I have to comment a few things here, because there's been a lot of nonsense in this thread.
But first, some information for people who wouldn't be aware of how things were in the past:
- XOOPS has never been made in a way I'd accept to call collective: Onokazu has always been almost alone
- People who have tried to work with him have left because of "human incompatibilities". If you look at the XOOPS source code, you'll see names you might not really know: buennagel, w4z004, mvandam...
Everybody, with no exception, left because they thought working with him was impossible
- He always used to work privately, to release almost finished works.
Mithrandir's XOOPS 2.1.0 is the really first early release in Xoops' history.
Now about the SF thread that has been quoted, and comments made to it:
- I don't think getting mad is incompatible with being an open-source developer. If I had to use a single word to describe what I believe being an OS dev means I'd use the word
teacher, not
hippy.
- If you read carefully, you'll see the real subject of this conflict was not security against anything. Saying we are not concerned about security is completely wrong (some research will show you I've adressed the two security warnings we had in less than 48hrs, each time)
- The difference of POV we had there is the one we have in general: it's a question of methodology. As I said it was not security against something, it was straight orders against explanations and communication ! Onokazu was adding a very restrictive function, I just tried to ask
why, and had nothing more in return that "because he said so".
-
The answer we were expecting was very simple. And the token system this thread was about has been implemented in Xoops, just after gijoe's post. Actually I have problems reading we're not concerned about security, considering the fact this patch has never been released to the japanese community which is still forced to use the highly vulnerable 2.0.9.2 version.
- This is not a cultural problem.
This is not the result of some kind of anti-japanese feeling as I've read it on the japanese site. This issue is purely between individuals. gijoe has shown me once again that when you want to collaborate, language or culture is not such an issue. During the last year, I've talked to several members of the jp community (domifara, gijoe, tom_g3x...) who have real difficulties to express themselves in english. And we managed it. In fact I'd say I've managed to
communicate more with those 3 people than I never could with onokazu, who I have only barely
spoken to.
So, to people complaining about our way to work: what do you people propose to enhance things ? What do you think is wrong ?
The next major version of XOOPS will be redone from scratch, partly because we believe open-source
is a design (that means that a program that has not been designed to be made collectively, cannot be easily enhanced / developed collectively. And this was the most important problem we had to face when taking on the XOOPS code) and because we wanted to change the actual situation. The final version is planned for the end of the year. However, the development roadmap will be published
next week, and the first
alpha release is expected before the end of the month (which means it will be a very early release, made more than 6 months before the final version). This will also be the first version of XOOPS released with a full technical documentation. As soon as possible, we'll do everything we can to make people participate / take care of specific parts, but it was not possible before (as I say in the roadmap: people cannot collaborate if they have nothing to work on... So at least the earliest works had to be done by a single person).
Considering how long this will take, we decided to release XOOPS 2.2 (and maybe 2.4) with only one objective: the next 2.x releases will be done to ensure community provided patches are added to the core, to show people we care about what they are doing. The 2.x branch is not frozen: everybody coming to us with patches or work will be heard.
So: what else do you want ? But please, tell us what you would like, not only what you dislike. We're trying our best, but it is not an easy task, and complaining is much easier than trying to find solutions.
Not so long ago, I and Mithrandir were no more than anybody participating in this thread: XOOPS users. We tried to help and give some of our time to Xoops. This is how we became "Xoops team members". If you want to do the same, then you're more than welcome. If the only thing you're able to do is criticize, then you can download "Mambo open-source", nobody is going to miss you here.
Actually, you don't imagine how happy this would make us to have someone else to work with. Mith and I are both complaining because we feel alone, because we'd prefer having somebody close to us. But nobody comes...
People are spitting on us, but not a single one is really helping us do all that work our community is expecting.
Somebody who tried to help or find solutions has the right to complain if he is not heard. People who never gave anything do not.
skalpa.>