Hi all!
Sorry for the "kind of" necroposting (all in all, it's 1 year old, but it's also still in the first page, so it's not exactly necro

), but it's a while I'm not around here and so I read the topic only now. O:-)
For sure you are right, but what happens with for ex. Elkarte or Protendo if main developers will leave the procject?
Who is the "main developer" of ElkArte?
If you ask me, there isn't one.
I'm not sure that there is so many devs who want to continue their work.
That's not false for SMF itself. In 2013 when ElkArte started, basically the only "official" SMF developer was Oldiesmann (I was still in the team, but I was not really contributing *that* much).
Do you honestly think Elkarte would be interested in my boardtype ideas? Or that Wedge would be remotely interested in my ideas about themes - seeing as Nao have already dismissed the concept of themes altogether?
Regarding boards, I have plans to use a board to create blogs and have a gallery (I already have some code, but I have to work on it), but I'm not sure if/how that fits into what you wrote here.
You cannot know if someone is interested in something unless you present it (at least that's how I think it usually works).
The only "downside" of ElkArte is that even if someone likes it, unless there is someone (else) coding it, a proposal will not go that far.

...but that's true for any project.
I may remember wrong, but I think there was some resistance to it,
If I can be completely honest, the only resistance was the complexity of the code.
Spuds tried to convert it, but after a while he switched to SP.
I'm sure it's not a secret (and if it is a secret... well, I didn't know it was

), TP code *is* complex, and when you have to make a choice, do you pick the one that will take lot of time to convert, or the one that has already a certain orientation (strictly code-wise speaking) that match the one you are using in the rest of the application and allows you to have a working portal in a reasonable amount of time?
That said, of course if you want to try the conversion you are welcome, diversity is always important and have alternatives is a good thing!

since Elkarte would seemingly have its own "portal" features anyway.And why not? But using something already existing was not in the cards, and I can underatnd that.
Actually it was (use existing code) and has been.

I'm well aware of my limits, and reinvent the wheel is not my favorite sport, if I can use existing code I'm happy to do so.

(And as far as I know Spuds, TE and anyone else contributing share the same idea.)
And, that said, I proposed to include some kind of "portal-like" features in the code, and with the "not reinvent the wheel" idea in mind, I would like to have a kind of common ground for addons: call them widgets or blocks or whatever, but something that could be reused by multiple addons without having to rewrite everything every time. Well, still nothing except ideas, so difficult to go more in details, but there is a topic somewhere at elkarte.net.
Just another example of what I just said though, as long as someone else is calling the shots, you can't count on having the freedom you need to reach your goals.And thats why forking is important - even if it doesn't pan out in the end popularity-wise.
Well, I proposed several things for ElkArte.
Several have been accepted, several have not.
I wrote a lot of code that has been ignored, taken down, or that simply didn't fit with what other thought.
It's part of the game.
Of course, if you want to entirely drive the development without having to care about the opinion of anyone else, then going solo is the only way.
That doesn't mean you cannot contribute to other projects: you work on your idea, and then you propose it. If it is accepted good, if it is not good anyway, something unique to your project.
The trick is: this is true only as long as the code is close enough to the originator.
* emanuele goes sleep again.
Bye!