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Subject: Re: FEX: the ML file exchange censored and stifled by the makers of MATLAB (TMW)
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 2009 17:17:01 +0000 (UTC)
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Dear all,

Some random (not quite) citations and thoughts

Matthew wrote: 
>Shari is our new MATLAB Central administrator, replacing Cristina. 
>Please welcome her!

Shari please feel welcome here! But you certainly got a jump start, more than you ever wished for I imagine. I guess that by now you have realized that this is an open-hearted forum (CSSM, that is) that is not -- and cannot -- be managed by TMW (but many thanks for providing the nice web interface!). 

Shari wrote (as quoted in Urs posting):
> appropriate for File Exchange. We are taking your comments under 
> advisement. In future, please comment directly on the code or other 
> relevant topics as described in the File Exchange guidelines ...

and Urs continue:
> ... i did realized that you have removed all my - AND OTHERS&#8217; (eg, 
> jos v/john d/duane h/ - reviews WITHOUT asking my/others&#8217; permission 
> to do so! this is simply impolite&#8230;

I, for one, is very much against censorship (something that I have commented on before, see threads "The FEX MUST be moderated..." (January 2009) and " Doubt on usefulness of the FEX" (December 2008). There are many harsh comments on submissions, some clearly given after careful scrutiny of the submission, others quite the opposite. And in the latter case, I freely admit, my disgust for censorship is sometimes pu to a hard test. Anyway, there are a (not so large) number of people highly respected that consistently provide useful and thoughtful reviews, which IS VERY USEFUL for me personally/professionally, and for a great deal of other people I reckon. [I am not going to get forked off into a legalese discussion on whether TWM as owner of the FEX resource actually censored some comments or only did some minor housekeeping...]

Now, what has happened with this "VIS2009 contest" is that TMW has managed to alienate/infuriate many of the most valued contributors to CSSM and FEX. And not only that, when trying to uphold their usual high standard when reviewing FEX submissions they got censored. I am totally speachless (which fortunately Urs is not ...;-)  And even after this OP, as well as several comments from different contributors in the thread "ML spring 09 contest is bothersome and offensive" TMW seems not to realise the breath of their "mistake". Instead Matthew and Ned seem to have gotten the task to gloss it over:

Matthew wrote: 
> We have discussed the feedback that you and others ...
> After a lot of discussion and serious soul-searching, we have decided 
> to let this contest continue through Wednesday as planned.
>
> You clearly have a different vision for the correct use of File Exchange, 
> which we built and operate for our community&#8217;s benefit. Ned described 
> our thinking here:
> http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/newsreader/view_thread/248182
> We encourage you to share your feedback on this thread. Commenting on 
> individual submissions isn&#8217;t the right place for this discussion. We don&#8217;t 
> want participants to feel intimidated from participating.

Well, given that FEX "we built and operate for our community&#8217;s benefit" 
then the contest has managed to create a blazing backfire as far as I can judge.

A plea for TMW: get back to the bench and have some further discussions as 
well as do some deeper soul-searching! BTW, where do you have your soul TMW?
I always thought -- up to recently -- that it was not too far away from the kind of contribution that Urs, John, Urs, Peter, Duane, Tim, Peter,  and may more, provide to the community trough MLC. 

Peter wrote:
> The problem is that you (TMW) are trying to have it both ways.  You
> benefit greatly from the community investment and participation in
> comp.soft-sys.matlab and in the FEX, and have invested a great deal in
> leveraging that community.  However, the more you leverage the
> community, the less it feels like a community and more like an outgrowth
> of TMW, which will destroy it in the process.  Your comments suggest
> "You're welcome to help us out, but we run the show".  Fine.  I have too
> much other stuff to spend time on anyway.

Well said.

And I have a feeling that instead of being a community of Matlab users that just hang together just because it is mutually beneficial, we (personally I would say they) 
are heading towards a managed community where always some kind of promo or pseudo-happening is on. One minor indication, that might be more than insignificant, of this is that the MATLAB Central Administrator now belongs to "E-Marketing and Creative Services, The MathWorks, Inc." rather than the Customer Support. TMW obviously sees MLC as an e-market rather than a customer (self-)support tool. This does not bode well. I fear the next creative solution.

Without the very (VERY!!) high competence level of the 'support staff' you TMW get for free -- which largely are the guys that you have managed to infuriate, where would MLC be? 

Thus, again, the plea for TMW: get back to the bench and have some further discussions as well as do some deeper soul-searching.


Lars