Recent Travails of SMF Team and Friends

[Antechinus]

One minor point: the letter initially had 33 signatories, not a dozen or so.

[Tristan Perry]

Thanks; I've amended that I meant to say: 'dozens have left the team, and a further dozen signed a joint letter'... meaning roughly 24+12, although it came out confusing! ^^

[Paracelsus]

I guess Amacythe's post made it pretty clear that she isn't interested in achieving an agreement that is satisfying enough for everybody and therefore, in my opinion, she should step down for now. This would put everyone at 'the same level' and allow the discussion to flow on common grounds until a decision is reached, leaders are chosen and an internal structure is created. And if Amacythe returns to her current position so be it and if somebody else emerges in her place so be it too. But Amacythe must absolutely step down and 'dissolve power' until people find a solution to this.

Sorry if this adds 'background noise', I'm not and never been part of SMF Staff, but as a faithful user of SMF I felt I had to say this. 

[Dannii]

Antechinus, just to be pedantic, as the truth matters, when jerm took down his Ad Management mod it wasn't available anywhere, until vbgamer bought it.

[Antechinus]

Ok, sorry. I missed that one.

[NoobDeveloper]

@ALL

Lets take a public poll if members want Amacythe to step down. 

[Arantor]

Please, let it go, folks. This is a team+friends matter, and anyone who is not part of that group, please kindly do not comment.

The public here do not know the full story. I'm not entirely sure every single person on the team knows every single detail. Late-comers like me certainly don't know the full history, and people like me - former team - have been blindsided by the revelations of history.

Unless you know precisely what you are talking about, please DO NOT comment.

[NoobDeveloper]

Please, let it go, folks. This is a team+friends matter, and anyone who is not part of that group, please kindly do not comment.

The public here do not know the full story. I'm not entirely sure every single person on the team knows every single detail. Late-comers like me certainly don't know the full history, and people like me - former team - have been blindsided by the revelations of history.

Unless you know precisely what you are talking about, please DO NOT comment.

For 1st time Arantor,  i don't second your thought.

Reason : No matter what internal / external disputes are , the only person going to be affected is the end user like me who had confidence in SMF that it is the BEST FREE Forum software. Many of us have hosted our multiple forums based on SMF and have recommended it to friends.  However, such kind of conflicts which are not solved quickly does affects the faith of an individual in SMF.

I really don't want people to start looking for some alternative solutions to host their forums.

[Arantor]

Reason : No matter what internal / external disputes are , the only person going to be affected is the end user like me who had confidence in SMF that it is the BEST FREE Forum software. Many of us have hosted our multiple forums based on SMF and have recommended it to friends.  However, such kind of conflicts which are not solved quickly does affects the faith of an individual in SMF.

I'm an end user. It affects me too.

But I'm more getting at people who are demanding things they have NO KNOWLEDGE of. You're asking for a public vote for Amacythe to step down. Did you ever talk to her? Do you know her? Do you know the history of what is being discussed in this thread? If the answer to any of these is no, then you have really little right in asking for her to step down.

For example there is talk of childish actions from the Friends - do you know what any of those things are? I do, I was involved with some of them.

[NoobDeveloper]

So you think taking poll is a bad idea ? Looking at all the posts here , this dispute will be stretched too long unless Amacythe takes a final call for SMF.  My question is, how long will it continue ?

[Owdy]

Please, let it go, folks. This is a team+friends matter, and anyone who is not part of that group, please kindly do not comment.

Why? This is community project.

[Arantor]

Yes, I think such a poll is a very bad idea because at best you'll have the people who actually have some idea of what's going on involved, and at worst you have everyone who has NO idea involved voting because of what little is public knowledge.

There is negotiations going on. Some here do not believe it will be productive, some do. At least allow them to give it a shot.


Owdy: Because of all the things in this thread. People are shouting and screaming and carrying on based on heresay and speculation. I'm asking that for now it be contained to people who have SOME idea of what's actually going on.

[Owdy]

There is negotiations going on.

BS, that is just damage control, Amacythes post shows that very clear.

I'm asking that for now it be contained to people who have SOME idea of what's actually going on.

Well, too bad you cant tell here whats going on, if you do, you get banned.

[NoobDeveloper]

Yes, I think such a poll is a very bad idea because at best you'll have the people who actually have some idea of what's going on involved, and at worst you have everyone who has NO idea involved voting because of what little is public knowledge.

There is negotiations going on. Some here do not believe it will be productive, some do. At least allow them to give it a shot.


Owdy: Because of all the things in this thread. People are shouting and screaming and carrying on based on heresay and speculation. I'm asking that for now it be contained to people who have SOME idea of what's actually going on.

Ok. No issues. Let both the teams try their level best to come up with a decision which will be doing good for the community. However, if negotiations fails , then at-least the core members need to take a poll. I hope that the outcome will be positive and in favor of SMF community.

Lets wait now and hope that this waiting is not long.

[stfox100]

Owdy: Because of all the things in this thread. People are shouting and screaming and carrying on based on heresay and speculation. I'm asking that for now it be contained to people who have SOME idea of what's actually going on.

And how do you know who that would be? I've been privy to a quite a bit of knowledge that you would have no idea about. Yet on my credentials alone, I'm an outsider, who just happens to know quite a lot of people.

[Arantor]

I'd be suggesting that it would be the team and friends who have been directly involved. Can't vouch for anyone else, though I'd argue if you knew many of the details you must have either been a friend or ex team member, or someone has discussed it at great length with you.

That said, I'm ex-team, and I don't know all of what's gone on, most of it I've only read about.

I'm just trying to calm a little down of the flames that are needlessly being fanned here.

[stfox100]

I'd be suggesting that it would be the team and friends who have been directly involved.

Although I wouldn't have a vote, I consider that fair. But I've been in business a long time and know a little about good and bad decisions,...some made by myself.

[wildebeast]

none of this is reassuring - there is claim and counter-claim from staff and SMF friends... if we lowly end users are not to comment, where can we get reassurances from?

We are going to speak to eachother to try and figure things out, that's human nature, and such discussions will invariably happen in all sorts of places - some public.

Not that I matter much (if at all - just a returning user having used SMF for 4 years until recently), but none of this is reassuring at all and does not at all, encourage me to return using SMF.

[Joker™]

Sorry to interrupt in between ,i reading this thread regularly and i had on intention of writing in this thread before this morning , but when i woke up i saw this thread as some war zone.

i was staff at a big site not big as smf (but it is biggest in it category)

it has nearly  5,50,000 Members
Posts around : 2,50,000
Replies: 11,00,000

we had a great team there . but suddenly our admin became Hitler and we all started feeling like as if we are labour on that site .
over a big cultural issue when we talked to admin he said u can leave the site, i wont change my decision.
He thinks that position at which site is just coz of him (keeping this apart).

Me n my fellow friends simply quit the site by giving him resignation.
Till now also users over there know that we have some problem with management n we left..


My whole point is Don't make these sorts of allegations over each other in public,something is know as site image which everyone must maintain.

I'm also worried that such a great script(SMF) which inspired my to start coding instead of posting in warez sites,may loose its charm n people will tend to look for other alternatives scripts if people continue to see such behavior.

So my Humble request is that ,the purpose for which this thread was created let it to be there only, don't make this a battle field

Hope everyone take this positively and start's to think in positive manner.

[Tristan Perry]

I'd be suggesting that it would be the team and friends who have been directly involved. Can't vouch for anyone else, though I'd argue if you knew many of the details you must have either been a friend or ex team member, or someone has discussed it at great length with you.

That said, I'm ex-team, and I don't know all of what's gone on, most of it I've only read about.

I'm just trying to calm a little down of the flames that are needlessly being fanned here.

I agree that to know *all* the details you'd need to be a team member or SMF friend.

But it's quite easy for the general public to get the gist details if they look at this thread, at some blogs, at the SMF friends open letter, etc