I see both sides point here. It is where the human components that have made this issue unresolved and probably never will be fully resolved. There are many definitions of what an "unmaintained", "defunct", "different vision" module is. Some would say if a maintainer answers a few issues the module is still being maintained even though it hasn't been updated in a year. Some would say updates 2 times a year is not enough. Some would say that patches are denied means that it should be branched.As has been brought up of late, the Drupal community is growing at tremendous rates. With that growth comes all kinds of people. It is hard to determine whether it is a module maintainer or a patch submitter is the the one in the right when it come down to a disagreement. As this is open source we have always put the responsibility with the maintainer (as it should be). Some people work well with others, some people work OK with others, and some do not work well with others. I think that trying to force people together is not a good idea. Currently, we highly suggest it and it is (as far as I can tell) deeply ingrained into the community to not duplicate. That is enough I think. I don't think that changing the "scratch your own itch" method by forcing module maintainers to be full software companies providing constant support and thinking of their users even when it is not good for them is the answer. I also don't think forcing others that have an itch to "take what there is" or to not be able to take advantage of the fine Drupal community and d.o resources just because there is another module that does something similar. The main problem with this is from an end user's perspective. Trying to find the best module for what you need is hard to do. So I think the best solution to this is one that is focused on making that experience better without changing the open source model. Many things have been suggested in this area, ratings, download stats, commit and issue metrics, re-structuring the downloads section, similar modules blocks, forum chatter blocks, etc. I don't know the best solution but my bet is that it would be along these lines. -- Alan Doucette Koi Technology, LLC www.KoiTech.net