Hi Les, I've been following this thread for the last week and thought I'd finally chime in. It's nice to see new people still showing interest in Habari... When I was my blog in 2009 I spend many weeks looking at just about every single CMS under the sun. On one hand I really wanted to use WP just because of how popular it is - however you spin it it's nice using a product around which the whole world revolves. Then I came upon Habari -- daaamn, what a change! Stunning clean interface, everything is quick, no distracting crap everywhere etc. Naturally I was instantly hooked. Now fast-forward a couple years, and the blog that I used to update daily I haven't even touched in a couple years. Now I don't in any way mean to come off sounding as if I'm in any way pushing my own laziness onto Habari... ...but you know that feeling you get when you use something new and shiny? -- you get a new vacuum and all of the sudden you're vacuuming daily, you get a new phone and you're playing with it nonstop etc. To some extent that was the feeling that completely faded back then when it came to Habari for me.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habari#Release_history - that really summarizes one of the biggest problems. I started using Habari at version 0.4 - fast forward 5 years, and we're still not even at 1.0 - but ok ok, perhaps there is still a ton of great features that the core developers didn't feel like it was worth a big version number. Security fix, security fix, security fix, security fix, security fix. I mean if I'm a brand new user right now and I look at that, I feel like I just started using Windows XP in the year 2010 where the only future that it has is some security updates every 6 months. Lets be honest, you look at that and it just screams half-dead/dying project to anyone who isn't a part of the core. Now, that aside, a couple years ago, as ringmaster may remember (at the time I was using Ink/InkMaster usernames in the IRC channel) I actually really wanted to give Habari a new face - even started making some mockups back then. http://cl.ly/image/2J2h203l310K - but then I got a bit bored and unfortunately too many other things came up which forced me to halt all of that. I really do want Habari to start progressing. I really, really want it to take off. Excluding things like SquareSpace, I'm still yet to find any CMS systems for blogs that would be as elegant, all of them just feel disgustingly bloated (looking at WP here). So for what it's worth Les, I'm a front-end developer/designer and I specialize/love to work with the very simple, easy to navigate, use etc interfaces - really exactly what Habari is trying to come off as. Both my michaelflux.com website, and the screenshot I linked to above are quite poor representations of my current work as both of those are 3-4 years old. But while I have a very limited amount of time, I'd love to help you out in any ways I can. Morydd, *"We would love to have people who were as passionate about the front facing aspects of the project take the lead on those things."* Perhaps I'm just that person? - of course if the rest of the community is actually interested in developing the brand and there isn't any silly opposition along the lines of 'If there are more than 500 users, it' too mainstream!" :p Les, on a separate note, I'm currently living with 8 cats, all 8 which we picked up from the streets ourselves - though only 4 are "ours", rest are fosters which hopefully will be adopted out soon! :) Michael On Monday, January 7, 2013 7:23:59 PM UTC-5, Les Henderson wrote: > > I'm sure I don't need to keep making my point since you are fully aware of > the situation but I just found another post from 2008 at > http://readwrite.com/2008/09/28/will_habari_be_the_next_wordpress that > has the subheading of > > It's Not New, They Just Need Better Marketing! > > The Habari Project <http://www.habariproject.org> has been around for a > couple of years now, so you may have heard of it before. If not, don't > worry - you're not alone. > > On Sunday, December 30, 2012 7:48:43 PM UTC-5, Les Henderson wrote: >> >> I was put onto Habari by a big fan user and thought I'd try to get it >> running because I like to support what might be perceived to be underdogs. >> After dickering with it a bit from the perspective of a person who doesn't >> hold a degree in Computer Science or Artificial Intelligence I have to note >> that I see opportunities for improvement, not of the program but the way it >> is promoted and supported. >> >> I don't say this to be critical but rather that I am excited about seeing >> an underutilized opportunity. I love Open Source and free things but >> realize that they require a lot of devotional free labour and kind >> contributions to keep alive. I've run a free resource for a decade and it's >> cost me tens of thousands in unwanted legal fees and more again for my time. >> >> Presently I find the documentation way over the heads of even someone >> like myself who can usually figure things out, given enough time. I wonder >> if the core group of supporters would be horribly distraught if I arranged >> to organize and fund a more user friendly users group website that I'd have >> to fund with Adsense? >> >> Then I could approach it from a noob's perspective and hopefully get more >> people on board as users, rather than let it languish and fade away, >> something I fear I see happening. I'm open to ideas and discussions and >> really mean no unintended offence. >> >> Anyway, I get a lot of foolish brainstorms about adoption when I see >> things I like that are suffering. We have several dogs and cats that came >> as strays. Ha. >> > -- To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/habari-users
