[development] should tinymce get a new maintainer tinymce

[Kevin Reynen]

Allie,

Let me get this straight.  You get upset when a developer doesn't
communicate changes...

"you'll find that people weren't inherently opposed to these changes,
but they were concerned by the lack of a roadmap" - Allie Micka on
February 5, 2007

Now you're defending a developers right to make whatever changes he
wants to the release  version of popular modules without documenting
what they've done and providing no support to deal with the issues
this creates while someone else is trying to maintain the project?

I'm not as concerned that the .js theme files have been bypassed again
as I am that the people are going to quit contributing to (or even
using) this if someone is going to turn the module on it's head every
other month.  Very little of what's on the project page or responses
to issues is even accurate now.

Just because this is open source doesn't mean it has to be chaos.

The last email I received from drupal-id, he said he didn't have time
for tinymce.  He isn't even listed as having CVS access and is no
longer the module's maintainer.  Now there's a months worth of Drupal
5 users with a version that can't even be upgraded to this version of
the module without manually running the install sql.

This is EXACTLY what I was hoping to prevent by just moving
drupal-id's code the direction moxie went.  What are people with
custom .js themes supposed to do?  There's no clear way to keep that
"feature".

- Kevin

On 2/8/07, Allie Micka <allie at pajunas.com> wrote:
>
>
> On Feb 8, 2007, at 7:55 PM, Kevin Reynen wrote:
>
> This makes my head hurt!
>
> Since taking over as maintainer, I...
> ...
> Then this afternoon...
>
> I discover drupal-id updated the TinyMCE module last night.
>
> This is the nature of open source.  Nobody owes anybody anything, we're all
> just out to scratch our own itches.  The process works when people realize
> that you can help yourself in a way that helps others.  In turn, you get
> more help and insight from others, and you'll find that they are helping
> themselves in a way that helps you.
>
> Spending your time and energy on a project should earn you a say, and most
> folks will acknowledge that.  But it doesn't give you any special
> entitlements.  If you want something done in *exactly* the way you would do
> it, you have to take some ownership.
>
> I've been doing my best to help users with issue, get a handle on
> what's going on, and figure out how to move forward.  I know several
> developers and many users jumped the tinymce ship and moved to moxie,
> but there are links to the tinymce project in hundreds of Drupal
> howtos.
>
> Hopefully, by now, you realize from your own experience that this wasn't
> about "jumping ship".  This was about respecting the project maintainer's
> rights to make his own decisions, while finding ways to address our own
> needs.
>
> Anyone have suggestions on how to deal with this?
>
> You can respect the project maintainer's rights to make his own decisions,
> while finding ways to address your own needs.  If you do this in a way that
> helps others, you are participating in the open source process.
>
> Allie Micka
> pajunas interactive, inc.
> http://www.pajunas.com
>
> scalable web hosting and open source strategies
>
>
>