I think Khalid is exactly right here. The low barrier to entry is one of the non-obvious secrets to Drupal's success. It helps sucks new people in, gets them connected to the community, and we all benefit as their skills and contributions grow. Clay Shirky's book, "Here comes everybody" is all about the fundamental change that the internet is sparking: the change from create-filter-publish, to create-publish-filter. It can seem like a small change, but it is unleashing a huge wave of energy and creativity into the world. And Drupal is benefiting from that wave, every bit as much more obvious projects, like Wikipedia or Flickr. Of course, drupal.org has been a little weak in terms of tools for harnessing the power of the group mind in filtering after publishing, and it can be frustrating trying to separating the wheat from the chaff on your own. Currently drupalmodules.com is the best place for viewing and contributing to the collective wisdom about existing modules, but http://drupal.org/project/usage is also a big step forward, and the drupal.org redesign will move the ball forward even more. I would say that anyone that feel passionately about this subject should get involved with the drupal.org redesign, and start contributing there, either with time and expertise, or with funding. cheers, -tao
Yes, your observation is correct, but ... so what?
We've always had stuff that falls off the face of earth. So what? The caravan continues on ...
The very first module I contributed (feedback) illustrates a point: It was started in 2002 by someone called "barry". I had it working I took it over in 2004 with totally new code for Drupal 4.5. Then "fago" overhauled it a lot in 2006. Over time, the contact module in core came along, and I stopped using feedback. Then in 2008 "sun" took it over and repurposed it with new code.
The "too many modules in contrib syndrome" can be taken as confusing, excessive, ...etc. but can also be taken as a sign of a healthy and vibrant community. So what if we have a few extra gigabytes of code? So what if they become unmaintained?
If we raise the barrier or block new entries we will be shutting ourselves off from being the platform for the new chx or the new merlinofchaos.
It does not matter ... if it is the wild wild west, then let it be. It is a small price to pay for innovation and the power of the masses. -- Khalid M. Baheyeldin 2bits.com <http://2bits.com>, Inc. http://2bits.com Drupal optimization, development, customization and consulting. Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability. -- Edsger W.Dijkstra Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. -- Leonardo da Vinci