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Several public and private discusssions we had lately with some of the most respectable members of our community made us think twice about our own behaviors and methods. Despite the best intentions, we had to recognize something was wrong, that we had to take action.
When we took over XOOPS development, this program was done by one single person. And today, in fact, nothing has changed. Mithrandir has taken the lead of the 2.x branch development to allow me to focus my efforts on the next major release of the core. But still, he works on his branch alone, as much as I do on mine.
I have to admit my expectations to see the XOOPS development process evolve naturally in the good direction were overly naive. I still believe open-source development can happen fluently, with people contributing regularly becoming members, taking the work of others whithout any more time to give to the project. But a program made by a single person cannot benefit from this dynamic: for this to work we need a team, from the very beginning.
As a result, I recently heard complains from developers saying their work were not taken into consideration, while actually the main purpose of XOOPS 2.2 is to incorporate as many community provided features and patches as possible. And when I asked Mithrandir about the reason of this, he answered me something I can only understand: "I don't have enough time to add all the patches by myself".
This is ridiculous ! On one side people who have shown us their value in the past are ready to help us, and on the other side we, who desesperately need such people, are already so submerged by tasks that we look like we're neglecting them.
I can only feel guilty for this. I know that, for the things to change, we have to be the ones who take action, not them. And I believe that, if we had to wait for these people to show us their frustation before acting, we made a fault. We should have been able to see this before, but haven't.
Showing our gratitude is really important for the success of such a project, and frustration what we have to avoid by all means. Therefore if feel I have to publicly apologize to these people, as much as I have to try to change this situation.
So, after talking to Mith, we decided to ask the following people to officially join the core development team, so they can help us build and enhance XOOPS more effectively as today:
- hervet
- marcan
- phppp
This isn't much, but one of the only way we have to show you we recognize your value. Also if you accept, I don't think it is going to change your life so much, for the moment: being part of our official team doesn't mean you're becoming slaves who will have to listen to our orders.
The only thing we're asking you is to bring what you feel able to, so at the end our users can benefit from it. There's no real rule. As I previously said, the 2.x branch is maintained alive so we can incorporate as many patches as we can, so the features list is not limited.
There are only two things I'll ask you, because they are quite important to me:
- Talk to each others. This is nobody's one man show. If you disagree with somebody about a point, then ask a third person to join the discussion. If that didn't solve it, then ask all the team to join. Most of the times, people showing good will, who want to find solutions together, will always manage to find one.
- Think about the people coming after you. This is the only reason why I'd be able to refuse an addition to the core. As contributors to an open-source project, you'll have to realise you're not alone, that the work you do will have to be used or modified by others. A feature whose implementation cannot be understood by anyone else than you, and that will be extremely difficult to maintain is a poisonned present you do to your teammates, and to our users. This is of the greatest importance... before functionnality must come maintainability. Keep things as simple as possible, and try to document your work.
I guess I'll have to stop here, as this post is long enough already, but we can talk more about this later.
I just hope the 3 of you will answer positively. In a few weeks (days) the first Xoosphere alpha release will be made,
allowing us to start working collectively on this branch too. We will need other people then, but the transition can only happen better if we're already used to work as a team, even little, if we started to get prepared.
I trust all of you of much as I trust Jan, and really think this would be a really good team, source of many good news for everybody here.
skalpa.>
