the apocalypse!

[SMcNeill]

Why reset the version number...

You'll find the answer to that in the stickied topic Who and What is The Phoenix Edition (qb64phoenix.com), which is visibly prominent under announcements and has been there for quite some time.

...and dress things up so the compiler looks nothing like the old one?

Exactly how has the compiler changed any?  The IDE is the same.  The color scheme is the same.  We haven't altered the QB64.exe filename in any way, so it still looks the same on your directory listings.  Can you kindly show us an indication to how you think the compiler no longer looks anything like the old one?  Side by side image comparisons, please.  I'm curious about exactly what there is that's changed to the point that it would make someone say the compiler looks nothing like before.

Why rush non-needed updates during a transition of power?

What's a non-needed update?  How long should one wait?  Do you think it was wrong to fix QB64 so that it will run properly and not freeze up when trying to download pages from the old -- now non-existent -- wiki site?  That's the very first update we pushed out, to keep QB64 from bricking up if the user clicked "Update Page" for any of the wiki pages.  In your opinion, how long should users have to deal with an unstable IDE which might freeze and require a manual termination from the system?  If you're waiting on the other guys to fix the problem, they still haven't gotten around to it yet, and we're now going on what?  Three months or so after QB64.net went down?

As for a transition of power, let me ask:  When did that occur?  At which point did RC Cola say that the old team was stepping down, never to return?  Last I heard, they said if there was enough interest in maintaining the github, they'd be back.  Never once did RC hand power over to anyone, and -- as far as I know -- he's still the only one with the credentials to access the QB64.net sites, youtube, twitter, and all.  It doesn't seem to me that power was ever transferred to anyone.  We simply exercised the rights that any user has with an open source project -- we branched off from the main source once it stopped active development, and we started maintaining our own version.  Power has never been transferred anywhere from the old QB64 Team.

I won't say how I came to know this, but at least two of the old Team are behind QB64.com. Don't press me for how I know this, however.

Good for them!  Maybe they'll be able to get an update out soon and start developing something.  I'll be looking forward to it, just like I'm certain everyone else out there is! 

For what it's worth however, we have four members of the old team here developing things.  I've always been a part of the team, and until RC kicked me, like everyone else, I was one of the members of the "QB64 Team", as was Cobalt, and Spriggsy, whereas DSMan was one of the original contributors to the project with me, while Galleon was still in charge of it all.  

And, I don't think it's any sort of secret that Sprezzo has joined the Qb64.com team, though if you look at the repo history, t\you'll see that his contributions to the project is half a step above nil...

 

Also conspicuously absent from the front page of Phoenix is InForm, along with any of the web representations of QB64 (BAM, QBJS, etc). I belive those guys are looking to enshrine and somewhat maintain InForm at the website while prepresenting QB64 in its fullest form.

InForm was Fellipee's work.  Fellippee walked away from the project.  None of us are regular users of InForm, nor developers for InForm.  Why would we host it in particular when we'd be unable to answer questions or support it?  There's no reason for us to enshrine InForm, as it has its own dedicated github where it sits for prosperity.  We'll direct people to it, who ask any questions about any sort of issue that pertain to it, but none of us are able to offer much more advice about it than, "We know it exists.  Lots of folks have used it.  We personally haven't, but it might be what you're looking for, if you can figure out how it works."

As for web representations of QB64, we're not related to those.  If someone wants to share links to those projects via our list of external links, they're more than welcome to do so -- they're just not part of our personal Project.  If you notice, QBJS doesn't link to anywhere -- https://qbjs.org.  As for "BAM", I don't even have a clue what it is, or where it exists, but I can assure you, it's not part of our project either.  Surely it's not BAM | About, is it?  

It feels like a cult around here at phoenix, frankly.

How so, exactly?  Cults tend to practice seclusion, so that they can keep control over their members.  We're open for all, with only one troll and several spambots banned from our forums here.  We don't tell our members not to go to other sites, we don't tell them to ignore other versions of QB64, nor do we tell them what to think in regards to features or usefulness of other versions of BASIC.  In fact, there's a whole topic dedicated to discussing and comparing various versions of basic here: BASIC's Comparison Matrix: ideas for content? (qb64phoenix.com)

Cults tend to ask for money, or control over a member's property, income, ect.  Qb64.org was the one, under RC Cola, which had a clause that read "Anything you share via any QB64 affiliated medium, is the property of the QB64 Team."  Our philosophy is rather simple:  "We claim to no ownership of anyone's work, except for our own."  Feel free to post and share your code when you want to.  Feel free to delete it and remove it whenever you want to as well.  We don't claim rights to anything that someone else shares on our forums, and we don't have a patreon, nor do we ask for any donations for anything which we do.

Members here are free to come and go as they wish, we're non-exclusive, and we don't try and milk anyone for any profits or intellectual property rights.  We're simply a group of hobbyists who branched off from the old QB64.org site, and we're embracing our hobby with likeminded individuals.  How exactly is that "cult like"?  

I'd love to hear how you feel our community could improve and become any more welcoming than what it already is.  Feel free to point out our "cultlike" behaviors.  I'm certain everyone here would love to improve if we're doing something exclusive or wrong.

Just don't expect us to stop the virgin hamster sacrifices during the full moon.  Those are essential to keep the Dark Powers on so that the server can keep running and we can all keep the end of the world at bay, for the sake of humanity itself!!