Sustainable open source development is very, very hard to achieve. Most of these forum software tools were created out of a personal need by single developers instead of start ups. At some point motivation drops, especially when being careless about expectation management and the rush of disappointment from the community already attracted.
Recently more projects have come into existence that try to push forward with making open source sustainable, as far as making a living off of it. These include Hacktoberfest, Open Collective, Seed and Dew and many more causing an increase in awareness about the value and the urgency of supporting open source.
Nevertheless this does not necessarily take away the motivational aspect when reaching the hardships of relentless continued development. One of my favourite mottos for development is "once you reach the first 80% of building your code, you still need to overcome the last 80".
The lead of a project is often in the steering seat and his motivation decides the morale for the project as a whole. If you can't pull the cart in open source, no one will follow. You have to lead by example, a tough position to be in. Especially once your project attracts more attention.
You joined discuss a few months after I did, one thing I noticed in the development of Flarum is the occassional intermezzo since then. And that's fine, it's a prerogative of team members on an open source project, lots is going on in our lives. The intermezzos never ended in the project being shut down and I am very glad for that. The renewed energy I discovered last year within the core team gives me hope that Flarum will be a great discussion board tool for years to come!
Taking this opportunity to ask you to support continued development by becoming a backer on our Open Collective 😊
