled far less than perfect in terms of organisation, but those are probably the most severe ones.
Then again, those have always been the things I didn't care about, hence never was good at. What really makes me sad is that there were and still are so many things that can be done to improve EasyList and make it more suitable for different use cases. For example the categorized sections which seem to have proven to be a good concept (looking at other lists who adopted them
) have so much potential in terms of graduated adblocking, but they still need a lot of work to be usable. And strict rules in terms of how to handle adding new rules and modifying existing ones - which is one of those things I really cared about the most, some kind of quality assurance. In the short time after Michael and Erunno joined and before I ...vanished, I spent most of the time looking through their additions trying to enforce the basic rules we had (have?) and also thinking about better rules to manage the sections etc. I realize that users don't really care whether you block *fooaserver.* or ||fooaserver.com^$third-party : They will even wonder why ||fooaserver.net^$third-party ||fooaserver.com^$third-party ||fooaserver.net^ ||2-fooaserver.com^$third-party aren't replaced by *fooaserver.*. In this example you might even be able to give an undestandable explanation, but there are other situations where even a list authors "instincts" might suggest the easier solution over the more consequent. That's OK of course as long as it doesn't cause any problems, but in my opinion that's just not how it "should be", it should be more than just fixing reported things with an "as long as it works" kind of attitude when something is meant to improve over time. That said setting such "ambitious" goals when already having limited time was probably stupid - I could have probably achieved more in the past by simply working off some forum topics instead of losing myself in unobtainable ideals.Argh, talking about this already makes me want to do something again, and I really don't know whether I should or not. All I know is that I can't just "add some filters, fix some problems when I have time", I want to do "bigger" things and that takes time I really should spend elsewhere. Anyway I did at least experiment with some load-balancing for the EasyList mirror today, that counts as contribution, right?
Summary: Paragraph 1: Shallow excuse that isn't even one , p2: Nobody cares, provide results or gtfo, p3: That's not gonna help you...
Ares2 and others, I hope you didn't take that wrong. I didn't mean you didn't work your hind end off. Mostly I was thinking more about replying to post in the forums. I know you worked your tail off on the filterset itself. I was talking almost entirely about forums and keeping in touch with people here. And no offense at all was meant. I'm not very smart about the filterset work itself, so I can't comment how well it was done. I can comment on how well it worked and your work did the job. Again I'm sorry if it was taken as if I thought you didn't do your job, NOT AT ALL what I meant. And I was giving Michael encouragement and complements for his work. And Ares2 did have MIA times.. no one can argue that without lying. I'm sure he had great reasons for it and again not meant as an insult. I've had personal things in my life happen that I couldn't even do simple forum modding as well as I should, so believe me I understand. And thanks Ares2 for all you did and I'm sure will continue to do when you can. No offense was meant my friend.
None taken. But I had to state my point of view on the "involved", because in my opinion I was very involved most of the time when looking at the EasyList project as a whole (my opinion feel free to have a different oneIceDogg wrote:No offense was meant my friend.
). But I agree with you that the forums never were my top priority and I'm nowhere near as good as Rick in terms of "building a community" or the interaction with other people here in general.
That's another thing to clarify: nothing bad happened that stopped me from being here (and I'm very thankful for that). Although it would make a better excuse, it would simply be a lie. I do have free-time to help, but there are other things I feel are more important to spend it on. It's just that I don't have enough time for all of them any more like I used to have when I started.IceDogg wrote:I'm sure he had great reasons for it and again not meant as an insult. I've had personal things in my life happen that I couldn't even do simple forum modding as well as I should, so believe me I understand. And thanks Ares2 for all you did and I'm sure will continue to do when you can. No offense was meant my friend.
I'm glad Ares2 that I didn't offend you because I have a great deal of respect for you. And I understand about priorities in life. Fact I wish I had your control to do the more important things. I'm glad to hear nothing bad was in the way. And I understand. And the forums was all I could tell how your involvement was. I'm not smart enough to know how much time and research or whatever it takes to make one filter over another. Wish I did know more about all the skills needed to do that, because then I would help more myself. Not that the job isn't being done great now and for when you was doing it too. I just couldn't have told how much time you spent on it..all I could tell was how much you was on the forums.. that was it. And I feel great that you have posted here because I had worried about you. I thought things were bad for you for some reason. You have a great day and keep up the good work by doing the most important things.
I don't have that much control either, that's the problem.IceDogg wrote:And I understand about priorities in life. Fact I wish I had your control to do the more important things.
Ideally I would just spend an hour a day during the week and some more on the weekend on EasyList and the rest on other things (win-win). But that never worked so my "workaround" was to not come here at all. It definitely improved my life in the other aspects 
, but I wish I wouldn't have to choose one over the other.BTW: You are always so polite/caring (to everyone) that I don't know how to answer appropriately.
Thanks for that Ares2. I think you have done great. Some would have taken great offense and attacked me like crazy. I really think even more of you now for knowing that I meant nothing negative toward you and clearing things up without making it a personal attack on me. Thanks. My hats off to you my friend.
Edit: And I still think you did great control and keeping this in proper order for you. I know you would have liked it to have been different, as would I, but you did it great in doing things in order you needed to. Man, I think in life me and you could be close friends. I've been around way to many that get offended so easy and I'm not the best at wording things the way I mean them..lol as you can tell. Someone like you gets great respect from me. I wish I could tell you more of how your handling of this makes me feel. To many forums out there that go all out war over misunderstanding or stupidity. LOL both on my part. Fact I'm honored you treated me this way. Wladimir did this for me once in the early days of him making ABP and I hold him up high on my respect for people online. I'd do almost whatever he ask of me for treating me greatly. Sorry to go on and sound so emotional, but I really am honored.
Edit: And I still think you did great control and keeping this in proper order for you. I know you would have liked it to have been different, as would I, but you did it great in doing things in order you needed to. Man, I think in life me and you could be close friends. I've been around way to many that get offended so easy and I'm not the best at wording things the way I mean them..lol as you can tell. Someone like you gets great respect from me. I wish I could tell you more of how your handling of this makes me feel. To many forums out there that go all out war over misunderstanding or stupidity. LOL both on my part. Fact I'm honored you treated me this way. Wladimir did this for me once in the early days of him making ABP and I hold him up high on my respect for people online. I'd do almost whatever he ask of me for treating me greatly. Sorry to go on and sound so emotional, but I really am honored.