If that's the case, and the devs refuse to talk to anyone, including their community liason, then what are our options?
Honestly, the ball is in their court. I'm sure the devs are, and have been, reading this thread and quietly hoping that it will go away. This is the point when someone normally swoops in, locks the thread and tells everyone that if they EVER hear any negative feedback again, they will ban everyone in the community and unplug the server (or whatever).
I'm hoping that this time will be different. It appears that there's a pretty unified feeling here that something needs a change. I think that the community would be excited to see more transparency with this project, and by cutting off communication (most likely due to busy schedules and other engagements), the community only sees that things appear to have become stagnant and shitty.
The motivation for the devs to come out and make a move is this: You guys are busting your asses for this project, but the community doesn't see it. You get this feeling that no one gives a shit about how much time or effort that you put into the project, and no one seems to truly appreciate the asset that is our current dev team. The problem is, even if you spend 24/7/365 on ONLY this project, the community still wouldn't understand. That's because the community doesn't realize how much work goes into one of those little lines in the changelog, but then again how could you expect them to? It's not your job to make them understand that, and when you try to, you'll just end up more tired and pissed off than you started (and the community will likely still not understand). That's why you guys NEED a liaison/project manager/public relations person (we'll call it a liaison for the sake of discussion)
If you, the dev team, decided to make your move, by first asking each other if any of you wants out. This is a GPL project, there's no reason for anyone to feel trapped in it. Next, decide that you are going to make a change, and start talking to MattMeck, or hell, if you guys hate him, pick someone else (sorry Matt, nothing against you at all.
), but find yourself a liaison that you can trust and work with. Come clean with any dirty little secrets that you guys have been keeping (I'm not implying that there are any, but the first step to transparency (and an overall happy project) is to make sure that everyone feels like they
can be open and honest). Again, this is a GPL project, not an arms race. After that, I'd suggest working with your liaison (just for the sake of this discussion let's call him MattMeck), to get the community actively involved and excited, and pick out some new devs from the community, or like Angelox said, start calling everyone devs. It's not like you're going to lose your green jacket for bringing someone else into the club. Hell, maybe you could run some contests for finding and fixing bugs, or Hawaiian shirt Friday, it doesn't matter, just something that will be a change from the whole "I am the god of Mt. SourceForge, and I don't answer to anyone" image of you guys that the community has developed. No one appreciates or respects that. What people appreciate and respect is human beings who are open, honest, inclusive, yes, even fallible.
There are a million and one ways that this thing could go, but if you choose (and yes, the power is completely within your hands) to go with what's listed above, I will personally claim responsibility if anything goes wrong (because I've used it at least 15 times in my professional career, and it's worked through every single situation).
Discuss.
Dax