MOD Site?

[Unknown] · August 05, 2003, 08:21:26 PM

Personally, I'd like to see the Simple Machines team have mods - things like the calendar that are REALLY nice features for the forum to have, but some people will never ever use and etc.

Personally, the only way I have ever used the calendar is for the birthday feature. Otherwise... it's never really been something I use. However, I still think it's something that should be kept and go in the distribution because.. it's already in there.

If it wasn't in there, I would include it as an in-house mod. Might even come with the distirbution, in the Packages folder... just not installed by default. And I'd like to have other things somewhat like that. (not sure on including them by default.)

-[Unknown]

Haase · August 05, 2003, 09:06:28 PM

[Unknown], that kind of goes pack to my original argument. If you ensure that all the mods are cross compatible, then there is no need to two have two versions at all. Ship the base version with all the "SMF Approved" mods as packages. Then anyone can have a SuperMod equivelant site in 30 minutes just by applying all the packages they want. Hell, it shouldn't even be that hard to set up a mod prerequisite tool --> "You selected Mod B, which requires Mod C and Mod F be installed first. Install these mods?"
And the rest of us can just have our we thin board. Surely, this would save you guys a heck of a lot of time... you're going to have approved mods anyway, and that way you don't have to worry about supporting 2 different releases of the same software.

Joshua Dickerson · August 06, 2003, 12:14:08 AM

Haase: Besides a couple of mods, I don't think we should include 'all' of the mods. Or even a large portion. A lot of people are still using dialup and I remember those days. It would take me a little while to download a zip.

Omar Bazavilvazo · August 06, 2003, 01:00:37 AM

I like the calendar

Only for birthday and few events, but is a nice addon...

with the possibility of disabling it, should be enough...

i;)

gandolphxx · August 06, 2003, 02:08:00 AM

Quote from: Haase on August 05, 2003, 09:06:28 PM
[Unknown], that kind of goes pack to my original argument. If you ensure that all the mods are cross compatible, then there is no need to two have two versions at all. Ship the base version with all the "SMF Approved" mods as packages. Then anyone can have a SuperMod equivelant site in 30 minutes just by applying all the packages they want. Hell, it shouldn't even be that hard to set up a mod prerequisite tool --> "You selected Mod B, which requires Mod C and Mod F be installed first. Install these mods?"
And the rest of us can just have our we thin board. Surely, this would save you guys a heck of a lot of time... you're going to have approved mods anyway, and that way you don't have to worry about supporting 2 different releases of the same software.

Finally after 60 replies someone offers a reasoable solution

A thin board is the thing of the past for many users, it wll just drive folks to VB and IVB - my $.02

Joshua Dickerson · August 06, 2003, 03:16:03 AM

gandolphxx: it will never be 'thin'. there are more features than most will ever use. The reason a couple of us keep on talking about bloat is because no matter how many features we have, people will want more, this is going to eventually cause a lot of problems. Also, if people want to keep adding features that not everyone is going to use, we can make mods.

Haase · August 06, 2003, 09:12:38 AM

Quote from: groundup on August 06, 2003, 12:14:08 AM
Haase: Besides a couple of mods, I don't think we should include 'all' of the mods. Or even a large portion. A lot of people are still using dialup and I remember those days. It would take me a little while to download a zip.

Well, there's always the Package Server. It would be even easier to implement than including them into the install zip. As soon as a mod is approved, it gets moved into the package server. Instead of downloading it from the thread or the downloads area and manually moving the file into boardmod or into your packages folder, you just go into your admin panel and browse the package server.

Look, I'm not suggesting you remove features that are already there, and although I agree that bloat is bad, I'm not going to deny that some new features are useful. All I'm trying to get across is that you guys have a better alternative than having to release 2 versions of the software.

And again, I'm not saying that having a second release more difficult. It's just administratively more time consuming. You suddenly have another full set of tasks to complete, and then you suddenly have another version of the software to support. People start asking help or installation questions, and then you have to keep asking them which version they have. Pretty soon your fed up with that so you set up different support boards for each version. Then the dev teams become more isolated and before you know it you've got "SMF SE" to contend with.

Gobalopper · August 06, 2003, 03:19:37 PM

The best outcome would be mods that work well with each other so that you can have a bare bones board if you want but those who want the extras can just install them. I think that is partly the plan we have for the new Boardmod site, to ensure that as many mods work with eachother as possible.

In my opinion the best option would be a basic forum that has all the standard features and the ability to add new ones with a single click.

۞ · August 06, 2003, 03:28:51 PM

Yeah, just adding them simply would be great, I think it was the other thread I said about an idea of a customized install package, where you choose the features you want on your forum and it generates the php files for you. Would be good if it worked properly

gandolphxx · August 07, 2003, 02:28:57 AM

Quote from: groundup on August 06, 2003, 03:16:03 AM
gandolphxx: it will never be 'thin'. there are more features than most will ever use. The reason a couple of us keep on talking about bloat is because no matter how many features we have, people will want more, this is going to eventually cause a lot of problems. Also, if people want to keep adding features that not everyone is going to use, we can make mods.

I am sorry but I have to disagree - this board is thin compared to the competition - when you have 8000 users they expect more - a simple example: where is the bloat in the All mod for folks who want the whole thread delivered. Lots of folks have high speed connections now and don't want to be hassled with next - previous - my $.02

Joshua Dickerson · August 07, 2003, 03:03:50 AM

Its an option to allow X number of posts to be displayed in display or messageindex

Jeff Lewis · August 07, 2003, 07:03:04 AM

I agree Gandolph, it's still lacking and we're working on adding more. However, we still have some guys who think it's "bloated" already and would love to remove features if they weren't already in there

What people need to understand is that there is competition and that competition needs to be met - and we're going to attempt that with SMF.

truecrimson · August 09, 2003, 11:40:41 PM

On a side note: I think the package server thing is much better than boardmod. I, and a lot of others have had nothing but trouble with boardmod. Also, with, lets see, 6 forums going now, being able to make changes(mods, and upgrades) from the admin panel is a heck of a lot more convienent than using third party apps to do it.

David · August 10, 2003, 12:01:26 AM

Quote from: truecrimson on August 09, 2003, 11:40:41 PM
On a side note: I think the package server thing is much better than boardmod. I, and a lot of others have had nothing but trouble with boardmod. Also, with, lets see, 6 forums going now, being able to make changes(mods, and upgrades) from the admin panel is a heck of a lot more convienent than using third party apps to do it.

* David agrees

[Unknown] · August 10, 2003, 03:57:08 AM

Every mod I've made - to my recollection - has been for the package manager. I could not agree more....

And, Jack.R.Abbit couldn't either... in fact, he goes farther and doesn't release packages for boardmod at all.

-[Unknown]

Haase · August 10, 2003, 02:23:05 PM

For simple mods, things that only update a little code, I think boardmod is okay. But when you need new files moved into Sources, a database update run, etc... the Package Manager really rules the roost in this aspect. How many times have you seen a post where someone tried to install something in boardmod but it didn't work... then you ask them if they ran the database update file and they said "what's that?"

The only problem I've run into with the Package Manager is some people refusing to use it.

mattsiegman · August 10, 2003, 02:38:05 PM

jami · August 10, 2003, 04:10:59 PM

My preferences goes to a "clean" board with a Mod site, like boardmod.yabbforum.com, where can be found both yabbpack ( server name ) and boardmod file.

or will the namechange exclude boardmod ?

Big P · August 11, 2003, 09:59:33 AM

yabbpaks (or whatever) will most likely be supported more in the future. I still prefer Boardmod, as when you want to add a good number of large mods, chances are you'll run into incompatability.

There is no way to prevent this, but at least with boardmod it is easy modify code to make it compatable. With packages, it'll be nigh on impossible for Joe "SMF" User.

Spaceman-Spiff · August 11, 2003, 11:31:45 AM

i prefer boardmod because sometimes the code needs a bit of tweaking, specially when one mod doesnt work with another, which cant be done when you're using packman
but thats just me, cuz im a mod writer

i havent updated my package server for months
i dont think anyone ever requested me to update it...

News:

MOD Site?