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How do I submit a mod to the mod squad?

Started by Just Another Member, December 28, 2017, 06:55:18 PM

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Just Another Member

I have a dreadful feeling that I'm either asking a stupid question or posting in the wrong forum area.

Writing mod packages is easy. I've written maybe 20 in the last few years. They work and I know they follow the guidelines. That's not the problem.

I just want to know two things:

1.) License: I don't want to read a bunch of stuff on this and that and license guidelines. I just want to know which one the mod squad prefers. I don't want to make up my mind on anything. I just want the boilerplate they want to see. I really don't care what the license says or care what people do with my code. All I want is to make the mod squad happy and use whichever boiler plate they like to see.

2.) Do I put the license in the code or in the zip file. Mine is a small mod (start out small) and just has modification.xml and package-info.xml. No hooks or anything, it's just a bbCODE mod.

3.) Where is the slot you drop it through. I presume you keep the mod squad locked up and throw meat over the wall. Where is the wall I throw my mod package over?

4.) I don't need any peer review. I just want to give it to the mod squad and wait for them to tell me it passed or what they don't like that they need changed.

5.) Yes I program better than I can count. :)

So if somebody would please just give me the boilerplate the mod squad prefers and tell me what slot to drop my package through I will really appreciate it. I'm sure I'll do fine writing the stuff you see on the mod site describing the mod and all that.

If there is a topic that says all this then I've been looking but haven't found it.

Again, I just want the boiler plate for the license. I don't care what it says, whatever the mod squad likes will be fine with me.

Arantor

1. 3 clause BSD like SMF itself is is the usual favourite. CC0 is another favourite.

2. The mod page is usually fine.

3. Go to the Customize link in the top menu, then to Modifications, then on that page select Submit New Mod.

4. You can submit it just fine and the Customisation Team will review it and get back to you. Likely for a bbcode mod they will strongly encourage using hooks to make installations easier for everyone (= less support effort for you)

5. Off by three errrors happen in programming.

Suki

The license is the one you prefer, not SMF. The only thing you need to take into consideration is redistribution, since SMF will be redistributing your code you have to either pick a license that allows re-distribution or explicitly grand simplemachines org permission to re-distribute your code.

http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=532829.0
Disclaimer: unless otherwise stated, all my posts are personal and does not represent any views or opinions held by Simple Machines.

Just Another Member

Quote from: Arantor on December 28, 2017, 07:15:14 PM
1. 3 clause BSD like SMF itself is is the usual favourite. CC0 is another favourite.

2. The mod page is usually fine.

3. Go to the Customize link in the top menu, then to Modifications, then on that page select Submit New Mod.

4. You can submit it just fine and the Customisation Team will review it and get back to you. Likely for a bbcode mod they will strongly encourage using hooks to make installations easier for everyone (= less support effort for you)

5. Off by three errrors happen in programming.

Thanks Arantor, you understand a nut-case chick like me! :) What's the matter if it's off-by-two or off-by-three in programming, as long as it works!

I can make it 5x more complicated by using hooks. No thanks. This is a simple/stupid mod. It's just a vBulletin compatibility mod for people who like to use posting templates. I'm not going to write 100 lines of code to fix a 20 line code problem.

Just Another Member

Quote from: Suki on December 28, 2017, 07:47:17 PM
The license is the one you prefer, not SMF. The only thing you need to take into consideration is redistribution, since SMF will be redistributing your code you have to either pick a license that allows re-distribution or explicitly grand simplemachines org permission to re-distribute your code.

http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=532829.0

You don't get it. I don't care what the license says. I'd just day public domain and leave it at that, but they want to see some complicated formula.

1.) Can I just put it in my zip file?

2.) Can I just put it in my mod site listing?

3.) Where is the boiler plate?

I'd rather spend my time figuring out which guys to date, not which license to pick. YMMV


Why do we have to make this so complicated? By the way I read the topic you quoted. It didn't say just use this choice if you don't care.

I don't care. I just want to get my mod in the system. I neither know or care about licenses. I'd just say:


"License: public domain. Use at your own risk. Watch out for crazy chicks!"

Arantor

If you truly mean public domain, go with Creative Commons 0. If you care about owing the mod on some level, 3-clause BSD.

Btw I wasn't suggesting to go to hooks just to be obtuse. The Cust team will almost certainly not approve it without using hooks for just a bbcode mod to avoid unnecessary installation issues later, which has the result of you not having to worry about support nearly so much.

Just Another Member

Thank you Arantor. That's a pretty good non-BS post and I appreciate it. You did make me think a bit about the license, I'm much better with 2 choices than N choices, particularly if I have to read N articles. You can certainly understand that it would be silly to spend more time researching licenses than it did to write the mod. That just makes no sense.

I know you're not an obtuse kind of person. I would have never thought that of you. You have to understand my point of view that the mod has been written and working for years, it replaces (updates) a standard bbCODE tag with a modified tag and adds two more similar tags. I'm not sure a hook would even do it. I guess I'll have to scour the particular point of insertion and see if there is any hookage around that. ;) I suspect not but I haven't looked at that file in years.

My motivation is simple. The work is done except for adding a license. If I submitted it and was accepted I could join the ranks of mod package authors, which I think is kind of a point of prestige or has some cache to it. With practically zero work. But if I have to rewrite a simple search and replace mod with a hooked mod I'd have to go through testing again, a lot of additional labor, just to make a mod that already works work in a different way. I think you can understand my reluctance. It's like work for appearance sake, not work that makes something work better. Pointless work for the sake of form but not content.

I never was quite clear (probably because I woke 5 minutes ago) but is it okay to just stick the license in the zip file and reference it in the mod package listing?'

I find it amusing in an ironic way that it's harder to submit a mod package than it is to write one. :)

My little mod is cleaner than a hound's tooth and I'd hate to complicate it just to meet some arbitrary standards. I have maybe 20 mods of which probably over half of them would benefit some SMF members but if it's more complicated to submit it's easier to just pass it by. I don't mind sharing my work to benefit others but I also don't have time to rewrite without good reason. And BTW many if not most use integration hooks and all the attendant additional files like separate language files etc. It was just this one mod is perhaps the simplest of all, yet in an odd way quite useful to my members. In a world of forum software divergence it brings vBulletin and SMF closer in design and creates more harmony for forum people who cross post on both vB and SMF boards by expanding SMF's handling of codes that are more expanded in vB.

I'll have a look at my other mods and see what might be useful to the general public. I've seen your top authors list. I think a woman would look at top, don't you? ;) ;) ;)

Arantor

Yes, including the licence file and putting the mention in the mod page would be enough. (Honestly I normally just put it on the mod page but mostly because I don't really care any more who does things with my code. It's just about covering the legalities.)

The other thing about using hooks is that if done correctly you get 2.0 and 2.1 compatibility without any work. I get your perspective on it, I'm just trying to point out the other side of the fence, namely that people will get frustrated because it can easily create conflicts when multiple mods try to do the exact same find replace. It won't be an issue for you but it will be for other users.

Just Another Member

Thanks Arantor. The more we interact the more useful your advice becomes. I'll investigate and see how difficult it would be to switch to hooks. Actually that would benefit me too if for no other reason that the more you use hooks the less mod package installation order matters. That would benefit me directly. Besides, I haven't written a mod in about a year and I'm probably rusty on that too. And also there would be only one hook since it modifies only one file, and also has no language component.

In my case it would be a problem only for others if they were trying to modify the same tag, and if they did that it would surely make the mods mutually incompatible. I'll send you a PM telling you what the mod does if you would read it. I don't want to post it in topic.

Arantor

I'm curious, why not talk about what it would do, when you're going to publish it publicly later?

Suki

Quote from: Susan Addams on December 28, 2017, 11:00:41 PM
Quote from: Suki on December 28, 2017, 07:47:17 PM
The license is the one you prefer, not SMF. The only thing you need to take into consideration is redistribution, since SMF will be redistributing your code you have to either pick a license that allows re-distribution or explicitly grand simplemachines org permission to re-distribute your code.

http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=532829.0

You don't get it. I don't care what the license says. I'd just day public domain and leave it at that, but they want to see some complicated formula.

1.) Can I just put it in my zip file?

2.) Can I just put it in my mod site listing?

3.) Where is the boiler plate?

I'd rather spend my time figuring out which guys to date, not which license to pick. YMMV


Why do we have to make this so complicated? By the way I read the topic you quoted. It didn't say just use this choice if you don't care.

I don't care. I just want to get my mod in the system. I neither know or care about licenses. I'd just say:


"License: public domain. Use at your own risk. Watch out for crazy chicks!"

There is nothing difficult about reading a wiki article accessible from the link I preciously provided.

Difficult back then where literally no one knew about licenses, much less license for PHP code and for SMF modifications specifically. These days you only need to read the condensed work and effort of many people, thats hardly any difficult thing to do but thats just me.
Disclaimer: unless otherwise stated, all my posts are personal and does not represent any views or opinions held by Simple Machines.

Just Another Member

Quote from: Arantor on December 29, 2017, 10:43:53 AM
I'm curious, why not talk about what it would do, when you're going to publish it publicly later?

That's just me. I don't like to talk about unexecuted projects until they have been executed. The code already works, has worked for a couple years. I have nothing to gain by discussing my code.

Quote from: Suki on December 29, 2017, 11:10:36 AM
... thats hardly any difficult thing to do but thats just me.

Well that's just you. I don't get off on reading a lot of legal stuff. I'd rather save the several brain cells I have left for coding.

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