I'm fairly new to XOOPS and I think it's amazing that this is all free. I'm just wondering how many developers there are and if they are getting paid to do this. Do they get contributions from the paypal stuff on the side or does that even cover the cost of the hosting? And who are they anyways? Are these just good people who do this after work for free or what? I'm just curious.

The open source spirit XOOPS is famous for doesn't just mean it is free, but that it is built for everyone, by everyone. The developers contribute their time and skills to the project for free and without any strings. This doesn't mean they don't get paid for development, but not by the main project. And they are many. Anyone can change the code and improve and extend it, and submit the changes to to xoops.org project developers -who work for the xoops.org project (as well), for free.

The main developers are Onokazu, who created most of the system, Skalpa, who is slaving away to make the next step in the XOOPS evolution, Mithrandir who leads the module development community and has made many a bugfix, and a host of others who have worked one time or other on the code, or written modules, created themes, written documentation and provided support for thousands of users.

All in all a wonderful, amazing open community of people each doing a little (or a lot!) for a common cause: to make XOOPS even better!

Herko
Proud XOOPS.org project manager

Thanks for the quick reply! You guys are great! Maybe when I have some time I can work on some modules that don't exsist yet. Well maybe I'm being too ambitious. Some day I will though.

Don't undersell yourself gordy, the ratio of people just trying to do their bit to that of actual professional developers in the XOOPS community would easily be 100:1. Not everything is coding. There are translations to be done, documentation, testing, community support, and host of other things that require very little, or even no knowledge of coding at all.

My scripting background is limited to batch scripting is windows, but with that I am atleast able to follow what PHP is doing, even if I don't fully understand the construct. Stick around and you'll be suprised hat you learn .

Everyone has there own way of making a difference. Some donate money. Others write doc. Some make themes. and yet others develop modules. I am trying to help in my own little way by doing a couple of things.

1> I have my pet project, which I hammer on now and then between paying jobs. I am not a great PHP programmer.

2> I have outsourced a module (hopefully more if this works out) development to a much superior developer. (Mithrandir)

3> I have made a couple of themes that I will be releasing this week.

I could have done the outsourced development in Lotus Domino myself, but would like to see the module available to the XOOPS community. It ain't much, but it is what I can do to make XOOPS better.

I too am amazed at the quality of XOOPS and the dedication of the core group of devs. Great work!!!

JMass