Golden version (built-in most popular add-ons) Discussion

golden hope

Member
I would like to explain some of the difficulties that I have faced myself when I moved from VB to XenForo
I started with XenForo almost 5 months ago and I think the version at that was 1.1.15. Anyway since that time I keep adding so many Add-ons. Most of them were very necessary to my community and some the community's members were pushing me to add them. I am not an expert person and therefore I lost a lot of time by reading and insulating these add-ons.

My suggestion to you guys
Why do not you have an agreement with these great programmers who are contributing to xenForo.
I know it's very difficult but at least the most common add-on to be pre-installed (default) in one of the coming versions and call it the golden version:) and make it an optional copy for at least $ 200.
 
By doing so
This will support more people to move to xenforo and at the same time it sort of an encouragement to the people who develop these Add-Ons
 
Which add-ons would you suggest?
I suspect most of the ones you are considering, the code wouldn't be up to a required standard.

What about those customers who don't want all of those add-ons which would just be bloat and extra queries?
 
The whole idea of the golden version:) or the special version or you can name it whatever! Is to be an optional choice. This will not add any cost for those customers who don't want all of those add-ons.

Add-ons can be an easy thing to determined through
1- The interest and the willingness of the developers
2- From the resources for example the most downloaded add-ons and top resources
3- the common resources

My own suggestion
  • Resource Manager
  • XenAtendo
  • User Albums
  • Groups
  • blogs

But would love to hear from other members

Please have a look to this Even designers have done this!!
http://xenforo.com/community/resources/elegance.2420/
 
How exactly would this work? Your suggestions might suit your needs but they wouldn't suit everyone.

For example, from your list:

Resource Manager - this is an official paid-for add-on from Xenforo. Useful to some but not for me
XenAtendo - a free add-on which I do use
User Albums - this is an old, unsupported add-on. I don't want this and have bought Xen Media Gallery instead. Others prefer Xen Gallery
Groups - two add-ons here from different authors, one paid and one free. Which do you mean? In either case, I don't want this
blogs - a paid add-on (though there's a free version too) but no use to me

So out of this list, there's only one that I actually use.

There are other mods that I use, such as XenPorta which others may not want or may wish to use an alternative such as Extra Portal.


The way Xenforo is sold currently is by far the best solution. It includes the core functionality that everyone wants and then forum owners can please themselves with which add-ons to install that will suit their own communities.
 
Thanks for your feedback @Martok.
Again it's just a suggestion to have an optional version. The extra $60 can goes back to the developers who participate in the GOLDEN VERSION.

Beside that their names have been written in such special edition
 
It's not an extra $60 for add-on developers though.

XenForo - $140
XenForo Resource Manager - $60
Total - $200

That leaves $0.

As Martok has pointed out, bundling add-ons together isn't going to suit everyone; there would need to be many different bundles which then introduces a significant amount of work packaging them up, etc.

Not to mention, once XenForo starts bundling third party add-ons in the official .zip, customers are going to expect the same level of support as they get with the official software.
 
Which add-ons would you suggest?
I suspect most of the ones you are considering, the code wouldn't be up to a required standard.

What about those customers who don't want all of those add-ons which would just be bloat and extra queries?

- Featured Threads.
- Featured Threads.
- Featured Threads.
 
Introducing a system like this would also cause a level of perceived favoritism; just like it would if we used the featured resources that are in the RM. It would also be a full time job for someone to sit down and do code review to make sure everything is up to par and not introducing security holes into the software.
 
I do agree with @Jeremy
it's going to be a team work project
First step is to know what are the most popular add-ons? and then proceeding to step 2 is to talk with those developers and insure that they agree to such project.
 
I do agree with @Jeremy
it's going to be a team work project
First step is to know what are the most popular add-ons? and then proceeding to step 2 is to talk with those developers and insure that they agree to such project.

It's a really bad idea as straight off you have two very popular addons that do similar things (widget framework vs xenporta), then you have two popular galleries, two competing blogs, etc.

You're trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist.

Either you're talking about doing this with a few major addons which are easy to install anyway or you're talking about addressing your original issue of keeping lots of addons up to date, which this wouldn't work for anyway.
 
I must admit I like the way XenForo currently is as a fresh installation.

Maybe the "mod" community could get together and create a one click installation system for all the most popular add-ons. XenForo users could then vote to add new mods to the system. And to make things really easy, it would be nice if everything included had one-click upgrade capability (like WordPress). In fact, I'd love to see that type of upgrade system come to XenForo...
 
I must admit I like the way XenForo currently is as a fresh installation.

Maybe the "mod" community could get together and create a one click installation system for all the most popular add-ons. XenForo users could then vote to add new mods to the system. And to make things really easy, it would be nice if everything included had one-click upgrade capability (like WordPress). In fact, I'd love to see that type of upgrade system come to XenForo...
Not exactly what you're after, but there is an app addon for that: either @Chris Deeming's Add-on Install and Upgrade, or @Waindigo's Install and Upgrade.

As for the original idea: I'd want the gallery to be my Creative Corner. :D Facetiousness aside, that's actually one of the many reasons this won't work. The moment you designate an add-on as a favourite - and you'd be doing that by including it in a package, even if you provide alternatives - it does a good deal towards killing off the competition that is so vital to the RM here.

Similarly, the amount of work it would take to vet all this as being up to standard,and worthy of putting the XenForo name on it, would probably allow KAM to put a decent dent in developing an additional official add-on of their own.

Generally, the beauty of add-ons - and the resource manager, and the whole XenForo ecosystem - is that you get the choice of which to use, what features you want over and above a standard XenForo install. I think this would diminish that far beyond the advantages it would bring.
 
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I wouldn't want XenForo to be bundled with add-ons on a fresh install

But I would like to see a few key things added to the core, that I believe most people (the majority) would like to see

Widget support

http://xenforo.com/community/resources/bd-widget-framework.297/

Tag support (soon to have hash tags as well)
http://xenforo.com/community/resources/tinhte-xentag.770/

Site Map
http://xenforo.com/community/resources/sitemap-for-xenforo-1-2-compatible.67/

Twitter & Google sign-on
http://xenforo.com/community/resources/social-network-authentication-twitter-google-vk-com.645/

Social share privacy
http://xenforo.com/community/threads/wmtech-social-share-privacy.58740/

Those seem to be the most common things I end up installing (with the last one being that it varies, but I think it's important so I included it).

But I would want XenForo to build this and not just mesh in someone else's 3rd party add-on into the install. ;)
 
As is usual, everyone has their own needs and requirements, which is why it's impossible to please customers every time there is a second point release.

I personally wouldn't want about 90% of the add-ons/functionality mentioned in this thread in the core.
 
I don't think its a good idea to just add a mass of addons because code quality is often not up to par.
I do see the problem of using a mass of addons, many of which need the functionality of more addons. @Adam Howard and @Digital Doctor mention this. For basic global functionality like tags, widgets, sitemap, friends, etc it is problematic not to have this in the core. I can't blame developers who do not want to depend upon other addons. That does mean that such functionality will not be available or just bolted on.

I think its important that its possible to migrate to xenforo and offer your members the same functionality as on vbulletin. Currently thats tricky.
 
Alternatively, basic functions like tags, widgets could be combined into one addon called: Xenforo.org community addon.
and easily added for those that want it.
 
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