Who are you guys?

scottm

We are considering deploying Vanilla Forums for our customer base. We really like the simplicity and clean look of Vanilla. My main concern is the relative newness of Vanilla, who stands behind the product, and what happens if the developers of Vanilla go away (ex. unfortunate smelting accident). I realize this is open-source, but still would like to know more. Thanks for your input!

Minisweeper

I'm sure Mark can give you more info about the business side of things but don't be too fooled about the new-ness. Vanilla 2 is brand new but Vanilla 1 has been around a few years now (not a life time I know but no spring chicken either) - it is also in use on a number of big name sites. As for Mark (the main guy behind it) - I've known him in this kind of circle for probably 8 years now and I'm pretty sure he has no intentions to vanish - now more than ever he is totally focused on the product and it's future. Plus with the likes of Todd he is building the team and reaching out to the community for their assistance and involvement moving forwards.

erikig

The are a couple of additional things going for Vanilla from a software lifecycle perspective,

- the fact that the code is publicly available on github

- the application is supported on RackSpace's cloud (RackSpace = Fanatical Support)

- the fact that the project comes with a built-in community that actively uses/extends & supports the product

- the back-end (Garden) is about to be released & documented

scottm

Thanks Minisweeper & erikg. Good info that will help in my decision process.

Todd

Mark also wrote a blog post a while back on his commitment to Vanilla:

http://markosullivan.ca/commitment/

Mark

I also just updated our "About Us" page on the wiki: http://vanillaforums.org/page/AboutUs

scottm

Thanks Mark & Todd. The updated "About Us" helps me understand the history and business model a lot better.