Should products that only perform template edits be in "Add-ons"?

[Lea Verou]

In the old times, a template modification was a template modification and an addon an addon.
However, vB 3.5 and higher made it possible to perform an automatic template edit via plugins. However, does this make the resulting product an "add-on"? Hey, its still a template modification, its just performed automatically via php code. That doesn't mean its actually a mod! It doesn't add any functionality!

Am I the only one that thinks these products should go in the "template modification" forums? I am sick and tired of entering the "add-ons" section to find some products that add functionality to the forum/blogs and instead encounter a bunch of "masked" template edit stuff.
And yes, I'm aware that I have also did this myself with the "Is this reported?" hack of mine. Since the norm currently is that these go to "Add-ons" I had no choice.

[Dismounted]

Right now, the rule of thumb is that any products (regardless of what they do) go into the "Add-ons" section. Manual modifications to templates should go into the "Templates" section.

[Dean C]

What modifications do you mean?

[Marco van Herwaarden]

With the recent changes in vBulletin like the Template Hooks the categories tend to fade into eachother. It makes it less easy to categorise them.

I personal tend to say (although this is not written in stone) that if something adds functionality, it is an Add-On, if it only change the visual aspects it is a Template modification.

[Paul M]

As it stands, if you upload it as files/plugin/product, it goes in the addons.

[Lea Verou]

Originally Posted by Marco van Herwaarden

With the recent changes in vBulletin like the Template Hooks the categories tend to fade into eachother. It makes it less easy to categorise them.

I personal tend to say (although this is not written in stone) that if something adds functionality, it is an Add-On, if it only change the visual aspects it is a Template modification.

That's what I'm trying to say.

Originally Posted by Dismounted

Right now, the rule of thumb is that any products (regardless of what they do) go into the "Add-ons" section. Manual modifications to templates should go into the "Templates" section.

Originally Posted by Paul M

As it stands, if you upload it as files/plugin/product, it goes in the addons.

I know that, I'm just suggesting that it should change

[Lizard King]

I agree with Michelle on this subject. I usually donot like to check template edits for personal reasons and recently i have to check automatic template edits and spend my time checking that threads. Also i am not a huge fan of automatic template edits at all. Personally if i use a product and it has automatic template edits i manually edit the plugin and disable that edit.

Originally Posted by Dean C

What modifications do you mean?

For example :
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...hreadid=158473

[Alfa1]

Maybe the terminology is not optimal for the categorization, but the current categorization divides modifications into those with and without manual template edits. I think this is optimal for novice users and those who want to avoid manual edits in relation to the hassle of them when upgrading vb.

[Wayne Luke]

Originally Posted by Lizard King

Also i am not a huge fan of automatic template edits at all. Personally if i use a product and it has automatic template edits i manually edit the plugin and disable that edit.

Same... Automatic template edits tend to cause so many problems if you change a style even a little bit. Making manual edits is a lot easier when you have a lot of edits in your templates across the board. From my point of view, they make providing support a lot worse as well, simply because you can't easily get to a default style without disabling functions on a customer's board.

[Princeton]

If it modifies templates (and that's all it does) then it should go in TEMPLATES -
this way, members will know that the product is only a "template" change (regardless if product is manual or automatic via search/replace).