The Future of IntraWeb
This is a recent post Chad made in the IntraWeb private foruns and I’m reposting it here.”I’m not sure why my absence from the newsgroups has been interpreted as the “death” of IW. I consulted with many developers and last year we hired Jackson and Jackson and I are in daily contact about IW.
As I stated last year, with 10 we are focusing on super stabilization. C++ was ignored for years, and was totally broken. C++ takes at least 4x the resources, and we have spent at least 2 months fixing up the back log of issues.
I had planned to complete this phase near the end of 2008, but its taken much longer than planned. However we continue to super stabilize 10. I have mentioned in the past our ideas for 11, and I hope maybe soon we can start on 11. However with 10 being stabilized, it will allow us to focus on 11 and not constantly change code bases back to 10.
Users repeatedly complained that IW was moving too fast and that we should slow down and focus. That is what we’ve done, exactly.
As for may absence from the newsgroups. I’ve always been in the skype chat, but some weird phenomenon occurs when I am present in the newsgroups. When the “authority” of the code is here, people seem to expect even more. My mail box constantly gets filled with “Hey I have an urgent issue, my subscription is expired 4 years now but I need a fix urgently, here is a 50 MB attachment, can you debug by morning?”. Anyways you get the idea. When I put other developers here, somehow these fringe users “respect” the rules a bit better.
While not the only reason, this was one of the major reasons Hadi decided to leave and move on to other ventures. User abuse in mail (and yes, even some tracked down his private telephones). Contrary to the conspiracy theories, it was just a decision to move on. Hadi is one of my best friends and time zone differences and work schedules aside, we are still in frequent contact.
So I’ve decided to rejoin the newsgroups a bit, however Jackson is the first and primary contact for support. I might post a few replies here and there on tech support – but as far as support is concerned I’m just another user, albeit power user of sorts. I will however post more regarding our plans along the future etc.
Please respect my mailbox and only contact me by mail if requested, if privacy warrants, or it is of personal nature. Please do not try to expedite issues by using my mailbox or personal contact forms. I find when certain users use private mail, they act in ways they would not act in public areas. So please keep it on these newsgroups or other channels. If you need something expedited or its urgent – THIS is the place.”
—
Chad Hower