Ok, who has a crystal ball for this question?

[jonsidneyb]

After this product is available. How long will it take for the guys making custom plugins to come over and start showing their stuff?

Well, what does the crystal ball think at least?

 

[Shamil]

Wow, an article of such calibre will only suit to explain, express and this fully satisfy its audience. In other words, I am very much looking forward to reading it! - although, I'll be away for this week : Saturday -> Saturday.

 

[Kevin]

I have already started a detailed walk-through article explaining how to write a fully-fledged add-on for XenForo, making use of all of the core technologies. I hope to publish it in the coming weeks.

So... uh... when you would like somebody to give that a proof read, I'd be more than happy to.

 

[JVCode]

Is it normal for someone to want a piece of software so badly at such an early stage? ;\ I do believe xenForo will be HUGE and WILL rival all other major bulletin board software solutions.

 

[Kier]

although, I'll be away for this week : Saturday -> Saturday.

I'll be sure to wait until you're back to publish...

 

[Ryan]

This is vBSkinworks talking...

I can't speak for mods/plugins, but I will say that I'm excited to dive into the styling system.

Assuming the styling system is easy to work with, it would only take a matter of weeks before we could port some of our skins over to XenForo. We've got a new project in the works and this could fit in quite well

 

[Shamil]

I'll be sure to wait until you're back to publish...

lol ty (is this emoticon cross-eyed?)

 

[Jeremy]

Once I can get my hands on a license I'll start playing with modifications. But being a college-student could be challenging.

 

[Anthony Parsons]

Is there going to be some level of quality assurance on developer mods posted to a single on-site repository? The problem experienced in other software repositories is that you have anyone and everyone writing and releasing add-ons, most of which don't work, contain security issues or completely kill the software due to poor programming knowledge. That is a major issue being experienced!

When you have people beginning to really complain about the level of third party add-ons, it affects the software brand.

Will there be just some basic QA process, ie. coders must submit first for atleast an advanced, experienced coder to quickly review for security or major performance issues?

 

[jonsidneyb]

Good god dude i think im having a stroke.

I am having a stroke too.

This is exciting.

 

[Sador]

Is there going to be some level of quality assurance on developer mods posted to a single on-site repository? The problem experienced in other software repositories is that you have anyone and everyone writing and releasing add-ons, most of which don't work, contain security issues or completely kill the software due to poor programming knowledge. That is a major issue being experienced!

Just a thought: wouldn't it be interesting to give everybody access to write addons / plugins like they have on vB.org, while also having a place with 'featured' addons, for specific addons that get some kind of a seal of approval? This could be from either XenForo or from a lot of members that gave it a high ranking by voting on it, for example. In that case, you'll still have plenty of mods to choose from (especially for smaller boards they are just fine) while also having mods that you know are save and well written. (and of course you could always add payed mods, should you want to go there too)

 

[Kier]

I'd love to do a sort of XenForo Approved scheme for third-party add-ons, but the problem is that by awarding a label like that, XenForo assume some responsibility for making sure that the add-on is well behaved, which means that it requires top-flight developers to review the code. Such a program would be potentially very expensive to run, and I'm sure that most customers would prefer that the developers concentrate on building the core system.

 

[Onimua]

I'd love to do a sort of XenForo Approved scheme for third-party add-ons, but the problem is that by awarding a label like that, XenForo assume some responsibility for making sure that the add-on is well behaved, which means that it requires top-flight developers to review the code. Such a program would be potentially very expensive to run, and I'm sure that most customers would prefer that the developers concentrate on building the core system.

I think Facebook tried that and quickly left it just as fast. It was pricey, took a while for approval, and overall developers were just not happy with it.

I think sticking with a "Highest Rated" list and let customers moderate and rate the quality of an add-on themselves would be sufficient.

 

[jonsidneyb]

Agreed.

Would the member base having evaluations and such of these kind of things help keep things quality. The junk gets thumbs downs. Things that have potential would have members saying so.

Could the members themselves make this work for add-ons?

 

[Ryan]

I can definitely understand the difficulty in a "XenForo Approved" plugin center. Apple does it. Google does it (Android). It works for those guys, so surely it must be possible

IPS also does it - I don't know much about it and whether or not it really works, but I know they do it.

 

[Onimua]

I can definitely understand the difficulty in a "XenForo Approved" plugin center. Apple does it. Google does it (Android). It works for those guys, so surely it must be possible

IPS also does it - I don't know much about it and whether or not it really works, but I know they do it.

Perhaps in the future but right now I think the resources required to do it would be a little much this early.

 

[Dean]

I'd love to do a sort of XenForo Approved scheme for third-party add-ons, but the problem is that by awarding a label like that, XenForo assume some responsibility for making sure that the add-on is well behaved, which means that it requires top-flight developers to review the code. Such a program would be potentially very expensive to run, and I'm sure that most customers would prefer that the developers concentrate on building the core system.

Developers should stay developing for sure.

It may be possible to select people you trust to set up an independent entity to do such seals of approval, and there could be a premium for it. People like me seek solutions and are willing to pay for them. That independent entity could also do premium/general software support. The headaches the vb support crew put up with are incredible, might be nice to off load that to someone else if people are willing to pay for it.

 

[Anthony Parsons]

I agree it needs something, what exactly... not sure. But the repository needs some type of control mechanism / coder / user rating system. Users rate things differently to coders.

 

[Brandon_R]

That is how any successfully community works ie social network. Let all the members moderate the content and only let the moderators take action.

 

[jonsidneyb]

I would be happy to pay for the mods that I needed.

 

[Anthony Parsons]

That also sounds pretty solid abomination... a third party group of coders who give something a seal of approval for a fee. For a developer, surely it would be in their best interest to even pay for and obtain such a seal if it means higher downloads, especially if they rely on recouping costs from a free download by incorporating a branding free license or such at a small cost. That way you don't charge for the mod, but can make money via a branding free method.