Why People Leave Elgg

There was a time, long ago, when i was actively learinig elgg. Then I upgraded and most of the custom work i did went away. Been so long i also do not remember the few things i got the hang off.

But I really like using Elgg. It has features I have NOT yet found in competing social scripts.

In talking to others, who like myself, looked elsewhere for an alternative, I discovered that the ONLY things that bugged them (and me) are there things:

WHY cant there be a feature so that first time visitors can know what the site is all about?
This should be standard, without having to do any coding, it's common sense.

WHY cant simple embed be included? I cant even embed a YouTube video without a plugin.

WHY cant it allow static pages? And then give them option to be on the top menu.

Now, here is how to wipe the competitors off the map:

Give it a feature to defines membership to be FREE or PAID (with paypal).

There is no reason to have to hunt down info to get these basic functionalities done.

I am grateful for the support I've received in this community, and i have even contributed free plugins, but alas! it is so fustrating that I need to create a membership site but if I use Elgg visitors will NOT have any idea what the site is all about. Very upsetting.

Any suggestions?

How can I get info posted in the HOME PAGE to let visitors know what it is about?

its like asking a car manufacturer, who made a great car, to please add doors to the car.

Thanks

 

ps: trust me, there are many others who think like this - some surfed on to OXWALL.

Whereas Oxwall have these features already, they do not have the group functionalities that Elgg does. in fact, I have yet to figure out what  their group features are (none so far!)

Im for Elgg -- but please have the devs think about this so basic feature/s

wow .... I got it off my chest -- I feel better now ....  no offense meant to anyone

  • You're right in many positions... I'm a relative newcomer to Elgg, its first version that I've installed has been an instance of 1.7.x, and I've found absolutely unfriendly that with the next version change (1.8.x) the plugins written for 1.7.x have been rendered disfunctional.

    On the other hand, Elgg is a "yaourt à la nature", which means a core site has really no predefined out-of-the-box functionality, it's up to you and your research among available plugins, installing them in order to have a mix of an end-user flavour of your own ends. I'm using roughly about 50 third-party plugins, and more are on the way (well, it's somewhat of a sensitive fiddling to make them work together, but normally that succeeds, even if I CANNOT CODE IN PHP, I'm just a (probably good) linux system administrator). 

    Anyway, for example, the "CMS Pages" plugin serves as a static page generator, and there are numerous others that offer this functionality. (This is something that you were citing as a missing plugin.)

    Elgg is a killer application in terms of database structure, the clear manifestation of MVC programming guidelines and in the resulting scalability. If I were a programmer, I wouldn't start up a concurrent social script, I would just come here and help fixing plugins or adding new ones.

    Take a look at Matt Beckett's works here, just to get some hint of what I am explaining here.

  • Yes, Elgg is a killer application

    But if the devs know certain functionalities are SO BASIC that everyone needs it,
    why not just add it in its core?

    I wonder if I can find the CMS Pages plugin before Im 80.
    I entered it in the search form but no result.

    Where is it at?

    thanks

  • elgg is an open source "framework", meaning what you see is what you get. though of course, you're free to customize it however you want. with that said, elgg gives you a starting point instead of starting from scratch. from there on, you can do whatever you want to it as far as customization/coding. don't be discouraged  because there's no available plugin or theme that you need. instead you can wait, hire a developer, or learn web development (html, css, php, javascript). you don't need to worry about database connections using php as elgg does most of the work for you.

    i forgot to mention, the core developers are working hard on new releases using their "free" time. be thankful for what you get rather than ranting, you can go put requests at trac.elgg.org

  • ohhh boyyyy ?!?!?! 'where is it ???
    google says to 'elgg  cms pages plugin'... ~> ?
    are you exemplifying the averege cms user stereotype ?
    or trying to change the US male life-span statistics ?
    nothing is 's-o-o basic' except, air, water, food, rest, sleep;
    and dreams - that's what changes the course - cms's, code,
    applications, systems, eco-systems.. 

     

     

  • 1
    features not yet in competing scripts.

    the primary feature of elgg is it's ease @ extensibility
    -- and that does mean 'some' programming' to make some wishes work.

    2
    Why cant there be a feature so that first time visitors
    can know what the site is all about?
    This should be standard, without having to do any coding,
    it's common sense.

    also 'common wishes' -
    those who do not write a litle bit of code
    will usually wave the 'open source flag' and cry 'why not'
    almost every language has this idiom.
    The power of any and all circumstances,
    is a fixed, unvarying quality..
    we are the variants.

    3
    Why cant simple embed be included? I cant even embed a YouTube video without a plugin.

    it's all in there, somewhere,
    sometimes coded by even the 'starving artists'.
    for others to enjoy.
    you don''t like plugins' ?
    a plugin is like clothes
    -- we're not born with those,
    but need them and find them all the same.

    4
    Why cant it allow static pages? And then give them option to be on the top menu.

    ~~ditto~~~

    5
    Now, here is how to wipe the competitors off the map:

    i do not believe that elgg was created in 2004 to 'wipe anything'.
    it's always subsequential users who want to do 'some wiping',
    but wiping of what?

    6
    Give it a feature to defines membership to be FREE or PAID (with paypal).

    been there, done that;
    sometimes costs about the same as a double whopper big burger
    -- but with the similar styled effects.

    7
    There is no reason to have to hunt down info to get these basic functionalities done.

    isn't that what lessser humans do all of lives?
    always 'hunting down..' for something..?
    exercising their ingenuity !?


  • i think i will learn this, the language and structure it uses
    then create these features, and give it away to everyone

    nevertheles, i will never figure out why it is not included yet
    but the reason/s behind will create debate, so not worth the disbute

    let me see if i can do it
    but will need someone to point me in the right direction as to learning to code in elgg

    is elgg created from scratch or was a framework used?
    where can i get started?

     i know php and mysql / used codeigniter in the past/ learning Lavarel now
    so hopefully i can learn elgg language quickly (with the help of this fine community)

  • i am very grateful for the devs
    and i voted elgg to be the best

    but ..... well, i will learn to code this
    and get it done myself somehow

  • ci? u got 1 up /me ;-P i'm stuck @np++;-oO

  • nah .... you're very good, my friend
    I've sen the awesome sites you made

    You the one I go to

    You are THE man!!

  • Thanks for the feedback on Elgg. I agree we could be a lot slicker in many ways.

    I don't know if this will be very satisfying, but my answer to all of these WHY questions is basically the same: you have to have the will, skill, and time to get something done before it can get done. If any of those is missing, it won't get done. Think about which one(s) of those might be in low supply in this scenario.

Feedback and Planning

Feedback and Planning

Discussions about the past, present, and future of Elgg and this community site.