MODX Core development team abandoning MODX development as 1st priority? Please read!

There have been more than a few folks that asked about making donations easier and we are looking at that this week. I appreciate the positive feedback from everyone, and the fair criticism, too. Both show you care and that means the world to us at MODX.

OK, it's clear that a big mob of MODX users would like MODX to just continue on its upward trajectory. But it's unrealistic to think the stream of free stuff will reliably last forever, with no change. At some point the core developers are going to want to go to a restaurant or rent a better home, and that's all hard to do when your main thing in life makes you almost no money.

The MODX guys need incomes. They know about hosting, and hosting is something you can make money at. So they're setting up a hosting business. And if you're hosting, you host WordPress and a strong e-commerce product like Magento, end of story, because the WordPress market share is huge and it dominates the blogging space, and e-commerce is popular with paying clients and hard to do well. And calling it MODX Cloud makes little sense when WordPress is almost certain to be its single biggest offering.

It's not obvious what part of this is so terrible.

I'm with Site5, and I'm more likely to put some business Siphon's way when I can put other apps on that hosting platform.

That said, it seems the MODX team better understand now that they could usefully experiment with other ways to solicit contributions or fees.

So is Modx 3.0 still in the works or what?


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Nothing is stopping MODX 3 from being developed. If anything, I'd personally love for the community to be much more involved with that. I think Ryan will be blogging about MODX 3 soon.

If you're just coming to this thread, we certainly encourage you to review some of the great ideas and passionate views of community members.

We'd also like to share (for those who haven't seen them) some developments that have happened since this thread was started. Here are a couple of blog posts from the modx.com blog. About the new who, http://modx.com/blog/2013/04/10/putting-the-band-back-together/ and about creating amazing: http://modx.com/blog/2013/04/01/modx-2013-creating-amazing/

Cheers all!

Sorry for this lame post, just checking if notifications are the reason posting here causes a 504.

EDIT: Ugh, sure is. SMTP Y R U SLOW?! [ed. note: markh last edited this post 13 years, 5 months ago.]

Quote from: markh at Apr 17, 2013, 07:59 AM

Nothing is stopping MODX 3 from being developed. If anything, I'd personally love for the community to be much more involved with that. I think Ryan will be blogging about MODX 3 soon.

Hi Mark,

I agree that MODX 3 is just as alive as it has been. Once Ryan (and probably Jay too) start blogging about the vision for MODX 3, I think the community will start to get excited and start to contribute more time and/or money to the cause.

Quote from: smashingred at Apr 17, 2013, 08:06 AM

We'd also like to share (for those who haven't seen them) some developments that have happened since this thread was started. Here are a couple of blog posts from the modx.com blog. About the new who, http://modx.com/blog/2013/04/10/putting-the-band-back-together/ and about creating amazing: http://modx.com/blog/2013/04/01/modx-2013-creating-amazing/

I may sound a bit wary considering the general "happy go lucky" tone of this thread but as a developer, nothing I read actually made me want to believe THAT MUCH in modx future.
Having plans for formation, community, funding & marketing is great, I mean, you guys (and the known fans) have cool ideas on those matters.

Those blog posts links you've given us are great marketing materials but doesn't give me any useful information as a developer.

Where is the technical direction ?
Most other CMS's have clear roadmap from whom we know where they are heading to, what's going to change, what's going to stay the same. Months ahead, developpers knows if they will stick to the place, or go where the grass feels greener.

It may sound like a rant, but for example if i talk about CMS's today with fellow developpers:
- Drupal's heading to Symphony full throttle.
- Joomla fundation is being rewritten to be distributed via Composer, they are keeping a framework of their own.
- Wordpress stays pretty much where it stands
- Code igniter (and by extension EE) is pretty much stalled
- SliverStripe is Composer ready and continue to expand on the framework side
- PyroCMS is switching progressively from CI to Laravel
- Modx future is unknown...

I have bits of hints scattered on The internet over the past few months "Jason loves PSR", "We're considering 3rd party component for our core", "We've great ideas"...
All of it sounds like an attempt to take some kind of distance because whether you don't know what you'll do in the future, or you don't want to share it (just yet?).

To sum it up, as a developer, i feel neglected.
It's unsettling, I want some love too!

Stephane,

Those posts (and my re-sharing of them) were meant to answer specific questions raised by the OP and then pages of this thread were concerned about the survival of the core dev team and MODX itself and the continued speculation related to the splitting of SiphonLabs and MODX.

In no way is it mean to ignore the serious questions about the direction and vision of the core. The time we spent on Cloud put many things on hold and meant that instead of an evolving, continuous dialogue from which a roadmap could be built a void and backlog was created. Our first priority after the separation of the companies were to start putting things back in order and to start work on Revo. Now that 2.2.7 is out, there are very important discussions that need to happen in a more public space by all those with an interest in MODX—especially around the core, it's architecture and how it will interact with new developments and methodologies in the maturing world of PHP. MODX can't be without a thriving and active community of developers and, therefore, there will be lots of love for all those who center their work on MODX and who are interested in its successful future.

Wow, what a long thread! Goes to show how interested people are in the topic.

I can't help but notice that SiphonLabs is viewed as a necessary evil so that MODX might live. No one suggests the obverse, that perhaps SiphonLabs is a great business idea that could only occur to those with the insights gained from batting their brains out developing and popularizing an underdog CMS / CMF. (Admit it, no matter how you love it, no matter its superiority, MODX is underdog to WP, Drupal or even Joomla!) Try mentally flipping the idea over, my unindicted MODX co-conspirators. What do you perceive, and how do you feel about that? Wouldn't you prefer to get paid for a change?

Now stipulate that value-added CMS smorgasbord hosting is a great business idea. Why on earth include the word "siphon" in its name? One uses a siphon to move fluid from one container to another, like precious gasoline from your car's tank to my gas can. Or life's blood from donor to recipient. Or maybe talent from one company to another.

Couldn't such brainy people have picked a better, less divisive name? Couldn't they have test flown a few name ideas on this most earnestly helpful of open-source communities? Couldn't they have picked something attractive to the target market?

"Wordpress" is a fine, suitably descriptive name. "Drupal" sounds droopy. "Joomla!" is tediously triumphant with that infernal exclamation point. "MODX" is inscrutably techie, but not negatively so.

But "siphon?" That's about drainage.

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After that rant, I owe an idea. How about calling the hosting service "M-Cloud?" The MODX folk know what the "M" means, and the Wordpress devotees can be told it means "Marketing," which they will love. [ed. note: halfnium last edited this post 13 years, 5 months ago.]