It’s become clear to me over the past few days that we’ve got some serious problems in this project in terms of agreement on issues surrounding the way it is run.
First of all, I’d like to say that my personal reason for being involved with Corinthia and ASF is to produce high quality software as part of a strong community, for the public good. I judge our achievements ultimately on what we have been able to build, both in terms of the end product and the community of people involved. There are many places in which one can conduct open source projects, and I was attracted to bring this code into Apache and start a project here because I felt that it is the best place to conduct this development. ASF has many rules and policies, which have been developed and agreed to over a long period of time, and are built on sound reasoning and consensus. I fully support the idea that we should comply with all of these, and ensure we operating according to the Apache Way. My reading of the principles indicates to me that they are sound, and I would like to see Corinthia become a successful top-level project in time. However, I feel as though the project has been greatly distracted by a large amount of bureaucratic discussion which does not contribute in any positive way to the project, and in fact takes focus away from development and community building. Many of the “issues" raised by Dennis have only served to cause stress for myself and, I imagine, others as well. I consider these discussions a huge waste of time and energy, and drain on motivation. They put us at risk of scaring away new potential committers who just want to come here and help build something great. These problems have lead me to put a great deal of consideration into how to proceed - the most obvious alternative being to move the project to GitHub. Those who are actively involved in development of the software and documentation can continue as we have been so far, outside of ASF, without hindrance from those who wish to impose an unjustifiably strict interpretation of ASF rules to the detriment of the project. Motivation of team members (and specifically, developers) is crucial, and I place a higher priority on the success of this project and the community than I do on the venue in which it takes place. This project is only going to work if we, as a team, can find a way to avoid the petty arguments about minor issues, and focus on what matters. I believe this is achievable within ASF (as has been demonstrated by other projects) - but am not presently convinced it’s achievable in our current situation. If things continue the way they are, I’m honestly tempted to suggest we move development to GitHub. Let’s try and make this project success, however it needs to be done. Thoughts? — Dr Peter M. Kelly pmke...@apache.org PGP key: http://www.kellypmk.net/pgp-key <http://www.kellypmk.net/pgp-key> (fingerprint 5435 6718 59F0 DD1F BFA0 5E46 2523 BAA1 44AE 2966)
