Is it a bad idea to have a lot of add-ons?

[agison]

I have 65 Addons, 33 was made by Tinhte.vn, 1 by Digital Point

 

[bobs409]

WOW!!

I don't feel so bad with my 13 now.

 

[Paul B]

Mine.



No issues, problems, conflicts, etc.

 

[Lawrence]

@digitalpoint 54 add-ons, that's it?
I heard that you had so many add-ons, that...
- a couple of weeks ago you accidentally uninstalled XenForo and no one noticed for 3 days.
- you had to reinforce your server rack with carbon fibre and nylon filaments.
- your power company's stock rose by 85%, and they give YOU a quarterly rebate.
- you can no longer enter your server room because of the black hole... that just appeared.
- your XenForo just developed AI and won't allow you to uninstall any add-ons, so you hired Chuck Norris, and there is a stand-off.
- you have so many add-ons that you needed well over a dozen licenses, just to run them all.
- Bullwinkle said: "Hey Rocky, watch me pull another add-on out of my hat"! Rocky shot him.
- you have so many add-ons that when you tell people, they just reply with "dude".
- @Jake Bunce just converted 3 into a tiny house and is in the process of moving in. You now own digitalpoint Tiny Condo's Inc.
- the Borg Collective was created, and so was the Matrix.
- the next Star Trek movie is about going back in time to stop you from installing the 48th add-on. Spock dies, but one of your add-ons revives him.
- one of your add-ons just gave birth, to twin add-on's.
- the Terminator is now here, to protect you.

*disclaimer: a couple of the above may not be true, or may have been exaggerated.

 

[Ryan_]

Off-topic, I pronounce @Waindigo as "Wayne-di-go" like several others.

As long as the add-ons have well-written code and don't cause your site to be sluggish, there's no problem having multiple of them. As others have mentioned, the only other thing to look out for is when an add-on becomes deprecated and/or conflicts with new features in new xF versions.

 

[Wildcat Media]

Having too many addons can actually be detrimental to your website. Not in the server resources kind of way, but due to the fact that your user base becomes reliant and/or used to the features that are on your website. If a developer abandons a project, then your up the creek without a paddle, and that's a feature that you have to remove from your website, which - in turn - can affect your user base or how they view your site.

Just be careful of what you select as an addon. Make sure they have a good reputation and try to figure out of they are in it for the long haul.

Our users are somewhat understanding (they still dislike my removing Tapatalk and Forum Runner, despite my security and privacy reasons for doing so), but I agree. I got badly burned with XenTrader being abandoned, so we're having to scrape up funds to either go with another existing package, or have something developed professionally. We're getting 1200 visitors online during peak hours--we cannot afford add-ons to be abandoned, nor can we afford to hold back on forum version upgrades as add-ons attempt to play catch-up. The XF beta process happens in enough time that developers should have these add-ons pretty much ready to go at the final release date. (I'd even encourage XF to hold back the final release by, say, a week so developers can get it early enough to put finishing touches on the add-on update.)

If this were a small forum, I would not fret it. But as it stands now, the forum is high-profile, and very busy. We cannot afford to have add-ons fail on us. Lately I've been reducing the number of add-ons, and sticking with only those developers (such as Waindigo) that have consistently shown good quality in their work, and get updates for new XF versions ready in a timely manner.

I will say that there are a couple of add-ons that we really want, but due to the developer's lack of presence here in the Resources area, and the roundabout way we have to ask questions (not to mention the developer's own forum being barren in the support area), this is the type of situation that is begging for problems.

I am starting to treat add-ons like I do forum software: it seems that only the paid, supported options are viable in the long run. (Although my issue in the preceding paragraph is a paid add-on.) There are still some good no-cost add-on developers (such as Waindigo ), but you really have to tread very carefully...

 

[rdn]

It depends, my list:

 

[Moshe1010]

It is bad, especially if you have many custom add-ons. But sometimes there is no choice in order to perform essential actions.

 

[Null]

I guess 5 – 15 add-ons seem about normal for most of us, I test add-ons locally, think if I really need the add-ons or if they'll just add fairy dust to the forums to please 1% of users.

You have people like @DRE who can have upwards of 70+ add-ons (<3 @DRE).

@digitalpoint has customised a lot of XenForo and has wrote most (if not all) his add-ons, some of his add-ons have multiple functions, so if you split them all up, there could be hundreds .

 

[woei]

As of all software, I don't like 3th party software. It makes you dependent of other party's with updates. I can understand if you are a good coder to use your own add-ons, but during my vB time I have seen lots of add-on being deserted or the developer doesn't supports the new versions of the main software.

Sometimes you can't escape of using 3th party software, but I try to keep it at the bare minimum.

 

[Liam W]

In general, the more addons, the more likely things are to go wrong etc...

My list is actually quite short:



Hmm, well it used to be

28 installed with 6 disabled...

 

[wedgar]

New site only running two addons right now.