back to SME Server FAQs
Much of the work at contribs.org is provided by dedicated and talented volunteers. Thanks to all of you for your efforts.
As Contribs.org continues the process of becoming a Ruffdogs sponsored project, the situation described on this page is changing, and not all the statements below will remain true. The sentence at the top of the page, however, will always apply. - RonM
Here is what contribs.org happily provides to the community for free:
- We donate all the hardware to this project
- We donate all of the bandwidth to this project
- We donate hundreds of staff hours in administering and maintaining contribs.org
- We built, maintain, and constantly work to improve contribs.org
- We provide forums and discussion lists to discuss the SME Server
- We provide a huge database of knowledge in our forums. Some has been given to us from Mitel, a substantial portion has been developed here at contribs.org
- We maintain the mailing list archives
- We provide a wiki where volunteers have entered over 1000 pages of useful information
- We provide a bug tracker to the community where volunteers track and resolve bugs
- We provide screenshots so that unfamiliar users can see the interface
- We provide a chat room for live discussion
- We provide a home for the SME Server ISOs and source
- We provide free space for any developer who wishes us to host their work
Here is what we do NOT do:
- We do not "lead" this project
- We do not determine what packages will be in the distro
- We do not determine when releases will be made
- We do not determine who works on a project
- We do not organize or run "project organizational structure"
Suggestions
If you want something that is not on the list of things that contribs.org does provides, I suggest that you start a discussion thread in the forums.
We have given you an opportunity to create polls if you want to. Some threads in the forums have had thousands of reads. If your post rings true to enough people, there is no reason to make it sticky or site wide. If it gets lost off the front page it is because not enough people care about the issue. A hard but simple fact.
If this project were hosted on SourceForge, everybody would understand that SF provides certain services and that's all. If they don't have it you don't get it. And that is fine because they provide a terrific free service. contribs.org provides everything that SF does (except CVS) and much that SF doesn't offer. But just like SF, we don't run the organizational structure of the project. Think of contribs.org as "SF for SME".
We provide a terrific free service, but not organizational structure.
If you have enough interest in an idea, move forward. Don't expect that because you thought of it, someone else is obligated to do anything about it.
Remember, we're ALL volunteers.
Stuff you might want to know
contribs.org is privately owned. While we are open to suggestions, all decisions as to how the site is run are at the sole discretion of contribs.org. All of the data contained on this site is subject to one form of copyright or other. The databases that contain the information stored on contribs.org are the sole property of contribs.org and its owners.