[Zope-dev] Open Letter to zope-dev

[Andrew Kenneth Milton]

Since I seem to be the cause of all hell breaking loose over here, I thought
take the opportunity to respond, since I haven't really been given an
opportunity to do that. Since this probably going to be my only ever 
posting to zope-dev, I don't feel constrained to be brief in exercising my
right of reply.

I'm not going to apologise for the comments I made, or the manner in which I 
made them. Those comments were made on a list run by me, basically for my own
amusement. If I had posted either of those emails to someone else's list, I'd
quite rightly deserve to be fried.

I don't make money from Zope Development (I don't make money), I don't
run a website, in fact, I don't actually use any of the products I have
released. So it's not like I have a vested interest in Zope. My fortunes don't
rest on the success or failure of Zope or any one of its components. I live 
in a country the size of the USA that has the approximate population of 
New York State. Even if I stood on a busy street corner with a loud hailer, 
the number of people I could actually influence would be small. This makes
me one of the people in the trenches.

It is the people who are in the trenches who are increasingly being
disaffected by Zope Corp, it seems as if you're not subscribed to zope-dev, 
you have no voice, and for most people zope-dev is not an appropriate forum 
for them to be subscribed to. As some of you know, I was hounded off of the
zope@ mailing list for suggesting that there be some other mailing list
for more technical discussion. People were very upset, because, they
already have a hard time getting any support. Noone from Zope Corp seems
to monitor the list to help out. The zope list was manned by people like
me volunteering expertise and time to help more of the little people.

A lot of those people come to the irc channel, which is also rarely if
ever visited by anyone from Zope Corp. Most people know that #zope is the
place to go when all else fails. The major irony of this is, that most
of the people seeking help on #zope are working with it, or consulting with
it, and are supported by me and others for free. We are the ones that
deal with the 'general zope public.' We are the defenders of the faith.

The Zope Weekly News, which turned into Zope Monthly News, which now
has not been updated since October is a joke. It shows Zope Corporation's
attitude towards their community. It says "We don't care about our community."
I'm sure that's not the feeling of the *individuals* inside Zope Corp, I'm
sure it is (or I hope it is) a source of great embarassment to those
individuals that work for Zope Corp.

Letting your community showpiece atrophy doesn't show any great passion 
towards us, it certainly doesn't endear new users to Zope. New users are
the only way Zope Corp is going to make more money, unless of course
zope.org is just for us non-revenue generating little fish, an inconvenience
associated with having Open Source software, not something that promotes
and supports the non-paying community.

Noone wants a standardised User Management API more than me. I *want* to
have confidence that someone can replace any User Folder with XUF, and it
will just work. So when I come across something that says there is a 
New User Management API, I get excited. I prepare to roll up my sleeves and
make the necessary changes to make software I contributed to the community
continue to work. I think we all know by now my opinion on what I found,
the harshness of the expression of that opinion is directly related to 
the way that these days Zope Corp seems to be an Ivory Tower and the way
they seem to treat the community at large.

There are approximately 450 products released by just over 200 people on
Zope.org. There are approximately 1000 'entities' subscribed to this list
(more to the main list), I represent 0.1% of this community, but, am
responsible (but, not soley) for 3% of the total product space available.

If people want to form an opinion of me based on one email, that's your
right. You don't have the right to tell me, that *I* don't have the right
to say the things I'm saying. I have earned the right to make these comments,
I have contributed time, effort, and code, and I put my money where my
mouth is. I'm not some backseat political observer, I am in the trenches
I deal with the disaffected, the confused, and the generally pissed off
every day. In my efforts, I try to help to make Zope a better product.

You would be hard pressed to find a more stalwart supporter of Zope than me.
This doesn't mean that I have to think that everything that leaves the 
holy temple of Zope Corp is the panacea of web development. My opinions
might be wrong, but, they're not wrong simply because something was released 
by Zope Corp, or written by some person you have attached some god like
status to.

I will continue to do my thing, but, the way Zope Corp deals with us, 
the little fish had better change, or there's not going to be much of a
community left. Those of you who subscribe to zope-dev who think that your
time is too valuable to be spent helping others, well, words fail me.

-- 
Totally Holistic Enterprises Internet|                      | Andrew Milton
The Internet (Aust) Pty Ltd          |                      |
ACN: 082 081 472 ABN: 83 082 081 472 |  M:+61 416 022 411   | Carpe Daemon
PO Box 837 Indooroopilly QLD 4068    |akm@theinternet.com.au|