I am sure that the board of directors will be reading this post - or someone will have pointed them to it, as they will have pointed them to other posts that come up in the core team forums or chats as part of discussion.
I feel we're going through the same pains as when we grew from DNN 2.1.2 >> DNN 3+ - 3.0.13 - 3.1.1. But we had alot less users and constraints too but I remember feeling like I'd never live through it - it was just terrible at the time till all the problems were sorted out, and 3.1.1 was THE best DNN 3 build in my opinion.
For the last several months, I've advocated on my blogs that DNN isn't as easy as it used to be. From my perspective, July and part of August has been very challenging in getting DNN running but have managed to get things working pretty well.
But I'd like to give you something to think about here - The catalook store - it's a huge program, and putting aside that it's not the prettiest (I have been working with Susanne on some solutions here in the near future) but here we have a product that is updated, upgraded with the versions of DNN. And I have deployed several sites with a DNN 4.03, 4.3.3, 4.3.4 versions all being available for people to download. So, how bad can it be? The Active Modules Forum - another complex product - works with DNN 4.3.4. Are there problems - sure there are - but these developers have found answers to provide their customers an updated version - so I find it hard to turn around and blame DNN when I see here are two major developers able to turn out solutions using every build.
Having said that - because I do dnn only - well I mean I'm either building sites for my clients (using DNN) skinning for others (using DNN) or developing my own skins now writing a book (DNN based) the ripple affect of problems rocks my boat to the point of me having to really hang on to the sides sometimes. I've copped flack for falling behind on delivering some jobs in July - but I swear I couldn't get some menu elements to work so I have had to revert back to other solutions.
Finally Sunday week ago (15h August) I spent no less than 9 hours working on catching up with deploying some DNN sites on my server. It was not easy and again, last Thursday night - another 5 hours. I used to have a couple of master builds but now I have 4 - 5 different builds packaged depending on client requirements and because I'm running 1.1 & 2.0 sites it's not as fast for me to deploy manually. (looking at dotnetpanel at the moment to solve this) so the whole process is so much more time consuming. I now have to add and remove several things to get the builds to work as I want them.
Brian, the Gemini project has been a huge job to sort out - firstly - by allowing anyone to post bugs I think is a big mistake since there were many people who posted things that weren't bugs and they couldn't be replicated, since they were user issues and it seems to me that people are so quick to say something is a bug (mainly newcomers) but I think you can apply for permission to submit bug requests.
Then, there hasn't been a huge volunteer base to work in Q&A - but Shawn Mehaffie has taken this job on with diligence and based on the time allowed in his life, has done a great job, but better news, there are 3 people now on the Q&A team - to the processes are getting put into place to make it flow again.
Steve Fabian has written something for core developers submitting code, so that's been tested and I think ready to use. (again in his own unpaid time)
For me, I've offered help a hundred times but unfortunately - it's not been the sort of help the core team has asked for, so there's not much more that I can do personally, as I also sit and suffer the agonies of builds that go awol. So I do what I can in the forums in the times I can spare.
Things just take time. For me, that's the bottom line - and have learnt patience I have sometimes got to dig deep and find when I see problems that occur, but again it's software, volunteer project, and if it's important to have a solid build, go back to one you know that works well. Even if DNN stopped at this point.. eg.. just disappeared, we still have some great builds to work with, including the source, hundreds of modules (if not thousands) to put forward as solutions to our clients.
And while I'm feeling the pain of this new DNN4, I'm prepared to wear it and wait, because I believe this is the next generation of DNN. Perhaps we should not be saying 'Has DNN gotten too big for its own good?' but, has the general public asking and 'Is the community expecting too much for their own good?', based on the huge changes we've seen in the code in the last 6 months.
And remember, I might be a core team member, but, have no influence, decision making capabilities or offerings that are able to make an impact, nor do I code, nor get any special or preferential treatment that would give me the ability to get an *edge* over others. When the dnn community is hurting, when no posts are being responded to, when things look like they're quiet, I can assure you behind the scenes, we're all hurting too and we're all working through the problems as best as we can.
Just my thoughts on the matter - I have donned my flame proof suit - for those who might not like what I've said since I am not trying to defend the DotNetNuke project - I just wanted to shed some light in this area from someone who sits on both sides of the fence cos my bum gets sore sitting on the fence all the time.
Nina Meiers