[Scummvm-devel] My Resignation

[Matthew Hoops]

It is with a heavy heart, that I have to announce my resignation from
ScummVM. This has been building for a long time now, but has now
culminated with the splash screen discussion.

While I absolutely think the splash screen is a horrible move for
ScummVM, it was the actual discussion that really soured my feelings.
>From the beginning, it started with "Your feedback is welcome, but I
want the splash screen to be present before 1.8.0", so there was only
the illusion of having a discussion. sev decided to deflect any
criticism of the splash screen to being "offensive" or "insulting".
This is not something I have any desire to be a part of.

This is just one offense in a long line of offenses. I was PM'd y sev
a few weeks ago saying I had a negative attitude because I didn't
congratulate enough people for their work and only chimed in when I
have a discussion. I'm sorry, but just giving out meaningless
platitudes isn't helping anyone make better code. I had pointed out
Strangerke in the channel that he posted a news post to the site
without asking the channel for proofreading (of which it needed, since
criezy then had to go and edit it). This involved another "talking to"
from sev, who said I insulted Strangerke by pointing it out in
channel.

I can go back further. I was called "a kid" in #scummvm by a few
months ago when I asked about project funds (of which no information
is made public, and which an open source project like us should make
the information public. Going back to last year, my code for image/
was called "stupid" in channel (while I was sleeping and couldn't
defend myself). This was followed by a differently toned -devel thread
under the title of "Re: [Scummvm-cvs-logs] scummvm master ->
57aa610f0c6199fbe41fc5de495356aa29fae6b8" to have a more civilized
discussion. After getting sev to finally admit he didn't like it _just
because of the name_. He had no alternative and never responded to my
last message.

I had hopes during this discussion that there'd be something to keep
me here. There wasn't. In fact, I only got an engraved invitation to
leave - "If you don't like the project, what are you doing here,
then...".

In the end, I couldn't have a clear conscience while staying on as a
developer. Whether you agree with me or not is up to you, but I hope
at the very least things can change for the better within the project.

I stand by the statement i made in the PR - I still love the project.
The code part of the project and what has already been accomplished
here. And that's why I'll be forking and starting my own version of
the project. I can't promise it will have the same visibility, but
without the splash screen we'll pick up anyone who wants that version.
And maybe, just maybe, we'll get away from all the arguing, and make a
better project instead of just wanting more credit for the work.

Unlike the libav fork of past, there's no attempted overthrow, there's
no hate of the people who worked on the project, and I still wish to
share the code to continue in the spirit of open source software. Feel
free to include any code I write in the fork (of course, I'd expect
full credit for anything of mine included because anyone who wanted
the splash screen would all be hypocrites otherwise).

I won't be able to convinced to come back either. Or at least while
sev is still in charge of the project.

I also won't respond to this thread, but depending on the topic will
still be glad to continue having a discussion with you fellow
adventure game lovers. You'll still find me as clone2727 or droid2727
in irc.freenode.net, just not in #scummvm. And my e-mail is still here
too.

Thanks to anyone who helped me in any way over the past nine years,
it's been incredibly helpful to my life and career. I've experienced
both the best and worst of open source software at the same time.

So long, and thanks for all the fish,
Matt (clone2727)