A different kind of reaction

[Nivuahc]

First, let me tell you a little about who I am... I'm just a guy, likes to play with computers, happens to have a webhosting account and decided, after 2 years, to actually do something with it. A couple of weeks ago I downloaded Mambo because I'd seen it once before and liked what I'd seen. I wasn't intent on using it as much as I was trying to decide what I would do with my site and wanted to 'play' with it for a bit.

That was before all of the... broo-ha-ha

I've been reading the posts on both forums about the situation and I've got to tell you, my feelings on the situation are that I'm happy. I'm really, really, really happy.

I don't like to see people in disagreement with one another, I don't like to see people hurt by the actions of others and I don't like to see people react in the way that some have reacted in this whole drama.

So why would I classify myself as happy?

There are a lot of bullies in the world, and there are a few people who are willing to stand up to those bullies for themselves, and for the sake of others. The move by the dev team to walk away from Miro and fork Mambo was just that. They were standing up for people like me, a regular user. It would have been easy for them to walk away completely, and I'm glad they chose not to.

I've read the concerns expressed for new users of Mambo and where this leaves them. I, for one, have decided to stick with Mambo (and the soon to be named CMS) because of everything that has happened. My inital installation was just for kicks... I was just playing around... Since all of this happened I've installed the latest Mambo on 8 separate sites and have assisted each sites owner in the basics of Administration. I was up until 2:00am last night, in fact, walking someone through their site administration so they'd feel comfortable working in it. When the new CMS is released, I'l happily upgrade each of those installations to the OSM version. And I've got another 3 sites that I'll be setting up in the next week... guess what I'm going to use. 

The name OpenSourceMatters is a great site name... because Open Source does matter... just like the people behind the development of OS projects matter... and the users of OSS matter. Without all three of those things working together, you've got nothing but a catchy name. 

So my reaction to this entire thing... I'd like to thank the members of the dev team for standing up for people like me, even if they didn't realize they were doing it it at the time. You don't know me. Heck, this is my very first post to the forum. And the choice you've made says, to me, that you care about this software, and that you care about people like me.

The world needs more people who are willing to speak for those without a voice and stand up for the rights of others.

There's a word for people like that.

[broeker]

We've been so busy on infrastructure and naming issues that I haven't checked the forum in awhile, and this was the first message I saw when I checked in tonight. After all of the stress over the past week, it was a pleasure to read your post. Onward...

[Damienov]

Nivuahc
I think your post is a reflection of almost all of the member here including myself
even if this is your very first post, it's a quality post that convince other of their decision to stick by the core devs

Kudos to you

[RacquetChat]

Thanks for summing up exactly how I feel. Thanks for posting!

I'm just a regular computer user (non-programmer) and set up a badminton-related site/forum for my son. I went from an ugly html static site, to a wonderfully dynamic (but still funny looking) CMS with mambo -- thank you thank you thank you to the dev team and mambo community who have helped me along.

RacquetChat.com

[ilox]

This is for the Team, the Core, Devs, translators, coders, for all of those who have in some way helped Mambo become what it has. Thankyou.

From the bottom of my heart thankyou one and all for getting off your butt and doing something that makes a difference to the world. You might not have thought much about your contribution, hell you were probably just having fun wresting with code or even writing things down so others wouldn't have to bash their head against the wall trying to work out why this does that.

What you have contributed means that people like me, knowing Jack about MySQL and Apache and even less about PHP can download a collection of programs and then build them into a web site that can look Hot!

Back in February 05 a friend asked me if I can help him with some HTML because he had been asked to build a site for his work. At that time all I knew about web sites was building in 4.01 and nothing else.

Well we looked at the task and decided that this needed to be done better than just a few static pages. Download Mambo and then start learning. MSAS, man what a tool! Make mistakes, start again. Documentation and Tutorials, thanks so much for all that effort, you writers have helped me fix so many of my errors that I ended up actually learning something new. The support from the Forum when things went pear-shaped, many thanks for the community and for all the questions that were answered as soon as I hit the Search button on the Forum. I was able to build this site because of you and what you put in.

Well in May the http://www.alrm.org.au site went live and we were stunned just how good it looked, and believe me the organisation was stoked about it. They have now set up a staff team and all sections have taken a responsibility to generate and maintain content. Even though they know zip about web sites they are able to make their mark on the world and contribute. They can do that because of what you have all done.

Today they decided to change the design a little by tweaking the background. I tweaked it all right, I gave them the new dynamic pages I have been building along the way. Me, knowing nothing about much at all and I have been able to build a new template because of the help and the documentation and the wonderful tools provided by the Core and 3rd party programs. Whoever did mamboXplorer. thankyou so much. Sure there are problems in there but they can be fixed because this process has given me the knowledge to work things out and fix them.

This is what I want you folks to realise, when you walked away from Miro the other day, you walked there with all of us supporting you and thanking you because the future of whatever Mambo becomes is going to be here, because you give a damn! Because you believe in Open Source and you believe that mugs like me deserve a chance at making life different for other people.

To each of you that have helped with Mambo along the way, take a little time to rest a bit, think back on how your efforts have changed my life and through me perhaps the lives of many other folks and realise that my story has been repeated countless times, about 3 million times or more - because you cared enough to give to Mambo.

On the 1st of August I started a Cert 4 Web Design course at TAFE because I could see that with Mambo and a little more knowledge I might actually have a future, hell I might even be able to make a job out of this. At 53 with a disability and having not worked since 96 that is what you have given me.

There just isn't enough ways to say how much I appreciate Mambo. I guess all I can do is say it again and hope you know how much I mean it, Thankyou.

[eyezberg]

Ian, your post should be on the frontpage too! Thank YOU for these words. Nivuhac also, of course.

Brad, how about a "thank you/testimonials" thread under General, in case there are more such posts..?