Official Statement Regarding Pligg.com negotiations

[dollars5]

We really love what the community has helped us to become, but the mind set of the community is always to take a free-ride. and there is no requirement that hitchikers question be answered. If an answer is really needed, you can take them from any one of the successful OSS projects that was sold.

In past there have been atleast 50+ OSS being sold of forming a company to help it grow further. If anyone is really interested to help Pligg grow, they will absolutely have no issues with its sale.

Linux though not sold, there are infinite commercial variants (RedHat, Novell, Mandriva - anyone...), Zend is the company formed by PHP founders and that framework is not deployed at many places and still growing.

Sales != total loss of community or only commercial future versions.

Did PHP takes feedback from the community/ did mySQL/ did RedHat - on the other end WordPress is one other successful model too.

There are now almost more than 100K Pligg sites - how many people do you think have contributed their added code? And when a SuperGu started to commercialize and C&D - everyone was stalled - a company around Pligg would have prevented such thing.

Today almost 99% of the free templates are just only image replacements of the yget template - and the modules available in this forums can do only 1% of what Pligg really can (I have personally seen many sites that ave implemented almost more comple things that can ever be done with Pligg - did they care the release it back) - why didn't we create them in first place - reason - only very few core contributors only to get more out of them is to make them work full-time for Pligg and a sale is the only thing that would effect this.

Anyone with REAL interest on Pligg will understand - only the free-riders have to worry or bother. (Though it is promised there might be something for the free-riders too)

[simranz]

Cool down
Where from you get the idea that mind set of the community is always to take a free-ride ? Its completely wrong. You take HUGE from the community and then air such feelings about it

What hurts us is that Pligg loses its sovereignity to a company who is a buyer with no 'roots'. Do you think that if Pligg remains in the current hands and goes on to charge fees for some services the community will mind ? NO !

There are 500+ OSS who have not sold and still managing nicely - PHP.net is not sold ( and how much pligg has donated to it ? ) and yes PHP.net DOES take huge amount of feedback from community.

You are at liberty to answer or not answer any questions BUT that does not stop them from being asked. They are being asked all over the net as well as new scripts coming up

We assume you choose not to answer :

- Who is actually selling these “Pligg related assets” ?
- Whose pocket is this going to?
- Does the contributors to the open source project deserve to get some of that cash?
- How about the contributors to the forum?
- Can “Pligg” the non-profit org sue the “owner” of Pligg.com for trademark infringement in the future?
- Does the new “owner” get to keep the donations coming to the site? (see the donate link on Pligg.com)
- Will the contributing community sit idlely while this new “owner” mucks with Pligg.com and try to make an extra buck? (more ads? consulting services? commercial version?)
- Will there be a showdown between those that made off with the dough and those who did not?
- Is this even “legally” possible? (ie sure those assets are “sellable” but can it be debundled? )

Probably you can block, close, divert, baffle or not answer a word FOR there are no answers really. This is just our rant !

[beatniak]

Originally Posted by simranz

Cool down
...
We assume you choose not to answer :
...
Probably you can block, close, divert, baffle or not answer a word FOR there are no answers really. This is just our rant !

Cool down Simranz

Good questions, and if I could answer those, I would. But I think i can answer the one unanswered question that is the most important one.

Will pligg users loose their open and free software?
No.

Because everyone / the community can continue to work on the open and free software and release their work under the same license and circumstances as it is now. A smart company that buys pligg will facilitate this community with that environment. One that doesn't will find itself in a situation similar to Mambo (vs Joomla). In other words: when the buyer doesn't supply us (the community) with the right environment, we can easily create one of our own.

But pligg isn't being sold without a reason. It's hard to maintain a motion of going forward when the main developers have to deal with all the business hassle (see Supergu). And with only a few persons adding fixes, add-ons and improvements to the pligg code (see the SVN stats) we could use a impulse that makes more people add more to the code. Whether that's a financial injection (buyer pays money to the ones that share their code) or a better morale and sense of community (Braveheart style in pligg country ).

[tiger2f]

(Dollars5)

...We really love what the community has helped us to become, but the mind set of the community is always to take a free-ride.

...Anyone with REAL interest on Pligg will understand - only the free-riders have to worry or bother. (Though it is promised there might be something for the free-riders too)

I hope the new owners' opinion of the community isn't going to be as myopic. :/

[simranz]

Hi Beatniak !

Warm up now Warm up to new ideas !
Thanks for your answer.
New ideas : Think why cannot Pligg make rise Pligg to a height where it can buy other OSS/etc ? [ Clue : if the mindset is to sell, you can't. Think Yahoo, think Google and you CAN be, at least when Pligg has sufficient programming genius within it ]

Cheers

[davemackey]

I don't have a problem with Pligg selling at all. Yes, it is a bit scary, but such is life. I am amazed at what the Pligg developers have accomplished on nights and weekends since it appears they all have full-time jobs outside of Pligg. My question to the developers of Pligg is - do you guys hope during the acquisition to take on full-time jobs with Pligg or is it your desire to move on to other projects/focus more on your current employment?
David.

[xsillence]

I was referred to Pligg by someone on IRC.

This is the second night I've been learning how to use the software (the "Modify Language" section is very efficient) so I decided to say that Pligg is very nice and I hope that whatever happens doesn't affect the quality. The whole AJAX feeling is very nice actually.

Thanks

[humaneasy]

Twelve reasons that Pligg devs are missing:

1. Pligg didn't appear from nothing. It is highly based on Meneame and is referenced in their page as a fork.
2. Pligg is an Affero GPL licensed project and must be kept that way OR it must remove all code from Meneame
3. Since Pligg is a fork from an already AGPL software the buyer cannot close it, ever, without rewriting it all
4. If selling copies of Pligg (or improved copies) is the idea it will be better if you read again the AGPL license. It is not GPL, you know?
5. Do Pligg team read article 2. d) ? Is anyone willing to pay for a Pligg copy with that in mind?
6. Do Pligg team wish to re-code everything from scratch in order to change the license?
7. Do Pligg team warned the potential buyers about all this legal issues?
8. Do Pligg team understand that if there were no free-riders that used their code and promote it everywhere (even when it sucked) they would have no **** to sell today?
9. Today, Meneame is also translatable so the major advantaje of Pligg is gone.
10. Today, phpDUG can read from RSS in a better way than Digg so that advantage is also gone. And it is also multi-language.
11. There is a clone for every flavour
12. Offending the ones that feed you is not a good policy. In the FSM world a reputation is gained and lost in no time.

I think this move the way Pligg team promoted it will be a shoot in their foot and that is so sad

And I must say I feel ofended by this free-riders stuff. Giving back is not just money.
I advised your project for at least five running projects and one is really a success -- and this give you back the ability to earn more money than I would give you, if you were inteligent to see it.

Why don't they go for a solution like the one Meneame found? See also the item 24. on that page

Lopo

[dollars5]

Originally Posted by humaneasy

There are a few issues here that Pligg devs are missing:

1. Pligg didn't appear from nothing. It is highly based on Meneame
   

1. Nobody disagrees with it.
   
   

   Originally Posted by humaneasy

   Pligg as an Affero GPL and must keep it OR remove all code from Meneame

   Pligg in No way can remove the AGPL license (atleast the current stable version) - but if needed it can charge (but no intends to do it) - the main intention is to build commercial services based of Pligg (see many template developers are charging - is that offense???)
   
   

   Originally Posted by humaneasy

   Do Pligg team wish to re-code everything from scratch?

   Pligg 2.0 is 100% Menaeme free
   
   

   Originally Posted by humaneasy

   Do Pligg team understand that if there was no free-riders that used their code and promote it they would have no chit to sell today?

   The free-riders was the term used by me and it is no way an opinion of Pligg team as a whole. In my personal view - as read from various blogs - people were more worried that Pligg would hereafter be available at a charge - without even knowing a bit of the real process. Their main intention remain in getting Pligg free rather than on improvements that will bring to Pligg if a company is formed around it (there are many OSS products that are available at a charge - esp when it comes to enterprise grade setups - Drupal has a commercial implementation with many add-ons - there is nothing wrong with it) - Some simple services like templating and modifying Pligg are currently over charged - I know a template developer who charges USD 2000 for a template (I agree the quality of the work is such) - and only very few core contributors are there - company formation would change the whole scenario - we can get people to work for full time for Pligg too - isn't that good?
   
   Pligg is an active and loyal community and hope everyone will fully understand and support the cause.
   
   

   Originally Posted by humaneasy

Originally Posted by humaneasy

I think this move the way they promote it will be a shoot in their foot and that is so sad

And I must say I feel ofended by this free-riders stuff.

Sorry if my comments offended you - it was mainly targetted on people who were against Pligg sale andgot their blog/content mainly creating a scenario that Pligg sale is only for the charging for he Pligg instalaltion download - when nothing such was mentioned before. Charging for services is not a big thing - I guess.

Originally Posted by humaneasy

Why don't they go for a solution like the one Meneame found? See also the item 24. on that page

Lopo

[simranz]

@dollars5 - Its great to know your views and terms


2 questions :

So is Pligg going to pass on some bucks ( if it makes ) to Meneame ? Though, of course technically, there is no need. Just a curosity !

Where is Plig2 ? Any link

[ BTW : Do not draw Drupal into this , Drupal has not sold itself. I have been with Drupal from Day 1
and .... were you trying to say something by the last quote you made above .... ?? I missed ]

And 1 correction

mainly targetted on people who were against Pligg sale andgot their blog/content mainly creating a scenario that Pligg sale

There was no such people - their concern was different !!

Cheers