[andrew_]

> In the past, when someone wanted to join the jQuery UI or jQuery Mobile teams we expected them to contribute to the library as a whole.

I'm not sure about the accuracy of that. I was a jQuery UI team member in the '09 - '11 period (I can't recall exact dates) and I only worked on certain components, though I did participate in discussion and planning for the platform as a whole. It was also common for contributors/team members to pitch new plugins that weren't worked on by the entire team.

So maybe this is just jQuery UI getting back to it's open source roots more so than anything. I'm sad to see that the project has fallen on hard times, but I'm not shocked given the direction most of front end webdev has moved towards these days. The amount and types of UI frameworks and component libs available today are myriad. And at jQuery UI's peak (and hell, jQuery as well) there were only a few.

I'd like to add a meta-note that Scott Gonzalez was always great to work with, and if you want to read some interesting, independent thoughts, he's a good follow on the twitters.