Kunena—the project—has lost its way
I’m a pretty upbeat kind of guy and I’ve been a happy and (I hope) helpful contributor to the Kunena project since I began my involvement with it in 2009. Kunena (actually it was its predecessor, Fireboard) was one of the main reasons that I adopted Joomla. The original project had some wonderful guys and I had the immense privilege of meeting them and becoming friends with them. I mention them by name: Oliver Ratzesberger, Ron Severdia (a former member of the PLT), Louis Landry (one of the founders of Joomla who undertook the fork from Fireboard) and Matias Griese; all of these people are well-known and widely respected within the Joomla community.
Kunena is the leading Joomla forum component. Downloaded more than 7M times in 8 years, Kunena is the only forum/discussion solution for Joomla that is community driven—true open source—public self-help forums, GitHub and documentation Wiki.Joomla Extensions Directory, 2-Feb-2009
The original concept behind Kunena was to build a community-driven, true open-source, forum product for Joomla. The overarching development philosophy was to develop the software in an harmonious manner (even if, at times, the team may have differing opinions) in a way that showed mutual respect for one another. It has been somewhat unfortunate that, over the past couple of years, as the original members of the development team drifted to other pursuits, the current development team has not upheld the core philosophy of mutual respect and understanding.
I accept that my views have not always been the easiest for others to accept. We’re all individuals after all, aren’t we? But, despite those differences, I think that most of us would agree that we should tolerate respect other people’s different opinions.
It is a sad day today. I posted a very polite, carefully-worded request at the Kunena forum. It would have been my 22,248th posting there (yeah, I admit, I’m a “forum junkie”). My post was unceremoniously deleted before anyone else could read it; even more sadly, I have been banned from posting further at their forum. I’ve received no explanation for this peremptory and presumptuous action and further, the team has crippled my ability to contact them. This is sad. It is sad because the principles espoused by the original team—for a community-driven, true open-source, forum product for Joomla—have been abandoned and trashed.
I believe in free-speech and the right that people should have to express their opinions in a dignified, responsible and respectful manner. It is sad when others cannot tolerate opinions that are beyond their perception. I can accept leadership but leadership needs to be earned and respected, not imposed in an autocratic manner.
I’m no stranger to internet discussion forums, help-desk systems, bulletin boards, etc. I’ve used them as an end-user, as a forum moderator and as a website owner since way back to 1985. I think I have a reasonable handle on how to conduct myself “reasonably well”. So, if people wonder what is my purpose in “having a whinge” at the Kunena team here, that’s a fair question. I merely want to explain that the current team’s attitudes are different to those I’ve experienced over the first 6 years of the project’s life; I feel compelled to publicly disassociate myself from any perceptions people may have about my attitude to the project and the attitudes of those who are now running the project.
Just as importantly and for the public record, Ron, Oliver, Matias and Louis are likewise not associated or responsible for the current behaviour of the Kunena project.
Therefore, in case people may be wondering why “sozzled” is now absent from the Kunena forum after all these years—and I’m sorry that I will not be able to help people with their problems at that website—this is my story.
This article is based on a topic posted by the author at the Joomla forum. Comments on this article may be posted below or at Joomla forum.
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