Yes I was in on the joke. Owen asked me to be the “straight man” for this little prank, and I must say it worked out quite well. Owen and Scott are both very much committed to Habari for the long hall, fear not.

Well today saw the release of the Developer Review of Habari, and the departure of two of the founders. They could have chosen a better time to leave, but to each his own I suppose. I wanted to talk about this now, before other sites like HabariWank blow it out of proportion.

I am still not really sure what happened, but as of today Owen Winkler and Scott Merril have left Habari to start a new project. I am still reeling from this, since I had really thought that we had gotten past all the bickering and second guessing that showed up in the first couple of weeks of the projects life.

Both Owen and Scott will be missed, Owen commited a lot of great code to the project, and Scott was ever the champion for the user, which we really needed. I hope that their new project is able to provide the atmosphere that they feel they need to work in. I just wish Habari could have given it to them.

On to some lighter news. Today we release the long anticipated Developer Release of Habari. The core committer team have been working round the clock to get the code whipped into shape, and I have to say that we are proud of the product we have turned out. You can find the official announcement on the Habari Project Blog, I suggest you go read it and then download away.