New Community-Powered Drupal Module Review Site

What I would really love is to have some way to list together modules that perform similar functions with user comments on why they chose one or the other. It's so confusing to want to add a feature to your site like photos or private messaging and not know whether to use one module or another. I'm looking at BuddyList2 right now and I'm thinking, it looks better but will there be other modules I want to use that require the original BuddyList and not the new one, like AjaxIM or Advanced Profile? I know I could probably find it in the forums somewhere, but wouldn't it be cool if all this type of discussion were attached directly to the module instead of being lost in the forums? This is what I'm talking about. Thanks again!

As I mentioned at the beginning of this thread, I wanted to replace the module list with a better solution...

The first public release of that tool is now live, check it out! :)

I've added a Favorite Modules list-building feature to the site.

Being somewhat new to the Drupal community, this is what I have to say about what has come to be of this discussion. Please forgive me if what I'm about to say in any way offends anyone. And I'm sorry if I've missed any guidelines on terminology or anything like that.

I reckon the term "community" seems to hold different meanings for different members of this discussion. Those who criticize this effort of John's seem to think of the "Drupal community" as being not an entity of flesh and blood, nor a unity or a certain philosophy if you may, but rather a collection of discussion boards carried upon TCP/IP traffic.

The moment we limit the "Drupal community" to mean "Drupal.org" (or even Drupal internet sites in general) we effectively undermine the entire idea that is open source, aswell as Drupal as I know it. One of the core values of open source software is to reach out to more people, and doing so by finding new and different channels.

If one single person finds and starts using Drupal through drupalmodules.com, and never even knows about drupal.org, I'd say she is still as welcome a member of the community as anyone. That is what an open community is about, and what differentiates it from a mere "online bulletin board".

A final note; Of course I'd like to see a lot of the drupalmodules.com functionality available as Drupal contributed modules (and eventually perhaps on Drupal.org.) But then, let's work together on that.

i've read through all of the comments in this rather lengthy thread and i am completely confused.

like most collaborative associations born of volunteerism, drupal has serious gaps and shortcomings when it comes to serving "all of the needs" of the community. this happens to all volunteer organizations, and drupal is no exception. there is simply no possible way for drupal to go after every single member want and need and still focus on building great core software. period.

drupal.org documentation is excellent and getting better as time goes on. hopefully the site will allow for keyword tagging to help filter out the countless duplicate requests for assistance (and obviate the need to even 'search' using the current search interface)

drupal module developers are the "other" heart and soul of the drupal project, and since drupal.org doesn't link to anything but drupal 6.1 and 5.7 from the home page (excluding 'top level links' to themes/modules - all of them), clearly drupal is about drupal, not drupal modules.

is that hard to understand?

john has solved a vexing problem: how best to serve an enormous and growing cadre of users with varying levels of sophistication in dire need of functionality not included in the drupal core. drupal modules do 'everything else' for drupal installations, and john has made them easier to find.

where drupal takes 'strong' interest in a module, it migrates toward the core (e.g. cck), while the other hundreds (make that thousands) of modules languish simply because they can not be found easily or "discovered" intuitively...or because "drupal governance" does not see them as "critical such that they should be core" or "logically should be built into core" and so on...

john's site increases visibility of 'all modules' equally, without regard for prominence within the drupal community (for an example of what i mean, look at the number of handbook pages for cck, views, panels and OG alone - combined they equal almost everything else give or take a hundred or so pages)

drupal.org as a 'site' and as an entity should be embracing this effort and should not be 'shaming' him into steering all of his development time back into a project initiative that is currently slow-moving on drupal itself (site redesign, rethinking modules quality and review and downloads etc)...

i guess the short version is that "a whole lotta people talking about it" moved a hell of a lot slower than "one guy who just wanted it done" and now what's done is done and it's better than anything drupal has presented in either draft or screenshot or sketch form...drupal should focus on drupal core, module developers should focus on modules (and core where relevant) and people like john should focus on 'making drupal related information' more easily accessible to larger audiences, just as others do for themes, tutorials or use cases...

One of the strong points for Drupal is that there is one site to go to. You do not need to turn the Internet upside down to find a single piece of information. I am very much against doing this outside of the drupal.org infrastructure.

Edit. Probably the above is not clear enough. I do believe it hurts the Drupal community to split this one out than helping it with the niceties it has.

duplicate reply, sorry.

John,

Nice work standing up to all the criticism. I think that the critics of your work do not understand one or both of the following important facts:

1) Efforts to get a ratings system into drupal.org are wedged. There are a thousand reasons why it has not been done yet, and some of these reasons are valid.

2) The demand for a Drupal contrib ratings system is immediate and very strong and must be fulfilled. It is next to impossible to determine which module(s) one might need without an awful lot of help. A good rating/review system will provide this help in a much more effective way than currently existing options (google search + endless hours of module installation & trial & error).

You've made it clear that you are more than willing to work with drupal.org if the time ever comes. I think we'd all like to see killer contrib ratings built right into drupal.org. But it's clear that won't happen anytime soon, and the community needs something now to sort through the hundreds of contrib projects.

--
Drupal tips, tricks and services
http://devbee.com/ - Effective Drupal

I am a huge admirer of the Drupal community and I have been watching this conversation closely. I like how you work together, even when things are challenging, like it has been in this conversation. Many of you know, we have a great resource called the Joomla! Extensions Direction (JED). There are many reasons why it is tremendously beneficial to have that "on property."

1. You might (sadly) be surprised to learn of silliness that comes with ratings systems. There have been attempts by that "difficult minority" to abuse ratings and those who manage JED watch for and deal with this abuse and questions that arise. In my opinion, those types of "touchy" issues are best handled by a community and individuals who go it alone will certainly have their integrity questioned needlessly and frequently. (Sad fact of life, especially sad since we are all volunteering.)

2. It is important to keep software resources centralized for the broader community to strengthen ability to protect the license and investments of free software developers.

3. There is benefit to traffic flowing off site, too. Drupal has a strong blogging presence. There is always intelligent conversation that accompanies sharing of training, guides, videos, ideas about Drupal and technology issues that literally spans this globe.That is an excellent community building (and attracting) method (and a way to support a strong ecosystem). Contrast that with a software rating system which is only valuable when everyone uses one resource. In cases where one resource is better, it's best "on property."

4. Community-based solutions are always better received when collaborative approaches are used during development. While it certainly is faster to build something independently, the slow moving train of consensus will always get the job done first for a community. Human nature is so predictable. ;)

5. Finally, I want to say, I thought John's Help me help you post absolutely rocked and it's obvious he is uber talented and wants to contribute to this community. So, make it official and move it "on property!" You should all be proud of what you are accomplishing for free software as a whole and how you work together to resolve issues and are a positive role model for others of us as we work to strengthen our own communities and the free/open source community, as a whole.

Thanks!

~~ Amy Stephen ~~
http://OpenSourceCommunity.org

I am new to the Drupal community, but I am not new to the social dynamics of "open", collaborative systems. I work with open design technology, open source software, and with "open" business systems.

Looking at this as a new comer, I think that some people are taking their http://www.usemod.com/cgi-bin/mb.pl?RightToFork not just because of their perceived "inertia" of Drupal.org community development. Also, I think it is because there is not a very clear way to engage Drupal.org development. There is a steep learning curve. And, I think that the way that Drupal is developed is clashing with come human value systems, as it tries to work with others.

I don't really point the finger of "blame" at anyone, because you can look at projects that I work on, the project spaces and work will be very obscure and complicated, because that is what happens when people are getting things done, especially when they are volunteering valuable time.

Rapid individual development of "services" type of sites is moving faster than community development of Drupal.org modules, and projects. This is good, because it accelerates the development of desired services. Yet, the combined community of Drupal users (that people that take from and give to the "commons" that is Drupal community developed and maintained software) benefit more when developments and evolutions are done in collaboration with those who are trying to maintain and sustain the "commons".

On a (human) systems scale, there is phenomenon that can be exploited here, to benefit the "commons".

The idea is that a set of processes can be put into place to make it easier, and more explicit, for people like John to quickly incorporate the best and most re-usable parts of their individual developments and evolutions into community efforts like "project*".

Given the open nature of the code and technology that makes up Drupal, there will probably always be folks who will desire to work alone, outside of the "system". There should be a transparent, easy to follow, easy to understand, explicit way for them to break out and contribute what they have created into the common pool of the creations.

I would sincerely like to help with this. As a newcomer, I am struggling to understand how to effectively engage the common pool resource of code through contributions, while also getting things done and making a living. The roadmap, the priorities, the timelines, the amount of time needed, etc etc for the development of modules like project* should be more explicit, transparent, easier to engage, and drill down into. There could be community decision making processes employed, such http://www.aboutus.org/Portal:ConsensusPolls for instance, that can help incorporate the insights of diverse stakeholders, and come to an agreement about how to move ahead.

Basically, this is a social systems issue. How can we make a community where it is ok if people http://www.usemod.com/cgi-bin/mb.pl?EnlargeSpace and duplicate, because they will be likely to help fold those changes that are very valuable back into the common pool resource.

In the case of http://drupalmodules.com I think it is not too late, and never was too late. If some of these developments on http://drupalmodules.com are desired or needed for http://drupal.org/project/project then what will it take to get the code contributed? How could a person who decides to make a site like http://drupalmodules.com simultaneously help the development of Drupal.org, and the common pool resource of code and labor therein? If we figure out this problem, the commons of Drupal code and labor will be made to be more sustainable, and will benefit from actual "synergy" of work. How can we take the "patterns" that John has made and use what is useful towards the development of project* modules? If it requires a huge amount of work to adapt many disperate, diverse separate evolutions back into the common pool, then there could be a an evolutionary dissonance emerging with the way that Drupal code is co-developed, in my opinion. This evolutionary dissonance might be suggesting some directions in which the way that drupal development could evolve in the near future.

Perhaps one evolution could be a systematic way for groups of people who understand, to show the "whats" and the "whys" of current development, and future plans. This can be part static map, part dynamic conversation, but systematically becomes a majority-agreed-upon plan. A commons-based system (economy) must also take into account a fact of human nature, which is that some people prefer not to closely collaborate, not to deliberate, not to consense (I discuss this at http://communitywiki.org/LiteracyOfHumanNature). These are people who's core fundamental way of solving problems is to work alone, for various reasons. The trick is to create ways for people who both like to closely collaborate, and those who don't, to engage the system, to contribute to the commons in a way that is mutually beneficial (and easy to figure out). Right now, I believe it is actually currently possible to be either "loner", or a "team player" and still contribute equally to Drupal. But it is a MF sometimes to figure out exactly, or sometimes even roughly, how.

I think this could also be an evolution of project* modules. A way to map in some items like an ongoing scope of development, roadmap, milestones, ways to see what is a priority in development, group decision making processes in deciding future developments, ways to easily propose code building blocks for re-use when appropriate, plus of course rating systems that can mirror back quality issues.

These are ideas, suggestions. Please consider that I too am working in the shadows on different projects, and that I would really, really like to both contribute that labor, and also help Drupal be able to better re-use and systematically incorporate evolutions and developments. There are going to be more and more people like myself coming out of the woodwork as the popularity of Drupal grows. How I can I help you do what you are doing, while I am doing what i am doing?

Sam Rose
Social Synergy
Open Source Ecology
P2P Foundation
Cooperation Commons
CommunityWiki

Your site is great. It has helped me identify many useful modules that a I simply would not have found otherwise. It is great to finally see some of the power of Drupal and its modules finally being applied to those modules itself. Well Done!

I personally admire the drupalmodules site. The site creator(s) saw a need that the drupal community wasn't fulfilling.

While I do think some of the features of DM.com should be integrated into d.o because it would serve an important purpose. I don't think that DM.com is harmful to the community at large.

DM.com might even spark some ideas on how to create this concept on d.o.

Changed the comment because...I should re-read the thread... =)

Although it does point out how following posts through email does not always work well.

Wow! Nice Job! Do you think you can tell me how to make a user review site using Drupal? I want the website to be a place where people can read and write reviews on Rubik's Cubes. Thank you!