Don't listen to this! activeCollab needs plugin support and requires user customization. This makes as much sense as chapter two of 37Signal's book, Getting Real.

That chapter may have some truth to it, but taking away plugin support is like taking a Christmas present from a young child. User customization needs to be in place, because not everybody does the same thing. And simplicity is good, but features are even better, in some cases.

You wouldn't make a todo list with 15 fields - for sake of simplicity - but you wouldn't take away fields from a milestone - for sake of details and timing. you have to have the right balance otherwise you put people off - just like a website. If you make the website to "flashy" and "trendy", it will become slow and bloated - making it hard to navigate. But if you make the website too simple, you make people think that the company can't be bothered to put together a good act.

If you place yourself right on the "center-line", you'll notice that people will be more attracted to what you do. Your services matter - and so does your organization - so taking away core customization from activeCollab makes people want to use more bloated software - or pay for an alternative like Basecamp.

It may seem complicated, and it's true in some ways because you can't always get it right the first time, but if you let the community and average users tell you what they think, you'll have a pretty good idea of where to go - hence the reason for "open-sourcing" software.

It's a bad thing to take away these two features... and I can see where you're coming from, but maybe "re-wording" take away to simplify might make more sense.

Think about it...

You have made no counter to the points I made. I'm trying to point out some flaws in the way applications and extensions have been handled. What is your specific answer to the problems that I listed? Why are 10 plugins on my Firefox browser currently not working? What is a good method for separating the core code from modifiable code? Why the need to open up design to non professional designers? I'm not really talking about plugins here. I'm talking about keeping an application useful, upgradeable, secure and most importantly focused. Sell me on the old way of doing business...I am listening.

My advice: Keep this thing on track. Establish the look and consider that your brand. If you have 300 different crappy templates out there and 300 different looks, then you have just diluted your brand. User customization of design is a fad. Is apple asking the kids what the next Ipod should look like? No.

Limit the amount of modification to the code, and or addition of plugins. I just one-click installed "gallery 2" on my host. Luckily the install handled the addition of 35 plugins. Could you imagine tracking them all down by yourself and then keeping them updated along with the core. This is the future. It is easy to accept the concept of plugins when you might only have around 10. But think of when there are hundreds and many of them are necessary. Now you have a very sloppy separation of code. Half of your app is plugins written by a disparate group of programmers who are writing sloppy work-arounds to get their plugin to work the way they need it. Their motivation is self centered and not collaborative. Bad way to develop an application.

Instead of plugins, take a consensus on what would advance the application for all users. If it is a benefit, then implement it into the next release of the core. Forget the plugins. Forget templates. Forget user modified code and hacks. Keep it all together in the core. Update the core. Maybe you can choose from a few different color schemes. Your design is clean and purposeful. Layout and design are just as integral to the success of an application as the code. More so. Why hand design over to a bunch of amateurs? You don't hand them the core code to futz around with.

Don't just go with the flow on this plugin/template/modified code paradigm. Question it. That is what building a better application is all about. Learn from the mistakes of the past. As importantly, learn from my mistakes and problems.

Anyone wishing to counter my statements, your opinions are welcome. Let's get a discussion of these issues on the table. Pros and cons.

rambo: plugins are probably the #1 reason why Firefox has become so popular. It leverages the community and adds features that bring users over from other browsers. Without them, Firefox would be a pretty basic browser. I doubt the Firefox team could develop all the really good plugins while also developing Firefox.

I'm with Ilija, use CSS and images for themes. No, Apple isn't asking kids what the next iPod should look like, but kids are buying TONS of 'skins' for their iPods that 3rd parties are making.

rambo: Your problems with plugins in Firefox have nothing to do with the concept of plugins, the problem is how Firefox has implemented plugin compatibility.

An API is also a good idea. It allows people to create new products that use activeCollab, which might make them use aC even more. APIs and service based architectures is the future of the web. No app is an island.

It really feels like rambo has been burned by plugins and poor implementations of them. From what I've seen of aC's code and design architecture, I don't think we'll have the same problem with plugins in aC.