"This will all end in tears". (from Marvin the Android- Hitchhickers Guide to the Galaxy).

Seriously, Andrew, please listen to people here. First understand that the names you call things: "Dolphin 8", "Trident", "Shark", "The Next Big Thing" - whatever, no longer have much meaning to us here - we just want out sites to work and keep getting better.

Wasn't it a few months ago that you came up with the list of features and bug fixes you see more were going to put in D7.1? Then we learned that you did this upgrade of Boonex.com instead. Now you have announced what seems like a major new development project and expected people to be excited? Those who have been around for a while know that new versions don't necessarily mean you will gain functionality - sometimes we have lost functionaly we had before with the older version.

Sorry, I am with the "finish what you started" camp - you can't afford to lose half your member base everytime you release a major new version. While D7 has some flaws - search, matching, the avatar, etc - come to mind, it is at least slowly gettng better. I would like to see a new incremental release every three months or so. YOu could still do the grand plan you described here - but just do it with 20 or 30 percent of the company time and developer's effort. That means D8 would still happen - it will just take a bit longer, and we won't lose the massive time investment we have made in D7.

In American football terms, you keep leaving the ball on the 80 yard line, and we want you to make a touchdown.