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Re: Facebook and I
wet wrote:
Why? When was visibility abandonded being a marketing figure and turned into a technical aspect?
Jukka expressed my feelings in his reply.
Robert, I don’t think anybody is asking you to start hopping planes and attending conventions. But you’ve got to acknowledge the fact that Textpattern is shrinking. When sites like TXPMag, TXPQ and We Love TXP stop publishing, there is a problem. When prominent plugin writers like Rob Sable get disillusioned, you have a problem. I’d link to the recent fork, but you’ve got that covered.
Back in 2005, when I started following Textpattern, there was an exodus of top level people. I can’t find the forum thread, but the issues brought up then still exist to this day. The pep talks from davidm back then are now done by Destry, but it’s the same long forum threads and nothing really happens.
Robert, if you honestly want to grow Textpattern, open it up to others and I don’t mean just coders. Why have closed IRC meetings? How are you going to take over We Love TXP, when projects like the revamp of the resources site is hard to accomplish because of time constraints? This forum is an excellent example of inaction, the devs don’t have the time to deal with it, then find someone to take over the forum conversion.
Textpattern is not dead, but give it another year of doing the same old thing, and it will take the same amount of effort to raise it back up, than it will be to take the code and promote it under another name. I don’t believe the code behind this project will ever die, it’s just getting to the point where the protection of the name is getting in the way of it’s growth.
Gocom wrote:
If you are doing a free project, you do it as good as you can — like you would do a commercial product.
Yes, I agree.
We Love TXP . TXP Themes . TXP Tags . TXP Planet . TXP Make
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Re: Facebook and I
Everybody is saying smart things here. It’s really nice to see.
I agree with Jukka in his outlook about where devs play a role. No matter how much they might hate it, they are captains of this ship, and thus have leadership responsibilities as such. But that doesn’t mean they have to do the PR work, it just means they are responsible for seeing that it gets done. I think that’s where things get misconstrued in all of this. If they don’t (or can’t because of time) want to do PR, they still need to find someone who can, and stand behind that person’s efforts as an arm in the rightful cause of Txp.
The mistake that has happened through most of Txp’s history, and this is where I sympathize with Jukka, is devs have never allocated the role to somebody; they’ve just kind of expected it to happen by the love of Txp alone, or whatever. Cast the bones and throw salt over the left shoulder. I’m sorry, but that’s not a strategy, and I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but look at where Txp is today. Not very far compared to other projects that have been around as long. And God/Goddess bless the devs, because they do damn good work, but Textpattern is a Bugatti that car collectors don’t know exist. That is clearly a problem with PR.
I’d like to think we’ve come to a point in this conversation that we all agree there is a problem. Reflecting on the past to find reasons for where we are now is only so good that it does inspire change. Let’s not put anybody on the hot seat of blame, rather let’s decide what this project really wants to be in relation to all the other projects in the world and make a real plan for it. Not a plan of wishing upon a shooting star, but a real plan. A strategy! Ask yourselves, where do you see Textpattern in 5 years? If it’s somewhere more than here, make it happen, don’t just expect it to happen or 5 years may never come. Leadership must accept they are leaders, and get organized. Period.
I will always use Textpattern as long as it’s actively worked on by people I trust. Even if it means it’s down to me and one core developer. And I trust Robert and Stef and the others currently at the core. But time is more finite for this community if it keeps on the way it’s been. I would bet on it. (Who’s taking odds on the 5-year mark?)
Btw, I’ve been getting the sense that TXP 5 really is setting a brand standard for using “TXP”—not Txp or TxP or whatever. As point of example in all this PR stuff, I would recommend that it’s made clear what the desired usage is so that this community can start using it correctly. The sooner the better. This is work in progress.
And this is where you can propose changes
Last edited by Destry (2011-06-30 16:30:01)
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