About this board (important!)

[Norv]

This board is for proposing features for the NEXT version(s) of SMF.

Please note:
This board is NOT for requests to have features added to 1.0.x, 1.1.x or 2.0.
The 1.0., 1.1.x versions are obsolete, and the 2.0 series is in maintenance stage, and only security and bug-fix releases will be made. There will not be features added even in 2.0. The preferred way to implement features and feature enhancements for 2.0 will be as mods - either official mods, developed and supported by the team, either third-party mods, developed by their respective authors.

Currently, 2.1 development is ongoing, along with a few preparations for 3.0.

A number of requests may be better suited as a mod, for the forums that need it, and not as a core feature. There are many reasons coming into play that may lead to that, amongst which how useful it is for ALL forums (or a very significant amount of them), what are the tradeoffs of implementation, how much it is requested by the community. If you are redirected to Mod Requests board, please consider proposing there your idea. You may want to note that even if for now, a feature proposal is considered best suited for a mod, there can be - and are - always cases when a feature implemented as a mod available on current versions of SMF may be reconsidered for future versions of SMF.

Please consider also the following notes:

It's important to explain the feature you want fully and carefully - if you don't, you may confuse us and end up getting your feature request off on "the wrong foot".  Just as this is bad with interviews, it is also bad with feature requests .

Another important note is that this is for requesting features, not custom packages (aka. mods).  Some things, while they may be great for your forum, just don't belong on every forum.  One of the design goals for SMF is not to be bloatware, but rather to be sleek and easily extendable.  Just because the forum can't do it out of the box doesn't mean a package or modification can't be used easily and quickly to make it happen on your forum.

However, it's helpful to post feature requests based on already made packages - possibly noting any downsides the mod might have for "distribution level" status; this will probably make give you a stronger case.  If there's already code, and it works, it makes it a lot easier to say, "we have time to add this feature."

It also needs to be noted that this is generally for features for the current final.  Sometimes you may get a "no" or a "unlikely", but this answer of "no" does not at all mean we didn't consider your idea.  It can mean a lot of things, one of which might just be that it cannot be done before the next major stable release is made. (meaning 1.0, 1.1, etc. - not alpha/beta/rc releases.)  It may be looked at again after that has been done.

And, if your feature request gets turned down, always remember that you can ask in the support boards about how to do it.  Just because we don't want it to be a feature of SMF doesn't mean your forum cannot have the feature!

Don't forget that you probably didn't pay for this software if you are using it.  While we would like nothing else than to please everyone, sometimes it just can't be done with the time and resources available to us.  Donating time (helping out here), money (which I'm told equals money), or other things to help the project may make features significantly more likely to make it into the next release.  But remember, we do consider every feature request big and small.  You don't have to donate anything or be anyone to get your feature request looked at - or even implemented.

Lastly, please remember to search before posting.  Using both the forum's search and Google may help you find information about the feature you want faster - including if it's already implemented, or if a package is available.

Thanks for reading this!
-[Unknown]