Solarspin,
I have read the entire thread of posts in this topic and you make a few good points, but miss completely a couple of very, very important things.
Let me say first that while I do not "code" per se, I can write code and I have participated in an enterprise level development project with others. No one every sees completely "eye to eye" ever in any project, and especially not in extremely complex projects like DNN.
I was a founding member of the particular project I was involved in, but the time came when the "owner" of the project and I had some major differences and he, being the one with the copyright, and all the real "power" in the project "fired" me, "released" me, "asked me to resign" what every you want to call it and it wasn't pleasant. Nevertheless, he had that right and more importantly, had that responsibility, not me.
He was "in charge and had the responsibility to assure that the project continued, that it worked as smoothly as possible, and was successful. The exact same situation exists in DNN.
It is an open source project and a great many people are privileged to participate and contribute. They gain many things from those endeavors, such as the "prestige" of having worked on such a well known and respected project (not lightly added to any resume I might add), they gain wonderful experience and have the opportunity to use the project in many personal ways to generate income.
The Core Team and Shaun personally, all have the same opportunities, as well as some huge responsibilities. They are responsible for assuring a cohesive "end product" that might not make everyone happy, but addresses as best as possible the majority of the needs of the "user" community and the business community that implement DNN. They, Shaun specifically have the responsibility to assure continued adoption of the platform so that it continues to grow and to address a more widespread and diverse community with many "sub-communities" of interest.
As a result, they may well have an opportunity to also advance personally and to be compensated personally. I have no problem with that at all when noting that good coders in the "business world" can command huge salaries and we gain in this community from many of the "best and brightest" in the coding community world wide. So, if there were a "commercial branch" of DNN, who cares. The Open-source project will continue.
Again, I am NOT saying there ever will be a commercial branch, but if there were, so what. I would not deny those who have sacrificed a lot of time the right to be compensated in some way, even in that way.
In addition, someone MUST be "in charge" in an effort as wide ranging, diverse and as complex as DNN. Specifically that is the copyright holder and any he/she/they choose to include in a "Core Team" of any kind. Decisions must be made about who contributes the most and the best to the project, it's survival, continued development and diversification. Those decisions absolutely must be made by someone designated by the copyright holder/holders of any project.
This does not deny the privileges of those in the project community to "voice" an opinion as you are doing, and as many others, myself included are doing here. But our opinions do not and should not take precedence over those who are charged with the day to day decision making processes that have made DNN so wildly successful.
I am not totally happy with all the things that happen at DNN, but I am extremely happy and gratified that I have access to such a powerful and truly amazing software platform that I have so little to do with except use and interact a bit.
I would like to see a more functional store and some other things, BUT the fact that my personal wishes and needs cannot yet be met in this project the way "I" want them met does not entitle me to start a huge rant about it. I can express my concerns in any of the forums I choose and then must ultimately live with what is available, code it myself, or hire it done.
None of the above give me a right to blast the project's Core Team for any reason.
As far as what was sent out in the newsletter, every project must maintain a "public" face to it. That does not mean that lies need to be implemented. For example, my parting of the ways with the project I was involved in was very heated and unpleasant, but at the end all I really need to say is that we had a "difference" in our views of the way things needed to be handled. Do I "feel" badly about the way I was treated, sure, but to say more than I have or even name the project would damage the project and those involved in it that had nothing to do with my differences with the man in charge of it.
So, in short, if any of those who have been "asked" to leave, or been discharged, or been outright "let go" wish to say something about it, the Forums are here, but I note that none of them have made any great issue of it.
I did see one of them post something about them being less than thrilled about it, but they also followed immediately with their being happy with DNN in general, in spite of their being removed from the Core. Personally, that Core members comments gave me even more respect for them for the gracious way they handled their removal.
All that said, grow up a bit would ya? This project is open-source, not open control. Someone MUST be in control and that is Shaun and the Core Team and the DNN Corporation. I applaud their efforts and am extremely happy to leave them in control with all the responsibilities and challenges/headaches that entails.
Clay