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

[Paul Waring]

Martin Burns wrote:
> I think Elfur's wording may have slightly confused you - 'an important 
> person of our past' isn't perhaps as accurate as you'd expect. Without 
> wanting to put words in her mouth, perhaps "someone who has a history of 
> considerable effort on evolt's behalf which we may want to continue, and 
> in either case, doesn't deserve to be arbitrarily snubbed"

That's significantly different from "an important person of our past"...

> Other than the table-less layouts and improved separation of style and 
> content (which are front-end things). I would point out that enough 
> people disagree with you - go check back in theforum's archive.

I was just pointing out that the redesign in terms of layout doesn't 
bother me, there was no need to point out that people disagree with that 
(and if they do think so strongly that evolt needs a redesign, then they 
can start working on it).

> Yes, it's called "never be too proud to admit the way that it used to 
> work best for you may not always be the case". And there are good 
> arguments for both more and fewer lists, so I expect it to be a dynamic 
> equilibrium for quite some time to come.

Dynamic equilibrium = neverending cycle.

> Sorry, but as previously mentioned, the only sane reason you'd 
> custom-code a CMS from scratch now is if the CMS is an end in itself.

Not necessarily so - I've worked on a number of sites (including mine) 
where we've built the CMS from scratch, including in some cases forums 
as well. It's difficult at first, but worth the effort in the end 
because of the flexibility you gain by not being tied down to a 
particular product.

I agree that using what we have or an off-the-shelf solution might be 
quicker in the short run, but I think in the long run it would be easier 
to have a custom-built system. It's justifiable for something as big as 
evolt and with sufficient volunteers, in my opinion.

> I know you probably have some reasoning behind this other than "Because 
> I'm a fanboy," but this kind of argument really isn't very convincing. 
> Paul, if you hope to have influence on evolt's direction, you're going 
> to have to do better than that.

That last comment was meant partially as a joke, hence the :). However, 
I don't think we should be spending donated money on Windows licenses 
for servers (or if we already have, we can sell the license and put the 
money in the kitty). I also think that Linux would offer us a darn sight 
more flexibility than Windows. That's just my opinion, and if the CMS 
stays as CF/SQL Server then we'll probably be stuck with Windows anyway.

Paul