[theforum] Can't get on steering, finance or sysadmin

[David Kaufman]

William Anderson wrote:
>
> Lachlan Cannon wrote:
>> In fact, I find it quite scary that the only person who seems fully
>> equipped to modify the CMS is .jeff. Not because I don't trust him,
>> of course, but because if something were to happen to him, we'd be in
>> trouble [...]
>
> I'd be very interested to hear Jeff's take on this discussion,
> because he's been silent up until now.  Jeff, would you get
> tremendously pissed off if the community decided to change direction
> in the CMS platform?  Surely you have more than just Cold Fusion
> skills to contribute to the game?
>
> I don't think anyone's directly asked you anything about that yet,
> and to be honest I'm getting tired with the tip-toeing around, so
> your truthful and honest opinion would be gratefully received I'm
> sure.

i'm guessing he's ignoring this thread.  i mean, Look up at the subject!
this now very long thread started with a high degree of uninformed
complaining from Paul, which i took as an attack, and chose to ignore
because it seemed obvious that whatever was said, he'd take the
opposite opinion and argue each point ad nauseum.  we call that
trolling where i come from.  that has been followed by many regulars
being roped in attempting to justify our actions and the current state
of affairs to someone who appears to delight in nitpicking every word.
i've ignored the largest part of the thread, and barely skimmed much of
the rest, and can only hope jeff is doing the same.

the thread has gone on waaay too long without a subject change, having
ranged across every subject from his failure to attain list membership,
to his failure to agree with technology choices, or our form of de-facto
self government (such as it is), and is now set to steamroll over the
very sensitive issue of the guy who a) hosts our main website for free,
b) does easily half (or more) of the work that keeps evolt going for
months on end while no one else has the oomph to lift a finger to post
to the admin list (myself included) or do our supposed jobs, and c) has
better things to do a lot of the time, but has remained consistently as
dedicated as possible to keeping the wheels tuning on weo.  i especially
love it when we jump all over jeff for not doing something that "It Is
Decided He Should Do", when the only reason he hasn't done it is because
he, like any of us might at any given time, may have more important
things to do and so has been ignoring the endless debate.

we all agree that if weo was built on a linux with it's remote-developer
friendliness and inexpensive development tools and employed an open
source CMS, we wouldn't have to rely on jeff and those with physical
access to the windows box and with the requisite coldfusion skills to
maintain it.  fine.  agreeing is easy.  doing is hard.  until we build
that platform, we can just thank jeff for being willing to continue to
maintain the status quo.

i'll not change this subject so he can keep on ignoring this thread, as
IMO it has added next to nothing.  when we do have a box suitable for
weo, and have a CMS running on it elsewhere, and when we are ready to
migrate all of the current live weo content and functionality to the new
thing,  then i'm sure he'll wave a fond farewell to his bandwidth
charges, and still try to remain an active participant in evolt.  i'd
guess that even if such a new backend didn't suit his tastes
technically, he would still have plenty to contribute and bear no real
ill will, beyond possibly a some disappointment.  i know if i pretty
much
single-handedly developed a CMS like evolt's and were hosting it, on any
platform, i'd be proud to put that on my list of achievements, and it
would sting to see it go.

i don't think we're tip-toeing, at least, not any more.  i'll even go so
far as to say jeff is lurking more often than posting, and is quite well
aware of the changes that are in the wind, and chuckles more often than
not about how long it's been talked about and how little it's been acted
upon.

-dave