Geeklog Forums

One thing I've noticed in Geeklog versus other CMS's is the very low number of plugins, hacks available or worked on by the user community. The other thing I've noticed is that the ones that are made available do not seem to be maintained or developed further (i.e. Geekary, Geeklog Forum, journal).. Also each of the resources available as supposed central repositories of geek code don't seem to be maintained or consistent.

Good points. All this has been discussed at length in our IRC channel and in developer mailing lists. While I agree that GL is behind, say, the *Nukes in modules available, we are much further than we were, say, a year ago. Our plugin system has just matured and still leaves a lot to be desired. Keep in mind that right now the core GL developers on concentrating on the 1.3.x and 2.x code base. That leaves little-to-no time for module development and we have to encourage all of you out there to stay engaged and keep building plugins. I didn't understand a word you said about the resources and code repository. Can you restate that?---The reason people blame things on previous generations is that there's only one other choice.

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The reason people blame things on previous generations is that there's only one other choice.

If you look at the Nuke's population, only a very tiny percentage contribute. Of their add-ons, only a small percentage of the developers maintain or further develop these and make sure they work when the core program is upgraded. Some of their people are very, very conscientious on this but many are not. Geeklog's numbers are much, much smaller. Like the Nukes and other open source projects, only a small percentage contribute. It's natural the smaller projects will have less add-ons and less frequent updates. More frequent releases though do not automatically equate to a better product. Often times it doesn't. Besides having a smaller population, I think Geeklog suffers from the exact same thing as other projects. Most users are not die-hard programmers and get very easily lost in APIs and OO code. PHPNuke has the most addons because novices don't have to learn these hard and foreign concepts. Their contributions is very simple programming or cuts and pastes from other modules. As for a central repository, at least Geeklog has tried to maintain one. PhpNuke and PostNuke don't make much of an attempt at all. Their addon stuff is spread out all over the place and it's anybody's guess on what the latest releases are for each.

Though sparse in plug-ins for the time being I have to attest to the fact that I switched from PHP-Nuke because it was not half the CMS that Geeklog has proven to be for the past seven months I have been running it (perfectly smoothly). I have found by perusing the messages here that the people who complain the most about the lack of documentation or plugins are completely unwilling or incapable of doing something about it and therefore should probably consider a nice financial donation to assist in hiring someone to speed the plug-in development along? Just a suggestion reflecting the old saying "If you aren't a part of the solution, you're a part of the problem". Sorry if I am a bit crass - I am a HUGE believer in what the GL team has accomplished and think they offer sweet free goodies for those of us who aren't skilled to do it ourselves.

ANONYMOUS: I'd like to know why you feel the forum is not being supported. The current version 2.0 was released less then 4 months ago. There are no critical bugs and only a few minor ones. I've released some updates and suggestions on my site. I beleve I have answered all posts for support and don't know of any outstanding issues.

I have been compiling the fixes and will be releasing an update but again... are you aware of some major issues that would cause you to make that statement ?

Blaine

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Geeklog components by PortalParts -- www.portalparts.com

**VENT ALERT** In my opinion, the notion that the Forum is not well supported is nonsense. I researched this CMS issue very closely before I committed to GL. I didn't know a stitch about PHP or anything else related to CMS's a few weeks ago. Now, because of the support here and the stellar coding techniques in GL and its attendant components, I am rapidly picking up the lingo and having quite a time of it. Though terribly inexperienced, when I opened GL's code, I instantly sensed its order, cleaninless and the logic behind its design - so nice and modular. It was so impressive that I sincerely do not like to ask for help because I enjoy following the code. By contrast, when I open the code of other CMS systems (like the Nukes), I somehow always find myself longing for a Jar of Ragu and a glass of Chianti. GL may not be as far along (in features) as other CMS's. But it has a foundation unlike any other. That automatically puts it at the very top of the CMS list, in my opinion.

Don\'t hate the players, hate the game ;-) Seriously, venting about OO programming will score up no sympathy from me. The fact that someone would suggest it is harder to learn is ridiculous *unless* you started off in the procedural world. In fact, I argue that most people think in object oriented terms. A good example is describing how one might model a car in OO terms. Properties (color, # or doors, air bags, etc) are talked about and methods (accelerate, brake, turn, etc) are easy enough concepts. It is possible to over engineer things, a common problem of OO programmers and one that I admit I do from time-to-time but I have never had a *real* programmer who couldn\'t spend an hour with OO-PHP code and the PHP manual and not figure out what is going on.

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The reason people blame things on previous generations is that there's only one other choice.

Quality over quantity any day for me. Blaine\'s work has been exemplary and the plugins offered have been fantastic to-date. Other\'s code like the Stats module, the weather block, even the Geekary are all customizable and simple to use. Blocks and hacks are quite simple, I for one avoid hacks since they are hard to upgrade and carry forward, but the Custom lib, themes and the ability to buid simple and/or complicated blocks makes GL the best of a large group of good CMSes that are available. The templates for headers and footers and the universal plugin make this so much easier and fun to work with. Those who want more shouldn\'t hesitate to make some paypal donations for that special tweak or feature or even help that is given so freely. We have a good thing going here and I\'m itching to contribute. As we all should be.