> No offense to anyone but if somebody wants to release 0.8 as - > refactored sitemaps to utilise locationmap, then we (or better this > somebody) has to put some more work into it. It cannot be that we expect > from the usual suspects that they now as well put more work into that > part of forrest. > > Actually that is the point, why you only? Refactoring the sitemaps can > be done by *all* committers. There is no secrets to it.
I think this remark carries some negative connotation that bothers me. I will try to be concise and objective in my statements so as to avoid any confusion. I started using Forrest because it was a cool tool that fit my needs perfectly. In using it I found some things that I needed that weren't there and were not hard to fix, so I sent in the occasional patch. I like living on the bleeding edge of cool software, so when views were out I was quick to put them to test and I really liked the concept. With every project, there comes a time when the project sort of comes of age. I think Forrest is nearing that time now. There are a lot of ideas, discussions, community building up -- Forrest is trying to define itself, which is fantastic. But like all good things, it will take its time. I try to follow the discussions as and when I can, and put in my thoughts if I have something to add. Otherwise I'm happy to watch. I don't use Forrest at work. I don't get money out of Forrest related work. For me, the only interest in Forrest is personal. I try and contribute when I have the time and motivation, and it doesn't help if I feel there is some 'pressure' or 'expection' when I don't. Like Ross said, this is open source. If someone has a itch, they scratch it. At the same time however, for any good and large open source project to succeed it usually takes more than a passing interest and commitment on the part of atleast some of the developers. Typically (there are always exceptions) people who have a more concrete interest (work related, for instance) in the product will be the stewards of large changes and I think that works out well. While I really appreciate all the hard work everyone puts into Forrest, getting negative vibes about the "other" developers not putting in enough effort doesn't help the project or the community. People do what they want to do, and the community recognizes them for it. If I am unable to contribute as much as the next developer, I don't want to be judged for it, nor want other developers to feel bad about it. I have great respect for the work that people are doing here, but I feel bad if they think of themselves as the "usual suspects". Just my 2c. -- Web/Blog/Gallery: floatingsun.net
