[development] One core, many distributions

[Dan Robinson]

>This is a very interesting issue, IMHO. Sorry for all those bored with this 
>thread. 
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oh c'mon - we must be close to setting a record :)

>Op donderdag 24 november 2005 20:55, schreef u:
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>>I'm totally not arguing with you btw :).
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>No, I got that; I think we agree, but i think this is an interesting 
>discussion. 
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yes.  I think so as well :)

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>>>>I undersatnd the attitude that "the only thing that matters are
>>>>contributors", however I would argue that the more users you have, the
>>>>more contributors you will have.
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>>>I already mentioned that users are a route towards new developers, Not
>>>only because the more users you have the bigger the chances are there is
>>>a contributer inbetween, but also because a lot of users spend money on
>>>hiring developers for drupal.
>>>
>>>However, to the project itself, IMO the only thing that really counts, in
>>>the end, is the amount of active contributors. All the rest can be
>>>ignored.
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>>>
>>isn't what you just said contradictory? What am I missing -
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>>Users [help create] new developers [and create] marketplace [which
>>brings] new developers
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>>so how can you then turn around and say "...the only thing that really
>>counts, in the end, is that amount of active contributors.."
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>>I'm just wondering :).
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>No this does not contradict:
>If one runs a company, one can easily say: in the end its all about the 
>balance, the money. 
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yeah - you can say it is all about the money - but if it is for you then
that is sad.  There's a process - and you better enjoy that process,
otherwise you won't be very happy.

>Having clients is cool: But clients that only cost money, or even clients that 
>do not bring any money, are nice, yet do not help. in the end, 
>A company can then say "The profit is all that matters, in the very end. 
>Whether that is genrated by no clients at all, only one client or thousands 
>of clients does not matter". 
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>In the same line we can say: The only thing that we can calculate our value 
>off, is the amount of contributors, not the amount of users". 
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I think this is way too simplistic and reductionist.  I agree that just
having lots of users isn't it either (if I thought so I would go off and
use mambo or whatever it is called now :) ).  But to say that users
don't matter is silly (for me).

>Hell, we can have a million of users, yet only two developers. In that case we 
>have a serious problem :)
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it seems unlikely that that could ever happen.  Also there are hundreds
of drupal developers (perhaps 1000s) who don't contribute code back - we
should try to fix that.  One thing that I'm starting to conclude from
this conversation  is that the motivations and interests between
different participants is really different.  I wonder if there are not
clusters.  Very interesting discussion - I need to think about this for
a while.

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>>Also I just had a thought (everybody cover your ears...) Is the project
>>about the developers/contributors or is it about the code.  I wonder...
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>>>>I believe that a lot of this conversation is because you have
>>>>new people coming into the arena with their own ideas, aspirations and
>>>>needs.
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>>>Oh, buit this is a good thing, imo. It keeps drupal from rusting.
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>>agreed :)
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