Rant on features...

[proberts]

Look at what specialization has done for the human species and tell me that doing one thing and doing it well isn't a good thing.

If you were good at working a mule drawn barge, it wasn't a good thing once the railroads got fired up.  If you were only good at running or repairing steam engines, it wasn't a good thing once long distance trucking happened.    Being the best phonograph manufacturer on the planet isn't good for much these days.  What's the best Gopher server?  Best tape-based operating system? 

Specialization is for insects, adaptability is for survivors. 

Paul

[falguni1]

Also due to the large number of feature and mod requests I would like to ask that everyone asks themselves, "Do I really need this?"

yes yes I really need many features.  .

[Joshua Dickerson]

Look at what specialization has done for the human species and tell me that doing one thing and doing it well isn't a good thing.

If you were good at working a mule drawn barge, it wasn't a good thing once the railroads got fired up.  If you were only good at running or repairing steam engines, it wasn't a good thing once long distance trucking happened.    Being the best phonograph manufacturer on the planet isn't good for much these days.  What's the best Gopher server?  Best tape-based operating system? 

Specialization is for insects, adaptability is for survivors. 

Paul

You can specialize and still adapt.

[Blind Bandit]

Last but certainly not least, it is NOT a toaster. It is a FORUM

Oh...so that is why my bread is soggy! 

I agree that some of the features don't matter, but if a feature , like a calendar, is wanted, it should be made. It does not hurt performance, it will make the people happy and stop asking for it  . I just think that some things should be integrated to make the members (both here and of the users forums) happy.

I tend to agree. I'm coming from a different back ground of course.  While I agree SMF doesn't need every feature ever thought up it also needs features to be competitive and anything to make routine actions easier or better is always good.

Plus the software has to evolve and be competitive.

I think personally even little changes can make big differences.

I think its important that developers be willing to put a change in even if its small, as it improves the experience as a whole.

I'm coming from a Pro Boards back ground here and Just now looking at SMF.  So this is an outside take on the issue of features . vs. mods.

I understand that SMF is part time but even the simple things can make the forum even better.

For example SMF has merge and split (I current don't have these in proboards) and these little features are a draw just by themselves.

Running lean is always good but you don't' want to be lacking features either.

[[SiNaN]]

SMF has most of the built-in features that could be needed in my opinion, especially with version 2.0. Besides we have a powerful Mod Site which has 700+ mods inside.

[青山 素子]

You can say that focusing on forum features could be slightly myoptic, afterall forums have numerous drawbacks and the recent success of web2 applications like myspace, facebook, wikipedia, youtube, etc shouldn't be ignored by SMF. If SMF can learn something from the world around them then it most definitely should.

Which is why SMF itself is becoming more adaptable. While our developers can focus on making the best darn forums, others can write bridges to tie SMF with their software.

Products that offer an array of varying features are like that portable stereo or all-in-one TV/VCR/DVD. They are designed to work tightly together and you can't break apart the components, but the functions they do are all mediocre and when one breaks, it could take down all the other functions. When the screen goes out in that TV/DVD combo, you lose the functionality of the DVD part of it.

SMF is like a component system. Sure, you have to deal with a few wires, but you can hook it into the best products elsewhere to make something that fits your needs exactly. You'll even be able to get the best quality for each part. You can get a CMS/Portal system you like, a link directory product, and tie these things all together (assuming they are as flexible as SMF) to build your site. If something goes wrong with one piece, you can always swap it out and not lose the function of the other pieces.


In addition, SMF has some pretty good framework-level abilities you can custom-code around. I'm working on making some applications for a website that use SMF's permission framework for user authentication and authorization.