Where has the CF Community gone?

I've been following all the OpenBD trash talk/gossip and I certainly have my own personal views of New Atlanta, but this is getting to be like a bad soap opera with a bunch of old ladies getting their knitting bags in a twist.

I work remotely and staying active in the "CF Community" is one way for me to stay up on the latest trends, pick people's brains, and stave off cabin fever. I also feel that people are giving the "CF Community" more credit then it's worth. From what I've seen, the community is made up of a vocal minority, maybe a few hundred people... OK, maybe a thousand or so, but where are the other thousands and thousands of CF developers? Don't get me wrong, I enjoy relating with these folks and there is some very good talent in the group, but I would respect the quiet guy just as much. He's the guy over in the corner crunching out lines of intelligent CFML and not spending 2 hours a day hooked to Google Reader monitoring his 250 blog RSS feeds. Or what about the newbie that wants to pull data from his Access database and place it in his first cfm page? That person doesn't need this trash-talk baggage! Let's show this person how easy it is to get started with OpenBlueDragon, Railo, or ColdFusion and show them what the spirit of "community" really is.

The Adobe representatives have pretty much admitted that they have personal issues with New Atlanta and they are obviously endorsing Railo, while trashing BlueDragon. Why are all these personal feelings mixing with business? Grow up Adobe! I know, at the same time, that there is more to this issue and I suppose Adobe needs to align themselves with one of the open source projects, but why trash on OpenBlueDragon if it's really New Atlanta that they hate? It's strange that there is no negativity surrounding Railo. I think it really comes down to the personalities of Vince vs Gert, which is ridiculous! Railo surely isn't a polished and perfect open source alternative. I think Gert and crew are very responsive, Railo is very fast and has been priced very competitive, but quite honestly, their documentation absolutely stinks! I think that will get corrected when they have more people contributing to the future versions, but why do you hear everyone whining about no admin UI in OpenBD (cough it up New Atlanta!), but not a peep about Railo's documentation? My hat is off to Railo for strategically aligning with JBoss!

I think the OpenBlueDragon project was not planned out that well, which is a bummer, but I believe that the product really could shine, if we give it a chance. So ease up everyone, shut off the soap opera and let's get back to what we really like doing... Creating solutions in CFML.

Part of my confusion in all this, was the way the New Atlanta announced the project here: http://www.newatlanta.com/products/bluedragon/open_source/faq.cfm

They essentially claim all credit for the open source project, but now the truth(?) is out and it's really TagServlet offering it up. That explains the lame excuses why they didn't include the Admin Interface. Since New Atlanta apparently is not the driving force now, and in hindsight, OpenBlueDragon probably should have been named something entirely unique. Is it too late to rename it now? Probably. I would also like New Atlanta to retract their statements surrounding the original announcement of the project. It was misleading, to say the least.

Posted by Terry Schmitt. Tagged as cfml alt, coldfusion
19Jun

4 Comments for Where has the CF Community gone?

  1. Nitai Aventaggiato says:
    Jun 19, 2008 11:40:00 AM
    Hi Terry Your points are very valid. I have been pushing the Steering Committee for the communication that is taking place now. I am happy to see that there are some reactions to it. I won't comment on Adobe's attitude since you laid it out well. It does not make sense for me in any case. Regarding the name. All I can say is that you see that we are all referring to it as OpenBD. Also the new logo is written in "openBD". I think that should give a light were we are going. I have also been pushing the SC to address the issue on the NA website. I think an update will come soon. Thank you for your thoughts.
    Reply
  2. Alan says:
    Jun 19, 2008 12:01:00 PM
    Terry, you are absolutely right. I have heard Andy Allan and Sean Corfield (when we had dinner) talk in person, regarding the poor attendance at UserGroupMeetings and on mailing lists. When Sean told me the number of users that attend the UserGroup in San Francisco I was literally floored. Couldn't believe it. I believe there is a huge silent majority that don't even know this drama is unfolding or even care. They want to put food on their table, by doing a good days work. We want to be able to help them do that with OpenBD. But if they choose Railo, Adobe, or even BD.NET, does it really matter? At least they are using CFML. Chalk one for CFML, and one less for PHP/ASP/Ruby/Perl/etc Let's not berate them for their choice of engine, but celebrate they are at the CFML party.
    Reply
  3. Terry Schmitt says:
    Jun 19, 2008 12:29:00 PM
    @Nitai: I like the OpenBD name and think it is a good compromise.
    Reply
  4. Sean Corfield says:
    Jun 20, 2008 10:23:00 PM
    As Alan says, both he and I are very concerned about not being able to reach the "man on the street" as far as CF developers are concerned. The visible part of the community is the 700+ that came to CFUNITED this year, the 1000+ on cf-talk and the hundreds (maybe thousands?) that attend the CFUGs worldwide. That's still a very small percentage of the known CF developer universe. Given their lack of involvement, I don't know how either Adobe or OpenBD can reach them. We can all reach out to new markets but we mustn't turn our back on what little community we have, even if they are the vocal minority.
    Reply

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