Yesterday web developer Modemlooper announced on Twitter that he will stop working on his BuddyChimp project which was aimed towards bringing a social WordPress / BuddyPress to a mobile audience.
In a statement displayed on buddychimp.com, he said:
My concern is developing a business around another developers software that may not meet my goals down the road. I’m already seeing a road block/offramp in the horizon. Not to mention that BuddyPress wasn’t developed with a mobile first approach.
Even though BuddyPress is open source it’s future roadmap is controlled by someone else and like I stated they may decide to do something that won’t mesh with my goal; bringing a social WordPress to mobile that can be innumerably customized. Sure you can suggest things to be added or changed to core BuddyPress but it’s ultimately somebody else’s decision to allow it or not and if so could take longer than I or you’d like to accomplish a goal.
While I’m not sure what exactly happened, I do think it’s a shame to see another BuddyPress developer decide to calls it quits. Personally I always get a little sad when a plugin developer comes to a point where he no longer want to expand or even continue his current plugins.
What is your take on this? Do you think developers quitting projects is just something that is inevitable when dealing with open source community projects, or do you think Modemlooper‘s decision is too extreme?
For Modemlooper’s full message, see the text just after the jump.
View full message from Modemlooper
January 4th, 2012
Dear BuddyPress Community,
It may come as a shock that I will never write another line of BuddyPress code again. I could go into the gory details of why but suffice it to say I’ve never been dealt such disdain for openly criticizing something I’ve spent so much free time on. We’ll leave it at that.
Something transpired and it made me take a huge leap back and look at the big picture and the big picture is that BuddyPress will not work in accomplishing my long term goal of bringing a social WordPress to a mobile audience. I’m not saying that you can’t use BuddyPress on mobile devices, obviously you can. My concern is developing a business around another developers software that may not meet my goals down the road. I’m already seeing a road block/offramp in the horizon. Not to mention that BuddyPress wasn’t developed with a mobile first approach.
Even though BuddyPress is open source it’s future roadmap is controlled by someone else and like I stated they may decide to do something that won’t mesh with my goal; bringing a social WordPress to mobile that can be innumerably customized. Sure you can suggest things to be added or changed to core BuddyPress but it’s ultimately somebody else’s decision to allow it or not and if so could take longer than I or you’d like to accomplish a goal.
The plugins I’ve created for BuddyPress will cease to be updated or supported as of this posting. I’m sorry if this has inconvenienced anyone who has installed these plugins. Feel free to use them until they break or fork and keep them alive.
What’s next? I am not giving up on a social WordPress for mobile devices. I will shift gears, turn left at the mooing cow and go down a different path.
I wish everyone the best in the coming year. I’m excited and looking forward to what the future brings.
– modemlooper 🙂
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