MacSurf — a real NetSurf-based browser for Mac OS 9 (CSS3, ES5 JS, native HTTPS)

[Jubadub]

I'm not misunderstanding anything. You're referring to a Discord discussion nobody here knows about, and I'm kindly asking you to keep things cool.

Yes, you are: I did not even know there was a Discord discussion until it was revealed just now, here on this thread, and not any earlier. I don't even use Discord in general (at least as far as the Garden's Discord goes). So how could I have been referring to it? Please read more carefully, especially considering your moderator position.

It sounds like you just skimmed through the posts. I believe we have already finished the whole discussion before your intervention, as well.

 

[defor]

Because I rarely look at things like this, I'll make a few points (because who doesnt want another cook in the kitchen right?):

1. @Jubadub and @ptricky, from what I'm seeing, it sounds like you guys are hashing out the misunderstanding that led to the earlier posts/reports, and I'm happy to see that!
2. @Jubadub, I don't mean to speak for Byrd here, but I think the comment was reasonable, as we don't want to encourage a practice of discussing things happening in other forums, as it can set a precedent we don't really want to promote on the mla.
3. @Jubadub I do agree with your sentiment, that the reason you posted this was because this thread is about the project, and strange things were happening elsewhere, but I (personally) think the better approach would have been to post a "Hey ptricky, what's happening with all your posts in the Garden disappearing, it's looking really strange, especially with all the odd commits" or something (I'm not gonna put words in your mouth), but perhaps doing something like that here instead of just screenshotting your concern posts over there into a thread here, would be better, and would have led to less of a banter back and forth on all this.
4. @ptricky this is a neat concept, to port a more modern lightweight browser to classic macos, and I can see a lot of utility to it, so congrats on the attention and support you've been getting, I do hope you can keep it parallel to the official NetSurf project as it evolves over time to address security changes and support new standards as well!

 

[defor]

My PERSONAL (not admin/mod) take on this project - yeah I've been slow to notice it because I'm buried in my own projects a lot (Sosumi.snd):

The modern web is complex. There's a lot going on out there, and there's always threats around every corner, so securing any project like this against bad actors is hard. Doubly so as this (your port, @ptricky, not Netsurf itself) is a casual project, not a project backed by a big team or company.

My point is the same as I have for using ANY vintage software/hardware for modern tasks, don't be silly and do things like banking on here!

Otherwise, pretty neat given how much Google has singlehandedly managed to make running http sites pretty much impossible if you want ANY SEO exposure.

 

[ptricky]

Either way I love all the passion, the community here, and working on my project. I did not handle it well and that is on me. I always need to do better and I made the mistake of being selfish and thinking the project only affected me when in reality others have stood up for me and put their own time into it. I appreciate the allowance for these kinds of human conversations and a chance to do better overall.

 

[Jubadub]

@defor More cooks are always welcome if their cooking is good!

To address your points:

1. Indeed;

2. I get that, but as I tried explaining to him, this truly was only about MacSurf from the beginning, because I wanted to alert of a sudden, seemingly-inexplicable project status change, including both binary and source code, and potentially what I perceived as a security concern; I was only sounding the alarm, since logins etc. were involved in testing the project. Without any info or context, it all seemed too suspicious;

3. That's pretty much what I did (but admittedly with more emotion), as the screenshots were only of text, and the banter is what allowed the matter to be clarified and ultimately resolved. (Otherwise it still wouldn't have been.) Not all conflict is bad, some difficult conversations are necessary so that we are able to sort out problems and misunderstandings like this one. Also, there is a big reason I chose screenshots over just, say, linking to that thread: it is because, at that time, I didn't know if my account got compromised, because if so, my posts could have been deleted, so the screenshot route was taken as a preventative measure to retaining the alarm.

Well, that's it in a nutshell. Nonetheless, I'm glad now we have all the info, and this was all sorted out. I hope MacSurf can resume progress eventually in a normal fashion like before.

MacSurf is definitely being currently very helpful at closing gaps left behind by WaMCom Mozilla 1.3.1 (and its successors like Classilla). I think no one expects to do reliable netbanking here, though, so no problems there. It definitely would be "the final step" only, if ever, and would require the most scrutiny before deemed fit for such a purpose.