A collaborative community is needed

General questions about CMSimple
bjorn
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Joined: Thu Apr 28, 2011 3:13 pm

A collaborative community is needed

Post by bjorn » Wed Jan 23, 2013 12:09 pm

CMSimple is nothing without a collaborative community. Peter Harteg created a great piece of software around ten years ago. But without the community of users and developers CMSimple would just be a very basic CMS with few and limited features. During the years many people have contributed to the common good with ideas, translations, manuals, templates and plugins etc. CMSimple is the result of a community working together.

It is not a problem, that some members of the community try to get a little money out of their own work. But it is a problem when somebody try to capitalize on the value of years of community work by claiming private ownership to key parts like the core software and its name. This is exactly what the principles of open source and free software should prevent.

I think we all will benefit from working together. It is good for the users when there are several flavours of CMSimple, lots of plugins and templates etc. And it is good for ourselves, because we dont have to create everything but can benefit from others work. I guess we all know that already. So it should be easy to agree on working together. But of course we need some kind of security so we don't risk that a single or a few members of the community monopolize key parts of the common software.

When I look back I can see that there several times have been fights and people who have left the community in anger. And each time CMSimple and its community are damaged.

I'm sorry that it seems like that I stirred up some conflicts by restarting my CMSimple LE/Classic project. I was really not looking for a fight. I just wanted to keep a great little piece of software alive. However, sometimes fights are a good thing. They can clean the air and open for new possibilities. I hope we can find ways to get a collaborative CMSimple community back on track.

Björn

cmb
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Re: A collaborative community is needed

Post by cmb » Wed Jan 23, 2013 2:35 pm

Hi Björn,
bjorn wrote:CMSimple is the result of a community working together.
+ 1 (to avoid any misunderstanding: with "CMSimple" I mean here the complete "family")

IMO a good first step would be to try to end the confusion, that might arise due to the recent changes: new/changed names and new domains.

So I suggest that we set up a neutral website on a domain (for example cmsimple.info), which informs the users about the different forks in detail (what are the differences and similarities etc.), and links to the different project sites. This site should ideally be linked from as many different projects as prominently as possible.

Christoph
Christoph M. Becker – Plugins for CMSimple_XH

bjorn
Posts: 75
Joined: Thu Apr 28, 2011 3:13 pm

Re: A collaborative community is needed

Post by bjorn » Wed Jan 23, 2013 3:20 pm

cmb wrote: So I suggest that we set up a neutral website on a domain (for example cmsimple.info), which informs the users about the different forks in detail (what are the differences and similarities etc.), and links to the different project sites. This site should ideally be linked from as many different projects as prominently as possible.
Hi Christoph

I think it is a very good idea if all or at least most of us can agree to that. A common info side could give everybody interested a good map or overview over the CMSimple-family.

Björn

cmb
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Re: A collaborative community is needed

Post by cmb » Wed Jan 23, 2013 3:21 pm

Hi Björn,

I'm glad to hear this. :)

What do others think about it?

Christoph
Christoph M. Becker – Plugins for CMSimple_XH

Hugorm
Posts: 112
Joined: Thu May 22, 2008 6:45 pm
Location: Denmark

Re: A collaborative community is needed

Post by Hugorm » Wed Jan 23, 2013 3:54 pm

Hi

if possible!

I'm in favour. (+1)

Kind regards
Hugo

Holger
Site Admin
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Re: A collaborative community is needed

Post by Holger » Wed Jan 23, 2013 4:31 pm

Hi,

after Gerts last comment at the other thread,
http://cmsimpleforum.com/viewtopic.php? ... =90#p33521
I've decided to stop spending money for useless domains with useless contents an a lot of wasted time.

KR
Holger

cmb
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Re: A collaborative community is needed

Post by cmb » Wed Jan 23, 2013 4:55 pm

Hi,

even if Gert won't participate in this project, it might still be useful. There are by far to many different sources of information about CMSimple. It's really hard to keep an overview for interested users. Besides CMSimple_XH and CMSimple Classic there are still CMSimple SE, CMSimple Flex, CMSimple ME, and several "national" variants. And particularly, if cmsimple.org, which is known to all of them doesn't offer some kind of neutral overview, it seems even more important that others do.

Christoph
Christoph M. Becker – Plugins for CMSimple_XH

bjorn
Posts: 75
Joined: Thu Apr 28, 2011 3:13 pm

Re: A collaborative community is needed

Post by bjorn » Wed Jan 23, 2013 6:39 pm

Hi,

Just a thought. Perhaps a new name and a new common layout for web sites connected to the community could be a good start for a new community. I know it is hard to abandon a name known by many, but it is also bad to stick to a name people fight about.

One thing is sure, Christoph are right. A clean up so we get rid of outdated stuff and get a more systematic way to find info on CMSimple would be good.

Björn

cmb
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Re: A collaborative community is needed

Post by cmb » Fri Jan 25, 2013 12:33 am

Hi Björn,
bjorn wrote:I know it is hard to abandon a name known by many, but it is also bad to stick to a name people fight about.
You're absolutely right! But what's most important is IMO the community of CMSimple users. Most of them know, that they're using a CMS called CMSimple, but I assume not many are aware of the fact, that there are several different variants/forks and what are the advantages of each of those. If we change the name, the only information about CMSimple they'll be able to find is on cmsimple.org/com/dk. Would it be okay, to leave them with this unilateral information? I don't think so.

Christoph
Christoph M. Becker – Plugins for CMSimple_XH

bjorn
Posts: 75
Joined: Thu Apr 28, 2011 3:13 pm

Re: A collaborative community is needed

Post by bjorn » Fri Jan 25, 2013 10:24 am

Hi Christoph
cmb wrote: Most of them know, that they're using a CMS called CMSimple, but I assume not many are aware of the fact, that there are several different variants/forks and what are the advantages of each of those. If we change the name, the only information about CMSimple they'll be able to find is on cmsimple.org/com/dk. Would it be okay, to leave them with this unilateral information? I don't think so.
You are absolutly right. It was only thought as some sort of worst case scenario if we can't find a good solution to the present disagreements about domains and names.

But if it is possible to include cmsimpleforum.com, cmsimplewiki.com, cmsimple.de and some cmsimple_xh sites plus sites with templates and plugins then I guess it is possible to make a strong cooperation. We just need a main site and a lot of links :D
Björn

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