Recent Travails of SMF Team and Friends

[kat]

Yeah, me too.


I sometimes think a small giggle might help, which is why I do the one-liners, sometimes.


It's all very sad, more than anything.

[Cassiel]

Kat, just know that at least someone out there loves your one-liners.

[C4G-TK]

Maybe we can call Obama and have a Beer Summit! 

Woohoo!  I'll take a Rolling Rock, please!

[bullan]

..............
Oh, wait...
hxxp://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?337121-Former-vBulletin-lead-developer-Kier-Darby-to-develop-new-forum-software&p=1905469&viewfull=1#post1905469
Forgot I said anything about respectable companies
...............

let just hope he didn't start working with Unknown cause lots of forum (communities) software will became obsolete

or maybe let's hope so??

[NoobDeveloper]

I think i have missed the action. can anyone tell me whats going on? Is SMF going to close or what ? 


Please tell me what disputes has happened here.

[nemesis99]

I would certainly like to know the outcome of this matter as well.  I had SMF 2.0 at the top of my list for forum software on a site I'm opening though after seeing the current rumblings the last thing I want to do is begin using a forum software whose company is having serious internal political issues.  I'm likely to fall back to my secondary or tertiary choices if this continues.

[Rowdy]

Competition is good. Perhaps two, three, or four different branches will increase drive for innovation.

[DeniGMK]

Can anyone update me over PM?

I really want to know whats going on here. 

[Nao 尚]

Competition is good. Perhaps two, three, or four different branches will increase drive for innovation.

SMF won't get forked, as the license forbids it.
If the whole team would be to retire, they would have to create a new forum system from scratch. SMF belongs to the SM LLC which is owned by Amacythe.

@talktoanil, DeniGMK> Okay, I'm going to try and summarize this. Since the SMF team hasn't communicated at all on the matter, and most of these stories happened outside of public (and of my) view, I'm afraid it will be very hard for me to give both sides' arguments, so I'll just tell one side of the story (Unknown's and Jeff's), and make sure I'm indicating whatever information is hear-say, i.e. no proof available in public, only affirmations from one person or another.

There was a fight recently in the private boards (which I don't have access to, so this is all only second hand). Apparently, the current management's involvement in SMF was under discussion (I'm not sure). It turned out that the majority of the team wanted is to turn the SimpleMachines LLC into a non-profit organization and have a board of elected managers (and maybe, later, give SMF a more permissive license, but this may not have been discussed at the time.)

When SMF changed from being owned by Lewis Media to an LLC, Amacythe (the person who's currently in charge of managing SMF's money donations) was appointed project manager, and was to find more partners for the LLC -- but she never did, although there are different stories on why she didn't. She also promised to Unknown (the main historical developer of SMF) that she would transmit powers back to him in case he came back to the project. When he did, she refused to give ownership back. (Gathered from whatever information is available to the public.) She is also accused of various things, which I'm not going to repeat here because again it's all hear-say and I'm trying to summarize what has been said here and there, not to determine whether it is true or not. Eh.

*If* I understand correctly, that is the story of what is happening behind the scenes. The current SMF team is mainly comprised of Amacythe's friends and/or supporters or members who aren't interested in the team politics and only want to work on SMF. The members who were ousted or left by themselves, are mostly the original SMF founders and project managers, as well as most of the historical developers (Unknown, JayBachatero, Thantos, etc.), and collaborators who've been in the team since the days Unknown and Jeff were around, too, or are simply sympathetic to their side of the story.

I don't know any of the protagonists personally, and frankly I'm tired of politics, so I'd rather see everyone come back and get back to work, but unfortunately it is not going to be the case until the situation is resolved at the management team level.

Please, if anyone from the team feels I have incorrectly exposed the situation, feel free to tell me, I will edit my post as soon as possible. (Please don't edit my post directly, as it could be seen as censorship.)

EDIT: modified the story on how SMF changed hands, thanks to details given to me in the meantime.

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

Nao's post explains this all quite well, without going in to too much details...

[Paracelsus]

I personally find very hard to imagine SMF without the steering of people like [Unknown], Douglas and so on (even if they are not fully 'present' at certain periods).

The fact is that SMF is getting stagnant and therefore need the driving force and clarity of members like the ones above.

[Deaks]

Nao you have it pretty much ... guys simply remember that big names on SMF history got banned by the team as they dont like direction SMF is heading.

[David111567]

Nao you have it pretty much ... guys simply remember that big names on SMF history got banned by the team as they dont like direction SMF is heading.

Ok...then since we are all left with nothing but opinions or uneducated speculation ("uneducated" would refer to people like me, who are not looking from the inside and don't have all the facts) on which way this could go...let me ask a few FAIR questions of the "insiders" who would be able to give an educated opinion (keeping in mind that it is only OPINION that we are talking about, here):

Is SMF (forgive the terminology) "screwed" from this point out?

Will SMF be able to bounce back and create something as vibrant and as remarkable as they have in the past?  Or:

Are we essentially looking at a "dead" piece of software (meaning, no more updates, little support, if any) within the next 6 months to a year?

I know I'm the one who may be HAMMERED for asking ...but I'm not asking anything that any of you aren't wondering anyway, if you're honest with yourselves.

I've noticed a lot less major mod developement....a lot less 3rd party involvement, a lot less EVERYTHING...of late.  I am not an advocate of airing the dirty laundry, but since it is, in fact, aired....the question needs to be addressed....is this the "beginning of the end" here...or is it gonna all pan out, given time, level heads and a fair amount of compromise?  Again (and again) I will stress, I'm just looking for educated opinions.  Been using SMF for years now and have remained a silent and happy user.  Now I have 3 forums running and established with fairly heavy traffic on 2 of them.  Do I need to think "redesign', here?

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

Is SMF (forgive the terminology) "screwed" from this point out?

I don't think so. The project will survive in some shape or form - currently it is just seeking the shape and form.

Will SMF be able to bounce back and create something as vibrant and as remarkable as they have in the past?  Or:

Hopefully so.

Are we essentially looking at a "dead" piece of software (meaning, no more updates, little support, if any) within the next 6 months to a year?

Hopefully not, at least I would think 2.0 will be going final, and will be supported..
Can't say anything more since I'm no longer on team, but I doubt this would kill SMF in any way...
SMF still has a team behind it.

I've noticed a lot less mod developement....a lot lest 3rd party involvement, a lot less EVERYTHING...of late.  I am not an advocate of airing the dirty laundry, but since it is, in fact, aired....the question needs to be addressed....is this the "beginning of the end" here...or is it gonna all pan out, given time, level heads and a fair amount of compromise? 

Honestly - both are possible scenarios, but I would think that time will heal, and SMF will survive this.

[Kindred]

as the Operations Manager for SMF, I believe that I can say:

SMF is not dying or even on life-support. Yes, the project has had some turn-over in staffing, yes, there have been some arguments, but the team that we have is still on the job and we are always inviting promising new talent from the member pool to join.

This post was made to address a number of rumors that were flying around. Specific details are not really necessary...   If you've read the rumors and accusations, then you understand this post. If you have not, then this post is meant to keep people "in the loop" that "yes, something is going on, but we are handling it"

Keep smiling.

[kat]

You show me a community that doesn't have fights and I'll show you a community that's stagnating.

[Nick Whetstone]

You show me a community that doesn't have fights and I'll show you a community that's stagnating.

Hadn't looked at it this way, but you're right. If there are no arguments, chances are it is either a totalitarian website that doesn't tolerate any other view point, or there are no members around to fight with each other.

[Rowdy]

There is no way any type of contract exists which could prevent some of the "team" from branching off and designing their own software from scratch, as I meant.

[mirahalo]

There is no way any type of contract exists which could prevent some of the "team" from branching off and designing their own software from scratch, as I meant.

true, but all of the smf friends, and I mena ALL love SMF thats way I don't think this is going to happen.

[kat]

There's a passion for SMF.


If that passion wasn't there, people wouldn't feel so strongly about it.