Wedge

Public area => Off-topic => The Pub => Other software => Topic started by: Arantor on November 3rd, 2012, 12:00 AM

Title: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on November 3rd, 2012, 12:00 AM
Please can I ask everyone to refrain from doing this.

I was informed today that a thread had been started over there, and subsequently moved by the moderators, because they're afraid of proper competition - never mind the 'rules'. (You all know as well as I do that if we moved tomorrow to an open licence, nothing would change)

So, please, before the pissing contest gets any further out of hand, drop the subject. Don't get them any more ammunition to piss with. We have more important things to do than worry about them and their little sandbox.

Pragmatically, their pissing match has probably already backfired, since more people read Chit Chat than they do the Forks board, but I don't want to give them any ability to cause any more trouble than they can safely get themselves into.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on November 28th, 2012, 06:05 AM
So this is kicking off again and the licence is being examined. Yay.

Just for the record, the exclusion against vbgamer was put in place after he excluded me from using goods for which I had paid for and revoked my licence; he was apparently willing to give me a partial refund if I apologised to him for the things I'd said (though he wasn't being asked to apologise for the comments he made about me, calling me - and I quote - 'a fucking liar' except would never state what it was I'd lied about when pushed) - but since that would be yet another compromise, I wouldn't back down. I bet he didn't mention the fact that he told me I couldn't build anything based on his work - not even converters to other systems of any kind.

As for the exclusion against Akyhne, that was after a mammoth argument where he violated Aeva's licence. You can - if you wish - go through the latter half of the crap at http://arantor.org/index.php?topic=168.0

(Also, what Motoko fails to realise, yet again, that by pushing things into Chit Chat, more people see Wedge than would have otherwise. Talk about backfiring.)

Why is it every time I find the time and motivation to contribute to Wedge, something comes along and leaves a nasty sour taste in my mouth? It's been hard enough finding the time and motivation to work on it without having to deal with crap like this. As some people would remember, I'm not particularly happy writing this stuff any more, and I haven't been for months because all it's doing is making me greyer than before and leaving me feeling like I owe people. People deserve to have their faith rewarded and a lot of faith has been put in this project - and I don't want to let that down. But once I've fulfilled what I see as my obligations to this project, I'll disappear into the sunset and enjoy a less unpleasant, if quieter, life with it. I don't need this crap, but I also don't want to let people down like the way XenForo is going at the moment.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Nao on November 28th, 2012, 10:34 AM
Quote from Arantor on November 28th, 2012, 06:05 AM
So this is kicking off again and the licence is being examined. Yay.
I'm not sure there was any recent discussion on Wedge in the Chit Chat board, but I did a search and found a couple of the forks board. To which I replied.
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Just for the record, the exclusion against vbgamer was put in place after he excluded me from using goods for which I had paid for and revoked my licence; he was apparently willing to give me a partial refund if I apologised to him for the things I'd said (though he wasn't being asked to apologise for the comments he made about me, calling me - and I quote - 'a fucking liar' except would never state what it was I'd lied about when pushed) - but since that would be yet another compromise, I wouldn't back down. I bet he didn't mention the fact that he told me I couldn't build anything based on his work - not even converters to other systems of any kind.
That's why I mentioned that he's the one who's been discriminating us in the first place.
http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=446866.msg3444825#msg3444825
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As for the exclusion against Akyhne, that was after a mammoth argument where he violated Aeva's licence. You can - if you wish - go through the latter half of the crap at http://arantor.org/index.php?topic=168.0
It's a private topic though. I remember the gist of it though, so I'm not going to search for my password just for that. ;)
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(Also, what Motoko fails to realise, yet again, that by pushing things into Chit Chat, more people see Wedge than would have otherwise. Talk about backfiring.)
I'm not sure that's much of an issue...
SMF has lost a lot of its momentum, which has shifted to other non-SMF-based solutions.
At this point, it would probably even make more sense for SM to push smCore aside (because I don't think it's ever going to be able to replace SMF in any capacity), and ask us to rename Wedge to 'SMF 3.0' and be done with it.
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Why is it every time I find the time and motivation to contribute to Wedge, something comes along and leaves a nasty sour taste in my mouth?
Really? I didn't see anything new in Motoko's comments... He's always been a bit of a Wedge basher, or more precisely, a Nao basher. Which I'm fine with, because I don't like me that much anyway. :ph34r:
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It's been hard enough finding the time and motivation to work on it without having to deal with crap like this. As some people would remember, I'm not particularly happy writing this stuff any more, and I haven't been for months because all it's doing is making me greyer than before and leaving me feeling like I owe people.
Same here. Although I keep telling myself, two years of work shouldn't go to the bin, so let's release it... And see if we can find some renewed motivation after that.
A good decision we made was to feature-freeze it a few months ago, but it also makes it hard for us to find joy in developing when all we're doing is fixing bugs and trying to stop ourselves from implementing new features.

Actually, this is a common issue with developers: the best time is when you add a new feature. Having to actually FINISH said feature is often a PITA. Either because of language translations (for me), or documenting it, or simply leaving it be for a while and coming back and realizing you're not sure why you wrote this or that anymore... And then you rewrite it, and realize what it was for, and you have to go back, etc...
Really, it's not fun.
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But once I've fulfilled what I see as my obligations to this project, I'll disappear into the sunset and enjoy a less unpleasant, if quieter, life with it. I don't need this crap, but I also don't want to let people down like the way XenForo is going at the moment.
What do you see yourself doing in the future..?

I myself don't really see going into a different direction. I'm currently a bit unhappy with my work on Wedge (both current and future), but overall it's still a piece of software I'm proud of. I think that at the worst, I'll be creating custom websites based on the Wedge backbone, and have them go into different directions.
Somehow, I simply miss maintaining Noisen.com -- it was a simpler task, because I only had to account for French, and for MY tastes, and MY needs. I could easily write a feature with dirty code, when in Wedge I'm always rewriting stuff because it looks bad compared to some carefully written code like you, Shitiz, John etc. would usually write. I always push myself to doing things the 'right' way, and it leads me to considerably larger development times.
I'm proud of what we've done so far. I just miss being able to write shit for myself. ;)

My next project is probably going to be Deideo, my website about music thieves and homages turned wrong. But don't tell my girlfriend, she would kill me for even considering to build such a potentially lawsuit-inducing site. ;)
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on November 28th, 2012, 05:01 PM
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I'm not sure there was any recent discussion on Wedge in the Chit Chat board, but I did a search and found a couple of the forks board. To which I replied.
Inevitably the discussions will be moved to Chit Chat rather than being in the Forks board because Wedge doesn't meet their silly little rules. I'm sure the phase tin-pot dictator is relevant here somehow.
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It's a private topic though. I remember the gist of it though, so I'm not going to search for my password just for that. ;)
It's only private because arantor.org died months ago, but was still being hit by search engines and the like and it's simply easier to just cut access than having to worry about traffic. To be honest I'd forgotten about it until you mentioned it was private... but 16 pages of arguments, yay.
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I'm not sure that's much of an issue...
SMF has lost a lot of its momentum, which has shifted to other non-SMF-based solutions.
At this point, it would probably even make more sense for SM to push smCore aside (because I don't think it's ever going to be able to replace SMF in any capacity), and ask us to rename Wedge to 'SMF 3.0' and be done with it.
Well, smCore is all but dead anyway seeing how there's almost no life in it at all (the last public post on smcore.org was a month ago, the last commit was 2 months ago according to Github) and I'm not even sure who's developing for it any more.

But there is no chance they will adopt anything from Wedge, even if we were to change the licence because it doesn't fit in with how the team do things. Seriously... we've dropped cross-DB support, the calendar as a core item, birthdays as a core item, the ability to have theme-specific preferences for users and stuff like that, and added a bunch of things that they wouldn't be interested in (they don't want a gallery in the core because that would mean it's not just a forum!)

Not to mention all the bad blood that's arisen over the years.
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Really? I didn't see anything new in Motoko's comments... He's always been a bit of a Wedge basher, or more precisely, a Nao basher. Which I'm fine with, because I don't like me that much anyway.
He's always been a Nao and an Arantor basher, often hypocritical anyway. You might have missed the previous time that this topic came up, which prompted this topic the first time around - where much the same thing happened - "Why isn't Wedge listed here?" then Motoko complains, then it gets moved to the Chit Chat board where more people saw it than would have done in the forks board.

The thing is, there's more to this story, that's happened inside PMs across multiple forums.
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Same here. Although I keep telling myself, two years of work shouldn't go to the bin, so let's release it... And see if we can find some renewed motivation after that.
A good decision we made was to feature-freeze it a few months ago, but it also makes it hard for us to find joy in developing when all we're doing is fixing bugs and trying to stop ourselves from implementing new features.
Oh, I've never harboured any 'dumping' attitude, like the work was a waste - because it's never been a waste. I just find it so tiring to have to deal with all the stuff that goes with it.
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What do you see yourself doing in the future..?
Oh, I have a bunch of stuff bubbling away in the background, though this last week without my laptop has really dampened everything down :/ Let's just say that I have another SMF-based site in development (because of the scale of changes that have been, and yet to be, made, using Wedge was something of a non-starter - I wanted primarily to build it and deploy it and not have to worry too much about maintaining the code on it)

That and writing games.
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I'm proud of what we've done so far. I just miss being able to write shit for myself.
That's a lot of it for me too. I miss being able to do something without having to consider all the possible angles.
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My next project is probably going to be Deideo, my website about music thieves and homages turned wrong. But don't tell my girlfriend, she would kill me for even considering to build such a potentially lawsuit-inducing site.
If it's true, it won't generate lawsuits.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on November 28th, 2012, 05:48 PM
Just a casual thought: Motoko loves pointing out the rules in the forks board. No-one else seems to care or mind. Why do we think that is?
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Antes on November 28th, 2012, 06:50 PM
I think all those are unnecessary distraction for both sides, SMF is free so do Wedge then what? Everything is fine for me. I'm proud with all developers who tries to make quality works and give them free and its always pleasure to work for those projects as much as my time allows me.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: AngelinaBelle on November 28th, 2012, 08:12 PM
Well, you know how it is. It can be difficult to get an entire organization to agree on everything.
On the one hand, people want to discuss all forks, and what the entire SMF-and-its-forks community can learn from them.
On the other hand, since SMF went open-source, the organization wants to promote and encourage open source projects.

The rules on the forks board were a compromise. Certainly influenced by how the members of Simple Machines was feeling at the time.

It seems to me that Motoko was simply trying to spell things out, and make clear that nobody would be penalized for talking about talking about wedge.

The rules might seem silly, viewed from here, but the rules are the rules.  Organizations make them, and then follow them in order to get on with the business of the day.

As you can see in some of the earlier topics I started myself on that board, it is not completely prohibited to mention wedge, in the context of what the SMF community can learn from wedge.  It is a fine line, though, and the SMF team decided it did not want to allow a non-open-source fork to promote itself on that board.  I hope you can understand.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on November 28th, 2012, 08:31 PM
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It seems to me that Motoko was simply trying to spell things out, and make clear that nobody would be penalized for talking about talking about wedge.
Except that he's always the one who does it. No-one else really minded or cared, because our existence is a fact now, it's not like how it was a couple of years ago when the censure was near total.
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The rules might seem silly, viewed from here, but the rules are the rules.  Organizations make them, and then follow them in order to get on with the business of the day.
The rules are the rules is one of the greatest cop out arguments going. Every time the rule is accidentally violated, people question why this is the case - and every time it looks like SMF isn't trying to promote open source but that it's doing the opposite - trying to stifle anything that isn't. It's the same attitude Joomla et al has about the GPL, anything that isn't can go fly a kite.
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it is not completely prohibited to mention wedge, in the context of what the SMF community can learn from wedge.
Apparently it is, since even discussion of it is against the rules as stated. That point has been discussed before and even SMF team members have said to the effect that they can see the dichotomy; the rules state that the board is for discussion of open source forks. Wedge is not open source, therefore it cannot be discussed, though there is the apparent loophole of discussion for comparison - but the rules are sufficiently badly worded that you can easily argue either way.

I can understand why you (=team) block non open source discussion, but your users don't. And every time there's the complaint about how it doesn't fit the rules, it gets pushed to Chit Chat, which actually promotes Wedge better - so it's backfiring every single time.

The more you try to suppress such entities (given that we're the only fork that doesn't fit these rules, note) the more you actually promote us. Mind you, I'd note that after I was accused of libel, I decided that I didn't want anything to do with sm.org - and the only reason I'm even mentioning this is because it was brought to my attention elsewhere.

I should note that there have been some other interesting thoughts on the whole SMF/Wedge situation of recent times and this attitude - mostly like politicians, all talk and no do - is why that will never come to pass.

Consider: in the last two years, who has made more progress, SMF or Wedge? Isn't having an open licence supposed to nurture further growth? Because I'm not sure it is.

But again, the point is being missed. I'm spending more time dealing with this crap that was supposed to be over from 2 years ago when we branched off. As far as I'm concerned, I'd absolutely love there to be a fucking great brick wall between Wedge and SMF, so that all the BS and drama like this can't happen. And people wonder why I hate developing software like this, and why I've been trying to leave it all behind now for almost 3 years but I can't seem to manage it because of the fact that right now I feel too guilty to just throw my hands up in the air and walk away. I'd love to do that, because then SMF will do what it's been trying to do for the last 5 years and just quietly kill itself. Because that's where it's going.

smCore is all but dead (no public posts on the forum in over a month, no commits for two), 2.1's progress is modest but no doubt hampered by the same things that have crippled SMF and caused 2.0 to take 5 years to occur... all from all the same problems that lead to crazy situations like this.

I should also add, I never wanted to fork SMF in the first place. Back in July 2010, I NEVER WANTED TO FORK SMF because I knew this was the sort of BS that would come out of it. I knew back then how it would turn out, a fucking great mess. Everything SM's organisation touches ultimately becomes a mess.

On that note, I have things to do, catch you all later.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: nend on November 29th, 2012, 07:52 AM
You mean there is a situation, I tend to ignore these type of post because I know where it is going.

Wedge isn't open source so it can't be displayed in the Forks board, however allot of the other forks are still not open source as far as I know and only claim open source. In order to be consider open source the source has to be open and the other forks don't show any source material as far as I know and should be considered closed source until they reveal their sources.

As far as progress between SMF and Wedge goes, I don't see the point of the arguments. Wedge is currently one developer as far as I know and SMF is currently a open project which in turn can mean many developers. Doesn't mean that it means many developers, but you never know, one day that special commit may come through and change everything. I have been doing allot of Android OS work lately and collaboration makes a big difference.

IMHO both projects are in fair standing and SMF is better than what it was before and in time we will see how the open source license will either work in favor or against it. If it fails then it has sacrificed its source, its seed and we will eventually see its offspring flourish or die.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: AngelinaBelle on December 5th, 2012, 04:44 PM
"rules are rules" is hardly a cop-out.  If we stick to the rules, we don't have to discuss them endlessly, and can (hopefully) move on to other things. It does seem to be in Motoku's nature to point out and explain rules. Holding major Wedge discussions in chit-chat rather than in the Forks board seems like a compromise that is more-or-less satisfactory to everyone with a say in the rules on simplemachines.org.

The eventual success of the SMF software, community, or project is not on your shoulders.  If you quietly retired from the SMF community, it would not kill the SMF project. If you made a controversial public statement, and then retired, you could incite arguments and temporary disruption, but your actions would not kill the SMF project. 

Arantor and Nao, you started the Wedge project for several different reasons.  What were your goals then? What are they now? Which of these goals are worth pursuing in the future? Does the Wedge project bring progress towards these goals? Does it do it at an acceptable cost?   People enter and leave FLOSS projects and communities all the time for various reasons. If the product is compelling enough, there is always someone arriving interested in picking up where someone else has left off. An enduring project will have to accomodate and encourage this succession.

You may feel that the SMF project would sometimes serve itself better by making different choices than it has made.
I sometimes agree with you, and sometimes disagree with you.  I appreciate it when you test and show the results of your testing. I generally have no argument with either one of you.  I believe this to be true of many other members of the SMF project, even some members who have argued with one or the other of you in the past.

Don't stay in it out of vague "quitter's guilt" alone. Stay in it because you are working toward noble goals.  And plan to replace yourself. You are unlikely to stay in it forever, no matter how noble the goals.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on December 5th, 2012, 08:56 PM
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"rules are rules" is hardly a cop-out. If we stick to the rules, we don't have to discuss them endlessly, and can (hopefully) move on to other things.
It is a cop-out, because it means that they get pointed to, without thinking. It becomes a trite answer and nothing changes. The real question is why you actually need rules. Good men don't need rules. Today's not the day to find out why I have so many.

I acknowledge that the rules do not permit discussion of Wedge. But that doesn't mean that I like the rules, nor that I agree with them. The problem with having the rules as you defend them is that they don't permit negotiation or leeway, and allows people to hide behind them without saying what they really feel. Motoko doesn't have to, for example, actually find any real arguments to denigrate Wedge, he just has to point out the non-compliance with the rules. It's a form of passive aggression, when you get down to it. It allows SMF to pass judgement - both in itself and on behalf of its users - without having to actually admit to it.

The real question, though, is not whether the rules are wrong and/or need amendment, but do you need rules? I would direct you to your project's core values on the subject.

"We will treat others with consideration, high regard, courtesy and dignity; in a just, equitable and unbiased manner. We will demonstrate good manners, pay attention and treat others as we would like to be treated. We will be consistent, listen and be open to feedback, be careful making judgments about others, and treat people equally and equitably."

I'll admit to the good manners, for the most part. But I won't stand up and defend the project about the others.

Did you know that, for example, only a month or so ago I put Wedge in my signature - and it was removed a few days later? I'm not sure who removed it, but it was removed. That doesn't sound very courteous or unbiased to me.

In fact, over the last 3 years I've been dealing with SMF's community and ecosystem, I'd say there's a distinct lack of fairness across the board. I might even go as far as to suggest that nothing materially has changed in that time; there's a lot of changes of names, but nothing else.
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Holding major Wedge discussions in chit-chat rather than in the Forks board seems like a compromise that is more-or-less satisfactory to everyone with a say in the rules on simplemachines.org.
Depends on your definition of compromise. It is symbolic of everything that's happened since Wedge was formed, not to mention all the stuff that happened with me and vbgamer before Wedge happened - that every single time, the definition of compromise is woefully and inappropriately wielded. Compromise means reaching a mutual agreement on both sides - but we were never asked what we thought. In other words, it's what the team thought was satisfactory and we were expected to toe the line. There is no way this can be called a compromise, unless you're seeing it with the same rose tinted lenses that the team generally use for any matter that requires them to give up anything.
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The eventual success of the SMF software, community, or project is not on your shoulders.
I have never said it was. It's perfectly capable of shooting itself in the foot with anything from a shotgun to a tactical nuclear warhead without any assistance from me. Also, spare me the strawman.

The events of January 2010 that almost imploded SMF were done without any help from me. Even though I was approached beforehand by Amy and asked where I stood if such a line would be drawn, and I said my loyalty was to the project, not the people in it, I had left the team before it kicked off, nor was I one of the folks banned for linking to Jeff's blog. I had no meaningful part in the way that played out.

The fact it took 5 years to get from first starting 2.0 to final release wasn't impeded by me. I contributed some bug reports, I contributed some bug fixes. Three of those years passed before I even came along.

I could go on but you get my point. All the big mis-management issues with SMF, including the NPO by all accounts, had very little real input from me, and what input there was, was mostly ignored, even though I've called it pretty much correctly every time.
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You may feel that the SMF project would sometimes serve itself better by making different choices than it has made.
I sometimes agree with you, and sometimes disagree with you.  I appreciate it when you test and show the results of your testing. I generally have no argument with either one of you.  I believe this to be true of many other members of the SMF project, even some members who have argued with one or the other of you in the past.
I don't feel that's the case. I KNOW that's the case. It's gone beyond being a feeling and has been that way for years. But hey, what do I know?

Actually, let's turn that around. What do I know? Well, I read the years and years of history in the team boards while I was still a team member. Nothing that's happening now is anything new. The constant developer churn has been going on for years, because all the people that could possibly make a difference keep being pushed away, either because they get put upon by the rest of the team (who have a lot to say and not backing any of it up by action) and get burned out, or they just get pushed out by the attitude of the project as a whole, which is why I left (though the fact there are a lot of people who have a lot to say and aren't prepared to actually do anything about it)

But all those people inside the project don't appear to be able to see this. Pretty much everyone I've spoken to seems to be happy to deny that this is the case - except it is the case. Why is it that smCore is basically dead? Why Norv and Fustrate (and Spuds, as far as I can tell) have all disappeared?[1]

Why is it that SMF 2.1 is still in alpha, despite being only a few months younger than Wedge, but with far more people who have input into it?

The eventual success of SMF is not dependent on me. There was a time when I used to believe I could make a difference, when I could actually do something that might push SMF along. The last 2 and a half years have actually made me feel like Wedge has done more to push SMF along than SMF itself has.
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What were your goals then? What are they now? Which of these goals are worth pursuing in the future? Does the Wedge project bring progress towards these goals? Does it do it at an acceptable cost?
To make something cool. Now? My goal is to get Wedge to a point where it has enough developed that it doesn't need me. The project is getting there. Cost? I don't know. The amount of crap I put up with certainly doesn't make it feel worthwhile most of the time.
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People enter and leave FLOSS projects and communities all the time for various reasons. If the product is compelling enough, there is always someone arriving interested in picking up where someone else has left off. An enduring project will have to accomodate and encourage this succession.
Take a long, hard look at SMF. A very long hard look. Then tell me that there is enough people arriving into the SMF ecosystem to keep it going. Because from where I'm standing, that's just not happening, because of the aforementioned close knit coven that keeps pushing the good people out.
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Don't stay in it out of vague "quitter's guilt" alone. Stay in it because you are working toward noble goals.  And plan to replace yourself. You are unlikely to stay in it forever, no matter how noble the goals.
I stopped having noble goals months ago, mostly because of all the BS dragged in this direction by various members of the SMF community. For months I've been working on the noble goal of the ecosystem being self supportible, because once that happens, I can safely leave. You call it quitter's guilt, I call it building a viable ecosystem. But once it's built, I can move on and do something actually worthwhile, because it feels like this isn't worthwhile any more - because it is getting devalued constantly by arguments including ones like this.
 1. And yes, I had noticed the fact that Norv was able to make a commit against the wishes of the project even after leaving. I thought that was hilarious in a way.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: runic on December 7th, 2012, 02:51 AM
For the license: Nao knows my belief on this issue ... simply great to see wedge open more but I still think the good section that should stay is in regards to our 2 favorite people :)

Also it seems you guys have more supporters on SMF Team and Simple Machines Team than you actually think, your recent wedge links ended up with the topic dieing out with no answer being decided but even the person who posted most negativity (and compared to previous posts from those that dont like wedge this was nothing) found out the poster also respects you guys, a few of us are fighting to remove the negativity that some people have and we are making progress.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on December 7th, 2012, 03:40 AM
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For the license: Nao knows my belief on this issue ... simply great to see wedge open more but I still think the good section that should stay is in regards to our 2 favorite people
For the record, if I could be satisfied that the two people mentioned would stay the hell away, or idiots like them, I'd be pretty amenable to an open source licence.
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Also it seems you guys have more supporters on SMF Team and Simple Machines Team than you actually think
I have spoken to a number of people on the project in recent times, and I'm hearing that same answer. The problem is much as it always was: the people who have the power to make decisions are not those people. That's how it's always been; the people who have the power want to keep everything the status quo - and nothing ever improves.
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your recent wedge links ended up with the topic dieing out with no answer being decided but even the person who posted most negativity (and compared to previous posts from those that dont like wedge this was nothing) found out the poster also respects you guys, a few of us are fighting to remove the negativity that some people have and we are making progress.
The issue I have is that the negativity is so draining because it's absolutely unnecessary.

Let me kick off with the point that was made in my above rant, though I think it was missed judging by my PMs. Why does the forks discussion board need rules? More specifically, why does it need the rule about 'no closed source forks'? It's trying to encourage open source, except in the same breath doing the absolute opposite of the spirit of open source.

Open means *open*. Means having freedom. Including, as defined, the freedom to close it.[1] We haven't closed the licence to make money off it, though I will note we discussed it. We closed the licence to protect our investment of time being abused by certain fuckwits that we'd had dealings with.[2]

If you as an organisation were truly open, you wouldn't need any rules. You wouldn't have to discourage closed source - the natural rhythm of the community should do that for you. The thing is, there's only one closed source fork of SMF, and that's us. There isn't likely to be any other closed source forks, partly because it's not the done thing and partly because most forks inevitably don't have the momentum to sustain them, though Wedge definitely does.

Someone actually suggested to me, in wake of this topic and the stuff that happened, that I should institute a ban of not discussing SMF here, except for bug fixes or security issues. It makes just as much sense as the idiotic ban that sm.org has, and it's just as practical, just as meaningful and I wouldn't even have to moderate it much. I could even pretty much automate it without even changing any code.[3]

But I don't feel the need to do that. I'm quite happy to allow that to be discussed here, to allow any and all kinds of discussion about SMF, despite the issues, because I don't have an axe to grind. To be brutally honest, I see it much as the same as the folks that go door to door to promote their specific brand of religion; they do it to convince themselves they're good little religious types. IOW, I see this as SMF saying 'Hey, we're open and we promote openness' without understanding what that actually means. Open means being able to take opposing views and understand them for what they are.

Let me make this extra clear.

SMF chose to make their licence open, but seemingly without wanting any of the bad consequences of it being open. They want people to be able to use it without limitation, until it is inconvenient to them. If that was the case, why the heck did you go BSD in the first place? This is the part that's a problem: we have a licence that as we see it protects our interests. It specifically protects us from douches that we have encountered, who can't be trusted to not act like douches. This is because we've dealt with them and know the consequences. We also acknowledge the consequences of open source licences - and in particular the fact that open source licences mean a certain amount of 'you can't take it back' once you've done it.

But that hypocrisy is not being recognised. Like a lot of things I've come to see from SMF, a lot of talk not backed up by the requisite action.

The old SMF licence, accompanied by the 'we think this is open source' was honest. It made sure that the team got their recognition. It made sure that people couldn't just blindly just reproduce it or fork it. It made no bones about this. Switching to BSD actually hampered SMF in a lot of ways, because it sounded like such a momentus move of openness, without any of the change of spirit that was needed. It's like making a New Year's Resolution, you actually have to do something with it.
 1. This is the second reason I hate the GPL, after its viral nature, because it's hypocritical.
 2. Don't even get me started. I still don't appreciate the way the SMF team handled the whole me vs vbgamer thing, and the way that the 'mediation' was like every other fucking thing I've encountered with them, me being presented with a list of conditions, and given the appearance of ability to negotiate while knowing full well that nothing was negotiable. I lost $250, sure. vbgamer managed to screw himself out of more customers because of his idiotic attempt to ban me, and the team lost most of what credibility they had in my eyes for not understanding that I don't like being called a liar when the person making the claim won't back it up. I still don't appreciate a team member flat out accusing me of libel either.
 3. Wedge Moderation Filters can prevent people posting if their post contains certain words.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: AngelinaBelle on January 3rd, 2013, 06:36 PM
I've been away for a bit.
I take many of your points, Pete.

The compromise, of course, on "rules for the forks board" was among the at-the-time team members.
Team members are decision makers on that board.

The SMF team is different from, say, and Apache team.  On an Apache project, only the committers are the decision-makers -- that's a small number of devs.  And basically, they only make decisions about what goes into the official version of the code.  "Official" discussions don't seem to use forum software, and there aren't a lot of options for making rules about what people can discuss where.

The SMF team is different from an Apache project team, and probably from a lot of other FLOSS project teams.
The SMF team has a long history. It still contains people with a diversity of opinions on how the project should run itself.
Some team members have responded to these discussions by leaving the team (others, of course, have left for family, job, educational, and other reasons)
The team is not perfect.

I appreciate your interest in boosting the sustainability of the SMF project. That is a noble goal.
It has been my understanding that, with Wedge, you and Nao were, in part, motivated by the idea of demonstrating the benefits of certain approaches you WISHED the SMF team had been taking up to that point.

On top of that, by simply being the first to fork the BSD-licensed SMF 2.0 code, you helped the entire SMF community (including the SMF team) get their heads around what it means to have more community participation in SMF code development.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on January 3rd, 2013, 10:17 PM
Quote
The compromise, of course, on "rules for the forks board" was among the at-the-time team members.
Team members are decision makers on that board.
And there's the first problem: too many decision makers.
Quote
On top of that, by simply being the first to fork the BSD-licensed SMF 2.0 code, you helped the entire SMF community (including the SMF team) get their heads around what it means to have more community participation in SMF code development.
Except as we've seen, we've done it mostly in spite of SMF's attempts to engender such participation, not because of it. Yes, we've broadened awareness of what forks are, of what it means to have forks - and to have competition. But in the same breath, we've heard from a number of people who feel that - however wrongly that might be - such rules and restrictions on discussion are in fact a way to protect SMF from Wedge, because it is perceived to be a threat.

I will also note that certain other things have happened today that make my previous posts in this topic look extremely harsh, and unnecessarily so, and on the basis of that I am more amenable to it than I have been in the past. Indeed, I'm not even sure I'd describe one of the two parties ostracised from Wedge as I did above, because he has more humility than I'd ever have believed. It is not an exaggeration to say I am humbled by what I have seen today.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Nao on January 4th, 2013, 12:22 AM
BTW, would be nice if you could post links to these discussions, if they're public or whatever... :^^;:
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: AngelinaBelle on January 10th, 2013, 07:40 PM
And a Happy New Year to you!

The discussion about the Forks discussion board really was about the open source issue.
Of course, EVERYONE's most well-reasoned opinions may have been colored by their feelings toward the people involved.
As in -- "We went through a lot of trouble to switch to an open-source license, and we should promote open source", with a dash of "I'm a bit angry at those Wedge fellows at the moment, but I don't think that really influences my opinion on the license issue".

It is lovely to see people turn over a positive new leaf isn't it?  A lovely way to start the new year!


Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on January 10th, 2013, 08:20 PM
Quote
As in -- "We went through a lot of trouble to switch to an open-source license, and we should promote open source"
I prefer to see it as 'We went through all this trouble not to kill the project but it's still dying on its feet anyway', because that's what happened (I was there). Only no-one wants to say it.

How many forks have been started not by general people that want to, but by former product contributors that have been pushed out of the project one way or another? Let's see... Yourasoft, Wedge, ezForum, bloQS/ViennaBBS, Elkarte... the list goes on.

Yes, a positive leaf is one thing, however that's fine if you're going to turn that into positive *action*, and that isn't really happening.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: AngelinaBelle on January 10th, 2013, 09:32 PM
Arantor,

I agree with you that the SMF project is not in tip-top shape at the moment.  We have 2 devs at the moment, and will be in better shape with more devs. "Too many decision-makers" is an interesting comment. That's the team. Everyone on the team is a decision maker. Everyone gets a vote.

Nao -- I am sorry I cannot post links to discussions made on the SMF team boards.  They were made with every expectation of remaining "team only" in perpetuity, and won't be moved to "public" boards.  I don't think I will be breaking anybody's expectations of privacy by assuring you that I saw no evidence that the team was concerned about Wedge "killing" SMF.  I think anyone who has read the public boards here from about that time already knows that some SMF team members were not happy with the Wedge team at the time, and that they were under the impression that Wedge team members were not happy with them.

My statements about strong feelings coloring decisions is simply my own impression of the mood of the time -- certainly, it is plausible that emotion can affect decision-making, even when individuals strive for objectivity.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on January 10th, 2013, 09:48 PM
Quote
I agree with you that the SMF project is not in tip-top shape at the moment.  We have 2 devs at the moment, and will be in better shape with more devs. "Too many decision-makers" is an interesting comment. That's the team. Everyone on the team is a decision maker. Everyone gets a vote.
No, you have one dev and one... I don't really know what to call Labradoodle. I won't complement him by giving him the title of developer which he does not deserve. And if you look around at what's going on, you can see that very soon, two will become one, and not in a good way at all. The writing's on the wall.

Therein lies your problem: there's too many decision makers. Too many people want their say and feel like they should have the right to a say. But in a project like SMF, where the code is what makes the project, the people who are the real decision makers are the people that build the damn thing. Not everyone else. There's too much freedom.

As far as I'm concerned, as far as I've always been concerned, unless you're developing the thing, unless you're actually the one putting your nose to the grindstone and actually cranking out the code, you have no more right to dictate development than anyone else. Input yes, opinion yes, but that's where the line is drawn.

I have, as recently as this morning, received suggestions that I should offer to return to the SMF team. Putting aside all of my personal feelings for the project and some of the people in it (which is a huge task), putting aside all of Wedge (which is an even bigger task), I have to ask myself one question: could I realistically do anything to save SMF? The answer is no, and for one reason, and only one reason. Even if I were recruited tomorrow as lead developer, I would not be given the reign to act in the manner which I saw fit for SMF's development - because all this 'freedom' would prevent me doing just that.

I find it interesting that the freedom that SMF fought so hard for will protect its legacy, but only because it enabled the rest of us to do exactly what we've done - escape from the 'freedom' and run very far away indeed. I have much more actual freedom now than I ever did as an SMF team member in terms of protecting SMF's legacy in a way that actually honours it.
Quote
I don't think I will be breaking anybody's expectations of privacy by assuring you that I saw no evidence that the team was concerned about Wedge "killing" SMF
Not now, maybe. But 2 1/2 years ago it was a very credible threat in their minds.

I don't even need to see inside the team boards to have a gauge on where people feel things are going now, though I suspect they will not have publicly voiced their opinions. I will not say more of this part, that is not my tale to tell.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Kindred on January 10th, 2013, 11:52 PM
Arantor....  and your very statement proves that people on the dev team either want "it all" (i.e. no input from anyone except them) or are misunderstanding the team roles.

The way it is SUPPOSED to be working is:
We start a new version. The whole team weighs in on what they think would be good enhancements, changes or other functionality.
the developers respond with reasons why X Y or Z may or may not be possible...
The dev lead sits down (virtually) with the steering committee and they (together) decide on what are "must-haves", "want-to'haves" and "won't be dones"

It is then up to the dev team to accomplish any of this....   and it is the dev lead's responsibility to see that his/her team is working toward the appropriate goals. When the release is close to ready, the rest of the team gets back into the mix by testing the first alpha versions and commenting on the good, the bad and the ugly...

No where in this flow does anyone ever tell the dev team how or what to code... (well, I suppose the dev lead does tell the rest of the devs what needs to be coded, but that's all within dev.)


So, despite many complaints from former devs about other people telling them what to do, I fail to see that ACTUALLY occuring anywhere in the mix...

The big deal in the last few months was made into a huge deal because one former developers made an unauthorized and incorrect change to the LEGAL statement portion of every file... the change was noted and called out as something which should not have been done, and suddenly devs started screaming that they were being repressed (by someone who was appointed by some tart in a lake handing out swords)

Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on January 11th, 2013, 12:17 AM
Quote
Arantor....  and your very statement proves that people on the dev team either want "it all" (i.e. no input from anyone except them) or are misunderstanding the team roles.
Here's the thing, Kindred, here's the thing... you're not one of the people being asked to do something. You're one of the people asking someone else to do it.
Quote
The way it is SUPPOSED to be working is:
How well that's working out for you is showing so well.
Quote
the developers respond with reasons why X Y or Z may or may not be possible...
The dev lead sits down (virtually) with the steering committee and they (together) decide on what are "must-haves", "want-to'haves" and "won't be dones"
You know as well as I do that it won't be like that, because the devs are effectively getting the shaft. You're not a dev, you're a manager.
Quote
It is then up to the dev team to accomplish any of this....   and it is the dev lead's responsibility to see that his/her team is working toward the appropriate goals
Yes, it is. But the dev team needs to be left alone to do that, and if anything over the last few years has shown, that ain't happening.
Quote
the rest of the team gets back into the mix by testing the first alpha versions and commenting on the good, the bad and the ugly...
You mean the same team that's supposed to test patches before deployment but continually fails to actually do so? Pretty much every patch since 1.1.10 / 2.0 RC1.2 went out badly with flaws in the package requiring a soft of hidden recall.
Quote
No where in this flow does anyone ever tell the dev team how or what to code... (well, I suppose the dev lead does tell the rest of the devs what needs to be coded, but that's all within dev.)
Yeah, whatever.
Quote
So, despite many complaints from former devs about other people telling them what to do, I fail to see that ACTUALLY occuring anywhere in the mix...
And successive generations, spanning years' worth of contributors must all have got it wrong and must all be smoking the same joint? Pull the other one, please. Why it is that it's the *same complaints* time after time after time after time? Every couple of years it's supposed to have 'all changed' but it clearly hasn't.
Quote
The big deal in the last few months was made into a huge deal because one former developers made an unauthorized and incorrect change to the LEGAL statement portion of every file... the change was noted and called out as something which should not have been done, and suddenly devs started screaming that they were being repressed
Oh, yes, I was wondering when we'd get to this. The fact that Norv made the change without authorisation suggests a fundamental inability to manage people and permissions, but we'll let that slide for the moment.

The real substance of that change was most interesting, notwithstanding the fact it was one of the main reasons why a number of your developers upped and left and forked your software.

The change that's being referred to, for those playing along at home, is over the copyright notice in the SMF files itself, which until the change referred to Simple Machines. As in the entire package's copyright is owned by SM NPO. This is interesting because the code I gave SMF, I certainly didn't allow SMF to claim copyright on it.
Quote
2. Grant of Copyright License. Subject to the terms and conditions of
   this Agreement, You hereby grant to Simple Machines and to
   recipients of software distributed by Simple Machines a perpetual,
   worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable
   copyright license to reproduce, prepare derivative works of,
   publicly display, publicly perform, sublicense, and distribute Your
   Contributions and such derivative works. Entities other than Simple
   Machines are also granted these rights for re-distribution of original
   or derivative works as far as allowed by the Simple Machines License.
I gave SMF a licence to redistribute it, to create derivatives of it, distribute etc. But I did not give the right for it to be claimed under SM copyright, and that is a very important distinction. The code I contributed IS STILL MINE, just as the code Nao contributed is STILL HIS, as are all our posts, all our comments and bug reports. Copyright law establishes that these are ours, and we gave you a licence to distribute/reproduce/derive/sublicence/whatever with them. But not claim ownership of them.

I suppose you could probably make a vague claim based on it being a derivative work, sublicensed back to SM and distributed in that fashion, but it doesn't change the fact that my code is still owned by me and that I'm giving you a licence to use it. IOW, the copyright is of SMF contributors, they are the ones who legally hold the copyright in the code, and they gave SM the licence to create a single package out of it, but they did NOT transfer ownership of it.

By comparison, Wedge's copyright is currently stated as copyright Wedgeward 2010-2013. Thing is, I'm not sure how much original SMF code is really left any more. Derivative work, sure. Sublicensed... well, it was sublicensed to BSD by SMF itself, and we've sublicensed it again. The copyright notice in our files is possibly incorrect at this time, however the reality is that our copyright doesn't cover the original SMF code - we know that, we understand it. Our copyright (and our sublicensing) is born out of the changes we've made to SMF's original code, we're not really claiming ownership of SMF's code, we're claiming ownership of our code that substantively transforms SMF's. I shudder to think how big a diff would be at this stage, but quite possibly it would be larger than SMF's entire code base at this time.[1]

You call it repression, but I'm not sure what happened actually is. I'm not entirely sure that what Norv did was wrong. But the fact that in the aftermath, you lost two developers, very likely a third very soon, leaving you with one of the most incapable people in the role of lead developer.

But if you're happy with that situation, the next saga of driving all the competent people away until you're left with the truly incompetent in positions of authority, I guess there's nothing more to be said.



Just one thought for you. In the 2 1/2 years since Wedge formed, you've had a team of how many developers working on SMF? In that time what's happened... now compare the scale of changes in SMF to what's happened in Wedge, when you leave two competent people the run to build it how they see fit, whilst taking into account the needs and desires expressed by the community.

Seems to me that Wedge and Elkarte are going to outlive SMF the way SMF is going and that's really quite sad.
 1. And that chasm is increasing all the time, only this week I've been rewriting the ban system, entirely. It doesn't have the ugly nasty query any more and should scale better.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Kindred on January 11th, 2013, 05:30 AM
See, the thing is Arantor... despite all of the screaming, yelling and leaving... No one has actually been telling the devs what to do.
That's what just gets my goat and boggles my mind.
Seriously...   What I illustrated above is actually how Spuds and emanuele handled the 2.1 planning and implementation... and no one was demanding anything of them (other than the occasional request for an update on how they were doing and where they were in the process)
How are devs getting the shaft?
1- they get to discuss desired updates along with everyone else.
2- their team lead gets to decide the list of updates to be done with the SC. (that is the whole purpose of the SC, after all)
3- they get to work on the stuff that they want to work on, as previously discussed and decided...

As for copyright...   you are correct. You hold the copyright to your own code. No one has ever claimed otherwise.
However, SM holds the copyright to the set of code that is SMF. This does not detract from or remove the copyright of each and every individual contributor, but SM holds the copyright to its software.
(BTW: the copyright statement that you reference was borrowed from the Apache foundation...   and I don;t see any former contributors trying to claim that Apache doesn't hold the copyright to its software. So, for Norv or anyone else to claim otherwise for SMF is just silly.)

I am still not sure why devs left from the fall out of Norv's idiocy...  It was so seriously blown out of proportion when all we originally did was ask that the change be reverted.
(I do agree on the permissions thing - there is no way that she ever should have had the permission to commit that change without review and approval)


You can shake your head all you want... but I seriously do not understand the dev's response... nor the ones who have recently left.
When I was PM, I was indeed trying to manage the RELEASE. I never tried to manage the development (despite what some folks have tried to claim - never once did I try to tell the devs how to code or what to code --- and, as far as I know, no one on the team has done so since then either. So, my only conclusion as to why the recent devs have left is that either they are childish gits who are so full of themselves that they can not conceive that anyone should be able to even suggest that there might be a good idea outside of their own minds (a possibility, I admit)... or (which is more likely) the whole thing is based on a series of misunderstandings and overreactions which folks are either too embarrassed or too stubborn to discuss.


See I like what you've done with Wedge. You guys have done a great job. Your model works GREAT for the initial product and even the first few versions... However, once you reach a certain size of community which you need to support though, you get into the need to have more than just the two of you. Which leads back to the process which I detailed above...   there is nothing wrong with that process (as I said it is actually the process which spuds and emanuele used for 2.1 development)
When it breaks down is when people insist that they know better. (either devs saying "no one else should ever have any input, because we are the only ones that matter" or non-devs saying "we get to tell the devs what do do)
Both arguments are wrong...  However, to this point, the only ones who have violated the process are the devs who have literally made that first statement...  that devs are the only ones who matter and that the other teams just don't matter at all, since "anyone can do what the rest of you do"

I think that you are premature in declaring smf to be a dead project. People said the same thing before 2.0 came out... and while it was a long time coming, SMF did chug along...    and like that, I have confidence that SMF will continue to chug along.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on January 11th, 2013, 06:16 AM
Quote
How are devs getting the shaft?
1- they get to discuss desired updates along with everyone else.
2- their team lead gets to decide the list of updates to be done with the SC. (that is the whole purpose of the SC, after all)
3- they get to work on the stuff that they want to work on, as previously discussed and decided...
Unless the team decides it doesn't want those things in it. Or when the team starts expecting deadlines on things. It's only going to be a matter of time before these things happen, like they have every iteration the last few years.
Quote
As for copyright...   you are correct. You hold the copyright to your own code. No one has ever claimed otherwise.
However, SM holds the copyright to the set of code that is SMF. This does not detract from or remove the copyright of each and every individual contributor, but SM holds the copyright to its software.
(BTW: the copyright statement that you reference was borrowed from the Apache foundation...   and I don;t see any former contributors trying to claim that Apache doesn't hold the copyright to its software. So, for Norv or anyone else to claim otherwise for SMF is just silly.)
Then you should read the Apache licence a little more carefully, and indeed the project itself because they actually validate what I've been saying.

I checked the 'core' module in Apache 2.4 itself. The fundamental part of Apache, without which nothing will work. and hilariously it actually says what SMF should have been doing.

/* Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
 * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
 * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
 * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
 * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
 * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
 *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations under the License.
 */

See, Apache doesn't claim copyright of the project in its own source files. They're doing what you're doing in terms of ownership, and what Norv was trying to get you to do about telling people what's going on, albeit not the proper way. They don't claim ownership but they make it clear why not.

But I guess in your eyes, it doesn't matter because I'm silly and wrong. And I guess the example I just posted is also invalid for some stupid technicality, but it's right there in the httpd source tarball of Apache 2.4.3, in modules/core/mod_so.c
Quote
I am still not sure why devs left from the fall out of Norv's idiocy...  It was so seriously blown out of proportion when all we originally did was ask that the change be reverted.
(I do agree on the permissions thing - there is no way that she ever should have had the permission to commit that change without review and approval)
And the fact that she was trying to do the right thing is of no small matter to you, even if it was done the wrong way.
Quote
When it breaks down is when people insist that they know better. (either devs saying "no one else should ever have any input, because we are the only ones that matter" or non-devs saying "we get to tell the devs what do do)
It's funny, actually, because the only time I can ever remember the devs actually saying no-one else should have any input was J10, when Compuart and Amacythe did what they did.

I still think you're missing the point of what I'm trying to get at. Devs have egos, yes. It's part of what we do. And now you're expecting people like us to accept that our opinion is not really any more important than someone who isn't a coder? That's where the problem has ALWAYS been - the devs have never, ever felt as though they are given due status. This whole 'equality' thing is nonsense. It devalues dev input and it pushes the devs out, whether you want to accept what I'm saying or not.

The fact is, you're now into what iteration of complete dev team change, with every single person singing the same hymn sheet? How much more is it going to take before you and the others are going to wake up and listen to what's actually being said?
Quote
However, to this point, the only ones who have violated the process are the devs who have literally made that first statement...  that devs are the only ones who matter and that the other teams just don't matter at all, since "anyone can do what the rest of you do"
Though it's pretty much true. I've been on the Support and Customizer teams, I've helped with the Doc Site in the past, I've even done things for the Localisers in the past in fixing translations and other translation related issues. I don't see contributions from Support going to devs except 'things to fix' or 'things that need doing' - and this is going back years. At least the Customizers understand the whole relationship of writing code.
Quote
I think that you are premature in declaring smf to be a dead project. People said the same thing before 2.0 came out... and while it was a long time coming, SMF did chug along...    and like that, I have confidence that SMF will continue to chug along.
In short order, Labradoodle is going to be the lead developer. You're screwed, because no-one who can see what he's about has any faith in him. Even vbgamer chucked him out. What does THAT tell you?
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Kindred on January 11th, 2013, 06:40 AM
Hey, I never said you were silly...;)

I can't check now from my iPad, but I believe that the notice file of apache does actually have apache holding copyright to the product.

As for the devs saying that...   It was recently said again... As justification for one of the devs not only leaving but withdrawing his planned submissions hat he had been working on, but had not yet committed.

And finally, it's not actually true. Most of the folks we have had as devs could not document their way outnof a paper bag. ;)
And support is something that most developers are equally poor at... You being one of the exceptions, not the rule. :)


Anyways... On the subject of lab... Not my choice nor did anyone ask my input... Lol
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on January 11th, 2013, 06:51 AM
iPad snap!

Re silly, you did say the argument about Apache ownership was a silly one but I would draw your attention to http://www.apache.org/legal/src-headers.html and particularly "why it was necessary"

I would disagree actually... Almost everyone who has been dev team the last few years started in the Support team. Even Norv.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Nao on January 11th, 2013, 11:32 AM
Quote from AngelinaBelle on January 10th, 2013, 07:40 PM
The discussion about the Forks discussion board really was about the open source issue.
And you can post the link(s) -- if someone who can't access the topic clicks it, it just will give them an error...
Quote
As in -- "We went through a lot of trouble to switch to an open-source license, and we should promote open source", with a dash of "I'm a bit angry at those Wedge fellows at the moment, but I don't think that really influences my opinion on the license issue".
Well, why should they be angry? Didn't they change the license because that was the only way SMF could be saved?
So, if Wedge uses the SMF 1.0 license it's bound to fail, isn't it...?

Or maybe they should have listened to Pete and I back in the day...
Maybe they should have rethought of the 'reward' system for developers. Maybe they should have been cooler with talented developers who could add a lot to SMF, instead of rejecting multiple times their requested to be made developers.

Maybe they should reconsider why they're rejecting talents, and embracing mediocrity (Labradoodle, AFAIK.)
Heck, I wouldn't want to be on the same team as he is... Not because I hate him (I don't know him). It's just that a developer should know what they're doing. If you're in the same position as a wannabe developer, there's a problem somewhere.
Quote
It is lovely to see people turn over a positive new leaf isn't it?  A lovely way to start the new year!
I don't know... I don't really know.
It's as I say everywhere. I don't think SMF is 'dead', but I don't think it's going to be back in the limelight either. It had its momentum back in the 1.1 era, and that's all... Too many team changes after that. SMF is really lacking a vision and motivation, rather than talent, you see.
That is, I agree with Pete on most on this conversation. I think the non-dev team should quiet down and be very, VERY happy that some talented developers are spending many hours adding new features, when they could be charging $100+ per hour for that work.

If there's one thing that free software needs the most, it's the drive to build something that's worth millions, without being paid a dime.
It's very hard to accomplish, and it's even harder to find people who are willing to do it.
For that reason, I understand that Norv would be bothered that her copyright terms change was rejected that way. But I don't think that Norv added a lot to the SMF community these last few years, so I also understand that the rest of the team took action against her (mostly because she was AWOL and never explained it.)

So, it's not really a situation where I'd like to take sides. I'm more interested in what Pete has to say about Apache. Maybe we should all modify our headers to make them super short, like:

 * @package wedge (or SMF)
 * @copyright and license information http://wedge.org/license/

Or a text file, or something. And then indicate something similar to Apache.
See, copyright info isn't even needed in a file. It's best to have it, but not having it doesn't deprive you of your rights.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on January 11th, 2013, 01:33 PM
I'd prefer to take the Apache route, actually, because it means we don't have to update files every year or anything, and we can explain the rules much better in a single place.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Nao on January 11th, 2013, 01:42 PM
If only we'd discussed that, like, yesterday... :lol:

When you say Apache route, you mean including a very large header file on every file..?
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on January 11th, 2013, 01:51 PM
Not a 'very large' header - it's not exactly much bigger than the current one but we do it once and don't even have to change it every year.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Nao on January 11th, 2013, 01:53 PM
...?
16 lines...? Not very large?
Ours is like 2 lines...
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on January 11th, 2013, 02:02 PM
Our current header is:

Code: [Select]
/**
 * Wedge
 *
 * Handles various security-related tasks, including permissions and filtering of input based on known malicious behavior.
 *
 * @package wedge
 * @copyright 2010-2013 Wedgeward, wedge.org
 * @license http://wedge.org/license/
 *
 * @version 0.1
 */

11 lines, 265 bytes.

ASF's is:
Code: [Select]
/* Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
 * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
 * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
 * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
 * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
 * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
 *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations under the License.
 */

15 lines, 798 bytes (including spacer line). That can be shortened too, since the licence by definition would include the warranty status (which is the second paragraph), so it would just then be the first paragraph and version number, perhaps:

Code: [Select]
/* Licensed to Wedgeward under one or more contributor license agreements.
 * See the NOTICE file distributed with this work for additional
 * information regarding copyright ownership.
 * Wedgeward licenses this file to You under the MPL License, Version 2.0
 * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
 * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
 *     http://wedge.org/license/
 *
 * @version 0.1
 */

11 lines, 448 bytes (including spacer line) assuming the licence changes as has been suggested and if not we then refer to it as Wedge licence instead, but you're talking about a few bytes' difference.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Kindred on January 11th, 2013, 02:32 PM
Actually, Arantor, we do agree on that bit.

I think that SMF should change the header to indicate that the copyright and license (two different things) are defined in single, separate files. (for the same reasons that you mention (no need to change individual files each year/release...)
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on January 11th, 2013, 02:36 PM
So if we agree, why are you complaining about what Norv did, which was essentially an attempt to enact what we've been talking about? I won't argue it wasn't done correctly, but the sentiment was there ;)

Mind you, I'd love to see what a legal person makes of all this, because I'm not convinced your DCO gives SM the rights they think it does, and I'm fairly sure that there's legal issues with claiming copyright even over the entire package.

Even we can't claim copyright over the entire Wedge package, only the differences in code between SMF and Wedge.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Kindred on January 11th, 2013, 02:47 PM
Well, we agree that the license and copyright should be in a separate file which is reference in the header rather than being defined in the header of each and every file/
What Norv did was not switch the license and copyright to indicate "see file"
What she did was change the copyright line attribution.

(actually, if we had originally had the copyright point to a file, it would not have been quite so big a deal...   someone could have gone and done a re-commit of that single file rather than trying to back out the change made to every single file in the package.

As for the legal matter...   you may be right (and, in which case, there are several other issues that need to be taken up within the team regarding the switch to the DCO and lying about what that did/does when they requested it)
Agnelina is actually talking with lawyers to get a definitive answer...
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on January 11th, 2013, 02:58 PM
Ah, so we agree on the method but not the substance.
Quote
What Norv did was not switch the license and copyright to indicate "see file"
What she did was change the copyright line attribution.
And therein lies the problem. I'm just not convinced you *can* say that any given file's contents actually are held by the team copyright.
Quote
As for the legal matter...   you may be right (and, in which case, there are several other issues that need to be taken up within the team regarding the switch to the DCO and lying about what that did/does when they requested it)
Agnelina is actually talking with lawyers to get a definitive answer...
Wait... you switched to the DCO months ago (June, wasn't it?) and only NOW you're getting legal advice on whether it might be legitimate?

And you wonder why I say SMF is dead. It's doing so well to shoot itself in the foot. I can pretty much tell you what the answer will be, too, and it will be in line with what I've been saying.

My free armchair-lawyer "legal advice" equivalent
Quote
I don't really think there's been misrepresentation with what the DCO is, unless wilful blindness was involved and fingers-in-ears-la-la-la-can't-hear-you as well. It's really straightforward, it says SM can use the code, in line with the licence, such that the code is copyrighted to its authors and not SM. This change from Norv was pretty much about bringing the code in line to what the DCO says is in force.

IOW, substantively and practically speaking, the same as what the CLA allowed as far as SMF being able to use the code, but without any pretension or illusions as to ownership, unlike the CLA.
It's almost like the team didn't talk to the developers about what the developers were doing, but apparently that never happens?
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Kindred on January 11th, 2013, 04:25 PM
no... actually, it's more like certain folks mirepresented what the DCO was.

but anyway...
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on January 11th, 2013, 05:16 PM
Alright, so let's say they did. I'm not certain that was what happened, but let's say for the sake of argument that they did.

No-one thought to get legal advice? No-one thought to double check? No-one thought to clarify the differences?

From where I'm standing, they would have to be worse than second-hand car salesmen to misrepresent it so badly that it was accepted on the basis you're implying. I realised on first reading what the problem would be... and I only play a lawyer on TV.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: colby67 on January 11th, 2013, 05:57 PM
Sorry to butt in here..and I am sure Kindred is fed up heh, but I can only nod to what when Arantor has to say about the state of things. This is not a new scenario, and while its a good while since I was involved, its hasn't improved since the mess that was Amacythe++ was around, well, not so much you would expect anyway. Talented devs still leave, less talented stay and eventually, leave too...

Its a clear pattern here, and no "i don't see how they can say its wrong" will make that different. It reminds me of something..excuse me for my poor memory, fighting windmills guy? lol, anyway, if you want to stay in your belief that devs are just stubborn and drama queens, by all means do. Its a slow death for SMF and has been for some time now.

It seems that Arantor and Nao are the only ones being still standing in the forking aftermath of SMF going BSD..but I feel several others haven't quite left the arena yet. Elkarte enjoys some former devs enthusiasm,and thats good. Building something is always good, and I strongly believe many of them(certainly myself - although i stayed with my own devices) ENJOYS not being "steered" and "controlled" and most important, feeling they would just be doing the dirty work.

So yeah..maybe it isn't possible to run SMF like a corporation where things get decided and people are told to do stuff. Maybe its best to let it die, so new forces can flourish and be free to change, to try out, to INNOVATE. It certainly isn't "innovative" that comes to mind when I see SMF these days.

ok, I'll be quiet now. :P
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Nao on January 11th, 2013, 06:03 PM
It's just a bit sad to let the 'SMF' brand die, somehow. I still like it, just as much as I like my own 'Wedge' brand... (It's just that I'm not a fan of how the product is managed, to begin with.)

Pete, I don't think that ~200 extra bytes is short. Also, an extra line is needed at the beginning (/** isn't just there for show, technically... :P)
And we can't really remove our file description, either... I'd say.

We could get rid of @version, though. It's a SMF thingy, we never really took care of it, and I don't know if it's ever gonna become useful to us one day.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Kindred on January 11th, 2013, 06:10 PM
Bloc...

See, this is the thing I don't understand...
The dves have never been "steered" or "controlled" by anyone (except maybe their own dev lead)
Others have expressed opinions on what was getting added (or removed) and may have requested that something get added...   but no one, to the best of my knowledge has ever tried to tell the devs how to code... or even what to code, once the "desired feature list" was discussed and decided on... and AFAIK, the devs have always made that decision (even if it realistically should sit with the SC)

the people complaining (former devs) all seem to be saying "I can't work like this, I can't have people telling me what to do and how to do it" --- but I have never seen anyone actually DOING that to the devs...   The closest we non-devs have come to that was insisting that the rets of the team has a right to give our INPUT on what we think should be added (or removed).
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: colby67 on January 11th, 2013, 06:17 PM
Quote from Kindred on January 11th, 2013, 06:10 PM
Bloc...

See, this is the thing I don't understand...
The dves have never been "steered" or "controlled" by anyone (except maybe their own dev lead)
Others have expressed opinions on what was getting added (or removed) and may have requested that something get added...   but no one, to the best of my knowledge has ever tried to tell the devs how to code... or even what to code, once the "desired feature list" was discussed and decided on... and AFAIK, the devs have always made that decision (even if it realistically should sit with the SC)

the people complaining (former devs) all seem to be saying "I can't work like this, I can't have people telling me what to do and how to do it" --- but I have never seen anyone actually DOING that to the devs...   The closest we non-devs have come to that was insisting that the rets of the team has a right to give our INPUT on what we think should be added (or removed).
Its a pointed argument - its never as black and white as that, and I am not saying it was that all the time either. Its just enough of it, to make people leave.

A correction, while I generally don't like management lol, its NOT to say I won't respect others decisions on where to go. its just that, the respect isn't there. Maybe because of poor decisions made, maybe of people talking about stuff they are not doing themselves and so..its not about working together, thats is a good thing, its about -managing- people, the thing you do Kindred, or at least encourage.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on January 11th, 2013, 06:23 PM
Quote
This is not a new scenario, and while its a good while since I was involved, its hasn't improved since the mess that was Amacythe++ was around, well, not so much you would expect anyway. Talented devs still leave, less talented stay and eventually, leave too...
This is the part I'm trying to hammer home, so to speak. If everything is supposed to have changed with the introduction of the NPO, why is it people are still leaving at a horrific rate, and *still* saying the same things about why they're leaving? The only conclusion I can draw is that it isn't the name of the organisation or even particularly the way the organisation is run, but the way in which the non-devs interact with the devs.
Quote
lol, anyway, if you want to stay in your belief that devs are just stubborn and drama queens, by all means do. Its a slow death for SMF and has been for some time now.
Devs are stubborn. That's par for the course. I have never met any developer of any standing who wasn't stubborn, because it takes stubbornness to learn the skills and do the job. Drama llamas? Yeah, I'll agree with that, with one caveat. I do drama a lot, and only some of it is pure drama, some of it is a baiting tactic to provoke change. I recall doing this in October 2009, threatening to leave the team without any intention of actually doing so, specifically and clearly to try and unite everyone in something approaching a common cause, and for a short time it did actually have some small improvement in unity and working together.

Thing is, devs aren't like everyone else. We do what we do because we enjoy doing it, like any craftsperson out there. Our passion is there - but the nature of what we do as coders implies that we don't bring the drama out, the passion, in the code itself. It's like we have all this emotion built up from doing it, but we have no release mechanism from actually coding, if that makes sense. Or at least, that's the theory that's made sense in my head and the folks I used to work with at Lehman Bros had much the same take on it, those that cared about the code, anyway; those who didn't, were there purely to earn their daily dollars, in which case you just sit down, shut up and get on with it. The result is code that is workable but nothing wonderful.

As I said, devs - and I do include designers in that - have egos. We put ourselves into what we do. I won't go as far as to call our projects our 'children' but there is a progeny thing going on, they are the product of us, our time, our energy, our passion. Excuse us for caring about what we do and wanting to see it done how we feel it should be done.
Quote
It seems that Arantor and Nao are the only ones being still standing in the forking aftermath of SMF going BSD..but I feel several others haven't quite left the arena yet. Elkarte enjoys some former devs enthusiasm,and thats good. Building something is always good, and I strongly believe many of them(certainly myself - although i stayed with my own devices) ENJOYS not being "steered" and "controlled" and most important, feeling they would just be doing the dirty work.
Wedge is one of the strongest standing - but also the longest established of the forks, and the two do go hand in hand. A number of them fell by the wayside, partly because of life concerns, partly because of a lack of appreciation for the scale of work required to make a fork.

And you've hit the other nail on the head. When we're the ones at the rock face, we like to set our own path to an extent, to go where it takes us.

I'd be forever feeling like features I could add to SMF would be not entirely in keeping with the 'I'm a forum' aspect that SMF has, so I'd be very much of the feeling of being steered, into building what someone else wants and not what I want.
Quote
So yeah..maybe it isn't possible to run SMF like a corporation where things get decided and people are told to do stuff. Maybe its best to let it die, so new forces can flourish and be free to change, to try out, to INNOVATE. It certainly isn't "innovative" that comes to mind when I see SMF these days.

ok, I'll be quiet now. :P
Yup. It isn't a business, it shouldn't be run as if it is one. But it suffers the same problem I've see in a number of businesses. Dilbert strips come to mind.


I would reply further to what's been saying but I get the impression I'm talking to a brick wall. Already today someone has asked me why you can't take your blinkers off. You're not able to see it the way everyone else is. So let me turn it around a bit. Has anyone told you how to do support? How many topics need to be done per day, or that you need to approach them in a certain fashion, or asked you to concentrate on a specific subset of support? Anyone asked you about there being a certain number of unsolved topics?

The answer to the above should be no, no-one tells you how your contributions should be given. And you get appreciation for what you do. Devs don't get appreciated, it's just a round of complaints when things go wrong, and all the things we've talked about that as far as you believe aren't happening.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Kindred on January 11th, 2013, 06:25 PM
well, yes... I am a project manager. :P

but seriously...  I have always believed that it is about respect and that it is the leads' jobs to manage the people on their teams.
The thing I have been trying to get SMF to understand is not management of PEOPLE...  it's management of activities and expectations
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on January 11th, 2013, 06:38 PM
You can lead a horse to water etc.

But you can't manage expectations and activities in a volunteer organisation the way you would in a business. You can't sack them, you can't dock their pay, you have to nurture their interest, not beat them with a stick.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Kindred on January 11th, 2013, 06:52 PM
you are right...   you can't manage things exactly as a standard business model.
That does not mean that you can't apply some of the same methods, etc...   
and just because it is a volunteer organization does not mean that expectations and activities can't be managed... they just get managed differently.

One of the things that has always had me pulling my hair out is the refusal to plan anything.
The excuse is always the same "this is a volunteer project. you can't plan dates, etc"
and that is complete BS. Of course you can... as a matter of fact, you have to PLAN for releases.
Yep, we all know that the release will never be made "on target" for the originally planned date... and that we can't hold people to planned dates like we would in a business.  I have never tried to claim that we should.  However, you PLAN and then work toward something (even while understanding that the dates will always slip)

It gives people a GOAL to work toward...   
It's not like a business where you say "Hit X date or your fired" (and I have never, ever, ever tried to suggest such a thing)
but saying "We'd like to try to release 2.1 alpha sometime around mid-2012" WORKS.
why? Because, with that in mind, the folks doing the work look at the work and can say umm...   well, in that case you need one of three things. A) remove some of the things we have planned, because with all this stuff, there is no way we'll even hit 2013, let alone mid-2012. B) Plan for another date, Mid-2013 is more reasonable to plan toward, with all this crap or C) invent a working time machine.

This is not an unreasonable model, most especially because all of these dates and plans are INTERNAL to the team and are never communicated to the public...   and also because no one is really HELD to those dates... it's just the PLAN for those dates.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: colby67 on January 11th, 2013, 06:56 PM
- what Arantor said. :)

People are here on their own time, its not a job, most of us have that already. So..in order to make things work, i believe everyone must feel that, that we are all peers in the sense of everyone agreeing and - most important to me - acknowledge that "yes, some things I know better than you, so let me try it at least. I am here for the fun, don't spoil it."

About devs being actually stubborn etc...I guess thats true. But it can be both things, positive as well as negative, one can work together and still be a bit stubborn just to make things progress. See, thats again one bad thing about coming from the angle that one has to be managed, that ideas has to be managed: sure, there can be people that decides things. But I would never just sit and decide something i know little or nothing about!. Very acute example, in all the time I was on the team, I did not tell the core devs to change how the core was done - because I didn't know enough about it! Same with javascript, I would rather ask for help. its actually not until now i can at least say something about that, it had to be learnt first.

But if someone said they could do better in terms of the theme stuff back then(and now lol), I would/will have little patience if they didn't actually know something about it. I mean, I can't respect someone that never made a theme in their life, yet proclaimed they could mange other designers or theme devs on where to go.

But again, its not a black and white process, as a fellow Libran I am sure you see this, Kindred. :) It is a limit for everything though, and that limit has been crossed too many times in the SMF camp IMHO.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on January 11th, 2013, 07:02 PM
-sigh- The bit you're missing is what has happened every single time in the past with the project - and I went through the entire team history.

Every time the team decided on a date historically, it was management saying 'we'd like it done by x', usually without actually consulting the devs to see whether it is feasible/practical/doable or not. This is where it starts.

Then when it doesn't happen, there are recriminations, guilt trips etc. and then developers decide that contributing to a volunteer project becomes worse less and less.

If you ask the devs what date they consider feasible, you might get a meaningful answer. However, in the build up to that date, there are going to be 'is it ready yet' questions and in the aftermath there are 'why is it not ready yet'. That's what happened every time in the past, that's what will happen in future. Which then makes you wonder why you bother with a date because everyone who is not a dev fixates on the date and harangues the devs to try and make that date.
Quote
But again, its not a black and white process, as a fellow Libran I am sure you see this, Kindred. :) It is a limit for everything though, and that limit has been crossed too many times in the SMF camp IMHO.
Me three ;) But yes, this is where we're at. Too many times it's happened and the fact there is this shock/horror response to it being brought up says almost as much in itself as to how much of a problem there is.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: colby67 on January 11th, 2013, 07:12 PM
Ah yes, dates, the horror of everyone that are trying to reach it I guess. But yes, it is useful, as in the people working towards it actually setting it(because they will most likely WANT it, why else are they there? If they are for other reasons it will soon show anyway)

Its not an easy solution to this when it comes to SMF(and all of us here have invested a lot of time too, to just easily skid away, still here, still arguing lmao :).) ...and it may be way too late overall. But at least know that all of the devs that left, that left BECAUSE of the team and not for personal reasons, didn't actually want to. But what can you do? The fun must be there, I don't particular like to feel bad when I join projects, I might if I MUST, in the case of RL work perhaps - but even then its some leeway towards saying "I can't work like this".

Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on January 11th, 2013, 07:15 PM
Quote
But at least know that all of the devs that left, that left BECAUSE of the team and not for personal reasons, didn't actually want to. But what can you do? The fun must be there, I don't particular like to feel bad when I join projects, I might if I MUST, in the case of RL work perhaps - but even then its some leeway towards saying "I can't work like this".
This. This, so much.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Kindred on January 11th, 2013, 07:23 PM
so... Bloc,  this has been asked before, but I have yet to see an actual meaningful answer - what would make the team fun again?.
(and the only answer is have really seen was "the devs are the only ones that count, everyone else needs to stfu and since you won't stfu, we're leaving" (and yes, someone said, essentially that))


I understand leaving a project because its not fun. That's why I resigned back last spring.
and the only reason I came back was because k@ and Liroy kept asking me to do so
(and aside from the copyright debacle, I have been trying to stay out of the politics, etc)


but... back to the question.
If the devs left because they weren't having fun... what would bring them back to have some fun?

Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on January 11th, 2013, 07:30 PM
I honestly don't know. There's been so much in the past that it's hard to actually imagine writing code for SMF that is fun any more, especially when I consider, for example, the comparative joy I have of writing code for Wedge to anything I ever wrote for SMF.

For example, I can go off and if I decide it's necessary, I can go away and rewrite core routines and do all kinds of crazy. I'm in the midst of rewriting the ban system, most of which doesn't look like it's been touched since 1.0 or 1.1 other than visual changes in 2.0's templates, and I decided I was going to up-end it and redesign it to cope with all the things I wanted to throw at it. Would I *ever* have been able to get away with that in, say, any part of the 2.1 development? None of it is 'strictly required' and being conservative was not on the agenda, it's a huge rewrite, and it's been a lot of fun in doing it.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Kindred on January 11th, 2013, 08:10 PM
Arantor...

and that's exactly what devs SHOULD be doing... in a semi-planned fashion.

As you say, it's a huge undertaking, so it would not have been proper for 2.1, which was determined (at the outset) to be a release with new functionality but somewhat limited in major revisions.
However, saying "I want to do this" and putting it in a path for 2.2 (or whetever the next major release would be) would be completely appropriate and I can't conceive that anyone on the team would try to stop you from doing that....
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on January 11th, 2013, 08:18 PM
That's the problem. You want to regiment it. But you can't regiment something that's creative, and that's why it's not fun.

In this particular case, I'd have been fighting tooth and nail for it to be included, because as far as I'm concerned, it's necessary. The complete redesign allows for three things that can't be done by an incremental change on the current setup - improved performance with many bans, proper IPv6 support and support for + filtering on emails. I also wanted to add the equivalent of annoy user, and refine all the interface to make all that sensible and efficient.

But essentially what you're saying is that I wouldn't be able to pursue something worthwhile because it doesn't fit within the conservative way of development. Even if it had been proposed at 2.1's outset, I'm not sure it would have been accepted for inclusion because 'if it isn't broken, it doesn't need fixing'.

Everything that's happened has been around incremental changes, not radical overhauls, and sometimes you just have to toss it all out and start again, and that's ultimately where the clash is.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Kindred on January 11th, 2013, 08:44 PM
Arantor...  I actually agree with that last statement....   And if it had been proposed at the start of 2.1, it may have been included... but 2.1 was, very purposefully and intentionally designed as as incremental, minor release. (muchly because of the timing, but also because Norv declared that she didn't think that ANY further development should be done on the 2.x line at all. Spuds and emanuele opted to step in and do some work on an incremental release (2.1) while the rets of the devs were SUPPOSED to be focused on SMC/3.0 (per their choice, not because the team said a word)
And I'll say, it was more than a good thing that they did that, considering where SMC has gone........

However, you seem to think that ANY restrictions are regimented...   while I would argue that - be as creative as you like - but we need to consider things other than pure creativity and SMF can not go another 5 years without a release.

Seriously, an iterative approach is pretty straight forward and good for the SMF plans...
work on things for 2.1 that can be done in the time and with the resources we have.
plan or work on things for future releases as determined by the workers.... when it comes time to think about a 2.2 (or 3.0, or whatever) then you step forward and say "HEY! I have this great update that I made to the ban system. Let's drop it into the next release!"
That way there is both organization AND creativity.

What you are doing with wedge is great. You and Nao are amazing coders and (despite any disagreements that I have had with you :P ) pretty decent guys, and wedge is awesome! ... but you're still working on alpha and you don't actually have any community of users to support - so it's a slightly different model from the mature product that SMF currently is.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on January 11th, 2013, 09:11 PM
See, here's the problem... I've been trying to figure out how to overhaul the ban system for that long. It's needed an overhaul and it's only now that I figured out how all the elements of it have to work together. The equivalent is saying at the start of 2.1 "Hey folks, we need to fix this, any ideas?"

I have the freedom to do the most insane things here - and if you read my notes on the package manager replacement, you'll know that some of them are pretty freaky indeed...
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so it's a slightly different model from the mature product that SMF currently is.
Mature or stale? :P That was a bit catty, wasn't it? True, we're not working on a currently stable release. But the goal is to refit enough that we can be 'stable' for a while without needing to get into major overhauls later on.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Kindred on January 11th, 2013, 09:18 PM
I hear what you are saying...   you can indeed do wild and crazy things without much thought for consequence or timeline right now...

SMF, on the other hand, DOES need to think about timelines. the gap between 1.1 and 2.0 almost killed it....  we all know that.
So, interim releases like 2.1 are necessary...
just like it is necessary to fix things that need to be updated (like the ban system)

Even in the model that I illustrated,  the devs have the freedom to do things like that...   the main difference is that the actual inclusion back into the trunk needs to be planned rather than just "done"
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on January 11th, 2013, 09:22 PM
I get where you're going, but sometimes you need to go wild and do crazy things even on incremental releases. Take 1.1 for example - the bbc parser was completely rewritten in what is conceptually an incremental upgrade, because it had to be. And if that isn't a wild and crazy thing, I don't know what is.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Kindred on January 11th, 2013, 09:50 PM
OK, I'll give you that...   and that can actually even be factored in by the dev going to the dev lead and saying "I've looked at this... and it really needs to be fixed". The Dev lead then goes to the SC and says "We have decided that X needs to be fixed in the next release. We expect this will push the plans out by at least 2 months"

See, there is still ROOM for creativity and even for last minute additions.
Heck, I do the same things even in my real business projects. The devs (or QA) comes to me and say "We found something that needs to be done" and, as PM, it's my job to communicate back to the customer (or management, if it's an internal project) that the date is going to slip, but it's for a good reason)

The whole idea is to START by working towards a plan, though...  That way, you have a goal, with an end "in sight"

I'll note - Agile/Incremental Sprint releases are even easier to handle this sort of thing (even though the SMF team has violently rejected any suggestion of agile) because you're working in much shorter timeframes than years or even months.
At the start of the sprint - what can you get done in a week? How about 2 weeks? Anything going to take more?
and then, as each sprint ends, you plan the next 1-2 weeks (plus anything ongoing left over from the previous sprint)
You draw form a list if things which should eventually be done (the backlog) and take what you can or want from the list, commit to an (estimated) timeframe and go with it.
Yes... we all know that people can't be HELD to a timeframe in this sort of project... but once again, working toward a goal means that you know where you are going and what you have promised to do (and so does everyone else in the sprint-team). and goals ca be adjusted much better in a 1-2 week sprint than in a 6 month push (when, at the end of 6 months, you suddenly find out that something wasn't done, or something got changed that should not have been)


Anyways... this is all just me rambling on what I *THINK* should be done or how it could be handled. I am (more or less happily) back down in the support ranks again and have no actual power to affect anything.  I'd just like to see
a- some developers come back or new ones start - with this sort of thing in mind
b- a strong PM and dev lead who will actually lead AND work together

(as opposed to what happened with me and Norv, where she wanted all the power and felt the PM should basically be a figurehead or what happened before where the PM tried to rule the project with an iron fist...  or what we have now, which is no good dev lead and (essentially) no PM.)  All of those models are wrong.

 
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on January 11th, 2013, 10:21 PM
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See, there is still ROOM for creativity and even for last minute additions.
Yes, there's room. But it's not fun. It's hard work, it's stress.

I just figured out what I was going to, I then set out a post saying that it was what I was doing, and kicked off on it while waiting for feedback - I already knew where I was going in general but deliberately allowed for feedback to change it. But there's not one or two layers of bureaucracy that I have to wait for before I can do anything - because I'm not going to burn time if I can help it on something that I might not be able to use.
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I'll note - Agile/Incremental Sprint releases are even easier to handle this sort of thing (even though the SMF team has violently rejected any suggestion of agile) because you're working in much shorter timeframes than years or even months.
And why? Agile is easily the most approachable form of development for something like this, IMHO. It allows people to make small and focused changes. If you look at the features I add, a large number of them are easily characterisable as agile.
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Anyways... this is all just me rambling on what I *THINK* should be done or how it could be handled. I am (more or less happily) back down in the support ranks again and have no actual power to affect anything.  I'd just like to see
a- some developers come back or new ones start - with this sort of thing in mind
b- a strong PM and dev lead who will actually lead AND work together
I won't argue that a is a huge problem. No-one with history wants to touch it with a barge pole, and there's not even anyone coming through with the maturity as well as the skills and experience to make that happen going forward. There are some wonderful folks coming through like Yoshi (because as much as he can irritate me at times, I can't fault him for enthusiasm, what he just needs is some structure to what he does, followed by a little maturity and a couple more good years at it), and then there are people like Lab.

b is a much bigger problem. Norv is very much one of the all-or-nothing people, and that's not going to work. I'm much more in the middle; I've never advocated the devs having *all* the say even if they're doing *all* the work, and that's the route we take - we have the main say but we do navigate the path of what people are suggesting too. I'm fairly certain we wouldn't be where we are without some of the discussions and ideas from outside 'us'.
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(as opposed to what happened with me and Norv, where she wanted all the power and felt the PM should basically be a figurehead or what happened before where the PM tried to rule the project with an iron fist...  or what we have now, which is no good dev lead and (essentially) no PM.)  All of those models are wrong.
Yup, no good model there. I agree on where SMF needs to be going, but because of all the past stuff, the only people who ever stood a chance of being the people SMF needs up top have been pushed out because they didn't fit the way things were going. I will admit to being one of these - at the time I left, Amacythe's power grab was just about to land, and all I've seen in the intervening time is essentially what amounts to closing ranks against the people who might make a difference.

The folks up top have to have charisma. They need to be people people as well as coder aware people; the lead dev needs to be a strong coder with a strong personality, while the PM needs to be a person with an even stronger personality, and ideally with some grounding in code, but I wouldn't make that a requirement. Ideally the PM should be an active contributor, not just from the sidelines - a PM that is a coder is almost ideal.

I think that's why Nao and I work as well as we do, because we're both essentially both roles. We do move back and forth between the two, but ultimately we cover both roles.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: colby67 on January 11th, 2013, 10:23 PM
Agreed with Arantor earlier up. I have made more progress on my own than when it was "set" where things must go within SMF. Sure, I made mistakes and thrown away whole weeks of code..but its fun still, since its going interesting places ..for me at least. And yes, its hard to fin what would give SMF back its appeal for devs..I have no quick answer and I suspect its like that for most that left too. Though I did because of the inner politics that was going on. You know, who will be the next president Cuz team leader and so on.

In fact, having all these badges and roles makes thing worse, IMO anyway, you get the sense you are less worth. Get rid of those first. Second, let the freedom roam, you already have a stable release in the 2.0 line. Let people - especially devs but anyone that dare and at least have some abilities to actually achieve what they put forth - roam free, let them have the equivalent of Github even, so its actually fun for everyone. Sure, there will be total missed directions, but also happy people. Come together, get the feel for what could be added to next release and go on. No "leaders", no "board" and certainly no looking down on support/docs/xyz that does other tasks. Kindred, you are doing just that now, by saying" i have no power, I am down in the support ranks"..why is that? Its because you created this hierarchy system that makes people see other people as "boss", even if they are vastly more capable.You cheering who's the best "talker/manager", not the best "do'er/creative".

But back to what to do: if devs need to rewrite sections in order to make major improvements, allow time for that, for those necessary bigger directions: let the devs make it their "own" instead of just saying "guys, its 2 years, get a grip on feature xy". It won't work for long, since theres no incentive for those people, as in pursuing their own ideas. Its what brought them there, sharing a vision of bettering SMF/Wedge/xyz..

Sure, deadlines are nice to discuss and put forth, but again, you are not managing people that work for a pay. :) Thats a huge difference, and in that setting I feel theres no need for "managers" at all. Those skills are wasted on it.

Thats my 2 cents of it anyway. You may and prob. will disagreed lol. But then again I can say it worked(its what I did with the TP team for 4-5 years, at least what I tried to do) while SMF team cannot.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Suki on January 12th, 2013, 12:38 AM
I usually don't like to vent stuff but I will not allow people to go talking so lightly about my persona.
Quote from Kindred on January 11th, 2013, 05:30 AM
and, as far as I know, no one on the team has done so since then either. So, my only conclusion as to why the recent devs have left is that either they are childish gits who are so full of themselves that they can not conceive that anyone should be able to even suggest that there might be a good idea outside of their own minds (a possibility, I admit)... or (which is more likely) the whole thing is based on a series of misunderstandings and overreactions which folks are either too embarrassed or too stubborn to discuss.
Yes... we all are a buch of egocentric bastards:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp4Np_0zcw4

The vid is hilarious... I love Steve Nash :D

BTW, I didn't left because of supporting Norv... I left because you keep trying to run things like a corporation and fail to realize that SMF is an open source project now.
I left because you only want to survive by releasing 2..2, 2.3, 2.4 ad so on... going around in circles with the same old codebase that cannot be expanded any further (do note that I said "expanded" and not "refactored").
i left because, what did you call me? oh yeah, a poisonous people and you were suppose to replace me with some other person who can work under your command.. I'm still waiting as I'm eager to meet my replacement :P
And lastly, I left because no one actually saw me as a dev, even in this whole convo... I was never approached when the whole Norv thing imploded, never approached to do anything, heck, I wasn't even approached when Dialogo started... talking about feeling like a complete outkast... neither of both sides wanted me :P  so thats why I decided to work on my own, to let people know what I'm capable of...

I didn't left because I think I'm better than you... or anyone else in the team either...
I didn't left because I don't want everyone to say how I should code (I lost count on how many times I told everyone that I was OK with SMF team members telling me what to do. do note I said SMF and not SM ;) )

I tried to give SMF some directions (currently there is none...), I was fully aware that SMF couldn't survive my plan, however, I also gave ideas on how to reduce that long period of time... this wasn't revolutionary ideas... all of then was plain and simple open source ideas that has been used by countless of projects for decades... what did I get? You're wrong, not even a feasible explanation on why I was suppose to be wrong at...

SMF is dead, the only capable person is there out of pity, I told you a gazillion times how to attract new external blood, how to be more open, how to embrace a truly open source path but you keep thinking SM needs to control everything and every aspect...

The way you envisioned further development of the 2.0 code will effectively gonna place SMF in an "undead" phase, not dead but not live either, just hanging around, viewing the years pass by, going nowhere...

I just wanted to clear that out as I hate people talking a one side story...

Oh, BTW, I started on support, moved to Cust, did a lot of documentation in Spanish, a good portion of the Spanish_latin language  was done by me...  so yeah, I'm not a codemonkey only nor am I the egocentric bastard you think all devs are...
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Oracle on January 12th, 2013, 12:38 AM
Seems to me that the underlying issue with all this stems from peoples DIFFERENCES OF OPINION in all areas of development / management. Resulting in feelings of rejection, questions of self worth, challenges of ego, beliefs that one persons ideas are far better than another's and so on. And the fact that no resolve is possible purely because you simply cant please everyone!

And the fact that there is no real mechanism that's in place to ensure things are being handled so as to foster enthusiasm and @ the same time provide the necessary timelines or goals that are generally seen to be prerequisites for any operation either small or large.

Having to cater for everyone's whim is one thing that SMF is stuck with and it becomes infinitely harder as the team expands whereas in Wedges case less people result in fewer clashes of opinion. Things can be discussed and resolved in a timely fashion without encountering the red tape and personality clashes that are prevalent in a larger scale operation.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: colby67 on January 12th, 2013, 12:58 AM
True, the less people the less friction ..at least on an idealistic level. But it can work with more people too. its just to be agreed upon certain ground rules, and of those one HAS to be "equal worth". Yes, people will have opinions, but person A is more likely to go along with person B's ideas, if the same is returned. Too often it has been one way street.

I cannot understand the fear of "breaking" SMF so to speak..why could not the work being done in forks now, have been done inside SMF too? It would make a lot of sense if SMF embraced forking, or rather "directions" instead of trying to follow a "safe" path and alienate everything else(which is even done mostly by ex-SMF people lol).

What can be really done to SMF now? Isn't it all that it can be asked of a forum already? I belive it is, so to improve it has to be changed, maybe majorly. Its a risk..but so was starting SMF in the first place too.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on January 12th, 2013, 01:04 AM
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Yes... we all are a buch of egocentric bastards:
Yes, of course we are. That's the point. Non devs, generally, don't get it. Ego is part of what we do, and if you don't have a strong ego, fair chances your code isn't that strong either. The problem is when ego starts writing checks that your skills can't cash.
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I left because you keep trying to run things like a corporation and fail to realize that SMF is an open source project now.
This in spades. It's interesting to note that a few weeks ago I had this argument with people who aren't even team members, trying to explain why it couldn't be run like a corporation.
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i left because, what did you call me? oh yeah, a poisonous people and you were suppose to replace me with some other person who can work under your command.. I'm still waiting as I'm eager to meet my replacement
There are a number of talented devs who've come through the SMF doors. Interesting how none of them are sticking around. We can't all be poisonous. I know I can be but usually only after eating too many sprouts.
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And lastly, I left because no one actually saw me as a dev, even in this whole convo... I was never approached when the whole Norv thing imploded, never approached to do anything, heck, I wasn't even approached when Dialogo started... talking about feeling like a complete outkast... neither of both sides wanted me :P  so thats why I decided to work on my own, to let people know what I'm capable of...
I deliberately skirted round dragging you into this, because I wasn't sure what you were doing and didn't want to drag you back into the madhouse if you'd escaped and weren't interested in being part of the madhouse.

Dialogo/Elkarte is a very specific beast. I haven't joined because I don't want to crowd them, though I commented on a few things on Github. It has certain roads it is going to walk down, lead by Norv. They're roads I don't particularly care to share, but that's down to me. I do get the impression that you might feel happier staying out of it, though.
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I tried to give SMF some directions (currently there is none...),
There has been a tremendous lack of direction for years. The sad part is that the phase we're in now is possibly one of the more phases of direction it's *had* in years. At least it has some kind of direction.
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You're wrong, not even a feasible explanation on why I was suppose to be wrong at...
There are none so blind as those who will not see.
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Oh, BTW, I started on support, moved to Cust, did a lot of documentation in Spanish, a good portion of the Spanish_latin language  was done by me...  so yeah, I'm not a codemonkey only nor am I the egocentric bastard you think all devs are...
Yup, another for the list of people who came up through the ranks and put their time into various things.


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Seems to me that the underlying issue with all this stems from peoples DIFFERENCES OF OPINION in all areas of development / management. Resulting in feelings of rejection, questions of self worth, challenges of ego, beliefs that one persons ideas are far better than another's and so on. And the fact that no resolve is possible purely because you simply cant please everyone!
Some of the differences of opinion are just that - simple differences in opinion, and that's what makes life so interesting. But there's differences of opinion, and DIFFERENCES OF OPINION. It comes back to something I've observed a great many times - that people don't know how to communicate very well.

There are things I've done, and things Nao's done that we've individually disliked the other going off and doing. But even though I might disagree with what he did or he disagrees with what I'm doing, there's always respect, and there's always an understanding that the disagreements are not personal.

Extrapolating this a bit, I see a lot of arguments where people don't seem to be able to handle disagreeing with an idea vs ignoring an idea. If I make an observation about the characteristics of something, that's fine. If it disagrees with where you want to take it, also fine - but when you're taking it where you're taking it, be sure to take what I've said into account. It may change your direction, it might not, but you can explain that you disagree with me without making me feel like it was a waste of my time introducing my observations. This is something lacking in a lot of arguments.

I disagree, for example, with how SMF is implementing hooks in SMF 2.1. I've explained my concerns with the proposals, and that's fine. They can still do it how they were going to do it, and that's also fine. But if they run into the problems I outlined, I'm not going to be very impressed if they start whining about it when they get there. It's the proverbial "I told you so" moment, and it's not even a smug triumphant one, but an understated and sanguine one.
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Having to cater for everyone's whim is one thing that SMF is stuck with and it becomes infinitely harder as the team expands whereas in Wedges case less people result in fewer clashes of opinion. Things can be discussed and resolved in a timely fashion without encountering the red tape and personality clashes that are prevalent in a larger scale operation.
This is part of the problem. Kindred seems to be labouring under the idea that devs don't care about team input, which is a long way short of reality, but there you go. The problem is when everyone on the team seems to believe their opinion is as valid as the devs - so that what the other team members say should be done gets prioritised.

Here's the thing. When we introduce new ideas and concepts, we introduce them but we don't entirely open the floor. We open the floor for feedback, discussion and so on, but it's not likely that what ends up getting written will be too far from what was discussed. This is an example of what I'm on about - I'll open the floor, let people have their say and take it into account when polishing it - even if I don't agree with where they're trying to take it. SMF hasn't learned that ability yet.
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I cannot understand the fear of "breaking" SMF so to speak..why could not the work being done in forks now, have been done inside SMF too? It would make a lot of sense if SMF embraced forking, or rather "directions" instead of trying to follow a "safe" path and alienate everything else(which is even done mostly by ex-SMF people lol).
Because SMF is too conservative. SMF with a gallery built in? What fresh hell is this?! It's also something I've found very ironic - that SMF chose to have freedom but it refuses to embrace it with all that goes with it.

Wedge is one direction, Elkarte is another, bloQS is another. These may be partially or completely mutually exclusive - so SMF does nothing and sits with what is safe. But the rest of us do something not safe, but what we learned from the journey, we're not encouraged to share, and in some cases have been actively discouraged from so doing. It's like they embraced the name of freedom but not the spirit somehow, which is a shame.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: colby67 on January 12th, 2013, 01:21 AM
True, its conservative and in a way I can understand that, to maintain stability. But it should still be able to experiment within. The problem I guess, are the people..or rather the people that feel they should decide where SMF is going. So, the only way out is the fork. :D
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Kindred on January 12th, 2013, 02:40 AM
do note Suki....  my main point was not the "over ego crap" that was the lead in to:
... or (which is more likely) the whole thing is based on a series of misunderstandings and overreactions which folks are either too embarrassed or too stubborn to discuss.

And as for running it like a corporation, you are actually mistaken there (and I never called YOU a poisonous personality, afaik)
we run SM like a corporation (because, it is) and the project gets run as a project. That's what you seem to have always failed to see - the separation between the project and the corporation. (and that's what I always saw you getting upset about, actually - in your confusion, you assumed that corporate crap was aimed at you - when it never actually was.)

When the whole Norv thing imploded, I didn't approach anyone. I raised the issue or what happened as an issue - but I'm not in charge any more (thank gods) and I let those who are in charge deal with it (poorly, as it turns out, but that can hardly be blamed on me)
 
As for "true open source path" and "control"... did you even both to read my actual posts?   What I laid out was not about control in any way, shape or form...   it was about giving the people on the dev team the room they need while still giving the rest of the team the voice that they crave (without interfering with the actual development)  Where the FUCK is the control in that?

and Arantor...   I think that way about the devs because the batch of devs we had prior to Spuds, emanuele and Suki did state exactly that... Actually, even one of the recent devs (IchBin) said exactly that.  I have always held up Spuds, emanuele (and to a lesser extent Suki) as models of how the devs can and should work with the team(s).

Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Suki on January 12th, 2013, 04:41 AM
I fail to realize SMF having no directions, no head,  no path to follow and overall no future beyond the 2.1 scope can be labeled as "overreacting, misunderstandings and been too stubborn"...

At least for me and my point of view, those misunderstandings are the least of your problems... you have no plans, no future, no devs and whats worse, you refuse to treat SMF as an open source project where meritocracy plays an important role and where the dev community construct the software and the team is there to conduct that dev community.

Let me refresh your mind then, there is or there was a topic in Marketing board which you started, out of pure feeling of the moment if you want, where you stated you wanted to replace the current devs or at least the ones who were creating drama at that moment, with new people ready to work under what you think is the best approach for SMF. An approach that just doesn't work...

The reason why 2.1 is where it is is not because of your plan...

Is because Spuds and Ema endured a lot of things for the sake of releasing 2.1...
Is because SMF did have an incredible luck finding those 2.
There was a straight of luck, nothing else, nothing more, an opportunity that will only repeat once in a million years, thats how incredible lucky you were when Spuds and Ema both at the same time, decided to work on 2.1 and had the will and had the knoloae and had the desire and had the patience, all at the same time... without the combination of all those factors, there wouldn't be a 2.1, there wouldn't be any SM... thats how important devs are but you keep treating them as cattle...

Please do search my comments in team boards, find the comment I made months ago about how important Spuds and Ema were for SM (and how you took my comment so lightly...) and that the whole white elephant rely on those 2 fragile shoulders and when the day come when they finally can't stand that heavy load, your holy organization will tremble...  don't want to say I told you so because what I said was nothing new and I actually feel bad that my words become true as I didn't want to but was inevitable...

I'm sorry but your prettified comments here don't match your words inside team boards... gotta be congruent or at least show half the predetermination you show here... because you didn't show me any sighs of predetermination when I told my plans for SMF... dunno if its because this is a public board or neutral ground or what, don't care either because as soon as you go back to private boards, you completely change your speech.

You say you are not in charge and yet you act as someone who is in charge... patronizing everything and everyone who dares to have a different opinion, didn't you mentioned that you know exactly how I think (and act) because you have managed paid codemonkeys for 20-something years?

Heres a protip: $paidDev != $opensourceDev  since AFAIK, SMF doesn't have any paid devs (I remember I do joked about outsourcing the dev team to China and as things currently are, it wouldn't surprise me if the holy SM heads decide to do that...), your gazillion years of experience with paid codemonkeys means absolutely 0 on an open source organization, please stop trying to force that mentality on SMF, you are hurting the project more than you are helping it...

All those words I said months ago are becoming a reality now... as sad as that statement is.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Kindred on January 12th, 2013, 05:20 AM
Suki,

as far as I know, I have not changed my tune at all.  I may have expressed it more clearly here because there is less baggage involved... but the plan that I suggested above has been my intention to express all along. Some of it probably got lost in the accusations and other crap.

I never said that "I know exactly how you think and act".
I said that despite accusations to the contrary, I do understand developers.
(and actually no...  you are wrong. paid devs and open source devs are not actually very different. The main difference is that paid devs have to worry about targets because they lose their jobs if they miss too many dates. Open Source devs on the other hand do it because they want to. (see I do understand the difference).  What you don't seem to get is that the entire attitude behind a developer is pretty much the same - paid or volunteer.
What I don't understand is not the devs specifically, but the accusations and crap slung by certain former devs despite the fact that I can not actually seem to find one instance where anyone told them what to do or how to code or forced them to code anything.


And no... at this point, I am not acting as someone in charge. I am acting like someone who thinks he might have some ideas and can express them without being perceived as forcing them on anyone since I have no power to enforce them. Some people on the team listen to me because of the former position I held... but I make no pretense to have any power.
My call to the team suggesting new devs did not have anything to do with getting devs "to work under me" but rather getting some devs who would work WITH the team (at the time I hoped with Spuds and emanuele)

And finally... I never, ever ever tried to take ANY credit for 2.1. **ALL** of that credit goes to emanuele and spuds (with some to you as well). I have been saying THAT from day 1 ever since they stood up to Norv and said "yes, we need a 2.1 release and we'll do it".



So I am not sure what grudge you have against me...  but chill out. I have been frustrated with you and your attitude at times, but I have never called you one of the gits or poison people or anything of the sort. I am not patronizing. I happen to be blunt and unpolitic... yup most certainly. I call things as I see them (which may or may not be correct and may or may not be as you see them) and I do not mince words. Actually, Arantor and I are actually fairly similar in that. :P
Don't assume that bluntness = patronizing, because it does not and was not in my case.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on January 12th, 2013, 05:48 AM
Quote
Don't assume that bluntness = patronizing, because it does not and was not in my case.
Don't forget there is also a language and cultural barrier at play. I'm British, sarcasm and passive aggression are vital survival skills here. I'm not sure where Suki's from but Spanish seems to be her main language, so what might be considered patronising to an English speaker might be construed as a personal attack to someone who has English as a second language. I can see at times how that might be the case.
Quote
All those words I said months ago are becoming a reality now... as sad as that statement is.
The really sad part is that this is nothing new. These same arguments have been running for years in one form or another, and I'm glad you've said the above - because it was only a matter of time before I started saying much the same things, though perhaps with a little more subtlety ;) Though, you've hit all the nails on the head with the problems SMF has.

One man does not make a team, and it's not really down to specific statements from any individuals - and that's where it really grates, is because it's so subtle, but so present. It is a closing of ranks, of stonewalling, and similar behaviours - but you have to be on the other side of it to realise it's going on. I suspect half the time the people doing it don't even realise they're doing it.

There are events I won't go into about political machinations, even down to someone admitting to me that they had had a hand in rigging team leader elections by 'encouraging' people to vote in certain lines with the intent of pushing the project forward. I mention this because it is the sort of behaviour that got things to where they are - non-visible signs of people acting with an agenda that serves to close ranks.


There is a sad corollary to this tale. Earlier on today someone who saw this thread, who shall remain nameless (save for the fact they are outside the SMF team), suggested that I step up to the plate as SMF dev, because I have the skills, I have the ability and you KNOW I'm not going to stand for this kind of crap. I said no to the person suggesting it, mostly because I'm far happier with Wedge, but that's really the sort of change that's needed now.

I think the only way to make SMF work is for someone with the skills, the time, and the balls to tell the management to get stuffed when it counts, to step up as lead dev. Ema's too nice for that, Lab doesn't have the skills or experience for it. I don't particularly want the job either because I'd much rather not have to split my time between SMF and Wedge, but if SMF is going to be saved, it's going to take someone like me to do it, someone with the charisma to engage people and motivate, someone with the skills to put their money where their mouth is and someone who ultimately can deliver in spite of management.

The person who suggested this course of action also suggested that perhaps the only way to save SMF is for Wedge to become SMF 3.0 - it is after all a natural conclusion to come to and it's been rather understated.

I think it's fairly clear to say that that isn't going to happen, but not because I'd veto it (I'm not entirely sure how Nao feels on the subject). The Wedge brand is growing, and we're happy with what we have here, and I only dread to think how much work would be required in renaming it back, not to mention engineering everything from 2.1 into Wedge (since we haven't adopted SCEditor or anything, though I'm sorely tempted to), not to mention the freedom that being here gives me that being at SMF wouldn't, as previously discussed. This is assuming I could put my personal pride aside, and my ego, but that's my problem, not SMF's.

There's your answer, folks. SMF will wither and fail after 2.1 unless it can recruit some serious talent, but there's no talent up to scratch coming up through the community, and the only talent that has the skills has sufficiently been alienated by past history that they'd never take up the mantle. Once bitten, twice shy and all that.

It's on a knife edge, and it may yet be saved, but I think something akin to a divine intervention is what's needed. There are people who could help, but they need reaching out to, and they're going to need assurances that it won't be like before - and they won't be ready to believe you. But as I see it, that's the only real future prospects SMF has.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Kindred on January 12th, 2013, 06:03 AM
actually, you and I are in complete agreement on that, Arantor.

I'd love to see you as lead dev. :)  I know you don't want it but I'd love it. :)
As I said above (and you agreed)
We need a good dev lead who can motivate a team (and bring others in) and is charismatic and has a strong enough personality to work with the team while holding his/her own (in other words, not total domination, but forward LEADERSHIP)
You are right... emanuele, as wonderful as he is, is too nice (might come from still being young and not as cynical as us old fogeys)
spuds was a consideration, but he's too sensitive. He doesn't have a thick enough skin... and the same goes for Suki.
Lab does not have the skills, knowledge or personality to do it.
We also need a PM who has many of the same characteristics.

Honestly, I don't think we've had a lead dev who falls into that category since unknown left...
we've had a few who came close, but were chased out because they were strong during a time when certain folks did not want strong team leaders.

Orstio would be great to get back... :)
TE might be able to handle it.
You (arantor) could... as could Nao, but you're (understandably) busy with wedge
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: dwc on January 12th, 2013, 06:04 AM
Wow.  One dev at SMF???????????????

That makes me feel warm and fuzzy.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Suki on January 12th, 2013, 06:06 AM
Yes you act as someone in charge... you were one of only two people who blatantly rejected all my ideas... even though you aren't on the steering committee. You push your way of thinking on others... and if there is someone who happens to stand against it, you don't like it and push more aggressively. Thats the "grudge" against you... What Kindred says it gets done...

What attitude do I have?  didn't I told you gazillion of times that I didn't mind to work for the team?
Didn't I heard all your "you are wrong" responses and provided alternatives?

Who is the stubborn? I told my ideas, you told me that smf didn't survive... I then took your advice and provide alternatives... but you didn't provide any alternatives to my advices....  just a "you're wrong"... how can I keep a discussion if the convo is just one way and the other is a wall full of "you're wrong" ?

I had refuted your arguments without the need to curse or saying "you are wrong". You, you haven't change a single bit, hard to get an agreement if you still believe you are always right.

It is funny that you haven't said anything about the future of SMF and keep focusing on the misunderstanding and the "devs been forced" when I haven't said anything about me been forced to code. I wished I was forced, at least that would had made me feel like part of the dev team...  I had so many ideas and hopes for SMF, neither of both sides listened to me or just directly tagged me as a drama queen and automatically assumed that all my messages where drama, thus, bypassing them.

Either way, SMF is not of my business anymore, I just wanted to told my reasons for leaving and nothing more, what happens to SMF doesn't concern me. I have no desires to go back to keep talking to the you're wrong wall and watch all my ideas been crushed for no reason.

Even if I don't want to, I have a first class seat to watch the titanic slowly sink... it has begun and people on it haven't even realize... they are indeed too stubborn (kinda remind me the scene there the first class family doesn't want to accept the fact that the ship is sinking and refuse to wear the lifesavers...) is one of those things that you don't want to watch but you do it anyway because of the morbid factor.

And no, I didn't commit any code to 2.1, didn't had the chance to actually submit my branches, all I did was some minor changes on things that bothered me while creating mods.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Kindred on January 12th, 2013, 06:17 AM
Suki, I think you have misunderstood... and I guess the only thing I can point a finger at would be a language/cultural barrier.

To the best of my knowledge, the majority of my "you are wrong" statements were because you kept confusing the project with the organization.
I don't view disagreement with me as a "grudge" nor do I believe that makes someone "wrong" (although, I like to believe that I am right more often than wrong, myself :P)

 So, again, I am unclear on where this is coming from. People have every right to disagree with me...  Arantor does frequently :P

Since rejoining the team, I have been involved in attempting to correct misunderstandings or wrong thinking regarding the organization and, with the exception of the copyright issues and trying to make the team realize that, with devs leaving, we need to figure out a way to get more, I have pretty much stayed out of interteam crap.

(side note, I mostly swear for additional emphasis, because there is no other good way to convey such a tone on the internet)
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on January 12th, 2013, 06:19 AM
If you don't see disagreements as a Grudge, do you see them as a Thantos or an Orstio? :P

/mewaits for the joke to go flying overhead and land with a splat.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Kindred on January 12th, 2013, 06:46 AM
rotfl... thanks, I needed that.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Suki on January 12th, 2013, 06:53 AM
Quote
Suki, I think you have misunderstood... and I guess the only thing I can point a finger at would be a language/cultural barrier.
No. And please do not use that lame excuse.

I find it amusing that the "language barrier" card only comes out when arguing, never on other instances, for example, you did understood my plans for 3.0 right? yo did understood my plans for the mod development boards program right?  you did understood when I created the cust team leader open candidatures right? you did understood all my ideas for the new cust site right? all the people who I offer support to, all the mod authors I exchange pms to, none of them ever told me anything...   I guess they are all equally bad as me...

How come now suddenly my understanding of English language become so low that I wrongly interpret everything you write?  I  fail to realize that... must be a language/culture barrier LOL

You were the one who said I had a grudge against you... not I. I have no grudge against anyone.
You are the one who keeps bringing the corp - project issue when I haven't said anything about it.
Quote
To the best of my knowledge, the majority of my "you are wrong" statements were because you kept confusing the project with the organization.
Put that aside please, you are the only one who had mentioned that. Do focus on why didn't you provided any constructive criticism for my ideas for SMF 3.0... that was an "interteam crap" and yet you were soo stubborn and soo participative... it somehow doesn't match with what you said: " I have pretty much stayed out of interteam crap."  ;)

You keep avoiding the bullet, the issue is not the silly misunderstandings or if devs are divas or not... the issue is SMF is headless and has absolutely no future, there will always be divas and there will always be misunderstandings, you keep giving too much attention to those little details hoping that the bigger ones will magically disappear.

I don't need to curse to bring any force to my words... my words alone are strong enough to stand for their own.

But alas... it is all a language/culture issue... there you go, problem solved... now if you excuse me, I got a movie to watch before going to bed.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Kindred on January 12th, 2013, 07:01 AM
ummm... I didn't post on your 3.0 plans because I have no opinion on them
Yup... I btought up the corp versus project stuff because THAT was the stuff which you posted on that I commented on. I had no opinion on your other stuff and thus did not post.


As for why I bring up the language/culture thing?   Well, because you so consistantly misinterpret what I say that it is either willful or just because you are not understanding what I am saying. (and, since you have such a good grasp of English, otherwise it has to be cultural, neh pas?)

and you might note that the past few posts, Arantor and I have been saying the exact same thing. SMF needs two solid, strong leaders. one for dev and one as PM.


Also, the curse words are another cultural thing.  I am a new englander american. We use curse words as emphasis, as commentary and to express incredulity...   it's a part of our culture up here. I actually use such much more in spoken conversations than in written (as do most of my associates). Thus reinforcing my belief that there has to be a cultural gap here...

I'm watching re-runs of knight rider, myself. :)
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Suki on January 12th, 2013, 07:21 AM
Quote
Also, the curse words are another cultural thing.  I am a new englander american. We use curse words as emphasis, as commentary and to express incredulity...   it's a part of our culture up here. I actually use such much more in spoken conversations than in written (as do most of my associates). Thus reinforcing my belief that there has to be a cultural gap here...
I'm sorry, but cursing is an universal thing, I'm surrounded by people who can only speak while cursing every 2 words, the fact that I chose not to curse doesn't mean all the people in my country do the same... and as a sociologist I'm pretty aware of that, thank you very much.
Quote
Yup... I btought up the corp versus project stuff because THAT was the stuff which you posted on that I commented on. I had no opinion on your other stuff and thus did not post.
I didn't ask for your opinion, I asked if you understood me (assuming you did read any of those topics). I used all of those to make an example (to demonstrate the language barrier card only comes out when arguing) and yet you misunderstood me completely... awesome!
Quote
Well, because you so consistantly misinterpret what I say that it is either willful or just because you are not understanding what I am saying.
I'm sorry, what part exactly did I misunderstood?
Quote
and you might note that the past few posts, Arantor and I have been saying the exact same thing. SMF needs two solid, strong leaders. one for dev and one as PM.
So? everyone knows that... the key is how to get those 2 people and how you (you as in you guys, not you as singular) had those 2 people (2 devs) and now they are gone.

Again, not my business, now that I explained why I left (you did understood that right?), I have nothing to do here or at smf.org  for that matter.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Kindred on January 12th, 2013, 07:29 AM
Actually, curse words is not a universal thing. If I spoke as I usually do when I was down in the southern US, they would be shocked and dismayed.
Same with many of the japanese hat I have dealt with...
I probably should watch my language a little more closely (and I used to do so), but, as everyone is so fond of pointing out, volunteer projects are not corporate business.

So, I don't know about your specific folks... But we use invective words in every day language around here...
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Suki on January 12th, 2013, 07:41 AM
facepalm*

Kindred,

Every culture has its own way of cursing, your cursing might be different from mine or from the Japanese people but it is cursing nonetheless.

I curse when talking with my friends.
I do not curse when talking with someone at work.

I'm pretty sure you do the same.
The same curse I use here don't have any effect on people from a different state or they will be shocked and dismayed too... the same example you provide works here too.

Me refusing to curse has nothing to do with language manners in a workplace, and I too use cursing as a way to make emphasis just the same as you, I deliberately don't curse when posting because I see no need to make emphasis for my words via cursing.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: live627 on January 12th, 2013, 07:48 AM
/mewants his time back which was wasted by reading this thread.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Suki on January 12th, 2013, 07:55 AM
Quote from live627 on January 12th, 2013, 07:48 AM
/mewants his time back which was wasted by reading this thread.
Took me .1 seconds to read yours, we are even now.



In resume, Kindred, all possible examples you might want to give can be applied where I live too, can be applied on Kamchatka peninsula, Nigeria or Japan... doesn't matter... sure, every culture has it's own way to define where cursing is acceptable, but all of them has a common ground, a ground that can be traced back to the very first languages and the need to express yourself.

Anyhow, I did asked what exactly did I misunderstood, I got no response. :^^;:
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Kindred on January 12th, 2013, 08:06 AM
Hmmm... We'll have to disagree on your commentary of cursing. ;)
I have studied etymology, not sociology, but it shows a somewhat different perception.
:p

as for what you have  misunderstood...
Well, you accused me of telling you that you were wrong all the time, of calling you a poison personality and several other things...  None of which I actually did. The only time, that I can recall saying that oh were wrong, consistently, was when you had commentary on the org versus project.
Oh yes, and you basically said that devs leaving SMF is all my fault, because I demand control over them...  Which is also untrue.
Hmmm... What else? Oh... That i perceive a grudge when people disagree with me.

Did I miss any of your accusations?
Basically, you seem to have a very bizarre and mistaken view of me.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: colby67 on January 12th, 2013, 11:53 AM
How you are as a person I don't think is too relevant lo, after all you(Kindred) did lead the process after the break with the old SMF team - and for that SMF was better no doubt.

But yeah, a dev like Arantor would be helpful in regaining SMF to forward motion again. But one dev cannot do it all, thats why when Grudge, Unknown and Compuart was around, things happened and happened fast. 3 devs IMHO is the least you should have..but save for Nao(which prob. wont be interested), who could that be? that won't stand for BS, still want to work with it and have the necessary skills? And not to mention people that can work with other areas than just core code. I humbly point at the fact that SMF is still using the same theme(even 2.1 is more or less the same,save for the framing) as in 2007-2008. There simply are NO designers left on the team lol. Not any you appoint making a brand new default theme anyway.

As sad it is, I too can only acknowledge that SMF time is slowly dwindling away and that while one of its forks *might* make it, i fear it will never gain the same success as SMF was when it came out. Part the present circumstances, but also a big part how internet users have changed recent years. Forums aren't the only arena for discussion anymore, it might even be the smallest for all I know(and suspect).
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Suki on January 12th, 2013, 02:26 PM
Quote from Kindred on January 12th, 2013, 08:06 AM
Hmmm... We'll have to disagree on your commentary of cursing. ;)
I have studied etymology, not sociology, but it shows a somewhat different perception.
:p

as for what you have  misunderstood...
Well, you accused me of telling you that you were wrong all the time, of calling you a poison personality and several other things...  None of which I actually did. The only time, that I can recall saying that oh were wrong, consistently, was when you had commentary on the org versus project.
Oh yes, and you basically said that devs leaving SMF is all my fault, because I demand control over them...  Which is also untrue.
Hmmm... What else? Oh... That i perceive a grudge when people disagree with me.

Did I miss any of your accusations?
Basically, you seem to have a very bizarre and mistaken view of me.
I never said devs left because of you...  I stated my reasons, my personal own reasons, not the entire dev team ones...
One of my reasons is you (and the other one who curse every 2 words) wanting to keep expanding the old 2.0 branch... and release minor releases every X months to keep people happy and SMF barely alive... isn't that true?

You were the only 2 people who stud against my idea, both of you didn't actually had any kind of power within SMF directions, you aren't in the steering committee and the other one isn't even a SMF team member, he is on servers team, an organizational team with no powers over SMF the project. There were other people who didn't like my idea (Motoko for example), all of them aren't team members either but NPO members and yet they manage to have enough authority to decide the direction of a project that was promised autonomy. :^^;:

Not a single truly SMF team member (you know, the ones who can actually say they disagree with me) even had the chance to comment on my ideas...

As for the poisonous comment,
I was one of the devs that raised hell back then and you said you wanted to remove those, it is only natural to assume I was included on those poisonous people, and yes, don't lie, you actually said "poisonous" your actual words, not invented by me, don't sugarcoated your words just because this is a public board please.

Please do quote my first response on that topic, the one where I said I won't comment on the actual idea of replacing people like cattle (because I thought it was a monstrosity) and instead gave you ideas on how to attract new blood. All those ideas were simply dismissed...

I also said your actions and opinions drove SMF into the undead state it currently is right now, not completely dead but not alive either. Can hardly labeled that as an accusation when all you need to do is go to the smf github page and see the empty 3.0 repo, the lack of external people really interested on commit code to SMF and the lack off devs reviewing the few commits (oh how much are you gonna miss Ema!) every now and then people directly or indirectly related to SMF occasionally send.

And no, I don't have any opinion of you as a person.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: TE on January 12th, 2013, 07:23 PM
Quote from Kindred on January 12th, 2013, 07:01 AM
and you might note that the past few posts, Arantor and I have been saying the exact same thing. SMF needs two solid, strong leaders. one for dev and one as PM.
Compuart and Amacythe :whistle:
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on January 12th, 2013, 07:24 PM
You have a twisted sense of humour, TE :P
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Anthony` on January 12th, 2013, 07:41 PM
I think this is quite an important topic not because all the arguments but because of the points that are being made here. Now that people are starting to expose some differences in opinion and what's been going on behind the scenes at SMF, it becomes apparent on some things that definitely should be changed. I think there are some arguments on change that can be made effective to SMF and ones that probably will come in this topic too... But the question is: Will this thread just be here to throw around ideas and arguments or will these ideas actually be implemented to help steer SMF in a (hopefully) new, positive direction?
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on January 12th, 2013, 07:54 PM
I don't think that matters so much. I think there is an understanding on both sides as to what is needed, but the fundamental change most needed isn't going to happen: getting great people up top running the show. We even agree on what traits are necessary, but people who are known in the community as having the necessary things don't want the job. Which means recruiting outside the community, which is nigh on impossible.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Anthony` on January 12th, 2013, 08:18 PM
Quote from Arantor on January 12th, 2013, 07:54 PM
I don't think that matters so much. I think there is an understanding on both sides as to what is needed, but the fundamental change most needed isn't going to happen: getting great people up top running the show. We even agree on what traits are necessary, but people who are known in the community as having the necessary things don't want the job. Which means recruiting outside the community, which is nigh on impossible.
Right, but do you think people (or atleast you) would come back with a new change in the politics?

Of course, having reform of the entire organization (not how I don't want to call it a corporation) would be pretty much impossible because of the way people are; they don't want to put up with people they have disagreed with in the past and they probably wouldn't want to continue. I think the biggest problem is the people in charge vs. the people who can move SMF forward as a competitive product because let's face it: the developers are the ones with the time, energy, passion, and skills to push out great updates, while the people in charge need to do their jobs in making sure the project runs smoothly. Since the developers don't want to come back, and the people in charge probably don't want them back, now what?

Well, I think now this has to come down to the people in charge to start pushing their egos aside or doing something completely new because the time to find/take new developers is just too long. It's unfortunate but I think having a reform of the organization is what can bring people back... Because like I said previously, it's unlikely any developers will return with the same landscape, and the same politics in SMF. And what SMF is probably going to need more than anything are strong developers.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on January 12th, 2013, 08:53 PM
Quote
Right, but do you think people (or atleast you) would come back with a new change in the politics?
Me? No, but it's not because of that. Me returning to SMF as a developer would limit what I can do with Wedge, I can't commit time as a developer to both, it wouldn't be fair on whichever project I'm not writing code for at the time, and I can't do that in good conscience. There are various other technical issues with doing that, namely the differences in code base.
Quote
I think the biggest problem is the people in charge vs. the people who can move SMF forward as a competitive product because let's face it: the developers are the ones with the time, energy, passion, and skills to push out great updates, while the people in charge need to do their jobs in making sure the project runs smoothly. Since the developers don't want to come back, and the people in charge probably don't want them back, now what?
Therein lies the problem. SMF needs to find people that have the skill, the time, the passion etc. to make it happen - the project needs developers far more than the developers need SMF, and that's a hurdle that is not insurmountable, but it's big enough.

I would note, I have heard from several current team members that they would be quite enthusiastic about seeing me back on the SMF team - there is sufficient change from how it was a few years ago about people coming and going that gives me hope, but that's not the biggest problem any more.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Anthony` on January 12th, 2013, 09:14 PM
Quote
Me? No, but it's not because of that. Me returning to SMF as a developer would limit what I can do with Wedge, I can't commit time as a developer to both, it wouldn't be fair on whichever project I'm not writing code for at the time, and I can't do that in good conscience. There are various other technical issues with doing that, namely the differences in code base.
This response atleast gives me hope that other developers might feel (somewhat) the same. But you are completely fair in your reasoning, and I think that's why Wedge will continue to grow.
Quote
Therein lies the problem. SMF needs to find people that have the skill, the time, the passion etc. to make it happen - the project needs developers far more than the developers need SMF, and that's a hurdle that is not insurmountable, but it's big enough.
Right, and the issue is that there are competent people hanging around but they've already been through the issues of working with SMF and the organization, and that will probably require a drastic change to get them in the position.

On another note, there are people who already have an opportunity of doing this job, and those are the current Customizers. I only have my opinions on why some of them may not be appropriate to undertake these tasks, but I will leave that to the knowledgeable people who know more than me how Customizers work in the group, and then maybe I will have a further argument there. Atleast it is obvious that Customizers have experience working with SMF and are not incompetent with programming, but to what extent is it enough to be a developer is the question.

As for looking for developers... Well, I don't think it is very feasible. It's not like we have developers arriving to SMF every week...
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on January 12th, 2013, 09:31 PM
Quote
This response atleast gives me hope that other developers might feel (somewhat) the same. But you are completely fair in your reasoning, and I think that's why Wedge will continue to grow.
I think I can sum it up best that if I didn't have Wedge to play with, I'd be back kicking arse and chewing gum - and be all out of gum.
Quote
Right, and the issue is that there are competent people hanging around but they've already been through the issues of working with SMF and the organization, and that will probably require a drastic change to get them in the position.
There has been drastic changes already. But yes, more change is needed.
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On another note, there are people who already have an opportunity of doing this job, and those are the current Customizers.
The Cust team always was the breeding ground for the dev team. Virtually everybody who joined the dev team after the Cust team was formed came up through the Cust team one way or another. Just off the top of my head, the list of people who were in Cust team but had commit access includes Karl, SleePy, Sinan, SlammedDime, possibly Bloc[1], Norv, Suki, IchBin, Emanuele, Spuds and Lab. I've probably missed some people out, rather than put too many/wrong names in, but that gives you the scope of the Cust team, virtually everyone who could have been a dev came through there. In fact pretty much the only exception to that rule was Nao, who was a beta tester and Consulting Dev.

Though, given some of the things I've seen lately, I would have plenty more to say on the relative skills of some of the Customisers. Theoretically, they're supposed to be proto-devs, knowing the guts of SMF pretty well, but writing things that aren't intended to be core features, as well as reviewing mods from the community, for technical or logistical or security issues. Trouble is, I'm not seeing anything of substance coming out of the Customisers that indicates they've got what it takes to be devs.
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As for looking for developers... Well, I don't think it is very feasible. It's not like we have developers arriving to SMF every week...
Not even every month.

One thing I would draw your attention to: http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?action=stats#stats

Look at the figures for the yearly summaries. What does that tell you?
 1. I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure Bloc was dev team at one point, e.g. around 1.1 and what was then NDT. Bloc, if I'm wrong, please feel free to correct me :)
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Anthony` on January 12th, 2013, 09:42 PM
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Though, given some of the things I've seen lately, I would have plenty more to say on the relative skills of some of the Customisers. Theoretically, they're supposed to be proto-devs, knowing the guts of SMF pretty well, but writing things that aren't intended to be core features, as well as reviewing mods from the community, for technical or logistical or security issues. Trouble is, I'm not seeing anything of substance coming out of the Customisers that indicates they've got what it takes to be devs.
That is exactly what I wanted to bring up! :) Now this is even trickier because when your prototypes aren't ready to be released as developers, and with the lack of current developers, then the problem is greater than it could have been. I've always wondered if Customizers had a close relationship with the core developers, or if they were treated as two seperate entities.
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One thing I would draw your attention to: http://www.simplemachines…ex.php?action=stats#stats

Look at the figures for the yearly summaries. What does that tell you?
Good point, because the numbers can't be lying. It's already starting to happen.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on January 12th, 2013, 09:45 PM
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Now this is even trickier because when your prototypes aren't ready to be released as developers, and with the lack of current developers, then the problem is greater than it could have been. I've always wondered if Customizers had a close relationship with the core developers, or if they were treated as two seperate entities.
They are separate entities, and this is compounded by the apparent skills gap even between the Customizers around now, and what there was when I was a Customizer back in 2009.

Once upon a time I believe they were more intermixed than they are now.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: colby67 on January 13th, 2013, 12:39 AM
Customizers were originally splitted in Mod team and Design team when SMF 1.1 was in effect, and we were building up what became SMF 2. It was decided to join them into Cuz team then, which I didn't so much care for seeing I knew it would water out the designers bit. I was right, almost all design people left, the mod people stayed on more or less but the damage was done.

Lately its been a trend to just jump teams if people(devs foremost) leave, paving for bizarre choices in leaders and "devs". AFAIK I was the first dev that was purely there for the design skills, to focus on that, and primary because I made the Core and Curve designs - but ALSO because I had proved my PHP skills in writing TinyPortal. I would not have stepped into it though, if I wasn't sure I could follow the other devs in what they were doing.

That cannot be said for recent years team jumping, and its a shame. It proves my point that these teams and the desire to be higher up kills the peer mentality, it makes people look more at what they ARE(as in position) than it what they CAN.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on January 13th, 2013, 01:06 AM
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AFAIK I was the first dev that was purely there for the design skills, to focus on that, and primary because I made the Core and Curve designs - but ALSO because I had proved my PHP skills in writing TinyPortal.
Not just the first but pretty much the only one.
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That cannot be said for recent years team jumping, and its a shame. It proves my point that these teams and the desire to be higher up kills the peer mentality, it makes people look more at what they ARE(as in position) than it what they CAN.
This is something I tried to bang a drum about a bit back. I suggested either having a single 'team' badge, or displaying multiple badges for people to reflect the different things they do. Either of those seems to me to be better about focusing on what people can *do* rather than what they *are*.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Dismal Shadow on January 13th, 2013, 08:35 AM
/meeyes is burnt while reading this thread.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: emanuele on January 16th, 2013, 08:46 PM
Sorry to jump in without having finished to read the entire topic (I'm still at the reply number 38), but I want to re-clarify something I found.
Quote from Arantor on January 11th, 2013, 06:51 AM
I would disagree actually... Almost everyone who has been dev team the last few years started in the Support team. Even Norv.
...heck I skipped the support team! But I'm still pretty much the only one doing support on the Italian board...I'm pretty sure even Unknown did a *lot* of support and as far as I can see he was not that bad at it.
Quote from Kindred on January 11th, 2013, 02:47 PM
(and, in which case, there are several other issues that need to be taken up within the team regarding the switch to the DCO and lying about what that did/does when they requested it)
I already pointed you two times to a discussion (is available in the SM developers board(http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=476468.msg3332296#msg3332296)) done by two BoD members before it was proposed the switch to the BoD (the post I linked is dated 11 May 2012, a link to that discussion was posted to the BoD attention in date May 16, and the proposal was approved by the BoD during the meeting of June), with the clear distinction of what a CLA is and what a DCO is. A small quote from that post:
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With a DCO, there are no copyright assignments being made. The project could not change the license for the software without getting permission from all the code authors.
I think it's quite clear (it may be not perfectly correct, but the main idea is there).
So, would you please stop of publicly (I can pass over when you do it privately on a team board, but not when you do it publicly on another forum) accusing people of being liars when it's just that you didn't read a topic?

I'm really tempted to quote your words from another topic (The board voted. You had a chance to comment when the board was discussing and voting.), but it's probably not polite, so I will refrain.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on January 16th, 2013, 08:54 PM
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...heck I skipped the support team! But I'm still pretty much the only one doing support on the Italian board...I'm pretty sure even Unknown did a *lot* of support and as far as I can see he was not that bad at it.
Yeah, I was being general there... *most* people went through support. Unknown took the view that to be a good dev, he had to be support as well. I take a similar mentality but I'm not nearly as pleasant as he is.
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So, would you please stop of publicly (I can pass over when you do it privately on a team board, but not when you do it publicly on another forum) accusing people of being liars when it's just that you didn't read a topic?
This is why I said about the lack of misrepresentation. As frustrated as you, Spuds, Norv etc. must have felt, I just could not believe you'd actively be misrepresenting the DCO, and I was absolutely certain - without even seeing the team boards - that a certain degree of wilful blindness was going on. It's really not hard to see the difference between a DCO and a CLA if one actually sits and reads them.
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I'm really tempted to quote your words from another topic (The board voted. You had a chance to comment when the board was discussing and voting.), but it's probably not polite, so I will refrain.
You do what you have to do. That's all anyone can ask of you. Say what you feel you have to say. Even if it might not be appropriate - maybe it'll cause something to happen to move things along.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Kindred on January 16th, 2013, 09:36 PM
Actually Arantor, it was not emanuele or Spuds... I have never had any issues with anything said or done by either of them. :)

emanuele, regarding the DCO and the official switch to it...   I think that happened while I was resigned... didn't it?  and even prior to that, I was against the switch when it was first mentioned and only shut up when I was specifically told that the DCO would cover everything that the CLA covered.
Anyway....   I (and several others) feel that it was misrepresented to us.   Remember (as people have pointed out to me a number of times in criticism of me)  It's not about the facts or even specifically what was said - it's about how it was (mis)understood and perceived...
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on January 16th, 2013, 10:02 PM
I deliberately did not ascribe any individual or individuals to whoever represented the DCO to the team, as it would have been between multiple people.

I'd love to see the quotes - unedited and in context - to back this up, because I'm finding it very hard to believe that you were misrepresented as to what a DCO means.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: emanuele on January 16th, 2013, 10:55 PM
Quote from Kindred on January 16th, 2013, 09:36 PM
emanuele, regarding the DCO and the official switch to it...   I think that happened while I was resigned... didn't it?  and even prior to that, I was against the switch when it was first mentioned and only shut up when I was specifically told that the DCO would cover everything that the CLA covered.
The dev board I linked is accessible to anyone with a friends badge.
I cannot be sure, but I'm confident you were still SM member (there are several messages from you dated the same period were you are discussing about several organization (and organizational) matters) at the time.
The director that proposed the change started three topics: one for documentation, one for code and one for forum posts. You answered in one of them (forum posts) agreeing with what said in that topic (and only that), but not disagreeing with any other.
I personally opened a topic about the same time asking if to become a team member it was mandatory to sign a CLA and if the project was allowed to accept external contributions with a proper license from people not having signed a CLA. In that topic I can see from you a weak "we should not accept".
The secretary (at the time) started another discussion with subject "discontinuing of CLA's". I can find some disagreement in destroying CLAs (that I can share), but that's a completely different story.
Nothing else (yes, I went back in your profile and read all the relevant posts (17 pages from April 15th to June 7th) during the DCO-to-CLA discussion...speaking of stubborn... :P).

You resigned on March 22nd. I don't remember any discussion about CLA and DCO before May (I myself didn't even know what "sing-off" meant before May when I started singing-off my commits: for reference my first signed-off commit(https://github.com/SimpleMachines/SMF2.1/commit/97538cb22f628cf01affff033215b4d3b1ca2973), everything before that date is not signed, also because the DCO was added on May 11).

So, unless you discussed all your concerns privately, no, I have no elements to say you were against DCO.
Quote from Kindred on January 16th, 2013, 09:36 PM
Anyway....   I (and several others) feel that it was misrepresented to us.   Remember (as people have pointed out to me a number of times in criticism of me)  It's not about the facts or even specifically what was said - it's about how it was (mis)understood and perceived...
Misunderstand is one thing, accuse people of being liars is another.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on January 16th, 2013, 11:17 PM
OK, so someone who shall not be named[1] has forwarded me copies of posts from 11 May 2012 explaining the DCO. I will not repeat the post verbatim; it is not in a public board but msg3332236 should be sufficient for you to find it.

He explains the idea behind moving from CLA to DCO and the problems that a CLA causes. As I see it there is no misrepresentation. Nothing he says intimates that the DCO 'does everything that a CLA does'. It is citing it as an alternative, it explains what it solves.

No-one seems to be questioning what the DCO does or does not do, nor is anyone offering up any downsides to it; it is simply stated that Thantos would prefer to use a DCO instead of a CLA and states his justifications.

As suspected, I'm not seeing any basis for misrepresentation here.
 1. Said person has not joined this particular debate but is aware of it.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on January 17th, 2013, 12:56 AM
I have since seen more discussion of the above from the NPO where it is discussed.

Let me bring another thing to the table. The Linux Kernel, GIMP, GNOME and others. NONE of these require copyright assignment, which is what this little fracas is really about.

Do they need copyright assignment? Nope. Linux itself, for example, has trademarks - Linus Torvalds himself holds the trademark to Linux[1] and that is enforced by the Linux Foundation or whatever it's called. SMF's trademarks would be equally enforceable through the NPO. This is not under dispute.

What benefit does copyright assignment give to SMF? It gives them the legal right and ability to change the licence in future should they need to.

Here's where it gets messy. We've all seen the fuck-ups that occurred in the past and we want to avoid those. Having an NPO doesn't magically fix that, there are bad NPOs just as there are good LLCs.

When copyright is reassigned to SMF, we implicitly lose control over what SMF does with that code, and there's the rub. If SMF decided tomorrow that it wanted to move to a proprietary licence, all the code that was granted under a CLA means SMF can do that without even asking because we assigned them copyright to do so.

A DCO on the other hand doesn't assign SMF that right. It merely asserts that SMF is free to use the code as it sees fit - provided the licence is adhered to.

This is the rub that us developers have an issue with: there is absolutely no need for SMF itself to take copyright over our work. As I said, it doesn't appear to have stopped Linux in its tracks anywhere I can see. A DCO doesn't allow them to do so, but it means our work can be used in conjunction with the terms of the BSD licence.

See, we all saw what happened with Amacythe. What's to stop the NPO going the same way? And please don't insult my intelligence by claiming that it can't happen, because it absolutely can. It just hasn't thus far. And we don't want to give up our rights in case it does again.

Note that I'm well aware that even a CLA allows us to reuse our own work, but that's not the point. Us having a CLA doesn't stop SMF going closed source if it wanted. Us having signed a DCO DOES.

Now, the next argument is that without copyright assignment, how can the licence be enforced? It has been, successfully, several times amongst several projects that all do this. Including the Linux kernel.


So, I would like someone to explain to me what benefit it would bring SMF to absorb our copyrights under one umbrella one. Until that happens, this is just going to go around in circles.
 1. Though, not until after a legal battle.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Kindred on January 17th, 2013, 02:11 AM
AN is supposed to be talking to a lawyer to get a specific legal opinion on this, since I think there are a lot of misunderstandings...

BTW: I found where I was told (specifically) in PM by someone who I won't single out by name that "The DCO does everything that the CLA does, it is just easier to sign electronically and more convenient because of that"

regardless...  as I said, several of us (including at least one board member) were given the IMPRESSION that the DCO was a straight 1 for 1 replacement of the CLA.

(and yes, Arantor, owning the copyright means that SMF could, if necessary, change the license without getting signoff from every individual who has ever contributed code. That was the entire reason behind the CLA in the first place. We all saw the massive idiocy and mess that happened when Joomla tried to grant an exception to their GPL.)
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on January 17th, 2013, 02:24 AM
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regardless...  as I said, several of us (including at least one board member) were given the IMPRESSION that the DCO was a straight 1 for 1 replacement of the CLA.
That's not the impression of the posts I've seen, including from board members. But even if you were told that (and I'm STILL not convinced that's entirely the case), an ounce of brain power should have told you that it wasn't accurate, yet there's nowhere it seems to be arguing it.
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(and yes, Arantor, owning the copyright means that SMF could, if necessary, change the license without getting signoff from every individual who has ever contributed code. That was the entire reason behind the CLA in the first place. We all saw the massive idiocy and mess that happened when Joomla tried to grant an exception to their GPL.)
Ah, you still don't see the problem.

Let's say then, that down the line, there's a turnover of staff at sm.org. And they're all people who want GPL. The project can go GPL overnight and there's nothing that can be done about it if the board votes for it.

The problem with copyright assignment is that the assignee is being trusted not to screw it up. Can you really blame us for not having that faith in SM right now?

As long as code copyright remains with its author, that sort of thing can't happen in the first place. But that assumes you have a sound licence in place from which to contribute code.

The only misunderstandings here appear to be the ones of the people who think their rights have been squished upon by those bastard devs who cheated them so cruelly out of copyright assignment. Or not.



:edit: But all of this wrangling is pretty much moot at this stage. Once 2.1 lands, SMF will have driven yet another iteration of competent developer away. Leaving only people who shouldn't have the keys to the castle, but to be honest, are better than nobody.

It really doesn't matter two fetid dingo's kidneys whether SMF wants to have a stick up its arse about copyright assignment or not. The reality is:

1. There is no-one in the community is up and coming that has the skills to do the job of development.
2. All the time the team are labouring under the belief that developers are equal to everyone else, no developer with any competence is going to contribute, because while support/customizers/etc. are replaceable with modest effort, dev replacement is infinitely harder.
3. Even if you find someone stupid enough to volunteer, who has the skills, the bullshit around copyright is going to drive them away again.
4. Even if copyright is resolved, even if the closed attitude and political BS doesn't drive them away[1] and that's a huge ask, you need someone who is fluent or get fluent in the codebase in a short space of time to be able to do something with it, e.g. security fixes or even a theoretical 2.2. Do you know ANYONE who fits that profile who would actually do it?
 1. And it doesn't have to be outright. I'm well aware that I didn't get made Cust. team leader because people specifically voted to make sure I didn't - not because I wasn't up to the job, but because they wanted to see me join the dev team rather than stick it out in Cust. Yup. I was told this by the person who masterminded it.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Kindred on January 17th, 2013, 03:18 AM
Do note, Arantor... I have not blamed any DEVS for this misunderstanding. The person who said that to me is not a dev.

and once again... I object to the claim that we drove anyone away...
IchBin left and I won't go into what I think of that (aside from I believe it was extremely childish)
Spuds left because one of the board made a poor joking suggestion which someone passed on to him with the belief that it was real.
Suki left because she didn't like what SMF was planning. She felt that all development on any 2.x should stop and all efforts be put into OOP... Others did not agree.
emanuele has not left yet...   when he's done with this release and leave, I am still not sure I understand why...

However, the reason some people have CLAIMED for leaving in the past is because the devs don't have total control, or others are trying to tell the devs what to do and how to do it.
The first is true. The devs don't have total control.. and should not. They need to take the team and the community into account and work WITH others. However, that does not lead to the second... and the second is definitely, completely, and totally untrue. I have yet to see any ACTUAL example of anyone on the team telling any dev what to code or how to code it.  We've had arguments that something should (or should not) be included in a release... but  no one, to the best of my knowledge has ever even tried to interfere with the development or coding process.

I won't argue with the resulting mess... just with the suggested cause.

As for your number 4...   we have actually made an attempt to separate the political BS out of the project - and have mostly been successful (aside from instances like Suki who didn't seem to understand the separation - or, at leats, were always questioning it)
I don't know about such masterminded BS that you mention... I believe that was before I started paying attention to the crap going on in the team boards.

regarding the copyright... again... we disagree on the need for it... but, as it stands right now, it appears that it is a moot point, because the DCO was implemented and the board did destroy the CLAs...    I disagree with both choices, rather alot.. but I am not on the board, not in charge and my opinion is just that... my opinion. It holds no more weight than anyone else's at this point.
The only things I can comment on with certainty and definiteness are the bylaws (which I assembled) and the intentions of the board when the NPO was formed (because it was under my control at the time)
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on January 17th, 2013, 04:03 AM
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Do note, Arantor... I have not blamed any DEVS for this misunderstanding. The person who said that to me is not a dev.
So a non dev misrepresented it to the board. Fantastic. Why is anyone listening to a non dev about dev matters, unless they are a legal person?
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and once again... I object to the claim that we drove anyone away...
Object to it all you like. Fact remains, that's the story being given, and just because you're not seeing it in 18ft high neon red letters doesn't mean it isn't happening. Not all of this is public, not all of it is in posts.
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IchBin left and I won't go into what I think of that (aside from I believe it was extremely childish)
Spuds left because one of the board made a poor joking suggestion which someone passed on to him with the belief that it was real.
Suki left because she didn't like what SMF was planning. She felt that all development on any 2.x should stop and all efforts be put into OOP... Others did not agree.
emanuele has not left yet...   when he's done with this release and leave, I am still not sure I understand why...
Can't speak for IchBin. As for Spuds, he's not entirely thin-skinned from what I've seen, so if it was a poor joking suggestion, it must have been really poor.

Suki left because there seems to have been some kind of shutting out going on. When you get to the stage where people stop listening to what you have to say because it's you saying it, you're being shut out - and that is one form of not having your say in how things are run, especially with what you make.

emanuele has not left yet, but I think his words speak for themselves.
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However, the reason some people have CLAIMED for leaving in the past is because the devs don't have total control, or others are trying to tell the devs what to do and how to do it.
And even when I give you a prime example of that you're still not seeing it? Are you as wilfully dense as you have accused others of being? (me, ARG, ref the Charter membership != donation stuff)

Yes, I'm frustrated. There is a serious lack of communication going on here.

If I give my code over to you complete with copyright assignment, I don't have final say in it, simple as that. I have no guarantee that SMF won't pull an Amacythe afterwards.

As I said... not having total control doesn't just come down to the stuff you think you've seen.
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but  no one, to the best of my knowledge has ever even tried to interfere with the development or coding process.
So the fact I have an instance where team leader votes were rigged so that one person could be pushed forward towards being a developer is not part of that. Admittedly it was just before J10 landed, which should give you a clue as to what went down and why.
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I won't argue with the resulting mess... just with the suggested cause.
Fair enough. I don't think it matters - or really helps - at this stage to point fingers, god knows we've done enough of that. But as far as I'm concerned that wall is very much still present - even if you don't think it is.

I have had multiple debates with people on the team recently who seem to believe the devs are no more important to the project than support staff, even though they're far less replaceable. When that mindset is entrenched, you're stuffed, because if a dev feels their contribution isn't being valued, that's another form of feeling like they don't have control over what they're doing.
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As for your number 4...   we have actually made an attempt to separate the political BS out of the project - and have mostly been successful (aside from instances like Suki who didn't seem to understand the separation - or, at leats, were always questioning it)
That's not really my point. Could you recruit a developer into the team, with things like this thread going on, laying all the evils to bear in public? That's why I'm deliberately doing this - not to drive developers away but to ensure beyond doubt that anyone who does sign up understands what they are getting into. And that's important, because nobody wants to contribute effort into beating a dying horse.
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I don't know about such masterminded BS that you mention... I believe that was before I started paying attention to the crap going on in the team boards.
That's because it wasn't ever posted anywhere. Don't make me name and shame with chat logs confessing it. I'd rather leave it at that for the other party's sake.

But there's other cases of people doing things with their own agenda.
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regarding the copyright... again... we disagree on the need for it...
Yes, we do. I've stated why I believe you don't need to worry about it and shouldn't worry about it. Argue the opposite side: tell me why you believe it is necessary.


I still reckon it's moot until you can find someone to take up the reins. Because if not, you can safely shelve SMF development entirely after 2.1, either permanently, or temporarily until you can get yourselves sorted out. But then you still have to find someone willing to actually step up and do the work, and given the attitude being shown, the list of candidates is pretty damn small.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Kindred on January 17th, 2013, 04:33 AM
Arantor...  anything that happened before the reorg is ancient history and can't be laid at the feet of the current team.

I think somewhat less than half the current team were even on the team prior to the reorg.
However, pushing someone into dev...   as stupid as the method was (and no. I am not asking you to go into more detail, not do I care who it was) is not interfering with the devs...  I don't think... Well, it's weird and I don't really care to break it down... 
but anyway...   my point is that, as far as I know, no one has been telling devs what to do or how to go about doing it, despite the cries of some, I haven't seen any actual examples.... and no, I am not being willfully dense... I truly don't think that your case above is a point here... yes, they may have manipulated you into joining the dev team, but once there, were you told (not as in, we think this feature should be added, but actually instructed) that you had to do something by anyone outside the dev team?  Can any dev provide one solid example of a time when they were told what code to write?


that's what I mean...   yes, devs heave left... the recent ones for various reasons... but not for the reason that some people seem to be thinking - as far as I know, none of the recent devs have left because someone told them how or what to code... and even the ones who have claimed so in the past have yet to provide a concrete example.

(oh, and as for spuds...  he over-reacted, but it was not a case of being thin-skinned;  it was a case of telephone....     what was passed on to him second or third hand was WAY worse then the original joking comment (and the original comment was poorly phrased in the first place)

As for copyright...   I don't feel like getting into the argument again...   as I said, it really is a moot point now. The DCO was implemented. The CLAs were destroyed. Bad choices, IMO... but my opinion really only matters as an opinion and doesn't alter the situation.   So, although I'd like to see the CLA reinstated, I don't think it'll ever happen, considering what problems I had tracking down folks the first time around. So, we're stuck with the DCO.     So that part of your argument is moot (unless the lawyer that AB is supposed to be consulting with tells us something else)
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on January 17th, 2013, 04:54 AM
And again you're missing the point. Yes, the actual events prior to reorg are history. The mindset and the mentality... a lot of that is still there.

And trying to push someone into the dev team is not interfering with the devs? You have a very strange way of looking at things.

Oh and I never actually joined the SMF dev team at any point. There was no way in hell I was joining that particular mad house.

The point that you're trying extremely hard to avoid is that you haven't seen any direct, literal examples of the devs being told what to do. Fine, except that's not the problem. There's all sorts of other things that are not direct and literal examples - the whole copyright thing is one of them. Why do you think you've never been given a concrete example?

The bottom line is, there are people who want to write code and want to make a great forum software but none of them want the madness that is SM over their shoulder while they do it. They would all rather go off and leave SMF to die, alone, than to try and save it. And you're doing a great job of demonstrating why none of us want to come back into the asylum to do anything. Why would we want to when there is that attitude facing us?

And yes, you're stuck with the DCO. That's probably the most sane thing going on.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: emanuele on January 17th, 2013, 05:45 PM
Quote from Suki on January 12th, 2013, 12:38 AM
And lastly, I left because no one actually saw me as a dev, even in this whole convo... I was never approached when the whole Norv thing imploded, never approached to do anything, heck, I wasn't even approached when Dialogo started... talking about feeling like a complete outkast...
I'm really sorry to hear you felt like that, because I always considered (and still consider) you a coder much better than me.
A while ago someone approached me asking if I were interested in be the developer (yes, the only because no one else was available I think) of a fork (not an existing one, one that never started AFAIK). I answered no, because I'm quite sure I don't have enough knowledge to start a fork from scratch [1], but you decided to start coding a forum from scratch [2]and I'm pretty sure you can do it.
Quote from Suki on January 12th, 2013, 12:38 AM
neither of both sides wanted me :P
I can't speak for the others. For what I'm concerned I didn't even thought of inform anyone...
I remember a chat session with Spuds (slightly after his resignations), with him asking what was a good name for a fork, I was kind of joking TBH [3] and the following day, when I fetched his repo I got a "repo doesn't exists" or similar message, went to his github account and discovered he renamed the repo and started the fork. Then I simply deleted the old remote, forked the repo at gitbhub and cloned it locally (and added Spuds's repo).
Quote from Suki on January 12th, 2013, 12:38 AM
so thats why I decided to work on my own, to let people know what I'm capable of...
And I wish you all the luck of the world!
I'm interested in seeing it taking shape and maybe one day I'll send a PR (as soon as I understand how OOP code works... :ph34r: ).
 1. and at that point you may wonder how can I think to move SMF if I don't have the knowledge to start a fork: good question, let me know the answer when you find it :P
 2. that is something I suggested you to do when you still were on the team ;)
 3. May be interesting the story behind the name "Dialogo": he posted an excerpt from wikipedia about Galileo related to his importance on simple machines(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_machine) and one the first thing that came to my mind was: Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo(http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialogo_sopra_i_due_massimi_sistemi_del_mondo)[1] that inspired (to me) a quite ironic parallelism with the events at sm.org: Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief Development Systems: "organization" centric and "development" centric
 1. Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialogue_Concerning_the_Two_Chief_World_Systems)
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Suki on January 17th, 2013, 09:32 PM
Quote from Kindred on January 17th, 2013, 03:18 AM
Suki left because she didn't like what SMF was planning. She felt that all development on any 2.x should stop and all efforts be put into OOP... Others did not agree.
Eww, another misinterpretation...

..and I'm the one with language problems (when applicable of course ;) ) :whistle:

This time I will say Wrong and encourage you, Kindred, to look at my posts over there and quote here all the posts where I said exactly this line:

I'm OK with 2.1, I'm not OK with expanding it further.

The fact that I was against 2.2, 2.3 and so on, is not the whole reason why I left (nor OOP is the only thing I have on my head), I could have been working on 2.2 quite happily if that were the chosen path, but no, you guys where too busy saying No to every idea but your own... which was of course, keep working on 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, release 2.3 with only a few features and give the false impression that SMF is moving forward when in fact all 2.x is going to achieve is lost all the fanbase it got, after all, to think people is stupid enough to not realize that there is no real improvements in SMF besides minor features is seriously underestimating your fanbase, but alas, this path of keep expanding SMF 2.x branch was made by people who aren't devs, purely from a marketing perspective and with the word "survive" on their minds, If I were Unknown, I will be crying just by seen how my once proud and revolutionary project is now an empty shell of what it used to be, struggling to survive, barely breathing and whats worst, with the people in charge assuming everything is just fine and covering everything when it is pretty rotted on the inside. 


It is amusing you keep saying how wrong am I with the whole SM - SMF thing when Arantor said the exactly same things I said months ago, the very same arguments for what I was told I was so wrong...  suddenly now that Arantor had said those things, they become valid and deserves been listening to, awesome! at least now the ideas will finally get discussed.

For the record, I stated months ago that the DCO should cover all the needs the SM needs to cover.
There is no need for contributors to gain copyright of the whole script, which is what the SM org is so afraid of...
That the SM needs to simplify things for external contributors, no one will ever get near SMF if the SM requires you to give your personal info and other unneeded details.
The SM org needs to get focus on the actual project instead of trying so hard to cover their asses... if all that time and energy were put to promote the fact that SMF is now an open source project... :whistle:
Fear is what drives the SM org, fear and fear only.
Fear of losing their beloved possessions...
Fear to go out of the shell, the ever comforting shell where they created their little universe and rule overall. While the rest of the world moves forward, the shell is just there, slowly consuming its own resources, too proud to ask for help, too narrow to see the little help that someone can possible offer.
Quote from Arantor on January 17th, 2013, 04:03 AM
Suki left because there seems to have been some kind of shutting out going on. When you get to the stage where people stop listening to what you have to say because it's you saying it, you're being shut out - and that is one form of not having your say in how things are run, especially with what you make.
Exactly, I'm pretty sure there are people who actually read my comments with a predefined, hollywood latino accent, it is pretty frustrating having to deal with people that have already a preconceived mindset towards you, if I don't agree with somebody, it is automatically assumed its a language barrier, when people read my posts, they don't look at the content but look for the grammar error, the weird punctuation, the lack of verbs, etc and gets focused on that instead of focusing on the actual content.

Sometimes I wish I never posted on the Spanish boards, that way people won't have that preconceived mindset, not only do I have to struggle to get my ideas reach anyone but I also have to deal with all the walls they put in front of me.
Quote from emanuele on January 17th, 2013, 05:45 PM
I can't speak for the others. For what I'm concerned I didn't even thought of inform anyone...
This was out of pure courtesy really, but is not only that.

I constantly read about chats between you and Spuds regarding 2.1, I used to enter IRC and having my msn always open as much as possible, yes I talked to you fairly often but it was never in a "working environment", it was always as plain casual chatting. The same with Norv and IchBin.

I never ever talked to Spuds, I had his msn address but he was never on it (this also goes for other team members as well), dunno if he use another IM system.

Anyway, 2.1 development passed just in front of me like a train with no way to get up, I mean, yes I could have sent lots of pull requests I made completely blinded, dunno if that would helped that much, after all, you guys seemed to work just fine together.
Quote from emanuele on January 17th, 2013, 05:45 PM
but you decided to start coding a forum from scratch
Is not like I want to do it that much... If the corp guys doesn't want me and the dev guys doesn't want me either, what am I suppose to do? where should I put all the feelings and ideas I have for SMF? I cannot just dismiss them and start doing something else.

Working on a new software is just my way and solution to deal with all of this, nothing more, I'm not gonna start a raging campaign against SMF claiming I'm the one and only SMF messiah, unique holder of the true, nor do I want to be target of attacks by people just because I left SMF, which is why I registered here mainly, to at least be able to tell my version.

If I think I have a feasible idea, an idea that was developed taking all things into account (and not only the marketing side or the "surviving" side), and idea that is flexible enough to fit all the SMF needs, and idea that will serve not only for the current time being but for cementing a base too, I have all the right to pursue that idea, even if it leads to nowhere (because the idea was conceived for a team and not a single person), at least I tried and I have no regrets.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on January 17th, 2013, 10:11 PM
Quote
Eww, another misinterpretation...
OK, I'm going to say what I've been thinking privately but this is pretty much forcing my hand. I believe Kindred, through his statements here, is actually more of the problem than of the solution.
Quote
but no, you guys where too busy saying No to every idea but your own... which was of course, keep working on 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, release 2.3 with only a few features
Wait, you mean the team were saying things that the dev team couldn't do? Say it ain't so! ::)
Quote
It is amusing you keep saying how wrong am I with the whole SM - SMF thing when Arantor said the exactly same things I said months ago, the very same arguments for what I was told I was so wrong...  suddenly now that Arantor had said those things, they become valid and deserves been listening to, awesome! at least now the ideas will finally get discussed.
*sings* The CIIIIIRCCCLEEEE, the CIRCLE of LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIFEEEEEEEEEEE

This is what I really meant about the devs being told what they could and could not do. If you stonewall someone by pretending they don't exist or ignoring what they're saying just because it's them saying it, you have a huge problem. This happened to Runic before I joined, this happened to me while I was on the team - it's happened to others, and it will go on happening.
Quote
which is why I registered here mainly, to at least be able to tell my version.
I'm glad you feel you can do so :)
Quote
Working on a new software is just my way and solution to deal with all of this, nothing more, I'm not gonna start a raging campaign against SMF claiming I'm the one and only SMF messiah
Also wonderful. SMF is a strong base to work upon. Rewriting it is a formidable task but in so doing you get to shape it how you see fit, which is a wonderful thing. You don't have to pander to a given demand other than what you set for yourself.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Kindred on January 18th, 2013, 02:07 AM
ummm... no, Arantor.

I certainly never said no to any idea of new development... nor did anyone else.
What we said to Suki was "OOP is all good.... but we should not stop work continuing in the 2.x line"
So, no one shut her out.   Because we disagreed with her idea to completely stop development on 2.x after the 2.1 release, she seems to have assumed that means that we rejected OOP.
IIRC, what was actually said was "we can't just stop development of 2.x while you work on a completely new design that will take years to actually release." (which, BTW: Was exactly the same argument that was presented to Norv when SHE wanted to stop all 2.x development and only work on SMC (which was, at the time planned for 2-3 years out). The statement was followed up with something along the lines of "It is all well and good to work on OOP and something new... but we can't just drop the old stuff, either"

So, yup... I SAY IT AIN'T SO... and I call BS.

Also, I am not sure which arguments Suki thinks that we rejected from her that I accept from you. To the best of my knowledge, I have not changed my position on anything to do with this stuff...   You can call me "the problem" if you want... but I repeat... I don't have any power to make any decisions. If I disagree with someone and speak my mind, it is presented as MY OPINION ONLY, not the position of the project nor the position of the corporation.

I have never ignored someone, Suki or anyone else...   If I read something and have an opinion, I speak my mind. Doesn't mean I am right... but at least I am honest about my opinions and I don't go behind anyone's back to manipulate anything.
 
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on January 18th, 2013, 02:24 AM
OK, say it with me, Kindred, "I am not the team"

Yes, you personally may not have said anything along these lines, but I know for certain things have been said along these lines. It just hasn't been done in quasi-public.

And yes, you don't have the power to make decisions. If only 1) that were relevant and 2) that were actually the point. You don't need to be a person in authority to sway things. I do it all the time, I encourage and discourage ideas based on their relative merits on sm.org - and I'm no decision maker by any stretch.

You don't have to be a decision maker to cause a decision to go a certain way. You may not even be aware of doing it.

I didn't say you were the problem, I said that of the attitude being displayed, you seemed more part of the problem than of the solution. These are not absolutes. It's also indicative that it's not necessarily a person that's the problem but the mindset and attitude.

So far in this thread we've seen plenty of cases of strawman arguments, missing the point, misrepresentation of the points being made, and conflation between individual and collective. Everything you've been saying amounts to 'it's not the team's fault that the devs are leaving' when all the devs are saying something very different. Very hard to see the problem if you're actually part of it, though I'm absolutely certain that it isn't intentionally the case.

The other thing is, you're speaking your mind, and we both know how stubborn you can be. The problem is, that discourages others from speaking their mind, so what you might regard as an opinion can and will be taken to heart by people.

And lastly, I never said you did ignore anyone. I said the team, as a collective, did that. Again, it's happened fairly consistently, both before and after the reorg. AND it's one method of taking away the power of someone to have a say in what they do.

You and I are never going to agree on a lot of things - and most of this debate is evidence of that. The thing is, all of us outside the team can see all these things and the road SMF is on, and the only reason we're bothering to entertain this is because we don't want SMF to die. We believe you don't either, so we're engaging and trying to show you what we've seen and known about for years in a last ditch attempt to try and salvage what's left of SMF.

As it stands, you have a developer who, in all balance of probability, will leave in one fashion or another by year end at the very latest, and another person with that title who doesn't have the maturity or skill to carry out the tasks that will be left, and you're continuing to discourage the people who could possibly ride in on winged horseback to drag things from the depths, and I'm not just talking about me or Nao here.
Posted: January 18th, 2013, 02:18 AM

There is a part of me that thinks this should be locked as a waste of time, but I'll leave it open for now just in case there is something to salvage out of this mess. Just like SMF, really.
Posted: January 18th, 2013, 02:21 AM

I am also reminded of why I originally set out to build a base from fresh, because then we wouldn't even be arguing - SMF would be dead or alive on its own merits. But that's water under the bridge now.

I do wonder what would have happened, though, if Wedge had never been forked.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Suki on January 18th, 2013, 05:11 AM
Quote from Kindred on January 18th, 2013, 02:07 AM
ummm... no, Arantor.

I certainly never said no to any idea of new development... nor did anyone else.
What we said to Suki was "OOP is all good.... but we should not stop work continuing in the 2.x line"
So, no one shut her out.   Because we disagreed with her idea to completely stop development on 2.x after the 2.1 release, she seems to have assumed that means that we rejected OOP.
IIRC, what was actually said was "we can't just stop development of 2.x while you work on a completely new design that will take years to actually release." (which, BTW: Was exactly the same argument that was presented to Norv when SHE wanted to stop all 2.x development and only work on SMC (which was, at the time planned for 2-3 years out). The statement was followed up with something along the lines of "It is all well and good to work on OOP and something new... but we can't just drop the old stuff, either"

So, yup... I SAY IT AIN'T SO... and I call BS.
Awesome, the same things I said 8 post ago are back again...  yes Kindred, you said all those things, I already said that... and when you said SMF isn't gonna survive years of development, do you remember what was my response? 

I said SMF needed to attract more devs. New external blood.
I said, cut off the requirements for contributions and don't harass the new blood.
I said the marketing team should promote SMF been finally open source...

All those things will help to cut off development a lot; that was my response to the "We cannot stop development for 2.x",  now, I wanted to keep the arguing and reach a consensus and I got nothing, you didn't even listened to my ideas, yous dismissed them altogether, you are/were so stuck with your idea for 2.1 development that it is the only thing you can see...

I was expecting something like "we can divide dev work, ones focusing on 2.x and others on 3.0" or some other idea, the point was to keep an open mind and be tolerant with the other side's ideas... but you simply don't seem to grasp that concept, It's what you want and nothing else, always what you want, all the time.

Also, why you keep saying "we" when no-one apart from you, decided to keep working on 2.x... didn't you said you aren't in charge anymore?

I don't recall any dev ever stating that they wanted to continue to keep working on 2.2 and so on... you did and decided everyone else want to do the same...  It was a decision devs should had taken and instead, you took it, you might not had said to me how or what to code but you certainly said to me what not to code which is essentially the same.

I'm utterly curios to know what else do you want for SMF, haven't you got bored already?
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on January 18th, 2013, 05:15 AM
Even I'm amazed at where this is going, and I thought SMF couldn't get much lower - it's like the bad penny that keeps coming back. I got nothing to add, because the people who need to make changes aren't listening to what we've been saying (because it reiterates what Suki says right there, though I didn't suggest the pushing-it-now-it's-open-source, mostly because that's saying 'we finally caught up with all our current rivals')
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Kindred on January 18th, 2013, 06:25 AM
And Suki... this is what I mean about your misunderstanding...

I am not the one who decided to continue with 2.1. Several of us made a lot of noise when Norv announced her plans to trash the 2.x line. emanuele and spuds took our comments to heart and OFFERED to work in 2.1. I certainly could not have forced them to do so... even if I was still the PM.

You have your perception of things (which is definitely flawed, because you are definitely missing things)

I imagine that my own perception of things is also flawed, since if it was actually as clear as it seems to me, none of you would be having these confusions...

As for you Arantor...  Yes, we have disagreed on many things. I thought we'd gotten over the digs and stuff like that, though...
SMF could get much lower?   Lower than what? What did SMF do that makes it so low?
There are definitely misunderstandings going on here...   and Suki is definitely a contributor to the misunderstandings... because her commentary is definitely misrepresenting my position. She may believe what she's saying, but she is also definitely wrong (and I should know, since I'm the one who said (or didn't say) many of the things that she claims.)
(remember what I said regarding the DCO and stuff...    regardless of what the facts may be, perception counts for much more)
However, from you, I am seeing the other side of the blind-eye - Because she feels jilted by SMF and is presenting a dirty picture, it seems like you think she must be automatically correct and anyone who contradicts her must be automatically wrong.

As for me not being the team... absolutely correct. However, it would seem that Suki is directing all of her accusations against me, personally, and is saying that it's basically my fault the she was shunned... (which she wasn't, BTW. We disagreed with her suggestion to shut down the 2.x line, just like we did with Norv's similar suggestion. and it was WE... several of the team, not just me.)

ARGH!

Let me just say this, one last time...
I never shut Suki down. I never told her what to do. I did say that she was wrong to suggest that 2.x be trashed after 2.1 while something else was being worked on for years to come and several others agreed with me.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on January 18th, 2013, 06:50 AM
Aside from the half assed plan to recruit devs that is in the works,[1] the facts haven't changed regardless of miscommunication: SMF is up shit creek without any developers to paddle it back down and no-one with the skills is going to go near it with this stuff going on. The depth I'm getting at is how hard people are going to ignore the truth.

Even if you're right, and this is just a complete fuck up of communication, no dev will trust a team that can't communicate. If only it were a simple case of miscommunication, though.

I cannot believe how much time is being wasted by all in this thread trying various methods to explain to you why things are so broken and why it can't be fixed without changes SMF would not be willing to make.
Posted: January 18th, 2013, 06:46 AM

I have said my piece, done here. Want to carry on arguing, fine. But I lost enough time when I could have been improving Wedge, all for something that can't happen.

Good luck with 2.0.4, and 2.1. A fitting end they will make.
 1. Which is a backfire waiting to happen.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Kindred on January 18th, 2013, 07:02 AM
Arantor,

You seem to be under the misimpression that I (and others) are not aware that there is a problem.
The biggest issue here is that people like you are very quick to exaggerate the actual issues and others, who respect your opinion repeat your words.   Yes, there is a problem. No, the problem is not quite what you seem to think...

I am not sure what half-assed idea to recruit devs you are referring to. I had a suggestion a while ago but was (quite correctly) shot down because it was not actually a very good idea (see, I can admit to being wrong, it occasionally happens. :P ) but as far as I know, while some of the leadership is talking about how to attract some devs, there is not currently any approved plan that I am aware of, half-assed or otherwise. Of course, as long as you keep yelling things like "don't go there, they're all monsters and will crush your soul", any worthwhile devs we talk to will probably walk... not because you're right, but because you're a respected member of the community and, even if you're only telling half the story, they'll listen to you. :(

You are right about one thing though... this thread has gone on long enough and is not contributing anything useful to the ethersphere.

Tshcuss.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on January 18th, 2013, 07:22 AM
I should let this go, but I can't.

You see the problem as having no developers. You appear to be ignoring all the reasons given for why you have no developers and why no-one wants to join up. This is your real problem.

As for half assed plans, I shouldn't talk about it publicly, especially as you don't seem to be aware of it. It is not spproved but under discussion, suggested by a non-dev who has no idea how to appeal to the right kind of dev.

And there we go with the straw man again. I am telling my story, and other devs are telling theirs. Seems to me that there's a lot more coherence in what we're all saying...

But if we all have it so wrong, prove us wrong and get your house in order.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: emanuele on January 18th, 2013, 03:10 PM
Again warning: I've not yet finished the topic...yeah I know I'm slow as hell... (reply 78 at the moment)
Quote from Arantor on January 12th, 2013, 05:48 AM
Ema's too nice for that
Quote from Kindred on January 12th, 2013, 06:03 AM
You are right... emanuele, as wonderful as he is, is too nice (might come from still being young and not as cynical as us old fogeys)
I'm not *so* young (30+), though it's true I don't have leadership experience (neither big attitude).
I'm either not so non-cynical (not sure what could be an antonym...) as you might think.[1][2]
It's true, though, that I'm way too kind.
And I can add I don't have the technical preparation that I myself would expect from a leader of a software development project.
 1. I'm so cynical that I'm still sitting by the side of the river waiting to see where all the opinions the team wants to give are (I posted something mostly ignored by the vast majority...well I got 1 answer), if I don't see any interest from those that are actually *very* interested in the matter I don't waste more of the minimum amount of time possible.
 2. I'm so cynical that I don't give a damn about the name. What I'm interested in is the code. I'm interested in improving it, make it nicer (that doesn't imply I write nice code, in fact it's the exact opposite :P), easier to use, etc. But the name can be SMF, Elkarte, Wedge, Dialogo, whatever as long as it is funny to work with the people involved.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Suki on January 18th, 2013, 03:48 PM
For the last bloody time... I didn't left because you shut my idea down... I left because you shut it down and provided absolutely no feedback to it...

I said 8 post ago, you said the same, the fact that the idea was shut down is clear, no misunderstandings.

And let me be clear, the ones that disagree with me (I'm talking about my experience, not Norvs), were all NPO people that shouldn't interfere with the project inner affairs. Autonomy is such an utopic concept isn't it :^^;:

If you actually had any confidence on your dev team, you will let me at least to properly present my idea to SMF team members, explain my reasons and all that stuff, that didn't happen.

Is not by coincidence or friendship the fact that Norv and I reach out practically the same goal, and I said practically because my idea wasn¿t gonna take years like Norvs, simply because it was based on an already built and fully operational framework, that along will reduce months of development.

Not only Norv had that idea.
Fustrate had the same idea. <-- he was the original person who put the framework plan on the table.
Spuds admitted that the 2.0 branch cannot be expended any longer.

So there you go, right there you have 4 devs who agreed on this, this is not sorcery or plain coincidence, it is the result of devs knowing what they are talking about, thats why they are devs.


You are throwing accusations as much as I do, you are as flawed and biased as I am, the only difference is that I am open to consider and actually listen to what the other side has to say meanwhile you are so stubborn that you simply cannot see beyond your reasoning, how many post did it take you to finally (semi) admit that you made a mistake about the replacing devs?  considering that this lines:
Quote from Kindred on January 18th, 2013, 07:02 AM
I had a suggestion a while ago but was (quite correctly) shot down because it was not actually a very good idea (see, I can admit to being wrong, it occasionally happens. :P )
Does indeed refer to that, because its vague (if not, sweet merciful Poseidon help us all!). You simply can't openly admit it, dunno why.

That many post, countless of words, just for you to accept something that was pretty obvious...   now imagine the amount of time and energy the devs will have to put for you to finally start to address their points....   is just not worth the effort, might as well start form 0 or start a fork as that would be much much easier...  oh wait, thats exactly what happen :P

BTW, devs don't need to be told how awful you guys are and stuff (nobody told me anything ;) ), they will eventually see it with their own eyes, it has happen to many before and is still going to happen for others again, until you don't fix your house you will be trapped on that loop until you ran out of naive devs and all you have left is all the bitter, sarcastic devs you left behind, I mean, you manage to screw the most wonderful thing you had in years (Spuds and ema) I'm sure it will be quite easier for you to screw some naive novice dev :D

Keep up the good work, you're doing great :cool:
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: emanuele on January 20th, 2013, 12:56 PM
Quote from Suki on January 17th, 2013, 09:32 PM
Quote from emanuele on January 17th, 2013, 05:45 PM
I can't speak for the others. For what I'm concerned I didn't even thought of inform anyone...
This was out of pure courtesy really, but is not only that.
Yeah, can't say anything else than you are right...and that my character influence negatively many other aspects of my life, not just this specific situation.
Quote from Suki on January 17th, 2013, 09:32 PM
I constantly read about chats between you and Spuds regarding 2.1, I used to enter IRC and having my msn always open as much as possible, yes I talked to you fairly often but it was never in a "working environment", it was always as plain casual chatting. The same with Norv and IchBin.
Anything I could say now would just sound like a lame excuse. I'm really sorry you felt I didn't consider you a dev.
Quote from Suki on January 17th, 2013, 09:32 PM
Anyway, 2.1 development passed just in front of me like a train with no way to get up, I mean, yes I could have sent lots of pull requests I made completely blinded, dunno if that would helped that much, after all, you guys seemed to work just fine together.
Quote from Suki on January 18th, 2013, 05:11 AM
I was expecting something like "we can divide dev work, ones focusing on 2.x and others on 3.0" or some other idea, the point was to keep an open mind and be tolerant with the other side's ideas... but you simply don't seem to grasp that concept, It's what you want and nothing else, always what you want, all the time.
In that respect I would just say I hoped (thought) you would started working on the "next" SMF because you seemed interested in it.
2.1 at the time was pretty much ready for a kind of beta (at least it wouldn't be worst than other betas/RCs :P), there wasn't much to do except (boring, because it is) bug fixing.
I thought you and Fustrate could start moving things around in that sense and didn't poke you about 2.1 (also because I usually try not to poke anyone asking to do anything because I really believe in this kind of situations you do exactly what you want/like to do).

As I expected, it sounds like a lame excuse...
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: emanuele on January 20th, 2013, 01:24 PM
Quote from Arantor on January 12th, 2013, 09:31 PM
Just off the top of my head, the list of people who were in Cust team but had commit access includes [...], Emanuele
Nope, I did Doc => Dev. :P (I was going to jump on the Cust, though I waited too much and the eager Norv stole me from the purples)
Posted: January 20th, 2013, 01:20 PM
Quote from Arantor on January 13th, 2013, 01:06 AM
Quote
That cannot be said for recent years team jumping, and its a shame. It proves my point that these teams and the desire to be higher up kills the peer mentality, it makes people look more at what they ARE(as in position) than it what they CAN.
This is something I tried to bang a drum about a bit back. I suggested either having a single 'team' badge, or displaying multiple badges for people to reflect the different things they do. Either of those seems to me to be better about focusing on what people can *do* rather than what they *are*.
Proposed (single team) several times me too, but always ignored.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: AngelinaBelle on January 30th, 2013, 06:56 PM
Whatever everyone thinks they said, or thinks they understood someone else to say, or meant to say, or got misunderstood to say, the recent rift between SMF or Simple Machines and several SMF devs has happened.

On some issues, I have agreed with what the bulk of the devs seemed to be saying. On some issues, I have agreed with some statements that the bulk of the devs did not seem to agree with.

Going forward, I am not sure I would choose to re-hash some of the arguments I made, and try to explain what I REALLY meant.  would just like to say "If that's how I came off, then I apologize."

I personally feel that it will be great if the SMF project and the Elkarte devs build a good relationship.  I think SMF and Elkarte have a lot to offer each other, and I keep expecting that, one day, everyone will start to understand one another, and have an easier time working more closely together. Just call me Pollyanna.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on January 30th, 2013, 08:47 PM
I find it interesting to note that the Wedge developers and the Elkarte developers have a better relationship than either Wedge or Elkarte seem to have with SMF.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: AngelinaBelle on January 30th, 2013, 09:06 PM
That is an interesting observation, Arantor.

The "why" of that has been covered pretty thouroughly, I think, from many different perspectives.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: nend on March 10th, 2013, 05:30 AM
Hmm, still going on with this back and forth...

Change is needed, getting change is the problem. Values are already cut into stone and IMHO the only solution may be abandonment.

Maybe SM Core will fix this as the forum system alone is out dated. Yeah a few months or years will do that.

These new ideas aren't going to come from us, will maybe. However it is time to pass the torch but currently it doesn't look like there is anyone to catch it. Torch to the floor burn to the ground. Invite change, innovation and new ideas, don't scare the next generation of torch catchers.

This is my opinion, in order for SMF to succeed then it must forget the current ideology of what a forum should be.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on March 10th, 2013, 05:38 AM
Quote
Maybe SM Core will fix this
You mean, the months-abandoned project?
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: nend on March 10th, 2013, 05:46 AM
I have been in incognito for too long I guess. I guess it comes with age, I have the attention span of a 3 year old.

I was interested but SMF lost my interest again when it went the usual way and did the old school route with the latest version. I want to see something better for SMF, back to what I said, set in stone.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Suki on March 11th, 2013, 06:59 PM
For anyone to be able to catch the torch, the old guard needs to let the torch go or at least understand that the torch is not a property they can manipulate at will anymore ;)

smCore is dead.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on March 11th, 2013, 07:00 PM
smCore is dead unless someone picks it up. Except anyone who does is likely going to start over anyway. So yes, it is dead.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: nend on March 11th, 2013, 07:38 PM
Quote from Suki on March 11th, 2013, 06:59 PM
For anyone to be able to catch the torch, the old guard needs to let the torch go or at least understand that the torch is not a property they can manipulate at will anymore ;)

smCore is dead.
The old guard isn't going to be able to hold the torch for long, eventually they would become tired and weary.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on March 11th, 2013, 07:40 PM
That does not appear to have stopped them so far...
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Suki on March 11th, 2013, 08:39 PM
Quote from nend on March 11th, 2013, 07:38 PM
Quote from Suki on March 11th, 2013, 06:59 PM
For anyone to be able to catch the torch, the old guard needs to let the torch go or at least understand that the torch is not a property they can manipulate at will anymore ;)

smCore is dead.
The old guard isn't going to be able to hold the torch for long, eventually they would become tired and weary.
Not if the old guard uses new, naive blood that just do not know where they are getting at.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on March 11th, 2013, 08:44 PM
You mean like Labradoodle?

/mebursts into laughter.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: nend on March 11th, 2013, 08:45 PM
Quote from Suki on March 11th, 2013, 08:39 PM
Quote from nend on March 11th, 2013, 07:38 PM
Quote from Suki on March 11th, 2013, 06:59 PM
For anyone to be able to catch the torch, the old guard needs to let the torch go or at least understand that the torch is not a property they can manipulate at will anymore ;)

smCore is dead.
The old guard isn't going to be able to hold the torch for long, eventually they would become tired and weary.
Not if the old guard uses new, naive blood that just doesn't know where are they getting at.
I am old and senile, :whistle:
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: nend on March 11th, 2013, 08:50 PM
Quote from Arantor on March 11th, 2013, 08:44 PM
You mean like Labradoodle?

/mebursts into laughter.
I don't really know them, but from what I do know maybe a developer apprentice and work his way up as he get more familiar with PHP.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Suki on March 11th, 2013, 08:55 PM
Well, by new blood I mean any new team member in general.

Team members over there are like Greek gods (I used to use an analogy between team boards and mount Olympus). People admire team members and wants to be on the team.

Old school/seasoned team members can easily manipulate this new blood because the new blood is:

a) Easily manipulated.
b) Afraid to speak their mind.

Then the new blood finds out the cake is a lie and decides to leave but then again there is another batch of new blood ready to be fetched at the front door and so the loop continues.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on March 11th, 2013, 08:58 PM
Quote
Team members over there are like Greek gods (I used to use an analogy between team boards and mount Olympus). People admire team members and wants to be on the team.
Yes, that's a very legitimate observation. The team do not understand why this is a problem.
Quote
Old school/seasoned team members can easily manipulate this new blood because the new blood is:
The side problem is that you and I indirectly manipulate the new blood as well.
Quote
Then the new blood finds out the cake is a lie and decides to leave but then again there is another batch of new blood ready to be fetched at the front door and so the loop continues.
Ah, but that's the thing. There will always be a churn of the bottom end of the pantheon, sure. Always going to be lesser beings to become demiurges. But there are so many fewer of the upper echelons, those with the power to move heaven and earth if it is required.

IOW, there will always be more support staff recruits. But a notable lack of customisers and especially developers.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: nend on March 11th, 2013, 09:08 PM
The top should be devs right, this is usually the way of things.

That is how it is at another place I am part of the staff.

Kernel/Framework devs = gods
App devs = semi-gods
Other team = kings

I am a semi-god, sort of work between app and some web based data systems that drive them.

Even when I was semi active at SMF I never considered any other team member of any important state besides the devs. The devs really do hold the cards and should be treated with more respect. As for finding devs should be a serious job and no one should be promoted to dev instantly IMHO. The software can carry on with just devs, as for the site being a pleasant place, well maybe not, but software will get used no matter the site.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Arantor on March 11th, 2013, 09:17 PM
This is a team, of which multiple current (non dev) members have expressed the opinion that developers are no more important than other team members and those that have that opinion have made it clear they either don't understand why this is inappropriate for a project for SMF, or don't care about that.
Title: Re: Discussing Wedge on simplemachines.org
Post by: Suki on March 11th, 2013, 09:21 PM
Ah, issue here is that only the lesser gods gets renewed :P

Well, they could have the devs covered if they bother to attract new devs and actually treat them like real code contributors and not a lesser entity whos lower than them and only exists for their own service.