> The rest of PlaneShift development history is a winding down path of failure, filled with slow updates, numerous bugs, unprofessionally
> designed content (quests, levels etc), with quite a few developers, contributors and community figures leaving the project. The proof is
> in the game credits, forum history and the game (or shall I say "Beta") itself.
One of the most important things about having an open source project, is managing the people properly and giving everybody a fair go.
The fact that this guys post was locked down and stopped is another indication of retracting freedom of speech. Thats not very open in my view. He wasn't being offensive, he wasn't swearing or attacking anybody personally. He was shut down mostly because of political and indifference point of view. That is indication of, its open in so far as I like what you post open. It comes down to what I was saying in my previous post about the Decision making process being in the hands of a few.
I am really no longer sure why these forums have been setup. In my opinion, they where setup for constructive discussion which potentially could point to areas where Planeshift could be improved? Ideas, Suggestions etc? Weren't they not? THAT, or they're just an area to shut people up and give them something to do which gets them off everyones back. I don't really know. Though, I do question any suggestion through these forums ever getting heard.
Well, funny thing that. A discussion is being raised. If developers are leaving the project, decision makers aren't able to handle criticism without locking down posts/threads because it bruises there ego etc. In the best interests of the game and software's future, I do think this may be one of the reasons why such forums where setup in the first place? To discuss issues like this.
Why is it so or do I not have enough Freedom to be able to speak about such issues? Do I not have anybody's permission and is it easier to just lock this thread to save me from causing anymore trouble?
I've noticed that you guys have been looking for helpers for ages and not much has changed.
http://www.planeshift.it/team.htmlWhy haven't you guys been able to find good developers and why have developers been leaving?
Its a fair question and one which deserves a better answer than, ' its a free project and nobody has the time '.
The previous poster seemed to have a reasonable concern, quite credible I thought which was locked away and shut off. The fact that there was no response to the answer other than, ' its a free game so shut up ' indicates a greater degree of credibility to the author.
If there is a problem with management and incentives for developers getting onboard and contributing, I'd think that quite a serious issue wouldn't you say? After all, this is supposed to be ... dare I say ... Open Source, where everybody is involved and contributing. Or am I gladly mistaken? There's a double-standard somewhere here. So anyway...
Why don't they stay? Is there a management problem? You can lock peoples posts so... you can answer the question.