[PROJ] Motion: Migrate proj.org to ReadTheDocs

[Howard Butler]

> On Feb 4, 2023, at 8:49 AM, Greg Troxel <gdt at lexort.com> wrote:
> 
> I'm not PSC so I know I don't get to vote, but:
> 
> I am unclear on if this means we are relying on non-Free software, vs
> something osgeo could host entirely with Free software and is just going
> to pay for service.  If it involves non-Free software I am -1.

The service infrastructure of RTD is not completely open source, but quite a bit of it is. Most of its CPU and network is donated. See https://readthedocs.org/sustainability/ for details.

> I am -1 on any ads appearing, even for a brief time, on anything pointed
> to officially (vs a staging/proof-of-concept server).  Ads are one
> thing, but presumably these are targeted ads that are privacy invasive.
> I am guessing this is in the US and hence no rules but it strikes me as
> bad practice for osgeo to operate/condone anything that isn't also GDPR
> compliant.  Same thing for google analytics (or anything that leads to
> data being captured by a company that engages in invasive advertising).

I think people might not realize how much positive impact RTD has had on open source documentation infrastructure. PROJ was using an adaptation of the RTD theme when I first released the Sphinx-based docs. A very large number of open source projects leverage it to provide document generation and hosting. There's a safety-in-numbers aspect to RTD as well as the fact that it works very well in comparison to running your own thing. That consumes contributor effort and doesn't benefit from a larger audience having shared experience with RTD as opposed to individual custom setups like we have with PROJ. I totally get that this is the same argument for GitHub, and people have just as big a problem with that too...

As far as ads go, does your ad blocker not work for some reason? :) We can wait to move the DNS until OSGeo completes the purchase to allow us to shut off the ads.

Howard