I'm aware that he was getting some help with the software from Crunklord but I think the extent of this was extremely limited. I also would not characterize Null's threads on ruforo as if they were asking for help. The proper ruforo thread reads more like a personal diary where Null describes what he's been working on. The announcement thread (titled Sneedforo) is mostly Null and Crunklord mocking anyone critical of their plan to rewrite XenForo in Rust. Anyway, here's an overview of the commit activity on the ruforo Github repository (if people are interested in verifying my result I can post the script I used to generate this):
Bash:
113941500+c915@users.noreply.github.com: added lines: 3 removed lines : 3 total lines: 0
cdcode@airmail.cc: added lines: 91 removed lines : 10 total lines: 81
crunklord420@lolcow.email: added lines: 9282 removed lines : 3861 total lines: 5421
crunklord420@noreply.git.kiwifarms.net: added lines: removed lines : total lines:
josh@jaw.sh: added lines: 38509 removed lines : 18500 total lines: 20009
sneedquarius@pm.me: added lines: 6 removed lines : 6 total lines: 0
soniczentropy@protonmail.com: added lines: 1 removed lines : 1 total lines: 0
I think this kind of speaks for itself but for the uninitiated, Null (
josh@jaw.sh) has contributed the vast majority of the code. Crunklord also hasn't contributed anything since January 13. In my opinion, this shows that Null is basically working alone on the new forum software. He had help from Crunklord when the project was started in late November of last year but he's always been the primary contributor of code. Crunklord's contributions have tapered off since the new year. I don't know if this translates to how he runs the site behind the scenes but right now I'm assuming it's a similar situation.
Is the lack of contributors a money problem, a problem of community will, or something to do with Null himself? I feel like a forum as big as Kiwifarms should have some money to throw around so that someone other than Null can keep the site up when he's not available. I also think it would be good to bring on some professional help if he's really serious about developing a replacement in XenForo.