To me Derek Allard was the face and inspiration behind MojoMotor.  With his departure from the Ellislab team, will we see the same level of dedication and support from his successor?

I love this little CMS, but until I’m confident that it will be maintained at the same high level it has been I will have a hard time recommending it to clients.

Thanks,
Aaron

I have to admit, this news has me thinking similar questions!

Jesse and Aaron,

I appreciate your concern.  We have a team of people working on MojoMotor as well as ExpressionEngine. MojoMotor was the brainchild of several developers in EllisLab. Allard certainly was the main face for some time, and we’re sad to see him go, but the project continues in full force. We have a few things planned for Mojo specifically that are exciting for it’s new phases as well as offering continued, great support here on the forums. EllisLab’s team is cohesive in this pursuit.

Pplease continue to ask questions anytime.

Thanks, Leslie - it’s reassuring to hear that from you all.

cheers,
Aaron

The team backing MojoMotor are astoundingly talented, and honestly, everyone should be excited by its future. You’ll only see it grow and improve from here.

Absolutely. And first and foremost, asking these sorts of questions gives us the chance to reach out and let you know our goals. So please continue with your great work here and never hesitate to bring a concern to us at any time.

Besides everyone…you still got me! (not that I could ever truly replace our favorite Canadian)   I am as dedicated to Mojo as ever.  Things are going to continue to be awesome, just as they were when Derek was here.  As for support, I will continue to respond quickly.  I just need to come up with more witty phrases like “Keep on Motorin’” or “Keep up the Mojo” that Derek did so well .

Dan

Thanks Dan!

I’d like to contribute “How you Mojoin’?” to the cause in Derek’s absence.

@Dan–

Maybe riding one of these will help you come up with new phrases.

Geoff

Aaron Fowler - 17 September 2010 07:22 PM

To me Derek Allard was the face and inspiration behind MojoMotor.  With his departure from the Ellislab team, will we see the same level of dedication and support from his successor?

I love this little CMS, but until I’m confident that it will be maintained at the same high level it has been I will have a hard time recommending it to clients.

Thanks,
Aaron

MojoMotor has always been a team effort from EllisLab. It was originally the brainchild of Rick Ellis, myself, and Paul Burdick back in 2006.

Rick Ellis, Paul Burdick, and I were having lunch at PF Changs when I casually said something to the effect of “what if we built a minimalist blogging tool with no CP?” We spent the next two hours brainstorming that concept in a number of ways and walked away in love with the idea of a small tool with no traditional CP. The idea never died and we revisited it in one form or another over the next three years.

In late 2009 we had the opportunity to move Allard off the primary dev team and have him work with Derek Jones, myself, and Rick Ellis to take the concepts and mature them into what we know as Mojo today. Once the four of us had a solid picture of MM 1.0, Rick Ellis and Derek Allard became the programming team tasked with turning the plan into shippable code. On this team, Derek Allard was the lead developer, with Rick consulting and contributing a lot of work, especially in the way “cascading templates” ended up working.

Allard was the lead developer and rightly deserves a lot of praise and credit for his work, especially going above and beyond the call of duty to keep the community involved and being the “face” of the project. Mojo definitely would not have ended up the same without his contribution, creativity, and skills. All of us owe him a big thank you for helping make Mojo what it is.

That’s a long way of saying that yes Allard will be missed but yes, EllisLab is absolutely committed to Mojo in the long term. Between Rick Ellis, Jones, myself, Dan (who is awesome), the primary dev team (Pascal, Robin, Greg), and most importantly the incredible Mojo community that is forming, we think Mojo has a very bright future ahead of it.

Thanks for the history lesson, Leslie.  And thanks also to Leslie D., Dan, and Derek for letting us know EllisLab cares as much about MojoMotor as we do.

Is it strange that I think of MojoMotor as ExpressionEngine’s little brother? I just want to reach out and tousle the little guy’s hair…  I think I need some sleep - I’m anthropomorphizing CMSs.

Aaron

Les, thanks for taking the time to give us a behind-the-scenes on Mojo’s birth and growth!  I’m really looking forward to seeing where Mojo goes as I have a number of people who will be using it in the future!