Just listened to my first DNNVoice edition (you can get it here). In response to that as well as Chris's post here allow me to share the following:
On dnnvoice.com it is explained that "Chris goes on a little rant, he's a tad passionate about the community". So in other words when someone who agrees with DNNCorp gets "passionate" in their communications it's called a "rant" and when someone who disagrees with DNNCorp. gets "passionate" in their communications it's called "bitching and moaning". Now that we have the correct DNN terminology let me just say that those who are tired of community members "bitching and moaning" (giving their opinions) may not have to wait too long for a solution. If things continue as they are in another 12 to 18 months there may not be a whole lot of community members left to bitch and moan - problem solved.
While there are a couple of issues regarding the purchase of the Open modules I believe much of the problem here is the same one that DNN has had for some time - piss-poor PR/Communications. If you weren't ready or didn't know for sure which way you want to go you shouldn't have announced. I also believe that this thread might possibly be less about the specific issues and more about another straw being added to a growing haystack of discontent. You'll also notice, if you look at the join dates of the posters in this thread, that the vast majority of the posters in this thread are not DNN newcomers but are the loyal base of the community. That should be some type of wake-up call - or at least I hope it would be.
Last, I always try to offer a solution when I "bitch and moan" (offer my opinion) and I could offer several that deal with individual symptoms. But why don't we just attack the main problem and thereby solve many of the symptoms at once? DNN.com needs to become the domain for PE and DNN Corp (since that domain has the big following). A new domain (accessed via DNN.com) needs to be set up for CE and the DNN community. That domain/site needs to be built, managed, and maintained by a project team made of up of one or two Corp. employees and a large group of community members. This would give the community members the ability to volunteer for not only technical positions on project teams but also for other positions such as community building, COMMUNICATIONS, site maintenance, free module listing (the new forge), etc, etc., etc. This way the community might at least feel like they have some say so in what happens to CE.
Ok, got that off my chest - I promise not to "bitch and moan" for at least another 6 months - I'll assume it is ok to "rant" as often as I would like. I would also like to point out that while there are some issues that seem to be getting bigger and bigger there are some positive things happening too. The inclusion of Telerik in 5.2 CE, the new Telerik wrappers in 5.3, and especially the new profiles, taxonomy, and messaging in 5.3. I think it has been a long time since non-technical users have had new features to wrap their fingers around so 5.3 is a bit of a milestone.
Edit: Opps, forgot to mention the skin contest - another positive thing.