Ideally, the code you use in your application should be the API. So third party apps should use the same classes and methods that IPB uses itself. :)

And don't go making undocumented secret internal use only APIs that is the only way to gain access to the fun stuff.
Of course, IPB have never had any such thing in the past (Don't look at my sig!).

Maybe with 3.0 you could setup some kind of theme standard or a different way on loading themes that way they don't have to be recoded each time a new version comes out like before....

All I ask is to not make any changes to ibf_posts table, mine has reached 1GB now and I had a massive task upgrading last time when it was less than half that size, all for that new edited by ... feature. <_<

  togermano said:

Maybe with 3.0 you could setup some kind of theme standard or a different way on loading themes that way they don't have to be recoded each time a new version comes out like before....

People have suggested that before, but the thing is, with web software it's almost impossible as far as I can tell. I mean, to add a new feature to a webapp, you need to add some HTML to show it, there's no way of getting around that, and if you've customized your skin the new HTML may not match. The best we can do is keep CSS names consistent and provide features that make it easy to see what has changed unfortunately. Trust me, we'd much rather have some system that did it for us too, but unfortunately it's just the nature of webapps!

I have a radical idea:
Let us, the customers, peer review the design (as in what objects there is and their interfaces) before it is too heavily implemented to be changed.

I know it is a new idea for such a big product with so many users. And I know that there would be some people who simply don't get it or plain disagree. But after all, it's not our job to design the application. It is a peer review, not free labor.

But, with this community, it is the natural extension of how things already work. Sure, if we mod stuff and things breaks, it's not your fault and we don't get support for our mistakes. But we still mod stuff.

I know it is a big thing, not just for your ego, but for the company too. I don't expect a direct reply saying "sure", I know that this is a thing that no single developer can chose.

But there is benefits too. If we get to feel that we had input, we like the project more, it's basic psychology. And, isn't it better to hear the complaints before it's too late to fix things? A wise guy once said that it takes 10 times more effort to correct a problem one step further along the line.

This is in the line of how the world works, people keep stressing how important it is to listen and communicate with the client while working for it.