Other / The Bolt Manifesto

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Bolt is a CMS that is steadily growing in popularity, and with that popularity comes an influx of new users and developers. This document is our Manifesto: It outlines the goals of Bolt, our motto and our values. This document also describes how we intend to make sure we will adhere to these self-imposed rules.

• Our slogan is "Simple, sophisticated and straightforward¹". This embodies everything we strive to do with Bolt: It is as simple as possible, but not simpler. It uses sophisticated technology to achieve this, and use of the system should be straightforward and evident.
• Bolt aims at three groups of users: Editors (content writers and editorial staff), Frontend developers (HTML/CSS specialists and implementers) and Backend developers (coders, devops and sysops). All three are equally important.
• We recognize that Bolt is best suited for medium-sized websites. By keeping this in mind, we will make sure that we do not spread ourselves too thin.
• We will never add new features, if they detract from any of the points mentioned above. If a proposed feature makes the system harder to use, it will not be accepted. If a proposed feature is for the benefit of one of our groups of users, but disadvantageous to another, it will not be accepted.
• We will prevent feature creep: Functionality not essential to Bolt, should be implemented as separate extensions.
• Bolt is Open Source software and it will always be Open Source software. We will never intentionally 'cripple' the system, in order to sell extensions.
• Our code should be clean, well-organised and legible. For more information, read about our coding standards.
• We welcome all types of contributions by our users: be it code, documentation or helping out with support for the community.
• We (the developers and users of Bolt) will always promote and maintain a welcoming and inclusive community. This means that harassment or prejudice of any kind, including but not limited to; sexism, homophobia, and discrimination on religious or political beliefs, will not be tolerated in any form.

1: Sometimes people comment on this saying "But, isn’t Simple and Sophisticated a contradiction?" No, it is not. Simple is not to be confused with 'Simplistic'. Or, you could compare it to a car engine: What it does might seem simple, but a modern car engine is a very distinguished and complex piece of machinery, no matter how easy it is to use.