RE: Alternative development/ Outside contributing

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http://forums.oscommerce.com/viewtopic.php?p=216400#216400
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[quote="zaq"]I personally think the only way (...) is (...) to create a fork.[/quote]
No need to split the community, a competing fork often does this and creates a lot of ill will.

[quote="iiinetworks"]That's what the Contributions area is.[/quote]
For some projects this is not an ideal solution. In case of your example of a lone contributor creating a Zimbabwan(sp?) payment module it's fine.

Some projects do better with more contributers, or simply will not get done bacause it's not sexy enough for a contrib (think back-end changes).

The way I see it could work like this:
Have a tightly controlled base project (The current osC. Main focus: reliablility stability ready-for-production).
Have a less tightly satelite project (The experimental branch. Main focus: Large contributions, alternatives to current osC implementation).

Anyone who can drum up support for their plan would theoretically be able to contribute to the experimental branch. 
If a competing implementation of something osC already provides gets developed, great judge each implementation on it's own merits. If the improvement is big enough to justify porting it over to osC, contribute it back into osC. 
Choice is a good thing.

If the experimental branch delivers attractive new functionality; Fold it into osC. 

If an idea is exceptional let osC pick it up in midstream and develop it on the main branch.

From the messages I've been reading in the forum it seems there are a lot of ideas floating around, but not much is code is being done with it. It seems a shame to waste the potential.

Cheers,
Rob