GotDotNet, SourceForge, and Other Ramblings

I really like SourceForge much better than GotDotNet Workspaces.  Why?  As an end-user SourceForge always works, and works fast.  On the other hand, GotDotNet Workspaces have a history of not working, or being too slow to be acceptable.  That said, they do seem to be getting better lately, but they still aren't quite there yet at times.  Anyhow, I already posted recently about my first experiences with SourceForge from the contributor perspective, and while it wasn't "easy" I can totally say that it was reliable.  So now I put my latest on GotDotNet -- and to be fair I should share my experiences again.  By the way, why did I switch?  Simply because SourceForge rejected my proposal and for no other reason since I still think they are the far better choice.  They didn't really specify why they rejected my proposal -- it was just a generic message that said it could have been anything from lack of sufficient details to not being a needed project.

So, back to GotDotNet.  First, I tried several times over 2 days to create my GotDotNet Workspace, but it kept erring out.  Note that it never once gave a reason for the error, and sometimes it was quick so I know it wasn't just a timeout.  Also, when it finally did create my Workspace it was with input no different than the other times!  Next I added all my files -- and SourceForge is much better here with Tortoise and CVS.  Why?  Well I've never been able to contribute to a GotDotNet Workspace with anything other than their simple Html file upload -- and that sucks since you have to do one file at a time.  I think the problem has something to do with their integration with Passport -- more on that in a second.  Finally, I made my first release and everything was fine -- at least for part of a day/night.  Then today I checked before making my announcement and my release was gone, with no history of it ever occurring.  So I made another release, only to find that much later today I now had 2 releases since the other came back mysteriously.  I have removed the first one, of course I'm still crossing my fingers that the other doesn't disappear now.  :)  Another annoyance with GotDotNet is that even with the url alias they allow you to set up, you still end up at a cryptic url with a guid everytime, and the level of services in no way matches up with SourceForge.

Finally, while mentioning Passport earlier, it reminded me how much Passport stinks on some occasions.  I think my main problem is that I have 2 Passports -- one for my older pre-WilsonDotNet days, and then my newer one associated with WilsonDotNet.  So some things, like GotDotNet, have my older passport, and this means that everytime I go to these sites they have no idea who I am.  Instead I have to signout of Passport, and then sign back in with my older passport, but since my new one is the default this only seems to half work.  There should be some way to merge Passports together so that you can avoid these issues (and maybe there is and I haven't seen it).  Anyhow, its never really caught on as Microsoft hoped, and its always more annoying than any other system -- so they should really give up on it!