An old face, a new badge!

[Deaks]

Firstly I want to say thank you to Oldiesmann for doing a good job over the last 2 years.

I joined the team in 2007, I was a hot headed youth, living in Finland, I was naive,  young and wanted to be lead customizer.  I remember my apprenticeship to SMF, I had and I know a lot of team members say this, but I had the best mentor I could ever imagine, it would have been better if it was [Unknown] but he had left, I had another legend, the master of themes the founder of Tiny Portal, that's right my mentor was Bloc!  I wont go into how my apprenticeship was extended as I was sailing Europe or any of that.  I did the cliché thing year before, and this stopped me getting onto team earlier, I contacted a team member asking if I could be part of the team.  But I got accepted, I remember laying in my bed watching Canal+, some movie in Finnish, and being kicked from a team meeting as I got promoted, this was the official notice in a meeting, was all new cool new stuff, theme approval, moderation access, new boards and working with some of the legends of SMF, Compuart, Bloc, Kindred to name a few

Why do I say this, because its what it feels like now, all these new boards, new access, things I can do now I couldn't do before, I know SMF I have used it since the first public beta, but I feel I am in a room full of domino's and one wrong move and it will all crash down, and then everyone yells at me for toppling the domino's, and of course CoreISP up the front hitting me with a metal bar.

Ok over the next few years on the team, I did a lot of crazy stuff, caused a lot of enemies on the team, I do hope these people, I wont say names, do realize I am not the same guy as I was back then, and hope they will forgive me.  My role in the "rebellion" of the January incident is known, and so is my bluntness.  I am not perfect, but a lot of this is no longer me, I know this is a good thing, it will take time, but I am hoping to mend issues with everyone I have hurt in the past, so here is an apology to these people. 

I have taken over the reins of SMF at an interesting time, SMF has no longer got the presence it once did, mistakes have been made on the way, and there are a lot of bridges needing repaired and even rebuilt, and I have my hammer in my hand, bag of nails and lots of materials to start the process. With some effort from the team, the community and of course our friends, we can make SMF the powerhouse we once were.  My main promise during the process of Elections was to promote activity, look at ways to encourage and implement when possible ways to get the community to how it once was, even in this tough economical times.  One way we can get through is working together, helping each other, and creating bonds that can help.

I look forward to working with everyone over the next year, and hope everyone will help in taking that step forward.

[ApplianceJunk]

Congrats on the new badge and thanks for all your hard work!

[kat]

Just try to remember that carrots, biscuits (Cookies to the colonials)   and ice-cream works better than sticks, mate.

[Alpay]

Congrats on the new badge and thanks for all your hard work!

Yes Hard work..

[shadow82x]

We're all doomed. Just kidding. Goodluck again and congrats

[GravuTrad]

Happy to see this post from you runic.

I had bad feelings about you before, but i can easily change my mind about you in regard of your post here.

I hope you'll do the best for smf with this new job here.

Regards.

[bloc]

Congratz, runic.

Its a bit sad that you came to this position when so many have left..but maybe you can turn it around. IMO its devs(and part-time devs if you like) that sorely needs to be joining again. I hope the mistake of taking them for granted - or simply adding out programming chores for them - will be recognised and gone away from. Its about the only way to breath some life into it again. Right now its only the forks that have that advantage. And of course - stop the in-team fights that have emerged in the past. No small task if you ask me!

That said..SMF has come along way since we both joined ..and its not gone yet, not a single one of the forks have grabbed any serious amount of users from it. Its still time to move it forward if you like.

A small personal opinion..I don't actually think its wise to do with SMF what was planned with smCore, its too big a leap, the SMF user base isn't about using frameworks/CMS systems, they are about discussions. Maybe expand that into more areas is good, but still, SMF have alwasy been foremost a "forum", a place for discssuion, whether its forum discussions, or (IMHO) discussions around a central post/media posting. I have taken a backseat position regarding SMF myself, but I still enjoy exploring SMF like that, foremost on my personal site.

Maybe that is the way to attract more people/users?  It seems that enough experiments have been done already IMHO.(SMF Friends/Phoenix, smCore). Its easy to forget that SMF was started by following the dream of 2-3 people, and a very targetted dream as such: that of a forum only. That was soon 10 years ago, so internet is quite another place now. But staying true to that first dream isn't the worst thing you could do, IMHO. The Ferrari can still be a Ferrari, even if its looks more like a Volvo). Just don't actually make it a true Volvo.. (bad comparison, I know)

Anyways, good luck with things.

[Deaks]

Thanks Gravutrad, and thanks Bjoern, had to think for a moment on who you were, but I remember now

[bloc]

Thanks Gravutrad, and thanks Bjoern, had to think for a moment on who you were, but I remember now

Yeah, I thought you remember, but for anyone else: Bjoern is my real name(or Bjørn for the nordic people in here), but "Bloc" was my former nick.   

[Deaks]

see I was going to keep your true identity secret

[Arantor]

and its not gone yet, not a single one of the forks have grabbed any serious amount of users from it.

Most of the forks already got abandoned, of the two that are still truly active, both are still undergoing huge development at present time. Wait until they start doing ready-to-roll public releases.

[bloc]

and its not gone yet, not a single one of the forks have grabbed any serious amount of users from it.

Most of the forks already got abandoned, of the two that are still truly active, both are still undergoing huge development at present time. Wait until they start doing ready-to-roll public releases.

Sure, but it doesn't change how things are right now. What the future holds, no-one knows.

[GravuTrad]

Agreed with bloc.

[DoctorMalboro]

Congratulations on your title! I hope things go well for you and the future of SMF.

[Deaks]

cheers and I hope so to, things need to change and I hope to start soon, to make the software what it once was!

[BGH]

Congratulations and good luck, to you and SMF!

[4Kstore]

Congrats Runic and good luck in your new "job"