jonflgiles wrote:
@Grisbald - I'm sorry dude I don't know what your beef is with Joomla ...
@jonflgiles - no need for you to be sorry Jon. I should be the one apologizing. The post was uncharacteristic of me. I've been involved with Mambo/Joomla! since before the Robert Castley era and the golden years of version 4.5. That release was a significant tipping point because it introduced powerful features and usability enhancements over previous versions. The Forum's 100k milestone is an expression of the popularity and interest in Joomla! predominately amongst the users. For many of us, it is also an expression of hope for the future of Joomla! The milestone got me reflecting on the history of the Joomla! project and the long lead time to another 'tipping-point' experience - for users.
The strength of the Joomla! community is also reflected in its tolerance for the odd outburst of frustration and angst, like mine. As a community-based FOSS project, Joomla! relies on the synergies between the developers and the users. To a certain extent, I think that this synergy has been denied by the developers' desire to release the perfect product. Smaller, more frequent releases would facilitate user involvement and arguably grow the community faster and in more constructive directions. As an experienced project manager in the IM/IT domain, I know how seductive scope creep can be. I also know how difficult software estimation is.
I blogged (grisbald.net) on the topic of community size as a metric of FOSS project success /health. I think this is a useful thing to think about. It is one thing to celebrate a milestone, and another to understand its meaning. But then I think about things like this, and understand that others may not. Can a FOSS community of 10k be as or even more successful? Why? How? Worth thinking about I think.
So, sorry for upsetting the celebration a bit. I wasn't as constructive as I probably should have been with my comment. Sarcasm is a pretty arrogant way to make a point or solicit positive feedback.
UPDATE: Drupal has announced its own 100k milestone too. Interesting. AmyStephen has been blogging about Drupal, WordPress and Joomla! on opensourcecommunity.org. Her latest is
http://www.opensourcecommunity.org/2007 ... ource-cmss and shows Jooma! declining while Drupal and WordPress are strengthening using Alexa. Back in February, Amy posted Google Trends data on her own blog indicating the rise of Joomla! (partially the migration of Mambo users) in relation to Drupal and WordPress - see
http://community.nebraska.edu/amyblog/i ... wordpress/. This is interesting data. Some might question the value of comparing FOSS projects in this way - it isn't a competition after all. Benchmarking is a useful method of assessing quality and progress and I think that this data raises some interesting speculation. Thanks Amy.