Why so many extensions?

Ralkage

Franz like icing on a ?

Blueh

@Franz "different people have different opinions about what features a forum should have", so the stable version will come without extensions?, if I remember correctly, the last time I downloaded flarum, this came with some extensions. I think if you add extensions to the basic download it is because you think there is a minimum pack advisable, so why not add those basic extensions to the core? however they will be included in the basic pack ?

anyway, I apologize if I was rude, it is not my intention : (

jordanjay29

Blueh No, Flarum installations will come with the extensions you see here, including after stable. The point that's being made is that you can easily turn them off, remove them, and Flarum will function just fine, allowing you to add/build your own and change Flarum's behavior down to the basics.

"So why not add them to core?" was answered in my long post above.

Pollux

My dream forum software would have all the bells and whistles I could think of plus the option to remove those I don't need. And with removing I don't just mean to deactivate some functionalities, I really want to see them removed, so they can't affect the performance of the whole package.

And that's exactly what flarum offers.

Flarum with its core extensions has already 90% of the features I need (plus some more that I don't need and that I don't need to install, e.g. BBCode, a lot of language packages, Facebook, GitHub and Twitter Login). And what's not there yet I can programm myself, as the software is programmed by seasoned programmers with a reputation for clean and lightweight code.

Blueh I think if you add extensions to the basic download it is because you think there is a minimum pack advisable, so why not add those basic extensions to the core?

Because in this case, it would be difficult to remove them or to replace them by your own version.

promolaSA I don't wanna get screwed in the future with everything just breaking on a live forum because of old unsupported extensions.

I see no reason why the core developers should abandon the core extensions that come with the basic forum software.

0E800

@promolaSA
Pretty sure with the licensing, anyone can take their opinion of what should and shouldn't be included with core and release their own custom flarum project.

Start maintaining your own version of other peoples extensions or create scripts that upgrade from authors packagist.

From debian, ubuntu.
From ubuntu, mint...
Yaddamean?

kaktux

guys - thats exactly what i meant with my post in the roadmap thread: long term compability.
kaktux

promolaSA's question is based on the same thought.

knowing an answer to that will eliminate those "doubts" ?

The replies were
Franz
Toby

Pollux

meetdilip I wonder have you ever run a forum.

Forgive me if I sound rude. That's not my intention.

Don't worry too much.

A lot of things are missing.

I never said, that I don't miss anything. In fact I wrote:

Pollux Flarum with its core extensions has already 90% of the features I need ... And what's not there yet I can programm myself ...

The most important things I miss are some moderation tools. I e.g. want to know who edited / deleted a post. This has also been discussed before. But these things I can add myself and they are only needed in larger and more controversial forums, smaller forums can - again in my opinion - already work with the set of official extensions available.

it is impossible to run a moderately busy forum with what Flarum offers in core.

What exactly do you think is missing in flarum right now so you can't build a moderately busy forum with it?

meetdilip

Popular add-ons should be safe guarded from being abandoned. I am not sure how Flarum is going to do that though.

Kakifrucht

meetdilip If there is demand other people would maintain it.

meetdilip

One unfortunate road accident can kill a lot of plugins (as we are right now ). I am hoping to see some official support for essential plugins. A guarantee to users that those plugins will travel with core updates.

Pollux

meetdilip I am hoping to see some official support for essential plugins.

As far as I understand, these extensions are officially supported:

https://github.com/flarum

In my opinion, these extensions cover the core functionalities of a forum (and some more). File uploads, private messages etc. are nice to have, but they are - again just in my opinion - not core functionalities.

I prefer a team of core developers concentrating on the essentials. There are a lot of projects out there that try too much at once and fail as a consequence. I don't want to see flarum going that path.

jordanjay29

meetdilip One unfortunate road accident can kill a lot of plugins (as we are right now )

That's a little morbid, don't you think?

clarkwinkelmann

meetdilip One unfortunate road accident can kill a lot of plugins (as we are right now )

jordanjay29 That's a little morbid, don't you think?

It's always important to remember of the Bus factor ? ?

With a lot of third-party extensions created by developer groups and not single developers, I think users are pretty safe.

meetdilip

Pollux not core functionalities.

I wonder have you ever run a forum. Forgive me if I sound rude. That's not my intention. it is impossible to run a moderately busy forum with what Flarum offers in core. A lot of things are missing.

meetdilip

The problem, as promised, Flarum is really lean than most mainstream forum software. Without a few unofficial plugins, many admins would find it difficult to use Flarum the way they want to. That makes those plugins a crucial part of Flarum once it becomes stable and popular. People will assume that Flarum means core + those plugins.

meetdilip

Let's say features that you will find on vanilla XF and missing in Flarum. Or, any leading forum software with enough adoptions.

I used to purposefully allow users to keep signature links. So that they will contribute to leave their links. Not just me, most admins allow such goodies in exchange for posting on the forum.

Pollux

meetdilip Not just me, most admins allow such goodies in exchange for posting on the forum.

This was discussed already even in this forum.

bkolobara

There should be a way of differentiating core extensions from the rest. Right now I have only a few extra extensions installed, but on every upgrade I forget which extensions are not shipped by flarum. To disable them I end up googling every one of them to figure it out. It's just annoying. I assume this practice of disabling will continue as you can't really trust that all external extensions are updated properly. ~~Luckily we don't get updates too often ?.~~

Like with everything in life we should find a balance. All developers I know are minimalist and it can seem awesome to have every function of the software defined as an extension. It's cool, but is it feasible? Does the fragmentation complicate development and slow down progress? Flarum works so well because the design is thought out well. So why do we even want to allow someone to change the core functionality of the software by replacing core extensions?

jordanjay29

bkolobara All core extensions are named flarum/flarum-ext-name. If it says anything else before the first slash, it's by someone else. E.g. flagrow/upload or sijad/flarum-ext-links

bkolobara

jordanjay29 I don't see this in the admin interface.

EDIT: I guess I could look in the composer file and figure it out, but I still feel like there should be an indicator in the admin interface.

jordanjay29

bkolobara php flarum info

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