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Fyi, I would like to point out, this has nothing to do with which rank I am and having a dummy spitting contest. Truth be told, I never asked to be made a Xoops Core Developer, I was asked if I would come back to Xoops and continue on my work that is started with Zarilia/Xoosla and I said yes, why? Because I thought I could make a difference.
So, what is the definition of a fool? Someone who does the same thing over and over expecting different results, and right now, the way Xoops is managed, and the way it is perceived to the rest of the world, Xoops must be showing its true colours again. What a shame.
How many times must we go do the same thing, before it actually sinks in how bad things are? The ranks, what the real underling problems are and we keep doing the same things over and over and look where we are, back to the root of square one again.
Let’s look at the problems and see why we are no further forward than we were 6 years ago and then you Xoopsers decide what really matters and if it is just the sake of a few stupid ranks.
When this project first started there was Ono in sole leader developer, with a few people helping him out and that was fine while the project was in its infancy, but the project had grown, it was apparent that more developers were required to help out. At the time I suggested Skalpa to Ono, and I believed that these two developers could work together and this could only benefit Xoops. This was not the case and it wasn't long before Ono was forced to leave and Skalpa then assumed lead developer role. XOOPS Cube was born.
Let’s look at parallel development, and why it doesn't work for projects such as Xoops and in Open source and this case in general, it should still be fresh in every Xoops user’s memory.
We have done the exact same thing before, and it cost this project many years of development downtime, compatibility problems and split development resources. I advised against doing this back then, and I advice you against doing the exact same thing again. It DOESN'T work and it will come back to haunt us again in the future.
Xoops 2.18 and 2.2 were a disaster for Xoops, it caused so many problems and it did for a long time. When people did ask for a merger, these where largely ignored because version 3 was just around the corner. We all know how that worked out. Don't get me wrong, a lot of Miths work was incredible and if He and Skalpa worked had together on version 3, then maybe things would have been different today.
Again, so many broken promises, so many fundamental working practises gone ignored and the Xoops Community suffered in the due process and not a single element was learnt from this and used as a measure of prevention.
Xoops Version 3 was promised to the Xoops community in 2003, and they waited another 3 years before it came apparent that Skalpa couldn't finish what he started, either due to ill health, work commitments, moving how, no internet connection or lack of general time and then left us with just a mere starting point he called Xoops Sphere.
As for Xoops 2.18 and Xoops 2.2, It took approximately three years to get those two versions back into one build and so much time wasted doing so in the process and this could have been easily avoided if the proper precautions were taking in the first place.
Did we learn from that lesson, in all honesty no we didn’t. Not just once, but twice and by the same people who are currently running the project and that is staggering.
DJ assumed the leader developer role from Skalpa, did anything change? Unfortunately, no it didn’t and in fact, amazingly, DJ promptly continued in the same vain as his predecessor. He declared he would work on Version 3, while working on the 2.18 and 2.2 builds and against the concerns of the Xoops module developers and community. When a lot of the prominent Xoops module developers, theme designers offered to help and give their services, this was largely ignored or plain told their help wasn't needed. This came to a head and the result was ????? (Am I still allowed to mention this CMS here) and yet again, another fork of Xoops.
(Edit: Apparently the word I m p r e s s C M S is still censored from Xoops, how childish)
Why did this happen? Through failure to understand the needs of the Xoops Development Community, the ability to open and sustain diplomatic dialog, and the ability see issues before they happen and deal with them accordingly. If this had happened, then maybe there would not have been a split in the first place. Instead, we saw the biggest stain on the Xoops history ever. Oh yeah, what was your way of dealing with people unhappiness, unease at the way Xoops was being run and the general lack of co-operation from the core? Yup, you created the Xoops council, you then went about censoring them, deleting and altering their posts and then finally banned them, then like lord of the land you stated than from this day forward, anyone associated or mentioning them shall be excommunicated from Xoops. Very professional indeed.
Two years later, and still the promises of Xoops version 3, and yet still no sign of this Holy Grail or anything else for that matter. So now we have the same old reasons, through work commitments, job losses, and changes of addresses, family life and many other private personal problems that DJ is going through in his life, means Xoops version 3 is put on the back burner and still the community are still waiting.
The only major achievement is the mergers of 2.18 and 2.2 and this would be known as version 2.30. So you see, in 5 to 6 years we have managed the sum of screwing this up badly to fixing them and still no version 3 and about to do the same sum of screwing things up again.
So last year, you announce to the Xoops community that three major forks would be rejoining Xoops and that most of the prominent features would be merged into Xoops in the future and we are led to believe that Eduardo, Alfred and I would actually be working alongside DJ for the future of Xoops. Nope, that wasn't the case.
Eduardo, did the theme (only because he entered it into the theme competition and won) and was then asked to redo the whole Xoops website and if you remember a conversion we had on this subject, I suggested that maybe you could ask Eduardo to redo the Xoops theme, and you said no, 6 months later and he does it anyway. What a waste of time.
I think Alfred started integrating some of his features and stopped for some reason and maybe went back to Simple Xoops or is developing CBS forum, but all I know is he isn’t working on Xoops either.
I started the blue move, was working on the new repository module, was asked to kick start the dev.xoops org site and was to lead the 2.3 branch. I took on all these roles against advisement, from my family and friends and my health gave way. Also, regarding the dev.xoops.org site. You asked me to look at the coding for the Xoopsforge modules and my advice to you was that they were not safe to use, and could potentially be a securing threat and the coding was so out of date that it wasn’t worth fixing. You choose to ignore my advice and basically ordered me to use it.
During this period, where none of us three were asked to participate in the actual development of Xoops Version 3, and when I quizzed DJ regarding this matter, it became very clear that he was not being forthright about what he was doing or what he was going to do. I asked him if it were possible to see version 3 and his first answer 'No it wasn't ready'. I also asked why Xoops version 3 was not being developed openly and the branch was in CVS or SVN, I never got an answer.
It was only because I pushed them both regarding this matter, the truth was told. His vision of Xoops version 3 was just a modified version of Skapla's Xoops sphere and nothing more. Totally shocking to say the least and totally not what I had expected from him and should have been the starting point for a new direction in the development of Xoops version 3.
This to me should have been the ideal opportunity for all the Xoops developers to actually get together, work out what was wrong with Xoops, look at the requests from the Xoops community (Not for the first time) and create a working roadmap and work together on creating Version 3 through team work.
Did this happen, No it did not! Instead, DJ crawled back into the dark corners of Xoops to create the Holy Grail and work on the development alone and all I got from you Mamba in private discussion was that our Developer Ego's where getting in the way and that we should put them aside and work together. How could we even try to work as a team when the lead developer refuses to acknowledge we are even there?
How so out of touch you are, you were the one that asked us to come back to Xoops, you were the one that made the promises to us and never kept them. It wasn't our job to try and keep the core development going, create teams and a host of other things. The real underlying fact is this; this responsibility lies at the feet of DJ and Mamba and their failings to understand what is required.
The Qualities of a Good Team Leader:
1. Trust & Respect,
2. Ability To Inspire,
3. Confidence & Reassurance,
4. Identifying & Communicating Goals,
5. Knowing Your Team Members Inside Out,
6. Consistency,
7. Accept Criticism & Encourage Ideas & Input
So far, we have been shown little of this and it is dishearten to all of us developers who just want to ‘muck in, help and be a part of a working team’
So what is happening here right now? Not a lot. We have 4 different versions of Xoops being developed *YES 4* who are we Microsoft?? Come on how many different versions do we need to be working on? We now have 2.44. 2.50. 2.60 And 3.0. Are any of these coordinated from the same roadmap? No, each branch is developed from different people, with their own agenda and development thought. And, what is more worrying, we all have had no assurances that the work would be merged into version 3 or if anything from them will be used. (I was told from DJ himself that this wouldn’t happen, his reasoning was that most of these features were already part of version 3, nice for motivation huh)
Now really, answer this question? Is the Xoops Council oblivious to what is going on around them that they cannot understand why none of developers want to work on Xoops? Why we keep stating we want to work as a team and have many ideas to contribute to Xoops? Trabis, Eduardo, Alfred, FurMuss, Kris, Myself and load more developers or is it going to have to come down to what happened 3 years ago and another big split in Xoops? Because, this is a possibility.
Ask yourself this, whose ego is getting in the way of Xoops development and actually hindering the development process. I think you maybe need to be pointing the finger elsewhere.
Oh as for your list of achievements, am I the only one that finds that list rather sad? From what I have seen, all the biggest changes and achievements over the last three years have come from out-with the core development and from mostly individuals. (With the exception of the work that Trabis and Wishcraft have done and trying to keep the momentum going)
Really, just look at Joomla and see what can happen through team work, they have managed to start Joomla, the re-factor the code from scratch and are now in the process of another big update.
Shame you brought most of the big developers and didn't use them, that surely should be laid at your feet not ours.
As to regards of being professional, maybe you Mamba should actually look at that and understand what that means. You talk of being professional, polite and adhering to the Xoops etiquette. Yet, if you were as professional in your work as you would suggest to others, then this thread would never have raised its head or even been from the first post to continue and the discussion taken to a more private part of Xoops. Or, was it merely left in place to score brownie points just in the same way that you decided to sue Herko?
Ironically, that didn’t half back fire and who will be left picking up the court fees on that one? And again, if it is not about scoring brownie points, why it that damn stupid petition still left up?
And again as I asked you in private message, please remove the Xoops developer from my rank status and deal with this situation properly and professionally with all us developers and talk to us with the proper communication and dialog in a professional and proper manner and not like a two bit cowboy operation.
Sorry for the long post on this matter
John
