I agree wholeheartedly with Boss Hog in that we can not let this "product" fall to the fate of death.
I am very interested in this thread. What are the symptoms of "falling to the fate of death"?
Is it:
* The new isos and beta versions we have had in last couple of months?
* The continuing upgrades and contribs that many people are releasing?
* The increase in forum activity over the last few months?
* The 1000+ wiki pages that were all built by volunteers?
* The dozens of resolved bug reports that have been solved in the last 60 days?
* The 20% increase in site traffic since the first of the year?
These don't look like a "dying" distro to me.
We run through this issue about once every 6 months where "someone" decides that the project is dying because somebody ELSE didn't do something they wanted.
If you want to help look at the Volunteering page in the wiki. If you don't have any of those specific skills then you can add great value by helping out others in the forums. That is where the community is....it is in helping each other out and building community and solutions.
If you (or anyone else) have php or other skills, terrific, please help someone fix a problem that they are having. If you can help with development join devinfo and just do it. If you want to "test", there is a new iso out there that needs testing.
You want to provide "direction"? Great, start a direction and if enough people are interested they will follow, if not, then that is the way it is. Otherwise, the "direction" we are moving has just released a new iso and this site has been growing and improving since the day it was launched.
It always pays to remember that this site is provided by volunteers as well, and if you are truly not happy you can always create another site of your own and run it in any manner that you would like. This is not saying that if you don't like something it's just tough, but I am saying that you ALWAYS have alternatives. If you are truly unhappy, provide an alternative. If it is better, then the community will move to it.
In the meantime, have fun with the isos and all of the other services that are provided free of charge by all the volunteers that just roll up their sleeves and do a job without comment or complaint.
I want to help, please let me.
Jump in and help anywhere you would like to. Your efforts will be appreciated.
-jeff