I'm confident that if Theymos really wanted to upgrade bitcointalk he could easily do so in a much shorter time period.
That's correct but it doesn't make sense to introduce it before it has passed all of its tests
[it'll be a workaround that might introduce other problems as opposed to a solution].
I get that, but my point is that it's been
years now. How many tests need to be passed and how long does that take? Again I'll admit that I'm not a computer programmer, but my gut is telling me that there's no way it should be taking this long with the resources Theymos must have at his disposal.
I'm pretty sure he'd have all the coders he'd need, because if that were the bottleneck there would be tons of members stepping up to help.
The last time I checked, he was the only one
[not sure if that's still the case], and in regards to the latter part, I don't think it's that easy to hire a coder/programmer/developer without ulterior motives.
I hear what you're saying, but I'm not buying it. Even if a coder/programmer/developer had ulterior motives (and I seriously doubt Theymos wouldn't be able to find someone who didn't have such nefarious motives), I don't think Theymos or anyone else would have a problem checking to see that no malicious code was introduced or something else of that nature. And if he's doing this all by himself, I'd have to ask myself "why?". Every company that needs code written has it done by a team--to my understanding at least. Granted, bitcointalk isn't a company, but it's not a one-man operation either.
Am I completely missing something?
I said there was a possibility that I'd completely missed such an explanation, and it turns out I did. Thank you to SFR for quoting it.
I guess in the end I'm just being skeptical, and again, it's without the benefit of having any coding/programming experience, so in reality I don't know exactly what it takes to accomplish what Theymos is trying to do. But as I also said, my gut is telling me (strongly) that it shouldn't take as many years as it has to upgrade the forum--and it still hasn't been upgraded, and it doesn't seem like that's going to happen in the near future.
This is what I have in my head, especially after reading the quote from Theymos:
I get the impression that Theymos is a brilliant person.
I know the forum has a lot of funds at its disposal.
I think there are tons of members who are willing to lend a hand--which probably include some that he trusts.
I know that code is something that can be analyzed for anything malicious, which would make it very hard for someone to sabotage the new forum software.
I have a very hard time believing a forum upgrade should take years to complete, unless it's only being worked on very infrequently.
I think Theymos is aiming for absolute perfection, and to his detriment.
I wonder if, by the time he's finished, the new forum software might already be outdated.
But in the end....I don't care, as I said in my previous post. I'm satisfied with the forum as it is and if Theymos never finishes the new software, I'd be fine with that. However, since we're discussing it I wanted to voice my perception of the whole thing. I could be wrong in several areas, and I don't mind being called out on it. It's how I learn.
I think the forum should stay as is.
Hear, hear.