Wedge

ehm...does it allow to upload a plugin with php code? ;)

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.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.

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

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.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.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.

Selective reading. Mo no like.  GUYS, READ THE WHOLE DAMN THREAD BEFORE BLINDLY POSTING!! One page won't kill you.

...And 2 months, and 2 days.
Okay, maybe not 2 days, more like 6, but apart from Pete and I, you weren't there to count in the beginning, were you? ;)

Just in case you aren't aware yet, I finally managed to put the finishing touches to a 'usable' version of Wedge, and released it early this morning to early beta testers.

In order to download it, you'll have to request access in the relevant topic, but since this is still a private alpha, we're going to be giving access mostly to those of you who've been following us for some time (and posting along), anyone who seems serious about Wedge and testing it.

Our plans are to release a public alpha before the end of the year (well, just in case the Incas were right). We're going to try and keep Wedge in frozen mode, so we won't be adding any new (major) features, although we do have a few outstanding features (or bug fixes) which we plan to ship before we go public. And who knows, maybe we'll have a good week at some point and will even be able to go gold before the end of the year...? Naah, can't be.

Farjo have fun and tell us what you think ;)

Antes, there may be a permission problem for those who are exclusively in the tester group.

Right now I'm taking a short break. I finally was able to release a usable copy of Wedge to non-consultants. It's an emotional moment for me ;)

Okay... I'll be honest with you guys.

- It's 1:30am here in Paris. I'm exhausted. I wake up every morning at 6:30am so it's not going to be easy tomorrow...
- I'm done with the alpha. I think it's pretty much ready for release.
- But I don't want to release something that I've completed while very tired, then go to bed, then wake up in the morning to discover a disaster.
- I really, REALLY wanted to release today. I mean it's October 31st and tomorrow is November and I hate November. The name sucks and it makes me think of really cold days. I'm a bit superstitious.
- Still, I did finish it on October 31st...[1]
- So, let's just say the changelog will start with "Private alpha 0.1 - October 31st", all right guys? :P

To sum it up:
- I've got a version I'm relatively happy with (relatively isn't great, but to me it's good enough for a release considering I spent the last few weeks hiding behind my keyboard.)
- I'll release it tomorrow morning.
- That way, I'll be able to assist with any issues while I'm at it.

Everyone fine with that? Click the Like button if you're ready to test tomorrow :P

1.

I'm on the American timezone today. Got too many annoying kids knocking at my door asking for friggin' sweets. Without any costumes. Yeah, the French imported that silly US/Irish tradition, and yet the kids only see the 'sweets' part and don't want to waste time on costumes. I hate Halloween. The only good thing to come out of it was the Nightmare before Christmas.

Look at this :)

Should I block Googlebot from crawling a dynamically generated calendar?