[freedomben]

This is great! Major refactors like this are always such a difficult prospect for a number of reasons, and take real dedication and love. For people doing this for open source like Antenna Pod, my gratitude for you is immense!

Interestingly though, depending on your perspective can be good or bad. For example, the improvement for new contributors and for the people doing the refactor will be huge and lovely. So much easier to work in!

For the people who were familiar with the tangled mess before though, it can be a real set back. I've been in that boat before, and it basically wipes away all your prior knowledge and puts you at least back at square 1, sometimes at like -15 because you have to unlearn all the old stuff and that can be really hard to do. If all the older contributors were gone then this is not really a problem, but if I were one of them I probably wouldn't contribute anymore, not out of irritiation or spite or anything like that, just that it's too much of an uphill battle and there are other projects where I could contribute more efficiently. Definitely not a reason not to do the refactor, but it is something I had never considered before until I was on that side of it.

So if the only contributors are older contributors, and they are still around, it can be difficult. If the older contributors have moved on or are the ones doing the refactoring, or if most contributions are from newer members, then it's a huge win.