Because they were vague[1]. As to whether they were worthy, it's not for me to say. It's easy to lose sight of the valid kernel of criticism when it's surrounded by repeated vitriol, FUD and personal attacks. Despite repeated requests, no-one offered concrete suggestions on what could've been done bettter.

Obviously something went wrong, however I'm not sure it's as simple as "lack of communication". I think it's that a large part of the community felt that they, and everyone else, were part of the Maemo community (collaborating on Downloads, in Bugzilla, on IRC, on the mailing lists and - mostly - here); however there were also a few (and that doesn't minimise their importance) that felt that they were part of an ITT(-only) community which was separate.

This continuing talk of "forum only members" or "representing the forums" just perpetuates this falsehood about separation. Still the people with the most karma are some of the most prevalent on Talk; and everyone is part of the wide, diverse and multi-faceted Maemo community[2]

This diversity is something that Maemo has got because it's grown organically. The MeeGo community, in trying to learn from Maemo's "mistakes", is trying to regiment, design and plan more things - I think it will be less successful.


[1]

• They started off as "we weren't told" - well, yes you were in Reggie's announcement and in several posts leading up to it.
• Then "we don't like the new theme" - well, it was trailed here, on blogs and (of course) on maemo-community and Reggie responded to the feedback; resulting in an iterative process which produced an excellent end-product.
• Then "we want the mobile theme back" - to which Reggie said wasn't feasible as he'd upgraded vBulletin and it wasn't a simple job, and that help was welcome
• Then "we really want the mobile theme back, and others too!" - to which Reggie reiterated that anyone was welcome to submit a new theme. andrewfblack did.

[2] Which is also why trying to pin down the exact size of the community is somewhat wasted effort; it's not a club where people get membership badges and have to pay their subs every year: it's a fluid, organic mass which cannot be exactly defined