Also, it doesn’t literally mean you stop communicating. d7uc.org is about discussing plans, organising and getting things done. Not setting the grand vision as much as organising the team. I think you do need to sell the changes to other developers and take full advantage to as much qualified feedback as possible. But that is all involved in the practical effort of getting the job done.

To non-contributors I’d try to talk more about Ubercart 2.0 instead of the future. And with contributors I’d focus more on what is being worked on now rather than the long term vision.

When thinking about the Ubercore, I really wanted to try and apply this principle… it’s just a lot harder in a diverse community effort. : ( I’m personally motivated by the desire to write good software and let it speak for itself, but with a community initiative I have to bring everyone in before my house is in order. Hence the jumbled state of d7uc.org… I would’ve much rather launched with a design document and a well ordered process. Now I’m going to be stuck playing catch-up to my vision. ; )

But c’est la vie. I suppose as it turns out, since the vision really involves getting people on board and taking ownership in the code, the mere fact that people are on board is a result I can point to. We’ll see what happens over the next 6 months… : D

Also, when things collapse — and they sometimes do — you don’t want people asking you, “Oi, you said you were going to do X, so how’s that coming along then?” Ouch!