We really need a new "Godwin's Law" to deal with usage of the term FUD, because at this point it seems to be used any time a corporation or project feels they are being unfairly criticized. Do you have some actual examples to prove that the critics of Dries and Acquia are spreading FUD and not expressing real concerns about the project?

I tell you what- every time I hear an Acquia employee use the word FUD against a critic it just makes the critics look right.

Also, note how Dries addressed approximately 1 of the 10 or so issues outlined in the "Does Acquia have inappropriate influence over core" post.

Sorry, I'm not a native english speaker. I picked that term up during the whole discussion :)

When I said "FUD" I wanted to pick a word that expresses the fact that even outside of Acquia, there are people on both sides of the issue. As far as I read the threads, it's not like the vast majority of people are strictly against the direction Drupal is moving in. I'm simply not embedded enough inside the community to give you any specific examples, sorry :(

I just wanted to say that it's important that these concerns are raised and discussed. From what I hear in the meetings and read in the emails, Acquia is really dedicated to advancing Drupal both on the enterprise side (which helps site builders get contracts and gets Drupal publicity) and the developer/user side by contributing to/maintaining modules and fixing bugs (core and contrib).

p.s. I don't speak for the company, I just wanted to relay the impression I get from the inside :)

Alex this argument is just ridiculous. After all you've been through with the Drupal community lately you should know that for all intents and purposes I haven't seen any conclusive evidence that Acquia is hurting Drupal. They aren't using the community to do work that only benefits them, because they aren't doing any work at all that only benefits them, everything they do is available for anyone that wants to use it. I for one have no found any of your arguments sound at all, you use the Overlay as an example, assuming that since you don't use it, no one else does and it doesn't belong in core. This is patently false, lousy logic, and until you can demonstrate where they are abusing the Drupal community for features or code that would only be usable/benefit Acquia, your argument and concerns are uncertain, and you are trying to cast doubt as to their motives.

If that isn't FUD, I don't know what is.

What argument are you referring to, that the usage of FUD to shut down criticism is currently endemic to software development communities (the comment you responded to)?

Here's the thing Mikey, I never said Acquia is doing work that "only benefits them", and I also never questioned their motives (unless assuming that profit as a motive for a venture-backed startup is controversial).

Overlay, however, is a great example of the (subtle) shift in power within the community. Now that Dries has a paid staff he is able to have things developed by paying for them directly rather than by building consensus or waiting for a volunteer to take it on. That's a real shift, it's easily seen in how the overlay was built and found it's way into core, and even Acquia employees can see it was a problem: http://groups.drupal.org/node/170999#comment-575529. To quote from the "other" Alex: "The Overlay example, however, is different, in my opinion. This, I do believe was a clear case of Dries knowingly making an unpopular decision, Acquia being the only company willing to fund the development, and the development not have happened without such funding."

So, please rest the FUD talk, you obviously don't have any real examples of me spreading "FUD" here (obvious to me, because your accusation is false), and it's really nothing more than a lame attempt at shutting down a discussion that really needs to take place.

Props to you, eaton and greggles for showing up on this thread, and not in disguise.

Maintaining disguises on the internet is freakin' EXHAUSTING. We're too busy trying to get a roadmap for the next round of refactorings ironed out. ;-)

http://drupal.org/node/1224666 http://drupal.org/node/1273344

Yeah, big ups for your clear vision, eloquent writing, and just being persistently awesome here.

Vote for eaton!

Dude. I thank you.