Lead Developer of phpBB calls it quits...

registered · Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2005 5:24 pm

The lead programmer of phpBB, psoTFX, has quit. psoTFX's real name is Paul Owens.

Paul states:

Quote:

Finally I took the decision I should've taken two or three months ago ... I quit phpBB. I'm sure some of you, the idiot brigade will say "Good riddens". Fine, no problem, you probably have the mentality of a deranged gnat (appologies to the gnat) so your opinion counts for ... erm ... less than nothing.

...phpBB I believe came along at just the right time, well, version 2.0 anyway ... the alternatives at that stage were vBulletin, an excellent board but at a relatively "high" price, UBB same as vB except for the excellent part and ikonboard, again an excellent board but one which was being banned at an increasing rate due to its performance issues (mainly that it was written in Perl of course). phpBB offered a good all round solution ... for free ... gratis ... nowt ... nada. What's more support was free, extras were free, localisation ... yep, free. An entirely free (as in beer ...) project...

I honestly feel that had phpBB not existed the explosion of community fora would have been considerably lessened...

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registered · Useless Joined: Aug 23, 2002 Posts: 213 Location: Chicago

Man this is such a sad news... Goodluck Paul for whatever he is planning to do and a big THANK YOU for providing a great software tool.

Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2005 9:02 pm

Mesum wrote:

Man this is such a sad news... Goodluck Paul for whatever he is planning to do and a big THANK YOU for providing a great software tool.

I hear you, and agree, but here's what a 'friend' of mine had to say...

Quote:

HE ran the project like an idiot. HE caused himself all the problems. HE changed version 2.2 into 3.0 through poor management and scope creep. HE obsoleted his own skins. HE prevented others from joining in and helping the project. It has been about 3 years since HE promised a 2.2 enhancements release.

HE thinks riddance is spelled with an s ...and HE calls his "customers" deranged gnats?

HE is a confused, overwhelmed and bitter person.

But I do agree with his conclusion. Too bad HE has been letting it die and wither on the vine.

I can see where he's coming from too...

Site Admin/Owner Joined: Aug 27, 2002 Posts: 17088

Hmmmm. Sounds like a description of someone else too ROTFL

Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2005 9:21 pm

Raven wrote:

Hmmmm. Sounds like a description of someone else too ROTFL

Yes, it sounds like any number of ppl, actually. That's the 'funny' part of all this...

Since I posted his comments, here is my reply...

Quote:

You know, having been involved with various web development communities over the years, all I can tell you is -- I've seen this happen over n' over n' over again. It's almost like it's the same person, cause-for-cause, attitude-for-attitude, word-for-word, over-and-over. It amazes me, really. It's almost like there is some sort of shared psychological defect that all lead developers have. In the real world, I've noticed that many engineers share these same traits.

Heh! Does that observation make any sense?

registered · Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2005 5:46 pm

It is called "Pride of Ownership" and is very difficult to overcome in the world of Open Source and "Community".

Just my 2-cents worth and to jack up my post count ROTFL

That one was for hitwalker. Smile

Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2005 10:45 pm

montego wrote:

It is called "Pride of Ownership"...

You're probably right!

All human misery, boiled down to its essence, is caused by resentment -- and resentment is born out of pride. So, "Pride of Ownership" is bound to cause resentment, sooner or later...