I would at least like that all core plugins have something like "Core" in their manifest title. Ideally the actual folder names would have a prefix, too but that involves changing a lot more code and would break a ton of 3rd party plugins. My guess is that backwards compatibility is the reason for not having a separate core mods folder.

caint seem to see no real bang-for-the-buck rationale for segregating plugins' source code. as long as one has the list of core and external plugins 'in their head' - there are no real issues. the core can be modified in critical places to accommodate >1 mod directory without too mush fuss nor upsetting foreign plugins' functionality with some not-so-elemenatary but 'smart-er' logic to detect the plugins' folders structures - e.g. /mod & mod/elgg for foreign & core code. but -- repeat - what's the 'advantage' ? i've played around with some basic core mods to segregate the plugins -> *without waves - but.. find no real benefits from the extra 20 lines of code. it all seems to be mostly coding standards when we compare other platforms..

I would at least like that all core plugins have something like "Core" in their manifest title.

In 1.8, all bundled plugins have the category "bundled" in their manifests. This isn't exposed in the title, but can easily be filtered in the plugin admin area.

My guess is that backwards compatibility is the reason for not having a separate core mods folder.

This is one of the big reasons. We are re-examining the directory structure for 2.0. None of us are happy with the mod/ directory name, but this is a 2.0 change.

Welll a "core-" prefix will be a great solution.

In my experiment of site i disabled dome core "modules" and yes, they are not hard dependencies for system function, but with 73 subfolders in "mod" i clain for some segregation.

I think this is a valid point. It would make sense namespacing core plugins, though I can see how it will create a lot of chaos when migrating.