When the DNN Corp remove the forge (download area for open-source work), our downloads fell by ca. 75%. This shows how important it is. People looking for open-source simply can't discover it any more.
What Is (Was) the Forge?
There used to be a section on DNN called the Forge, where all open-source work was listed. People could search and download - it looked like this (see images).
All open-source projects were listed there incl. Peter Donkers popular Blog, old modules like Links or Forms And List etc.
It wasn't extremely good, but it was very important, because people would go there for:
- Free Modules
- Code-Samples
- Free skins
- Learning how others did something
- etc.
Basically in was the place where you know it's open-source, you knew it's free, and you knew that here you would find some of the best gems in town.
Why Was It Removed?
Basically DNN Corp decided that it's confusing to have a store and a forge. So they chose to shut down the forge, hoping that the same activity would resume in the store.
5 Reasons Why the Store is not the Answer
There are a lot of problems when placing open-source work in the store. Here are some:
- You have to register as a merchant, with valid bank/credit-card information (because that's what merchans do, right?)
- User expectations are very different in the store. For example, free products are often not even tested, because they look "suspicius"
- Users looking for open-source don't usually look at a store as their source of inspiration...
- Users looking for examples really don't expect to find them in the store either...
- Ratings on the store are very different from open-source ratings. For example, 2sxc got ratings like "great product - 3 stars out of 5". This is very different from the open-source community behaviour, which tends to be more positive and look over some glitches. Such ratings quickly demotivate people.
Please, Pretty Please Reactivate the Forge
So basically the store doesn't (and probably can't) fill the open-source community needs. Please just reactivate the forge :).
Love from Switzerland,
Daniel (2sic)