Kris here, and I’m gonna talk some about the adaption of 1.3 over at the PunBB Resource. Please note that PunRes is not maintained by the PunBB dev team or it’s copyright holders, but by me and a few dedicated moderators.
Ever since the extension system in 1.3 was announced, people have been asking questions about PunRes and future development of the site. I think it’s due time to announce some of the features and ideas I have for the next generation of PunBB’s mod community. Before PunRes was aimed at the sole mod developer writing the actual code. Now, when the extensions and styles have taken a more centralized role of the PunBB community, this is no longer the case.
PunRes will no longer be a forum where developer can get together and discuss how to hack up the PunBB code in different ways. This has always been a problem as the same discussions have been going on over at the official boards. PunRes will instead compensate for what the official board will not do, that is to host extensions and styles. Some degree of communication will be available, but it will be on the extension level, not on a global PunBB source level.
PunRes will make it easy for developers to organize their extensions and styles, and it will be just as easy for a board administrator to find the information they need. Here are some practical features that will most likely be in the next version of PunRes:
- Completely revamped interface with improved search and category implementation. This will also be accompanied with RSS listings for new releases, community news etc.
- Better recognition of well-written extensions. Every release will be moderated by trusted people in the community or otherwise labeled in some way that will tell the end-user that it is a safe extension to use. The moderation will take notice of security, compatibility (both database and other extensions), user-interface, coding standard and code effectiveness.
- The style previewer will be enhanced and styles will also be moderated before release to ensure end-user safety.
- Keep your board up-to-date by querying the PunRes database directly from your own board’s interface. Basically, you will have a list of your installed extensions and the interface will tell you whether or not there is a newer version released.
- You will be able to automatically post a release through the interface of PunXS (http://www.punxs.org/ for more info).
- Improved board statistics and removed public listings. An administrator will be able to use the graphs from PunRes on his/her own board, but PunRes won’t list most popular/active boards. This feature will simply exist as a tool for administrators to keep track of their board’s activity.
These are just some of the most significant changes, many good ideas posted in the PunRes feedback forum will also make it in. I’ve deliberately left anything related to the wiki out of here, as we’ve yet to see what road the official wiki will take.
A great feature would be some kind of ability to track which extensions are compatible and which extensions are incompatible.
February 13th, 2008, at 7:48 pm #Wow, this is excellent news! I especially like the idea of giving “trust points” to extensions so we, as users, can determine which ones are tried and tested.
I also love the idea of being notified when new versions of extensions are available!
Can’t say I’m not totally bummed to hear that public stats will be going away. It has been really fun to see my sites rise through the ranks and to see one of them hit the front page!
February 13th, 2008, at 11:10 pm #Cheers for posting the aim of punres.
Here is my response… :)
When will punres be upgraded? before/same-day/after 1.3 is released.
What will happen to 1.2 mods? i.e. downloads, posts, everything to do with them really.
Whilst I agree with this… “Every release will be moderated by trusted people in the community or otherwise labeled in some way that will tell the end-user that it is a safe extension to use.”
Can we be sure that it wont delay extension release?
Simliar to above you mention that all styles will be moderated before hand.
Can we be sure that it wont delay style release? I only mention it because people generally want there stuff released asap.
Style previewer - I dont see any mention of extension previewer. Does that mean pundemo is safe for extension demos?
Why not remove the board stats and turn it into an extension for people? especially if your not going to list most popular/active boards. What benefit does this have on punres?
Can you also confirm that no other significant changes are not in that list? I have a few ideas that I want to entertain but not worth it if your going to reproduce it. :)
I will no doubt have more questions at some point.
February 14th, 2008, at 9:34 am #About the release of a new version, I hope to roll this out in iterations. What is not absolutely necessary will come later one the core functionality is in place. About a release date, I aim to have the new extension/moderation system in there before 1.3 final. However, PunRes doesn’t pay my bills so there’s always a chance for delay.
1.2 mods will be archived and still available, but I don’t see the feature of releasing new mods to be continued.
On the subject of moderation, I’m thinking we should be able to get under 24h in the queue, depending on how many releases posted. Now, there might be the possibility to access the release before moderation, but it won’t show up in listings etc. This however, I’ve not yet decided.
There are no plans of implementing any kind of extension previewer. Keep working on pundemo, it’s a great idea.
There will of course be an extension related to the board stats, the question really is about where to store the data. There are a few good reasons to store it in a centralized database.
“Can you also confirm that no other significant changes are not in that list? I have a few ideas that I want to entertain but not worth it if your going to reproduce it. :)”
No I can’t really. If there’s a good enough reason to add a feature to PunRes, it will get implemented. If you’re unsure, contact me via email and we can discuss your ideas.
February 14th, 2008, at 10:17 am #Cheers for quick response.
All sounds great to me.
An idea… that either punres can take or pundemo, I dont mind. PunBBCustom - basically pre-packaged PunBB. The general idea is - you have list of extensions and you can select what you want. Once selected then it will produce a punbb package for you with it all ready. When you install… all mods up and ready for you. :)
Another idea from the idea above. Maybe you could make it possible to download more than one mod at a time. Like a basket of mods then it downloads in one .zip. Just an idea…
February 14th, 2008, at 10:29 am #Sounds great!!!
February 14th, 2008, at 5:20 pm #I am planning and working on a portal for mod developers. I wasn’t quite sure if that is needed since PunRes is there, but now you are basicly saying that that won’t be PunRes’ purpose anymore, right?
Sounds cool, especially being able to query extension updates on punres through our own admin interface. I’ll have no excuse for not updating now though :(
I’d like to see a Styles Download Counter integrated if possible, just so myself and others can see if our style releases are being downloaded or not :)
February 15th, 2008, at 4:44 am #Will you provide the ability to upload extensions in different languages (so that Users can search for extensions only in that language)???
February 29th, 2008, at 10:45 am #That would be great…
is hard for new user download the version 1.3 , but most of the style and extension only available for 1.2
May 16th, 2008, at 7:16 pm #