Hello.

Back in March, I resigned from my Beta Tester position at simplemachines.org, because I was going nowhere. I wanted to take some time off and decided to end development of Aeva Media as well. Two months later, the SMF team offered me a developer position, after which I also ended up resigning, very angry against the team for their behavior.

At the time (July 28), after discussing with users and family, I decided to resume development on Aeva Media, but only on a commercial version of it. The free version would only be getting security updates (if needed.)
In order to make a stand against the SMF team, I removed my downloadable packages off their mod site, and replaced them with a link to this website. After a while, instead of asking me whether this was intended, they simply deleted my mods and replaced them with a bastardized version, 100% alcohol free. Yikes. Plus, it was using a name that was confusingly similar to Aeva Media.

I didn't appreciate this move on the part of the team, and things went downhill very soon. I managed to have the mod renamed to something else, and the mod page was re-enabled after I re-uploaded the Aeva Lite package. It was a lesser evil for me, as I could leave Aeva Media out of their website and have complete control over its distribution. However, less than a couple of hours after that, they permanently banned me from the SMF website.

As a result:

- I can no longer update the sitelist on the Aeva mod page. This was the only item I had left on that page originally, because deleting it could break functionality. Users of Aeva Lite should thus be using Aeva Media 1.x as a replacement, if they want to be sure the sitelist is updated automatically and quietly as soon as required. I will later release a new version of Aeva Lite with the auto-embedder additions from Aeva Media, as well as a new sitelist address that doesn't rely on the SMF team's good will.

- I can no longer provide support for Aeva Media 1.x on their forum, obviously. They did a lot of changes (such as removing their Aeva Media board and merging all of the support topics into one), but I don't know why they did. The support topic is useless! The mod's author can't even VIEW it! (Well, okay, I can view it next time I change my IP address, but then what does it change...?) So, basically: don't expect support from me on their board. I have nothing else to bring anyway. I will no longer go over there.

- I may in the near future open a support topic for Aeva Media 1.x and Aeva Lite over here. This is not the case for now. I need some time off to digest all of this crap.

Thank you for your time. And thanks to the SMF team for having so much respect for their ex-developer, author of their most popular plugin, main French translator and most zealous beta tester ever. Now, onto another project... This time, I'll make sure it isn't full of self-adoring ninconpoomps.

Well, you already know my thoughts on this, and how crappy this whole situation is.

But as I said you, you have a lot of followers who care about you - and who'll follow you, such loyalty is not easily earned. Screw the team, at the end of it, it's their loss, not yours.

Take some time off, have a good one and hope it tops up your happyfuel tank some

Whaaaat?!?!?!?
You're banned?
Oh man how things can change after a few hours of sleep.
Well mate, Arantor summed it up pretty well.
For your mod, most know where to come, and the rest will soon learn.
You speak your mind, and wear your heart on your sleeve. Never thought someone would get banned for that.
I dont think I've seen soo much sh@t go down over there than I have in the last 8 months. Soo much has changed, and seemingly soo little has been solved.
Have a good rest mate. Life will keep going with or without the hassle

Too bad about this. I really think that there should be a reconsideration on their part. Take your time and do what you will. It's your life after all. You only live it once and it goes faster than you think.

Nao, you make a great product. I can't say for certain I'll follow you onto another forum software but it might be a consideration. I posted some general thoughts on the SMF AEVA topic about how I felt. Overall I believe that they could benefit from someone who understands and is capable of working with strong personalities and getting the best out of them... Instead of getting angry or upset about them to the point where they do not deal with these dificult personalities and just ban them because there is a belief that it will be an easier path to serenity. Dealing with different personalities is a skill though and it is not always easily learned. I know this... I had to learn it in order to succeed on some projects in the past. It's still not a perfected skill for me and it required time, patience and tact to bring out results.

NAO they ban one person , bit loose more than that . I went there many times in past 2-3 days , but can't even make a single post , as i'm very upset on SMF part that what they have done with you . I support you on the issue as we all clearly know who was on the wrong side .

Well, only 40% of vbgamer's mods were given to him, and really, the rest are not that well coded. I remember a bit back, a list of bad style matters and borderline vulnerabilities was handed to vbgamer and there was an actual argument with him. (For example, it was possible to add items to non existent albums in SMF Gallery Lite)

Oh, and queries in templates. But apparently that was from when rules were 'more lax'. Despite the mods still being updated.

I find myself at a strange juncture, I don't want to write any more mods generally but I'm tempted to go make mods to replace his, ones that are well written and will mean there is no reason for him to stick around because everything he touches isn't friendly.

I also reminded the team yesterday that he is blatantly exempt from rules, after publishing two mods he hasn't even tested (one by his own admission), and both I spent time fixing previously.

Nao: You have a big mouth and you stand on your rights to say what you want. That's fine with me, but then you must also take the consequences!

I always do.

In the past, you several times did not speak nice  to me,

Quotes?
I can see, myself, that you've been hostile to me for quite a long time now. Not that it traumatized me, though.

even I helped with beta testing, provided server access etc. I can live with it, you are French and I'm to old to get pissed off by such actions.
But at sm.org, you have been warned so many times - a lot more times than others and you won't learn. Fine, but take the consequences without moaning! Grov up!

IIRC, I was banned without warning once and immediately unbanned, then I had a warning and was post-banned for a week for answering to insults from a neo-nazi. I always condemned the SMF team's behavior on that. They could simply have TAKEN DOWN his insults. Anyway... That's all. Then I was warned for "insulting" people, last week. I ASKED for quotes of these, but of course didn't get any. Then got perm-banned for "spreading false information", for which I wasn't even warned anyway...

Check your facts before you talk with me, really. I don't have time to waste.

Re queries in templates - putting aside the logistical debate of keeping functionality separate (in the pseudo MVC architecture SMF has), it has been one of the coding standards since pretty much forever that queries should not be in templates, and as far as I can tell, that was true in 2006 when he wrote them.


Basically, it would make me very happy to replace the functionality of all of his mods, and it seems I have some supporters in that direction too. I don't see a need to tackle SGP since I don't really see what it can do that AeMe can't, and what AeMe does better anyway.

I passed it on via someone who still has access to the team, I haven't heard a reply though, and he never replied to my comments publicly about either (have a read of the Anti Spam Links mod and Ignore Topics mod threads including my asking outright if he'd bothered testing the latter, which it was clear he hadn't.)