Okay I know you can't avoid them completely, but at least be very careful with them. I can't even defend all the paid Mods...

Now let me pour out my heart; I don't really know what is wrong with 'SOME' Simple Machines Forum Mod developers (especially the free ones). They just sit back, create incomplete mods and upload them, for innocent rookies like me to use on their sites.

I own a forum; that runs on SMF
(although we are working on our own forum
software... Shhhhhh!) and in the bid to make it a world class forum, I've had to search for mods to ease/reduce my programming work as I really dont know much.

Because of the damages i have had to recover from in past times, whenever I find a Mod, I always try to review it before use. Sometimes I detect problems before installation, and 'most times' when the feature is already in full use by the forum members.

The point is, from experience, most - Yes! Most of the SMF free Mods can not and should not be trusted.

What Can I Do About This?
1. This is where your programming skills come in. Review the codes of the mod and ensure it is exactly what you need.
2. Check the areas in the source files that would be affected by the mod and ensure you have not tampered with them before.

See more solutions to this problem and review my SMF powered forum: http://www. .com.ng/b19/smf-admins-must-avoid-free/2066/

Yea it always good to review before installing any mod.

This is why I wrote this post here WHY YOU MAY NEED TO DESIGN A WORDPRESS WEBSITE OFFLINE

The same is applicable to SMF
I test all my plugins on my offline website before using it on a live website.
You can install SMF offline and test all your mods before using them.

I even receive messages and such offline because some mods/plugins will be sending some unnecessary emails from your website. I plan to write a blog post on this soon.

Once again, CLICK HERE TO READ THE POST

WHY YOU MAY NEED TO DESIGN A WORDPRESS WEBSITE OFFLINE




Thank you.

.

.

denzmark:
True OP, although I use Phpbb I can relate to what you are saying and now I have two versions of my site one online and one on xampp server, mods are tested on xampp before they run live online

That Forum was one of the few forums i felt would be able to compete with Nairaland.
Unfortunately it didn't grow as i anticipated or maybe the owner didn't get it right.
I still remember when one Emmy wanted to buy/partner with the forum the owner refused to sell.

Oh well... Good Luck

denzmark:

which forum mine or y a r n me?

Yar n me