And that's true to a point. But you can argue by the exact same token that custom fields are unnecessary, that multiple badges are unnecessary, that even things like censoring words is unnecessary.
Yep, you sure can. That then begs the question - what is and isn't necessary to make a forum operationally sufficient for it's intended purpose?
I personally think if it's a feature that can be argued to have benefit to a decent proportion of the userbase, without a significant performance hit, it's probably not bloat.
OK, fair enough. But as computers get more powerful the performance hit will decrease for a given set of processes, so really aren't we looking at mainly "features that can be argued to have benefit to a decent proportion of the userbase"?
Features are great, but at some point some person will chime in here and say SMF is getting bloated with too many features. You just watch. If that's true, then the functionality of this software is mainly maxed out - it's development is at an end. Like a four function calculator. There is no improvements that can be made to a four function calculator. It's does the four functions as well as can be done. The four function calculator is at a development end.
All that's left for SMF if that's true is updates to security, no updates to it's core function is required.
Remember (I want to state again) I am not complaining at all, I think SMF is
about as good as it needs to be. I have no complaints at all.
Well, if you just need posts and **nothing** else...then you would be fine even with SMF 1.0.
That's true, at it's heart. But I do like some of the features that have been added. But truthfully I'm just stating I can't think of any more that need to be added. I'm open to being proven wrong though.
But xrunner, I'm not here to convince you there is any need for features or things, I just wanted to say there is space for improvement even in the basic user experience of "post and answer" (there is, believe me).
And I'm very keen to see what is up your sleeves.