On April 26, 2011, WordPress 3.1.2 was released to the public. This is a security update for all previous WordPress versions. All WP sites should upgrade…see release notes.
Call it a spoon all you want…it’s still a fork…or is it? 
I’m wondering…has Totara received one of those cease-and-desist letters from Moodle HQ for typing the word Moodle on (actually, all over) their site and, in fact, actually claiming to be Moodle in their FAQ?
When I first read about Totara a couple months ago, I thought…yawn…Moodle, with a different name…wasn’t impressed enough to even bother creating a blog post…just a tweet. Now that I’ve gone back and taken a second look, I’m thinking–yawn–still Moodle with a different name, but now actually admitting it. Why do I say they are admitting it? Well, one only needs to read their own FAQ’s (all two of them) on their website. Here is the second FAQ from their website:
The news that someone has offered to buy Blackboard is causing quite a bit of chatter in LMS circles today…not to mention a big boost to some who may own stock. My advice…sell now before the hype wears off 
Of course, I never was good at reading the stock market–I guess if the phantom buyer turns out to be a big player–think Google, Microsoft, or even a huge textbook publisher, then holding onto that stock may prove to be a very good idea. I love it that the CNBC article mentioned Instructure as one of the most interesting competitors and completely ignores Moodle…maybe they’ve been talking to those who have upgraded to Moodle 2.0 However, just so Moodle Disciples out there don’t feel completely left out, I think the announcement by Instructure last week that it has raised $8 million in capital and is in this for the long haul, did contain several references to Moodle, without mentioning it by name.
The only license the Moodle Lead Dev knows, is what will make him the most $$. “All contributors give permission?” Are you kidding? You really think they even keep track of the contributors? This is a “community” open source project in name only–it operates like a privately held, commercial project and anyone who contributes to it should understand that fact.
Hi,
Last Moodle version is under GNU GPLv3. How can they upgrade from GPLv2 version? All contribuitors give permission for license upgrade?
Thanks in advance, Marc.
Its been a while since I last checked into Moodle-Land to see what’s happening–in a nutshell, nothing new–Moodle 2 still sucks
In scanning a list of a few hundreds posts, one of the newest is titled: “Moodle 2.02 runs dead slow”. In that post, the author makes some very familiar statements:
My students are falling asleep while waiting for pages loading in 2.02!
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For all Moodle end users…. DO NOT UPGRADE TO VERSION 2.x if you are running 1.9x ok IT IS NOT WORTHY!
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Moodle partners still trolling the forums un-checked–this has become a common, almost everyday occurrence in the Moodle “community” over the past few years. What a “caring” reply from the community, business partner–and you thought the forums were for free help when you found yourself in deep trouble, didn’t you?
http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=172883
Saw an interesting post today titled “Why Open Source Sucks“. The author makes some good points and based on the replies to his post, has rattled the cage of a few open source evangelists. I just love the first comment on that post were Arthur is “suitably shocked” and it’s going to take him an entire month to get over his shock so he can reply…shame on you Adrian
I love point number 4–in the case of Moodle, this couldn’t be more true!
4. Open source can be great for businesses, or schools with lots of money and lots of time to waste.
I’ve scaled back quite a bit on posting about the frantic cries for help, destroyed sites, and pure anguish being expressed in the moodle.org forums a result of people attempting a Moodle 2.0.x upgrade–the fact is, posting about what a disaster moodle 2 is, has become the norm over in moodle-land. But I found the following post in moodle-land today worth re-posting. To answer the posters question–without a complete backup–NO, you’re stuck.
Hi,
After over three years of development and nearly four months after the Moodle lead dev declared Moodle 2.0 Stable, 14 independent colleges have concluded that Moodle 2.0 is “Not production ready”…in fact, it’s far from being suitable for any real production environment.
I would say the title of this posts about sums it up. This was pulled from the post on moodle.org pasted below. The poster is rightfully frustrated with the general usability and navigation system. If you have played with it at all, you can understand where the poster is coming from…unfortunately for Moodle, the navigation system is the least of the unmitigated disasters awaiting those who upgrade to Moodle 2 “stable”…or as my friend Marc would call it…Moodle 2 stable-but-broken
WordPress 3.1 was just released and as usual the features just keep getting better. I upgraded this morning and it took all of about 15 seconds. Below are the major updates that would be of interest to normal users, but I think the most significant update is the admin bar on the homepage of the blog. There have been a couple of plugins that would accomplish this out for a while, but they just didn’t see to quite work like they should…this one is simple, gives you access to just the most frequently used tools, and seems to work as advertised. Well done once again WordPress…you’re still setting the standard for others to follow…and most are way behind.
A couple days ago, I reported about the hair-brained idea of ending support for the latest stable version of moodle — moodle 1.9.x — in December of this year. Seems that resulted in a lot of backlash for Moodle HQ. So today, Mo announced support would continue through June 2012 and in the same announcement, stated the following:
I hope this assuages any fears anyone had (possibly having the misleading “End of Life” in the title of this thread wasn’t helping much!)
Source: http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=168021#p738502
WordPress 3.0.5 was just released and includes some important security fixes. Upgrade is a must!
It’s official…Larry, Mo, and Curly leading Moodle into the future
The official advice being given for months on moodle.org has been, if you are planning on upgrading to Moodle 2.0–don’t! Anyone who has been following the moodle 2 saga, knows that’s good advice. Now, the moodle lead dev (aka Mo) chimes in and announces that support for moodle 1.9.x will cease less than a year from now, in Dec 2011. So, let’s see where that puts you:
WARNING: This report is (NSFMD), Not Safe for Moodle Disciples. Read at your own risk!
http://www4.ncsu.edu/~n51ls801/MoodleTwoNCSUCoursesFall2010Web.pdf
This is a “must read” report for anyone in a decision making position considering adopting Moodle as an institutional Learning Management System (LMS).
The very first line in the Introduction section of the 61 page report should serve to alert any reader that this is not your typical “I’m a blind Moodle lover and can’t see the flaws” type report that is prevalent on moodle.org.
Why do I like Marc (net-buoy)? Below is an example…hard to find that kind of integrity around moodle-land these days. Most of the free thinkers have left and it’s a place dominated by disciples–some so obvious they even change their names to things like “Moodleman”
Oh dear Julien….. yet another back-handed remark from the evangelistas?
Ian, what I find untenable is that during the discussion on moodle.org of the specifics of the possible enforcement by Moodle HQ of any rights to the use of logo, trademark etc., you and others remained mum. I can;t just blame it on Brits as people on this side of the pond seem to have turned their backs on Mr. Emerson and seem to be most willing to duck, duck… until they are the goose, at which point they appear to whine inordinately….
Now there’s a question all Moodle users should be keen to know the answer to. I think the end of life for Moodle as you know it is around the corner and the end of life of Moodle as a viable LMS may well come before the end of life support for 1.9. When you have a userbase so afraid of your newest and greatest release, that they want to know how many years they can just keep using the old stuff, then you should start seeing the writing on the wall
I have so many Moodle 2 nightmare stories bookmarked, it’s becoming difficult for me to find the time to blog about all of them, but the following post from yet another new moodle user caught my eye. This type review from those who are seeing Moodle for the first time is quite common these days…could it be that expectations for what constitutes a true 21st century web app has changed over the past few years?
http://iandavidwild.blogspot.com/2011/02/is-moodle-partner-programme.html
Have you been hiding under a rock for the past 5 years Ian?
I know you have been around Moodle for a while, so why the interest all the sudden? Get rejected as one of the chosen few and now don’t like “the program”?
Here is a little history lesson on the subject for you. Moodle.com doesn’t only try to control who uses their logo (which is understandable) they try to corner the market to a point of attempting to prevent anyone from even using the plain text word Moodle to advertise that they offer moodle services.
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