Built-in directory services are evil

As you all know from the whitepaper and http://www.psyc.eu/synconf PSYC tries to be free from built-in directory services. It has been a scalability show-stopper for IRC and may not necessarily make a better impression in XMPP's pull discovery approach. Depending on such solutions may just backfire at a later time. Instead, external technologies like the web (pages like Newsfeeds to be found by search engines etc) and the mere proliferation of the uniform in e-mail signatures and elsewhere serve this purpose.

psyced actually supports several XMPP disco protocols, and maps them to equivalent PSYC methods (out of the bare necessity of internal routing to the root entity which answers such requests, but has no clue about XMPP even existing). So you can do it the Jabber way if you think that approach is valid.

We also have this idea of a DNS-based discovery described below, but its deployment is disputed among developers for its oligarchic nature, so you may not even want to read about it.

Well-Known Resources for PSYC

I have installed a DNS tree according to my 1994 plan for well-known resources in the PSYC network (http://www.psyc.eu/94/dns.html). This allows for commands like "/join linux" to connect you to *the* standard linux place on the PSYC network no matter on which server it resides. Since we don't have clickable PSYC urls in web browsers yet, this is a parallel step into making PSYC networks easier to use. Current usage, unlike in the 94 draft, goes like this:

Finding a Server close to You

A strategy that has been used by IRC networks etc. If you really just want any public server and don't care about all the implications, here's a way to go about it: Ask <countrycode>.server.psyc.eu for a server willing to host you. Example: psyc://us.server.psyc.eu

Looking up Gateways for Protocol Schemes

A new gateway to an until now undefined protocol name is available? Your PSYC software will be able to use it rightaway by looking up <scheme>.scheme.psyc.eu and asking that server to gateway the messages. Example: Any PSYC software is able to deliver a message by e-mail simply by talking to mailto:user@host, even if it doesn't implement SMTP (the e-mail protocol) itself.

Well-Known Services

Ask <service>.service.psyc.eu for a server willing to fulfil a service. A good example is finding the root of a newscasting service. /enter psyc://indymedia.service.psyc.eu/@indymedia takes you there.

Well-Known Places and People

are probably a lesser good idea, but I have set them up just in case. Ask <name>.place.psyc.eu to enter a well-known place. Check <name>.person.psyc.eu to contact a well-known person.

Test Installations

Give the productive servers a break. When testing and debugging please insert the subdomain "test" in front of "psyc.eu" thus using de.server.test.psyc.eu when looking for a german test server (example) to play around with. Thank you!

psyc.eu

Friends will remember, they had already set up the secondaries around 1997, when somebody else grabbed the domain names psyc.net and psyc.org. Until we have one of them back, we will use psyc.eu.

One way or the other, every piece of PSYC software should have the option to change the directory suffix from "psyc.eu" into anything you prefer, thus allowing you to set up your own.