This is precisely the problem. The people running the projects simply haven't got the skills themselves to judge or manage the additional skills needed. Imagine appointing a developer as comms are marketing head. The existing non-developer crew here is a perfect case in point of the result of this deficiency (but there's no way I'm commenting further on that!). Suffice it to say, in a real 'Corp' things would be different.

The posts in the thread are naturally all well-meaning and recognise the weakness, but are still frankly all about coding and development, and ultimately in denial of what the 'core' issue is. Many people think they know how to structure web content, and many think they can write instructions... very few people can do so effectively... and no-one has done it here yet.

I just want to clarify that I'm perfectly happy with DNN and have been here long enough and with enough content to prove it. These are just observations about issues that seem obvious to me and are also obvious to a few others who arrive from time to time. I have found that the DNN experience does eventually and slowly evolve, especially when poked and prodded with this sort of thread.

I believe it's important for new people coming into the scene to accept DNN simply as they find it rather than expect it to be like anything else, especially not a commercial product. My comments tend to come from a frustration of dealing with IT staff in business coupled with a 100% focus I place on the experience of the end-user. What I learned after a few months here was to leave all expectations behind, put on a helmet, and find the right spot for my purposes... and that works just fine.

Rob

I'm unsure why this is a problem, ultimately someone has to be responsible for a project.  For releases the likes of the corp set the scope and planned release date, and then everyone get's on with their tasks independantly. If a task is taking too long, or isn't progressing as desired, it's the corp who'll then decide whether to extend the time to release, or cut the feature. This is pretty standard practice both in commercial and opensource software. Linux has somehow struggled by with Linus being the head (and often only person with the ability to commit code to the main trunk and parcel a build).

BTW I'm not sure why you think the release is stalled, 4.9 RC1 was released and is being tested by quite a large group.

OK time out....

Hi Tony

I've heard a lot of answers for everybodies questions, but with due respect you keep asking the questions and giving no answers, or simply backing up someone's comment so it is more forceful. Brian and others may/may not have good points, but you jump in to firm these comments time after time.

Well I have some questions for you! Perhaps you could answer these please?

a) I'm still curious as to why you put in your website title bar "DotNetNuke 5.0.0 Cambrian Cluster  on Windows 2008" as brought up earlier.

b) I'm interested as to why you keep posting here in the forums, keeping us all busy, and (if we read through the lines). Basically every time you see a post about how ineffective the DNN Corp is, you take to it like a duck to water, and you often give us an example of how much better PowerDNN does out of the situation. Can I ask exactly what you contribution to this project is other than simply existing in the ecosystem like the rest of us?

Now I'm not against looking up to people, or even looking at existing examples for future improvement, but why are you ONLY posting on these type of threads (well at least nobody is trolling this thread one hopes :)? What exactly are you contributing here?

c) I am keen to know what exactly are your 150+ performance optimizations for PowerDNN, do you hack the core code (rumour is that you don't do anything, but I'm sure this is incorrect!) So can you tell us what exactly are these enhancements are?... and why don't you submit these enhancements to gemini and help the community? Or are all your enhancements infrastructure related? Again do you hack existing DNN core code? Just curious!

d) Forgive me if I seem forward, but do you have any intention of forking the project in the future? Do you think DotNetNuke is better off in your hands? It's not just this thread, but all the other threads... that your posts seem almost, well predatory. AM I wrong? (I hope so) Please forgive me if I completely misunderstand here? It would be good to CLEAR this one up. Maybe I misunderstand, but it appears to me (my own opinion) you have a clear remit to bring down the DNN corp in order to achieve the goal that DNN is far better in the hands of PowerDNN. Please tell me I am wrong.

e) I notice you have had an advertisement out which states, and I quote:
"MORE SUPPORT - PowerDNN's AtomicSLA gives you access to the world's most knowledgeable experts 24/7/365. With an English-speaking, USA based support team, when you need help, you'll be talking with someone who knows your issue, understands your problem, and does not have an accent!"

Is PowerDNN an equal opportunities employer? Pray tell please, what exactly do you mean by "not have an accent". I'm from the United Kingdom, does that qualify me as not having an "accent"? What about other English speaking people who may come from other counties, do they have accents in PowerDNN's view? What exactly is wrong with an accent?

I very much hope you can clear all these questions up. I'd appreciate a reply from Tony here, and nobody else. It's high time he answered some questions at least to my own satisfaction.