theFinn: return to development?

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Discussion of general topics related to the new release and its place in the world. Don't discuss new features, report bugs, ask for support, et cetera. Don't use this to spam for other boards or attack those boards!
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SamG
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Re: theFinn: return to development?

Post by SamG »

code reader wrote: actually, i was thinking from sometime in summer 2001 is when bart became "chief developer".
iiuc, either late (nov-dec) 2001 or early 2002 paul took over. him being lead developer on march 2002 is consistent with my understanding of the history.
See this listing from days later in September to see that the team distribution in March 2002 is essentially the same as late(r) September 2001. [Edit: or maybe not. The Wayback Machine seems not to be showing a late September listing there, judging from the link, though I was following a late September lising. In any case, I don't recall Bart ever being at the development helm of phpBB 1.x nor of 2.0, and there seems to be no extant evidence that he was.]
code reader wrote: that's why i said james was not "in charge of everything" from very early in the project.
of course, since he started it, there was a time he was the only person "on the team", so clearly there was a time he was in charge of "everything", but i believe responsibilities were delegated almost as soon as there was "a team".

iiuc, for a long time james had the theoretical authority to override any other team member on any phpbb-related issue, so in theory you are probably right.
however, i doubt very much that this authority was ever exercised, so, in practice, less than a year after the project started, other people oversaw, with practically full independence different aspects of the project.
I'm not sure where your understanding comes from. I have no experience that I can recall to confirm any of that, neither from the outside nor from the inside. But I'm not so confident of my recollections that I'd care to press them very far. My own view is that you see James as being much more hands off than he was even during phpBB 2 development, which was, from the beginning, Paul's game from a coding point of view. To see James move to a more hands off approach requires watching his participation as 2.2 development cranked up, I think.

Edit: Sorry about the multiple edits. I can neither type, nor spell, and thinking is really iffy even on a good day. :oops:
Last edited by SamG on Fri May 04, 2007 12:06 am, edited 3 times in total.
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SamG
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Re: theFinn: return to development?

Post by SamG »

MennoniteHobbit wrote: You do not know the power of the Jon side.

:mrgreen:
Quicker he is, more seductive :!: 8O
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Highway of Life
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Re: theFinn: return to development?

Post by Highway of Life »

And even now... I see Bertie... SHS... sneaking... er... hovering over this very topic... watching, and laughing that frankensteinish-way at our foolishness. :D

Does he prefer lightning or the force pinch?
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A_Jelly_Doughnut
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Re: theFinn: return to development?

Post by A_Jelly_Doughnut »

code reader wrote:
SamG wrote:
code reader wrote: …he never was "in charge of everything", at least not since some very early stages of the project.
This caveat salvages your post, IMHO. James was very much in charge of very nearly everything throughout the life of phpBB 1. Even maintenance items like purging inactive phpBB.com members was James' bailiwick. The only real exception, I think, was phpBB hacks, which weren't always at phpBB.com and were under the day-to-day direction of John Abela. The transition from James to Paul in terms of overall (but not exclusive) management took place gradually and, I think, quite naturally, and with James' full consent, so far as I know. The same sort of transition has happened with Jon, it appears—except that now the journey to the Jon side is complete. :mrgreen:
not for argument, more for curiosity:
you seem to be quite knowledgeable, so you may know the answer to this one:
wasn't bartVB the development team head for quite some time before psoTFX? i thought that james have relinquish this post long before paul took over. i thought (though i may be wrong here) that this happened during the life of phpbb 1.x
and btw, i never hinted that anything on this team was ever a coup, or "non consensual".
so far as i know, each and every passing of the baton was always "with full consent". no one forced james, bart or paul out. on the contrary, when each of them leaving (or, as was the case with james, distancing) the community felt a loss.


So James wrote v. 1.0 by himself. We know that.
During the development of the 1.x series, all of the people important to the project joined up:
psoTFX, BartVB, Nathan Codding, the_systech, Ashe, & Doug Kelly developed phpBB2.0. theFinn was active in the development of this code, but Paul was the lead developer.

Paul never did a lot of work on the 1.x line, as we can see from CVS. theFinn was still the lead developer for that branch. Bart, the_systech, Doug, and Nathan were significant contributors.

Paul and Bart both joined the project while 1.2.x was the current version, as did John Abela and ffeingol (former web host and Styles Team Leader). theFinn and these four managed the phpBB project until late 2004. (You may recall the battle between John Abela and Paul Owen came to a head about this time. Paul announced he was quitting development, but magically the next day, Abela was a Registered User and Owen was Lead Developer. It was at this time that SHS` [formerly Moderator Team Leader, and later Styles Team Leader as well after ffeingol stepped down from everyday activites] took a more active role in leading the project, as did Nuttzy99 [who filled Abela's spot] and wanrecords [Support Team Leader at the time]).

BartVB was never Development Team Leader, although he was Portal Team Leader (which was a subproject of phpBB which never got off the ground; the Portal Team was a sub-team of the Development Team.)

James was very hands-on toward the project until 2003 or so. After that time, Paul and John Abela seemed to do more leadership, until the previously mentioned split. Acyd did more of the coding on both the 2.0 and 3.0 lines - for a period of months, he was practically the only developer (the team officially consisted of Paul, Acyd, Ashe, and Bart, but neither Ashe nor Bart made any commits to CVS for many months at a time). Then we add Graham to the Development Team and he virtually takes over 2.0 branch and contributes much to the 3.0 MCP. The CCP is announced, and DavidMJ and Naderman are added to the team; phpBB3 development takes off.

A brief history of phpBB that should answer your question.

I apologize for any factual errors: they are unintentional. All views are from "the outside".
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Re: theFinn: return to development?

Post by code reader »

i guess i misread some old posts.
i thought this: http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopi ... 737#p16087 related to phpbb lead developer, but now i think it was really related to a different project ("portal") which was either forked elsewhere or abandoned.
you live and learn.

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yexusbeliever
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Re: theFinn: return to development?

Post by yexusbeliever »

A_Jelly_Doughnut, wow! you know alot. I think I have seen you on the phpBB staff before right?

So why did Abela left? And why did you step down?
hmm....

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Re: theFinn: return to development?

Post by Highway of Life »

Wow Josh... thanks for the run down.
Very fascinating history.
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SamG
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Re: theFinn: return to development?

Post by SamG »

code reader wrote: …a different project ("portal") which was either forked elsewhere or abandoned.
Abandoned.

The portal Paul was discussing in the thread you pointed out was a phpBB project that, as Jelly said, never got off the ground. It had its own forum (among the phpBB.com forums) and development team with the intent, I think, to keep it entirely separate from phpBB itself. But had it come to something, I think it still would have been an official phpBB product.
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A_Jelly_Doughnut
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Re: theFinn: return to development?

Post by A_Jelly_Doughnut »

yexusbeliever: I have never been a member of the phpBB teams. Therefore I never stepped down. :P

John Abela is no longer a member of the phpBB project for reasons which were never publicly disclosed. I'd rather not speculate.
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Re: theFinn: return to development?

Post by Highway of Life »

yexusbeliever wrote: A_Jelly_Doughnut, wow! you know alot. I think I have seen you on the phpBB staff before right?
Seems like he should be, huh? ;)
He’s just been around phpBB longer than most of us even knew forums existed. :lol:
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