I am a big fan of ZODB and use it standalone (without Zope) on many projects of mine. One of the things I miss, is a community around it. I don't care much about Zope (though I admire it as a project) and have not being able to find a ZODB focused community. Is there one?
I think ZODB is a great product, the best Object-Oriented database for Python. It's a shame it does not have an active and vocal user community. Maybe ZODB has been eclipsed by Zope for too long. Zope is a cool project, but ZODB could appeal to a much wider audience than just web application developers.
Everytime I start a new application based on ZODB, I think: "what if the ZODB developers stop developing it...", "What if I find I serious bug or limitation in it, and can't motivate (or contact) the developers to fix it...".
I think many people abandon the Idea of using ZODB in their projects, because they can't identify a strong community interested in issues outside serving Zope applications.
Yet, ZODB has been alive for such a long time, feeding on the leftovers from the Zope community...
Isn't it about time ZODB is emancipated into a project standing on its own merits (which are many) and attracting its own community?
