peter
Peter, I can't tell you how honored I am that you broke your silence to respond to me.
The funny thing is, in a weird way, I feel like I've been walking in your footsteps for years. Scouring through osTicket's source code looking for ways to hook in my CSS, I could see the evolution of your thinking as HTML standards changed under your feet. There's ancient code in there that tells a story most people will never read. And it gave me an appreciation for how incredibly complicated the whole thing really is. I always imagined that at some point you'd need to start from scratch. After all, you surely had no idea when you started that you'd still be working on it 20 years later with a team of employees and your code running around the world.
I recall seeing you in the forums ten years ago, but I never had any direct interactions with you until now.
I meant every word of the Origin Story. It's a genuinely inspiring journey. I've been contemplating writing something like that for a while, and it feels like it landed at just the perfect moment.
And yes, consider the arms race officially stood down. I think we both have better things to do. 😉
For what it's worth, I know "it both hurt and helped" couldn't have been an easy thing to write. That kind of honesty is rare, and it means a lot coming from you. I'll return the favor: elsewhere in the v2 docs, there's a line about eliminating "fragile third-party hacks." I know that wasn't aimed exclusively at me, but I'd be lying if I said it didn't sting. It also made me realize how it must have felt all these years while I was poking fun at the osTicket UI. I'm honestly surprised by how personal these things can feel. But when you've poured years of your life into trying to make something great, I suppose it ends up being more than just code.
I hope to make it back to Louisiana one day. When that happens, lunch is on me.
