Rewriting the Customization Site

[Fustrate]

oh yeah, I asked you to follow the SMF coding guidelines, since you were a team member at the time and I wanted all code from the team to be consistent as an example to other mod writers

didn't take much to look that over

[bloc]

Come on, guys..the past is the past, looking to the future now, right? Lets just be happy something is cooking for the benefit of all.

[SlammedDime]

Bloc - I think they're just having some friendly banter... heh.

Fustrate - For the time being, yes, I'm the only one working on it.  Primarily because the core code is my own framework and it's easier for me to debug and change the on fly without causing issues, and also because there really is no point in committing anything that doesn't work yet.  Once I have something that works and have replicated most of the existing functionality, I fully intend on committing and asking for help from the cust team.

As a side note, the team leads have started (Cust and Doc so far) creating topics for our teams that outline the responsibilities of the team lead and team members of that team to give some direction to our teams and create some sense responsibility and direction.  IMO, no, a team lead should not always have to be working on the same things the team itself is working on, and likewise, the team itself doesn't always need to be involved in what the lead is working on.  This is hopefully to help the lead actually run the team, and the members contribute as they should be.

Is everyone on the team contributing how I'd like... not really.  Most are, and Norv has also done an excellent job the past few weeks helping with mod approvals as well.  I would love to grow the team and add more to the cust team, but as I said in the post Pete linked above, it's becoming increasingly hard to find someone for the team that has a good understanding of the backend and has created more than just a bbcode mod or simple code change.  Like I also said, I am actively looking at a few people, but would like to see a bit more from them (and I would also have no qualms about having any former teamies come back to the cust team as a member so long as the team votes them in again).

[Arantor]

Indeed, you asked me to follow the Allman style though it was something that was never thoroughly enforced (even in team mods), which I subsequently did.

Anyway, I think we're getting a little off topic.

Mod reviewing is, long term, a draining process and it irritates everyone who does it long term. I'm sure the community appreciates long-term stalwarts coming back to help, but it does spotlight the need for more help in the team.

It encourages me to think there are people that Dime is considering as possibles for the Cust team; it's not like there have ever been that many strong candidates for it.

I'd love to see more people helping on mod approvals, and helping on this development, but right now it just seems to me that there's too much being taken on and not enough people to help on it.

Setting out responsibilities of the team is a good idea. I sort of tried that in an underhanded manner myself in October, and it further encourages me that this is a step being taken.

@Bloc: Friendly banter, borne out of bad memories. It went down badly, and I have faith it can move forward but I suspect it needs more people.


I take your point about returning to the team, but there are people, former Cust team, that I just don't see returning, there's too much frustration and hurt there. Drama and accusations of 'changing like the wind', speaking personally I cannot see me returning to the Cust team, presently or any time in the future.

I'm not ready for that, I'm not ready for doing support on a consistent and regular basis, I'm still very angry in a lot of ways - not at anyone or anything, just generally angry - and that the current makeup of the team (both at Cust team level and SMF team level, really) is one that I'm personally not compatible with; it would just result in a lot of arguments and tension.

[Fustrate]

It encourages me to think there are people that Dime is considering as possibles for the Cust team; it's not like there have ever been that many strong candidates for it.

Aye, I'm glad to see that. I think it might shock people to find out that the last person to be successfully recruited (and yes, I said successfully, and many team members will remember why I use that word) straight into the Customize team, and not pulled from Support or the Friends, was when I was recruited over a year ago, and as I recall, it had been many months before that since the person before me. I also agree that it's hard to find good candidates, which explains the huge time gaps.

[Arantor]

*nods* Virtually everyone else with purple badges came from Support - which IIRC includes [SiNaN], JBlaze, Nas and me, and likely others I've missed (sorry if I did)

One point I will make, as it's something that may be overlooked otherwise. If you're a strong enough coder to make it onto the team, you're probably strong enough to help on the site project.

[Fustrate]

That's true for Customize, and mostly for Support, but not for Docs, Marketing, or Internationalization. Those three have almost nothing to do with writing code, so you can't really expect them to help with writing big pieces (although B may be an excellent coder, and I just don't know it).

[Arantor]

Sorry, I did mean that statement specifically for Cust. team, since you're entirely correct.

[Özgür]

It is really nice to hear this. But when its completed?  And how its worked?

[Yağız...]

Will those issues get fixed with the new "rewrite"?: http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=382350.0

[MultiformeIngegno]

Updates..?

[Yağız...]

An idea: Related Mods / Themes

[flapjack]

An idea: Related Mods / Themes

how would you determine whether there's a relation between mods? or you just want to add couple more from selected category?

another idea might be to add tags to mods, so you could search by certain tags, that might not have been included in the description of the mods, therefore those mods wouldn't show up when you search for a specified word

[mirahalo]

I know its probably said before but would be nice if the avatar packs were separated from actually mods    

another category for graphics such as ranks or smilies

[Yağız...]

how would you determine whether there's a relation between mods? or you just want to add couple more from selected category?

By:

another idea might be to add tags to mods, so you could search by certain tags, that might not have been included in the description of the mods, therefore those mods wouldn't show up when you search for a specified word

[flapjack]

good one Yağız!

[SlammedDime]

Already have plans for tagging... related customizations would be a nice one, and as Yagiz pointed out, easy to do with tags.

As for separate categories... there will be separate categories for mods, themes, avatars, and smileys

[flapjack]

Already have plans for tagging... related customizations would be a nice one, and as Yagiz pointed out, easy to do with tags.

that's the spirit go Yagiz!

[Yağız...]

Already have plans for tagging... related customizations would be a nice one, and as Yagiz pointed out, easy to do with tags.

that's the spirit go Yagiz!

YAY! 

[SlammedDime]

Figured I might as well update while I have a few minutes...

I decided to rewrite parts of the core framework which then in turned caused me to have to reorganize and re-template everything I had already done.  Fortunately I have finished with that and I am back in the swing of adding and coding again, and with the changes I made, development time should drastically speed up in terms of how long it takes to implement various things.  Not only is this my first time working with OOP based MVC model, but since I am writing the MVC myself, sometimes things have to change for the greater good, so to speak.

Something we decided to do was allow mod and theme authors to specify a license for their work as well, which has also been implemented now.

So here we go, just truckin along...