Joomla! Discussion Forums

After some confusion, I realise now that the reply button is missing because this forum is for opinions to be stated and not for discussions. This can be frustrating for us when discussion threads started elsewhere are moved here and could contribute to the misunderstanding that 'Joomla is surpressing discussion'.

I know that this is not true 

I'm a corporate trainer and this week worked with a group of senior managers currently making big changes in their organisation. One of the areas we explored in our workshop was "Common Responses to Change". Here are some of their conclusions:

• People will think first about what they will lose not what they might gain.
• People will feel isolated, neglected & marginalised - even if everyone is going through the same change.
• People are at different levels of readiness for change - some will embrace, some will resist.
• People will be concerned that they don’t have enough resources - time, money, skills, support...
• People will feel awkward, persecuted, ill at ease and selfconscious.
• People can handle only so much change.
• If you take the pressure off, people will revert back to old behaviour.

For those who are concerned about the future of J! and particular the responses of the parties involved - I would encourage patience and peacemaking.

We must support and be patient with the 3rd Party Developers as they seek to find a way of staying within J!
We must support and be patient with the J! Core Devs as they seek to find a way of keeping the project part of the wider GPL community and allow ways for the 3rdPD to reamain within the J! community.

It is clear that many 3rd Party Developers have strong beliefs and feelings about the way forward and the actions of the OSM and J! Core Team.
It is also clear that the J! Core Team and OSM have clear ideas about the way they wish to proceed.

Trying to get each party to change their minds will only lead to division and entrenched views - in short it will be futile.
We may have a measure of success in the end but only at a very high cost.

So my plea to developers and to the core is to  be open and seek suitable solutions rather than digging in.
Accept the differneces and actively seek ways of bridging the opposing views.

I've have been a lurking on the forums since the $ambo days and am a small Joomla user (3 sites). One supports my freelance work as a corporate trainer, one is for a non-profit organisation and the third is a development site that may turn into a new online business opportunity. I have no vested interest in any of the propsed solutions to the current GPL debate and have no understanding of the various interpretations of GPL an it's legalities.

I am however very passionate about Joomla and it's community.

Ally,

Somewhat like you, the past month has reminded me of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross's five stages of grief or "the Five Stages of Receiving Catastrophic News."

To quote wikipedia's outline:


(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%BCbler-Ross_model)

We've seen examples of all of them here on the forums, on developer sites, in email and in blogs.


This is not to trivialize any of what people are feeling or their thinking; in contrast, it is to say that what everyone is doing is normal. This is why time is going to be the best ally in moving forward and (unconciously perhaps but wisely) why the core team has adopted  a go slow, try not to burn bridges approach.

Just my observations in response to your interesting post.