An open letter to our modding community

[Fred Sherman]

To all of those who have created the growing list of Xenforo mods.

I started my IT career more years ago than I'll say as a mainframe and then a Unix system administrator. Its a thankless job. When all goes well because you're busting your ass, no one notices. You only ever get noticed when something bad happens. No one notices how quickly you fix it, only that it had to be fixed to begin with.

From that I learned that its important to stop every once in a while, a let the people who work in the background know just how much you appreciate what they do.

So, on behalf of the xenforo admin community, let me take the time to thank you for all you do. We know we can be a pain in the ass sometimes. You post your mod and before you even get a chance to post your screenshots, there's already a post blasting you for not posting them - 1 minute after your first post.

And yes, we can be demanding when something doesn't work right, pestering you to fix it quickly. Sometimes we forget you're a real person. You might have a baby crying in the background, be out for an anniversary dinner, or (because some of you are better than you should be at your age), doing homework!

We apologize for asking for an update 5 minutes after a maintenance release has made changes. We don't mean to be impatient. Please, take it as a complement. You've created something good enough that our users are beating us up too.

It seems like every special group on the planet as a day...Secretary's Day, Nurse's Day, Groundhog Day, Left-hander Day, Opening Day - okay a couple were bad examples...

I humbly suggest that we, the Xenforo community, make the anniversary of the initial release of Xenforo "XF Developers' Day", in honor of all developers, both formal and mods, to show our never-ending appreciation.

 

[iTuN3r]

I support the idea

 

[Paul B]

Gets my vote.

Without King Kovifor's BB Code Manager and Darkimmortal's TaigaChat, I wouldn't have been able to convert.

 

[Carlos]

I support the idea. Actually, this is what Wordpress does every year, FYI.

 

[bambua]

Sounds good to me!

 

[kkm323]

I really appreciate the free work they provide us it helps us more than it help themselves. We encourage this kind of behaviour, and try to support it by donating some $$ sometime. They are the one who keep XF forum active and growing. Although, we are missing tons of more mods compare to other community. I still think they were able to cover main mods in one year.
Thank You All, and Happy Anniversary

 

[Lucas]

You sir, have my vote and support.

 

[Reeve of Shinra]

Thank you to the addon creators and the staff here for the help

 

[Paul B]

I have pruned the thread of the usual nonsense related to the add-on community, lack of support, etc.
Quite frankly it became very boring a long time ago, as evidenced by the responses every time it is brought up.

Please don't ruin another thread with it, any further posts on the same subject will be deleted (again).

 

[HydraulicJack]

Gets my vote.

Without King Kovifor's BB Code Manager and Darkimmortal's TaigaChat, I wouldn't have been able to convert.

+1!

 

[Digital Doctor]

Fred Sherman: great idea. xenforo needs to attract as many developers as possible.

Quite frankly it became very boring a long time ago, as evidenced by the responses every
time it is brought up.

The very same people complain .... the same people who shout for the status quo over and over .... hardly is that evidence of anything.

 

[Paul B]

The very same people complain .... the same people who shout for the status quo over and over .... hardly is that evidence of anything.

Let's just say it has been noticed by those who matter, and not in a good way.

 

[Kier]

Digital Doctor, do you believe that you speak for the developer community as a whole? It seems to me that you have adopted the role of spokesman for a group of people who don't actually share your views. Your endless outspoken criticism and concern-by-proxy for our add-on community is wearing very thin.

We have shown that we take the issue of providing a structured support system for add-ons with our Resource Manager, and I'm sorry it's not ready yet, but there are only so many hours in the day, and our number one priority has to be the core product. If we don't push ahead with XenForo 1.1 then people who would otherwise have bought a license may decide not to do so, and we are no closer to being in a position where we can employ people to share our Herculean workload. That helps nobody.

We have given the best foundation for add-on developers that we possibly could, by providing a core product with unparalleled extensibility and flexibility, while at the same time architecting the system to ensure that we do not unduly inconvenience those developers who have made use of our plugin system every time we release an upgraded version. At this point, that is the best we can do, and while we would like to do more, we simply do not have the resources to do so, and no amount of pointed criticism from you will alter that fact.

Please bear in mind that for the most part, the add-on community here provides their work free of charge when they are under no obligation to do so, and subsequently it is entirely inappropriate to berate any of them for not doing something that you may want them to do. If you want a particular feature developed and nobody is providing that feature for free or plans to do so, find a developer and pay them to develop it for you. That is the way these things work. Also realise that while you may consider an idea to be a must-have feature, others may disagree with you, and if they do so, your course of action should again be to have the feature developed of your own accord rather than argue your point ad nauseum, as has been observed recently.

I'm sure your intention is not to alienate yourself or to annoy the add-on developers, so please take some time to think about how your postings may be taken by others and we will continue to enjoy the community atmosphere that we have around here. Thank you.

 

[Sadik B]

Ok to get back on the OP's very noble idea... Yay!!! A developer's day!

Well I have one, albeit small, addon here... so I might as well start waiting for thank you cards then... eh ?

 

[jmurrayhead]

oh come on...who was the a-hole that voted no?? This is a wonderful idea to show appreciation to those who spend much time developing add-ons that make our communities really shine.

Thumbs up to the idea

 

[Shelley]

I would say I appreciate developers taking the time out to build something special whom are both doing it free and commercially. Having had the privilege to beta test some important mods and contribute to the development of some vital add-ons this got my vote, without hesitation.

For this being considered is what sets this community (business forum from any other) long may it continue.

Ps. who voted no? Can't really understand that but I'll finish off by a thumbsup to Fred for the creation of this topic.

 

[yavuz]

The qualities of the add-ons are far more advanced than I have ever experienced in any other forum software. Except some add-ons they get updated and support is most time not a problem. And the beautiful thing is they are - most of them - free. So why wouldn't I support it? I'd have to be a person who take things for granted.

 

[Floris]

We have given the best foundation for add-on developers that we possibly could, by providing a core product with unparalleled extensibility and flexibility, while at the same time architecting the system to ensure that we do not unduly inconvenience those developers who have made use of our plugin system every time we release an upgraded version. At this point, that is the best we can do, and while we would like to do more, we simply do not have the resources to do so, and no amount of pointed criticism from you will alter that fact.

I remember some time in 2010 where we were alpha testing XenForo and I asked Kier if it was smart to be this open with the plugin system and offer so much flexibility. Because in a matter of weeks or months potential future products can be coded, and coded well; Maybe products they might have on their roadmap or at least in their mind for the future. I believe his response was something along the lines of 'that is not a downside' and that kind of shut me up about that.

And now we have this thread, where we say thanks to the many developers that within a period of a year has pushed out a bbcode manager, portal addons, frontpage blog addon, to all sorts of smaller tweaks and features. And it certainly isn't hurting xenforo's business. It actually helped grow it.

I am still learning and my own products are not that good, but they work because of the help of other developers here. And it's great to see teamwork where one developer or user of an addon asks the other one 'would it not be great if' and they help grow an addon together.

I show my appreciation with a thank you to the devs, in this thread, in their threads, via a paypal donation or by hiring them for custom work.

 

[robdog]

Definitely a good idea. I would be screwed without some of the plugins. Now that I have 3 sites on XenForo, 1 more to be soon, and 1 waiting for 1.1, the core team and mod peps are class acts.

So what do we do on "XF Developer Day?" And when is it???

 

[cornishman]

Damn good idea, got my support.

p.s. when is lefthanded day