[stephenr]

The only other fork from current redis that I'm aware of is Redict, and I'd imagine drew devault's name alone brings enough baggage and bad memories that a lot of people (users and contributors) will avoid it.

This fork being run by existing contributors to the project helps a lot too.

[mariusor]

No matter one's opinions on Drew, I think his work as a maintainer and his commitment to open-source speak for themselves.

Your second point is actually the answer I was looking for, thank you.