[Plugin: Events Manager] Joining forces

Unfortunately not an option any more:
https://www.e-dynamics.be/bbpress/topic.php?id=111

This is Davide Benini, aka nutsmuggler, the developer of Events Manager, the original plugin.

EME is a fork of EM 2.2; (original) Events Manager 3.0 was released a few days ago, after having been in the work for a couple of months. It features an entirely rewritten object-oriented core, and a new API for advanced users. Marcus Sykes, co-developer, has spent weeks doing this job.
A few weeks ago we asked liedekef if he wanted to merge back; he politely declined and invited us to merge into his fork, saying it was richer at this stage. The thing is EME is not richer than EM, it’s based on now obsolete code. Liedekef has implemented some new features, but the EM core is now far more advanced; anyone can see that looking at the way the code is written, or even at the folder structure. And here I am not blaming Liedekef, I am blaming my own 2 years old code ??

Yesterday we reiterated the proposal to Liedekef via e-mail, he hasn’t answered yet. We’re still waiting.

Davide

@liedekef, not impressed…. We emailed you yesterday, since your plugin is now confusing users we wanted to find a way to at least make the differences clear to those that aren’t tech savvy. We offered ideas, why not respond to us in private instead of doing this? I think our emails were more than polite and trying to offer an amicable way of providing a great plugin for the community.

share the love man…. this is counter-productive ??

Wait … sorry for this: I saw this post (since it was tagged events-manager-extended as well) before I responded to my mails (sometimes I do have a life …). But the discussion of merging back was already closed some time ago, therefore the link to this old post.

And my plugin is now confusing users??? Sorry Marcus, but that depends on your point of view. Until two weeks ago my plugin didn’t confuse users at all …
Anyway, to finish this, I’ve posted my point of view here: https://www.e-dynamics.be/wordpress/?page_id=2 and will take this page in my readme.txt file, to avoid future user confusion. I hope this also proves that my code is indeed “rich” as well … I also spent months on this.

Franky

We’re not saying you haven’t made improvements to the plugin…. your plugin is in fact a great improvement on EM 2.2.2, but not compared to 3.0 and the features that are coming soon. As I said in my email, it’s a shame you didn’t contact either of us directly at the time, we would have told you we were close to releasing a new plugin rewrite and have lots of features in store, and maybe you could have contributed to that instead of forking. That’s how I got on board with Davide, and other os projects!

Since you want to keep on with EME, will you also make this clearer on your readme.txt as well then? Keep in mind that most users aren’t coders, and “extended” makes your plugin sound like an improvement or add-on to EM, and as of EMv3 that’s not the case. People should know this. Even one line will do, as a simple courtesy for Davide’s work from EM 1-2, example:

“This is a fork of Events Manager 2.2.2, which fixed many bugs at the time. It is not compatible with Events Manager, nor is it an add-on. Since the time of this plugin’s creation the original Events Manager has been rewritten and improved upon.”

For as far as I can tell, I’m still way ahead in terms of features compared to your 3.0.0 version. Object oriented programming doesn’t really count as a feature as far as a user is concerned. But this is not the place nor the time for a feature bidding war.
As I already stated: it’s a shame you didn’t check your own forums for months at that time … See here: https://davidebenini.it/events-manager-forum/topic.php?id=889#post-2689 . If I didn’t provide the patches at that time, many users would’ve completely been unable to use this great plugin in WP 3.x.
Anyway, as I said in my previous post: “I will take this page in my readme.txt file, to avoid future user confusion.” Don’t get me wrong: I’m very grateful for the work you guys did on the original plugin, otherwise I would’ve been unable to provide what I have today.

Franky, Elizabeth did precisely what you didn’t do: she fired me an email and asked me if it was ok to fork. I said it was ok, as I would have said to you. Mind, she didn’t have to ask, it’s the GPL after all, but she did out of courtesy, and I appreciated that.

What she didn’t do was spamming my own forum saying Events Manager was dead. That is what caused the present confusion in the first place. You see, if you had just e-mailed me we wouldn’t be here having this discussion. My email is everywhere on the code and in the support pages.

Also, Elizabeth didn’t lift the docs from my website without asking. And those are not GPLed.

I am sorry I wasn’t monitoring the forum a few weeks ago (I also have a life, and was on holiday, so I am not going to do seppuku for that), but I don’t think my lack of an answer there allows you to declare to the world our plugin is dead. BTW, if you really think I wasn’t monitoring the forum, why didn’t you send an email? It would have made even more sense.

On the other hand, thanks for the changes in the readme, I really appreciate that. And again, I have nothing against EME, it’s my own code after all, and I took all the blame for the design errors it might contain (see my earlier post)

I don’t like washing dirty clothes in public and sorry we had to come to this. Which is quite unnecessary; If you had answered yesterday’s e-mail we wouldn’t be discussing this here, and would be quarrelling like gentlemen, each in its own inbox ??

Again, peace.
Davide

Had a quick look at both versions. Merge them now, because the similarities and the unfortunate naming of the fork will lead to tons of confusion.

Nobody cares how much time you have spent on either version, but people will appreciate and support a solid plugin.

Well, I didn’t know about all this.

I currently have EM 2.2.2 implemented in a WP Multisite installation, and I’m trying to figure out which plugin should I update to. Would you (both) be kind enough to tell me which features are you planning to add to your plugins?

Rootman, under the hood the two plugins are totally different, so merging is not really an option anymore.

Rick, EM 3.0+ is a completely rewritten plugin currently focusing on total stability and super flexibility; EME is EM 2.2.2 with lots of bugfixes and added features.

Features are in the pipline also for EM but, as Franky wisely said, a bidding war is not a good idea. ? ?

Cheers,
Davide

Rick, I agree with Davide here (it happens ?? )
For the things I’ve changed/added: I recommend to read the docs on the EME site.

Then good luck to the both of you.

I didn’t want you two to fight, I just wanted to know where you’re heading so I can choose wisely. Sorry about the misunderstading ??