kingjames457

My bad Moderator. I figured it was relevant to the topic. I have used Concrete5 before and it has served me better than Joomla and Wordpress but the major negative is Franz's behavior. I should have kept my last post a bit less longwinded. Here's the gist Concrete5= Great CMS Concrete5 Leadership = Not so great

Concrete5 is a great CMS and is growing rapidly. In a few years it may pose a threat to Joomla and Wordpress. The security issues mentioned above have been taken care of. I use the CMS on a number of large sites (thousands of users) with no security problems. However, I have to agree with the earlier post about Franz Maruna, the CEO of Concrete5. Maruna is a terrible leader that talks down to his group of core users. When someone brings up an issue/problem or critique Maruna is overly defensive, when someone generates an idea or a new way of doing something, he dismisses it. I think Concrete5 is the best CMS out there but I'm worried about its future. I can't see the CMS growing with Frnz as the leader. Here is a prime example of a post regarding the design of Concrete5: http://www.concrete5.org/community/forums/chat/just-curious-your-vote/?displayStyle=flat In the post, ChadStrat, a talented developer who is often overly emotional during bitch battles with Franz asks for a vote on Concrete5.org's design. Many people chime in that Concrete5.org's design and usability is lacking and that it is odd that a CMS aimed at marketing people and designers fails so miserably with their actual website design. Keep reading and you will see how Franz dismisses the concerns of his forum members and does not place it high in his priority list. This is a common pattern throughout the Concrete5 forums. Someone raises an issue/critique and Franz brings the axe down on their neck. Maruna demonstrates huge ego and a lack of leadership. If he doesn't change his behavior and begin considering the opinions of his community and core user group then he is going to lose his developers and Concrete5 will flounder and die. It is the community that makes a CMS better, that spreads the word, that uses the CMS on sites around the world, that develops add ons and provides support. Community = growth. Without a change in the open source culture at Concrete5, starting with Franz (not all are innocent), Concrete5 will wither. Maruna needs to wake up and value his community, put the ego aside and begin communicating and leading like Demming (read up on him Franz). If he doesn't, his developers are going to take his previous comment seriously about simply taking the open source code and building it up under new leadership and a better environment where developers and designers are valued, call it Concrete6 or Concrete7 Franz's CMS will be toast. All the developers would leave Concrete5 and sell their add ons on a good marketplace, on a good looking site where critique is valued and where they actually know how to market a CMS. Starting January 1st, 2011 you better shape up Franz, or we developers are going to rebel, take the source code and build something better elsewhere. If this does happen, don't worry, you can join our forum and unlike you we will listen to your input on not dismiss it out of hand.